I’m ready to announce my favorite Bosses, Dungeons, and more from Link’s latest adventure. In this feature, I’ll reveal the top 5 dungeons, top 5 bosses, and top 5 items of the game. Do you agree with my selections? (SPOILER WARNING)
Top 5 Items:
5. Arrows: Let’s face it, the bow and arrow are extremely useful and easy to use, but it isn’t exactly thrilling to use. The motion control does work well when pointing at the screen to use them.
4. Clawshots: The clawshots are not quite as much fun to use as they are in many other Zelda adventures, and their pointer controls can sometimes require constant re-calibration. Despite these facts the clawshots are still quite enjoyable to use.
3. Whip: The whip isn’t all that useful and the controls are often whacky and unresponsive, but it sure is rewarding to snag an item or key from a Bokoblin or swing across a gaping chasm.
2. Bombs: Not only are the bombs explosively fun, but their motion controls work well and are easy to see the trajectory of where they will land thanks to a blue arrow on screen. Skyward Sword makes bombs more enjoyable than ever before!
1. Beetle: I never thought I’d say this, but after days of struggling to adjust to the Beetle’s contemporary controls I finally decided I liked the little guy. Not only can it bomb enemies from above, hit secret switches, and scope out enemy territory, the thing can send Bokoblin’s running (try it, chase after one and they run screaming). I do wish the motion worked a bit better as I did come across some problems.
Top 5 Dungeons:
5. Fire Sanctuary: Most of this dungeon’s hooks aren’t all that interesting: using water encased in a plant to harden lava gets repetitive and wasn’t all that thrilling, and the underground digging segments were boring and tedious. The visuals and theme of the dungeon were pleasing however.
4. Earth Temple: Not only is one of my favorite items (the bombs) introduced here, but some cool gameplay such as rolling on a large boulder and bombing from afar is found in this dungeon. It’s not a great dungeon, but it’s not a bad one either.
3. Sky Keep: Sky Keep’s main concept of altering the layout of the dungeon is a thrilling new concept that helps add some variety to this typical dungeon, the problem is… it’s a little too typical with no new themes but only re-used themes from the game’s other dungeons. The dungeon is a fun dungeon that is certainly above average, but some new gameplay mechanisms would have been nice.
2. Lanayru Mining Facility: This dungeon is not only one of the most unique and creative dungeons in the Zelda series, but it introduced some truly amazing enemies, combat types, and innovative puzzles. There are tons of great obstacles included in this dungeon and the visuals look great. It’s a shame that when the idea is re-used later for the Sandship, that it wasn’t improved upon but rather degraded.
1. Ancient Cistern: At first this dungeon didn’t appear all that special to me, but after noting the interesting Indian style of the dungeon, and playing around the whip: I was in love. Plus, the underground area of the dungeon is my favorite part of the entire game. I just wish the underwater swimming controls worked a little bit better.
Top 5 Bosses:
5. Scaldera: The boss of the Earth Temple was certainly a sight to behold, but the way in which you beat him wasn’t all that intriguing to me at least. I do appreciate this battle for a different approach and it did add some variety to the game’s boss battles, but it seemed sort of repetitive and silly.
4. Demise: The game’s final boss battle is both thrilling and lackluster at the same time. On one hand, the visuals and music were epic and the stakes of the battle were at a record breaking high, and the battle was intense and challenging for all players of all ages. On the other hand at the time of the battle you hardly even know the villain you are fighting and I find Ghirahim may have been a better final boss. You have no reason to invest in Demise as he is killed off as quickly as he is introduced. Besides these points, the way of fighting Demise is not revolutionary, and just recycles most of the gameplay used against Ghirahim, though the Skyward Strikes section of the battle is far more interesting. My biggest probable with this battle was the controls which tended to aggravate me especially during the Skyward Strike section of the battle in which the sword controls hardly worked at all. Demise is a good boss but not a good final boss.
3. Ghirahim: For the most part Ghirahim was used to show off the game’s 1:1 swordplay motion control. And in that regard it did fairly well, my problems with the battles with Ghirahim is the fact that there were three total, and that the first two were nearly identical. I also found some difficulty in fighting Ghirahim for the most part, as the controls were occasionally unresponsive or inaccurate. The third and final battle with him greatly improves upon the first two, and offers a thrilling climax while providing an epic battle.
2. The Imprisoned: Besides having an awesome name, the Imprisoned has to be the largest boss seen in a Zelda game, and one of the coolest looking. However I will say that he looked even cooler before he sprouted wings and arms. I do wish there weren’t three battles with this boss but rather one or two, but I did enjoy the variety added in with each battle and the epicness of fighting this thing was extremely grand in size and scope.
1. Koloktos: The fact that the best boss of the game comes at the end of the best dungeon is just a great surprise. All of the motion controls work well here, and the gameplay-- whipping the creature’s arms off and using its own swords against it—is also well integrated. Besides all of this, the boss uses those creepy zombie Bokoblins against Link, and to top it all off the boss’ design is just as thrilling as the battle itself—complete with a gold plating, a Buddha appearing head, and a petrifying scream that accompanies its constant swinging of its sword. Koloktos is by far one of the Zelda series’ best bosses.
No comments:
Post a Comment