How far are you in Skyward Sword?

[nintendo_fanboy]

I am right at the start of the second dungeon and I will continue to play tomorrow. I really like this game so far, but I'm not sure yet if it's a contender for best Zelda ever (which would automatically put it in a high rank for best game ever) or if it's "just" a great game.

I really liked the intro actually, it seems they are really building a nice story here. I also liked what I have seen of the story until now.
I also think the stamina gauge is an interesting addition that changes gameplay a little, but I think it can also be a bit tedious sometimes.
I'm not sure what to think of the overworld, but the thing that I dislike most about it is actually that it reminds me of the DS games which I didn't like too much, but in this game it is implemented great so far.
The motion controls are great, but I'm not that good at it yet and had a lot of trouble with the first boss, so sometimes I'd wish they were different, but I think that is just me not having them mastered yet.
I really disliked the fetch quests with the aura search, I think it is a bit weak to have so many fetch quests and if you have them, you could make them less tedious by actually showing on the map where the items are or if that would be too easy, don't give any aid but make clear in which area you have to search, because the aura search ability doesn't really help but lead me in wrong places sometimes.

All in all, I think the game is still very much the Zelda we know, which is a good thing for me because I loved all of the games (except the DS ones). Still, it adds a fair bit of new additions to the old mix by making the story more important, bringing about motion controls and changing up small things like the introduction of a stamina gauge. But on the downside, the game feels a bit tedious at times as well. I mentioned some examples like the fetch quests, and there are other things like loosing the shield completely if you take too much damage that don't really add fun, but are just annoying. Maybe I feel so strongly about that is because I just finished Xenoblade before I started this game, and Xenoblade was great at eliminating tedious elements. To make an example, if I was in the middle of a dungeon in Xenoblade but noticed that I should do something else now I could just go to the menu, select that place and go there, and after I did that, I could warp back. In Skyward Sword, if I loose my shield in a dungeon for example, I have to find a bird statue, select leave the dungeon, find another bird statue, select go above the clouds, fly to skyloft with my bird, repair the shield, take my bird again, fly to the hole in the clouds and select the place where I want to go. This just sucks and the game would be so much more fluent if this would have been solved differently. Sadly, there are quite a few such elements that just feel tedious. Now don't get me wrong, I still like the game very much, I just think an elimination of those tedious elements would bring it close to perfection. I'm looking forward to see how the game develops though, and I'll keep you posted how my impressions will change.