Blog: Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Since some of my long term project goals involve making video games, I thought I'd spend a few posts talking about games I've played lately. In these posts I want to focus on the things I liked, the things I didn't like, the things I thought were interesting and any lessons/ideas/concepts I'd take away for my own games in the future.

The first in this series is going to be one of the best games I played last year, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

For the purposes of this discussion I want to mention things from all through the game, so I'm not going to protect anything as spoilers. Please be warned that this will spoil the game right through to the end.

It's now been a while since I finished playing Skyward Sword. I have a habit of being very slow when approaching games and often don't play them anywhere near the window where they come out. As such I'm fairly proud of myself for jumping on the Skyward Sword bandwagon and playing through the game as fast as time allowed.

I really liked Skyward Sword. I know some people have dismissed it as having been too much of another Zelda game, but I think it struck a good balance between introducing new concepts into the game, restructuring the experience and keeping the core Zelda feeling. I had a lot of fun playing it and thought that it felt great while playing it.

Things I Liked

One of the aspects I liked the best about the game is how active it is. The inclusion of sprinting and the stamina meter makes the game feel a lot more alive and makes it more fun and exciting to go free running across the landscape. "Oh, I just need to hop up on to that ledge. I don't need to go through the climbing animation, with a little sprint, it's just a step right up." It is an easy way to make you feel like you have more control over Link and more abilities in the game. It is also nice that without using the sprint button Link still moves at a good pace so you don't feel like the sprint is the mandatory way of moving.

When in doubt a nice sprint through pub is enjoyable. (via GameFaqs)

With Link's improved ability to move around it's nice that the landscapes are as interesting and varied as they are. While the environment has always been a strength of the Zelda series I think that Skyward Sword shows particular attention to detail and interactivity.

The other strength of the landscapes is the way you become familiar with them. While people have complained that the small number of environments is a sign of laziness on the part of Nintendo (or a sign of them running out of time), I think returning repeatedly to the same places breeds a familiarity that really enhances the world. Particularly the Trials of the Goddess forced you to learn the details of the areas and to become intimately familiar with them. That being said I remember fairly well the landscapes of most of the Zelda series so this may not be something that is a special feature of Skyward Sword.

The style of the game is also very good. While with Twilight Princess I found myself frequently irritated by the lower quality graphics and the textures, in Skyward Sword I never noticed these flaws, much in the same way Wind Waker looks far better and more timeless than the other 3D Zelda games. In particular making the world bright, colourful and slightly cartoony kept me from looking at the edges and thinking about why things looked the way they did. I also suspect that Nintendo did do a better job of graphics programming for Skyward Sword, but I didn't care either way.

The encounters outside of the temples were another high point in the game. While again these are not exactly novel to the Zelda series, they are given more time and effort than these types of areas have been in previous games and they broke up the learning the tool puzzles from the main dungeon/temple parts of the game. In particular the forrest area encounters were interesting and fun, while the ones for both the fire and sand areas tended to be a bit more tedious, but still not bad at all.

I liked the personality of Zelda in this game, and I liked that in this game Zelda did not spend the majority of the time kidnapped, even if she did have to spend a significant amount of time asleep. Having an active pre-existing relationship between Link and Zelda was also a nice touch rather than hunting for a mysterious princess.That being said however I also feel that there may have been a just as interesting (if not more so) version of this game where you follow Zelda instead of following Link. I think ideally in this case it would have been great to be able to play as both.

Having more fun than Link? (via GameFaqs)

Upgrading your potions and equipment was a nice addition to the Zelda series and I like that the selection different equipment (especially shields) was important to surviving the different challenges of the game.

Things I Didn't Like

One of the things I felt quite strongly about is that the world, especially Skyloft is too small, especially if this is supposed to be the entire "human" population of the world. The town of Skyloft is great, but it's the only town in the over world and there are only a handful of people scattered over the rest of the space and most of them run mini-games. There's no explanation about where the knights live and there's no places where any of the characters come from. It's even mentioned how jealous some of the other knight cadets are of Zelda and Link growing up together in the "big city" near the academy, but there are no other towns where these people could possibly have come from. Did Groose live on an isolated rock until he was invited to the come to the academy? No wonder he's so unpleasant to link. "I didn't even have DIRT man!"

On a smaller scale I did not like the underground digging minigames where you had to crawl through a grid avoiding giant centipedes and pushing switches. These areas made you move too slowly, weren't interesting and really didn't measure up to the creativity expressed in the remainder of the game.

The flying aspect of the game was also a bit of a disappointment. In Wind Waker the sailing portions felt active and like you were always working towards a goal. In Skyward sword the flying is largely uninteresting and there aren't many points were you get to practice your skills or get any benefit other than getting where you were going. The different control systems for falling (tilt) and flying (control stick) was also difficult to navigate and annoying. It would have been really nice to have some jump-off-the-bird-do-something-awesome-then-hop-back-on-the-bird moments (see the Saints Row III airplane bit, but with Zelda).

Groose says "Hi!" (via GameFaqs)

For a Zelda game I also thought that the music was weaker than it might have been. That's not to say that it doesn't fit or isn't good, but I don't remember it. Unlike Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time the melodies aren't that memorable. The strength of symphonic recording shouldn't overpower the music memory of the game.

Finally I was disappointed with the Hero Mode, although possibly not fairly. I only played it for about 45 minutes. I found that there was very little from the game to admit that you had already played, knew how things worked and knew where the plot was going. Getting the option to skip cut scenes doesn't really make you feel like you're being rewarded for having made it through the game once already. In addition you got very little extra from the game, extra challenge alone is fine, but having some extra experiences would be nice as well. I guess I was hoping for something more like a New Game+ mode rather than a Challenge Mode, but I really would have like something more from Hero Mode.

Things I Noticed

One aspect of the game which could have been made better was the collection of materials needed to upgrade the gear and the potions. There were points later in the game where I spent quite a bit of time wandering around certain areas of the game waiting for bugs or other materials to respawn so I could collect them. Having a scarce resourse is great and can make the game much more exciting, but for most video gamers there's no way they'll go into the final fight without all the advantages they might need (like powered up potions) if they can get them.

Another aspect that might have made the game more interesting is focus more on the gear load out aspect. It has a minor effect in carrying potions medals, and consumables for your ranged weapons, and in choosing the right shield for the right environment but you still cary all the tools at the same time regardless of the kind of thing you're doing. It might be interesting to have different kinds of load outs for underwater missions or dangerous climate missions (more than just extra earrings).

Better bring my vacuum. (via GameFaqs)

Things I'd Include in A Game

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I like most about this game was how familiar it made you with the land. This is definitely one the things I'd try to focus on especially in a story driven game. Making the landscape as much as a character as the people you meet in your journey is important  seems to be one of the ways to really make the game memorable and visceral.

I also really enjoyed the different types of equipment and think that it would be another good concept to include in a game. While one of the things I want to avoid in an ARPG style of game is the 'bring the right tool to solve the puzzle' sections, allowing players to set their own equipment and style is an important way to allow them to invest in the game and feel attached to their character and their decisions.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed Skyward Sword and played nearly 60 hours of it. While it may lag a bit in spots I found that the game was pretty compelling and I was sad when it ended.

Looking at the future of the series, with either an HD Zelda or a new Link to the Past style game, I think there are a couple of things that would be good to see (or not see). The first is a really live world, where you find towns throughout the world with interesting active residents who don't even necessarily need you to solve their problems. The second is an active Zelda, the series has been moving this way, but it would be nice to see them stretch and put Zelda in a position of power and authority. The third is that it doesn't need voice acting especially for Link. There may be a way to do it without it being weird, but in it isn't necessary for a Zelda game.

When in doubt fall on things. (via GameFaqs)

Project 3 : 25 books in 52 weeks : Update 1

So as with everything associated with this blog, I'm behind on my reading for the 25 books in 52 weeks project. I started the project on September 3, 2012 and will wrap it up on September 3, 2012. As it's June 29, 2012 at the time of writing, 43 weeks have elapsed and I've only made it through 7 books. Ideally at this point I should have read about 23 books, but the point of this project is to push myself back into reading so I'll take having made any progress at all as a good thing and will see where I've made it to by the time September 3 rolls around.

New Books this Update 

• The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
• I love John Le Carré's George Smiley books especially the focus on the infrastructure built by the espionage organizations. The Laundry books do an amazing job of invoking that feeling and mixing it with some Lovecraftian world mangling and a healthy dose of Dilbert.
• The Jennifer Morgue - Charles Stross
• As with the George Smiley element in The Atrocity Archives, the James Bond elements in the Jennifer Morgue work very well as well. 
• The Fuller Memorandum - Charles Stross
• Unlike the other two Laundry books, I felt like the Fuller Memorandum was more "in it's own style" although that may be because I haven't read the books wikipedia mentions as influence. All of the Laundry books are a lot of fun to read and I'm very excited that the next major novel is coming out in the next few days.
• Mort - Terry Pratchett
• I'm working my way through the Terry Pratchett books in publication order and I have to say that I found Mort much harder going than the first three (Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Equal Rights). With the first three it was fairly easy to slip into the world as odd as it was, but Mort feels like such a festival of anachronism that the world is hard to accept. 
• The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
• I loved all of the first Mistborn trilogy, but especially the first volume. I enjoyed the action and adventure and heistyness and especially how alive and active Vin felt. The other two were good as well but I found that they didn't move as quickly as the first (which I think is something of a standard problem for Brandon Sanderson). The Alloy of Law felt like a return to that first books energy and I finished reading it and wanted to pick up the next one immediately. (Which is sad because I think the wait might be a while).
• The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
• I read this book at least partly due to having never finished the project I undertook in junior high school where I promised that I would read it. I found this, especially for the first two thirds to be an incredible drag with uninteresting characters. As I eventually began to accept it as a Tolkien based D&D campaign rather than "people run back and forth in a small park" (seriously the longest march they undertakes is about 4 days, how close are all the major cities). The end had enough charm and momentum and I don't regret reading it, but I'm glad to have relieved myself from that particular guilt of my youth and don't think I'll pick up any of the other books from the series without some serious motivation.
• I should also point out that I seriously expected Menion Leah to have no idea what a woman was when he first meets Shirl. The entire first three quarters of the novel is devoid of the mention of women, so it seems to me that Menion should have been totally baffled. Serious missed opportunity for an Ethan of Athos kind of world. 
• Great by Choice - Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen
• I liked the ideas put forth in Built to Last and Good to Great. I think that Great by Choice is better than either in that the findings of the book are much more applicable to the daily life of a graduate student. It's certainly worth a read and is an especially good jumping of point for trying to be more productive.

Status

• Project Completeness: 7/25 - 28%
• Time Remaining 9 weeks.

Blog: That post about why there are no posts

So it seems inevitable that anybody writing a blog ends up missing a long stretch and then posting about why they were missing and how they're going to do better now.
This is that post.

It's been two semesters since the last time I managed to post and as far as getting excited and making things goes, I've managed to get enough things done to continue on in grad school. I've also made it through a period of low energy and stress, but I seem to be doing pretty well now.

The plan when I started this project was to use it to encourage me to stop sitting around and actually get the things I want done in life done. This has not been a huge success for the big projects (like the ones I've started here) but it has started to work for the smaller things that need to be done.

Now I would like to get myself organized to be more productive, even though there are several things related to my PhD that I will still need to focus on. Over the sumer my time can flex a little more, so for the next few months I will try to post at least one post a week here, either a blog post or a project update.

In the next few weeks I want to post some thoughts on a few of the video games I've played in the last while, particularly which parts are interesting when thinking about how to design the games I would like to design. I will also be writing a few other posts about things that interest me on the web, as well as some other software design things that have interested/bothered me over the years.

Hopefully this blog will keep being a useful tool for organizing myself and continuing to push myself forward.

Time to get excited and make something!

Blog Post: Derek K. Miller

This post is my thanks to Derek K. Miller. Derek was an amazing blogger, podcaster, musician, photographer, citizen of the web, husband, father and most of all human being.

Derek K. Miller

Many years ago, when I was just starting my Masters, I decided that while I seemed to be spending a lot of time on the internet, I certainly wasn't experiencing the best parts of it. Conveniently around that time Tod Maffin (CBC's then resident expert on the internet) was talking about good blogs that people should be following, and amongst the ones he mentioned I started following Derek's penmachine.com.

In early May 2011, Derek died. It wasn't a surprise, he'd been battling, and later living with cancer for more than four years. I followed his blog from his wait for his first biopsy results, though to his last post. I was immersed in his many informative posts, elated when good news came and saddened when the bad news came.

Derek's death was heart breaking, far too soon, with his family too young and with too many awesome things that will never be done. I am glad, that at least he and his family had some time together, to take off and do the important things, like go to Disney world, and to plan for what comes next.

This post, as you may have noticed, is late. It has been many months since Derek died and while I should have got off my ass and written something right away, but I didn't and since then I've wondered a lot about what I should write. After all, I didn't know Derek in real life, he didn't know me from Adam and his death is really the business of his family and friends. I can extend my sympathy, but really what does that do for their grief and their pain.

What I've come to is this: I am inspired by Derek. He lived his life well, did things he was interested in and excited and passionate about. He loved his family and was good to them. He made decisions that made his family's lives better. He never bogged down, even when his pain was at its worst, when the cancer or the chemo was ravaging him he kept going and when he reached the end of the road he took his rest.

I am inspired by Derek and can only say in his death that I will try to follow in his footsteps. I will try to be a good person and a good citizen of the web. I will try to produce creative things that I enjoy making. I make no guarantees beyond that, but looking at the happiness he had in his too-short life, I don't know what else someone could wish for.

Derek and his wife Air. Stylin'. That's most of what you need to know.