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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Twilight Princess vs Skyward Sword

 

I prefer...

Twilight Princess 62 63.27%
 
Skyward Sword 36 36.73%
 
Total:98
Jumpin said:
d21lewis said:

The first playthrough, at least for me, took about 20 hours. Probably more. It's not that the world was big or there was much to do. Just figuring out the puzzles and dungeons. After that, I cut my time down immensely and I imagine it's much easier for anyone playing a newer game before going back to ALttP since it's actually pretty simple compared to later Zeldas.

Lots of games are like this. The challenge is knowing where to go and what to do. 

That's basically what I'm saying. Most games in general are much shorter once you know what you're doing. Most of the time spent is on things like "How do I thwart these dudes with swords" and "why can't I hit this wizard" or "Where the **** do I go with this guy? Why won't he leave the dungeon with me? Let's try this again." and stuff like that. But most of that stuff isn't a problem on the second time through. The guy going through above isn't even an excellent player, he's getting hit a lot, has to take breaks to replenish health and such, but it still took him under 4 hours and 15 minutes to do everything in the game, simply because he knows what he's doing.

But who judges how long a game is based on their 3rd or 4th play through?  Or even their 2nd?  The vast majority of people are going to judge a game's length on a 1st play through.



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They're both uninspired games with some interesting aspects to them. Skyward sword has some inspired dungeon mechanics and twilight princess has midna. To me skyward sword is the better of the 2 because i really value dungeon structure that is more than going to a room and solving it, then proceding to the next one. Having to learn the layout of a temple or noticing patterns in the whole enviroment is what the zelda team can do that most clones cant.

Twilight princess also bothers me in a personal level because its trying to be "dark" and "mature" in response to the idiotic wind waker backlash, and does so in the stupidest way possible. "Look guys, dark link with red eyes", "look guys, its your friends with white eyes. It doesnt mean anything, but it sure is scary and mature right?". None of it is any "darker" than majora's mask also, because that game had a reason for its creepy imagery and melancholic athmosphere. Twilight princess is just nintendo giving early 2000's edgy kids, that thought they were "big boys" now and wanted them to stop making these "baby games", what they wanted. And it is dissapointing, no matter how much i like midna and some early wolf sequences.

Skyward sword to me is dissapointing in how much its main progression is uninteresting, rather than a meta criticism. I dont mind the motion control gimmick per se, but its implemented in a tiresome way. Fighting an enemy now takes much longer; but at the same time its not hard. You just have to wait until they open themselves and pray your 2009's control scheme works the way is intended, then strike. Its not that much different of how the enemies are made since ocarina of time for the mainline entries, its just that now you will commit more mistakes and have to repeat it over and over.
The main campaign is dissapointing because they felt into the basic staple of zelda too much. They develop the characters more than usual using dialogue, which i appreciate, but what you will have to do since the beggining is so obvious and takes so long to happen that it gets just boring. Having to repeat the imprisioned 4 times, having to return to areas like the volcano mountain(i dont remember the name), having to go from one area to the other by an empty sky, and etc is just tiresome. I beated the game, but i didnt felt really happy about it after. Even if theres some things i like about it.



None of them are what i want from zelda. They were the reason i was uninterested in the franchise until a link between worlds came and nintendo showed to me they can make a zelda game that i like still.



Finale said:

Twilight princess also bothers me in a personal level because its trying to be "dark" and "mature" in response to the idiotic wind waker backlash, and does so in the stupidest way possible. "Look guys, dark link with red eyes", "look guys, its your friends with white eyes. It doesnt mean anything, but it sure is scary and mature right?". None of it is any "darker" than majora's mask also, because that game had a reason for its creepy imagery and melancholic athmosphere. Twilight princess is just nintendo giving early 2000's edgy kids, that thought they were "big boys" now and wanted them to stop making these "baby games", what they wanted. And it is dissapointing, no matter how much i like midna and some early wolf sequences.

Twilight Princess isn't "edgy". If it was edgy it would have blood, excessive violence, coarse language, etc. 

It had a measure of darkness and moodiness the same as Ocarina of Time did. It simply returned the series to an aesthetic and tone that had already proven to be beloved by its fanbase. 



theRepublic said:
Jumpin said:

That's basically what I'm saying. Most games in general are much shorter once you know what you're doing. Most of the time spent is on things like "How do I thwart these dudes with swords" and "why can't I hit this wizard" or "Where the **** do I go with this guy? Why won't he leave the dungeon with me? Let's try this again." and stuff like that. But most of that stuff isn't a problem on the second time through. The guy going through above isn't even an excellent player, he's getting hit a lot, has to take breaks to replenish health and such, but it still took him under 4 hours and 15 minutes to do everything in the game, simply because he knows what he's doing.

But who judges how long a game is based on their 3rd or 4th play through?  Or even their 2nd?  The vast majority of people are going to judge a game's length on a 1st play through.

Well, I'm not going to judge the length of a 30 year old game based on a playthrough I did as a kid 30 years ago when I was still a child. Plus, I can hardly imagine it took me more than 8-10 hours the first time through.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

mZuzek said:
You can't judge the length of a game based on anything other than the first playthrough. That's just how it's measured. For reference, this is how long it took me to finish each Zelda for the first time:

Breath of the Wild ~70 hours
Skyward Sword ~50 hours
Twilight Princess ~35 hours
The Minish Cap ~15 hours
A Link Between Worlds ~10 hours

All of the others were in the 18-25 hour range for me.

Yes I can. It would be dumb to judge how long it takes me to get through a game based on a playthrough I did as a kid 30 years ago. One I don't properly even remember.

For all I know, I probably finished it in about 5-7 hours. I was good at those types of games. I wasn't a stupid kid so I probably got through the game without much trouble. I mean, how many people can say they learned English fluently by playing imported games as a kid? (Well that, and the English version of The Hobbit, seriously, half the words in the Hobbit I had no idea what they meant until I looked them up and figured out how to use them with dictionaries and such... Lord of the Rings brought me more... but when I spoke with my first English person and I greeted them as "Yonder is my home, down the deep cloven way past the commercial towers which blush in the coming of dawn and the wind flies swiftly in torrents." Yeah, got some weird looks.).



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

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curl-6 said:
Finale said:

Twilight princess also bothers me in a personal level because its trying to be "dark" and "mature" in response to the idiotic wind waker backlash, and does so in the stupidest way possible. "Look guys, dark link with red eyes", "look guys, its your friends with white eyes. It doesnt mean anything, but it sure is scary and mature right?". None of it is any "darker" than majora's mask also, because that game had a reason for its creepy imagery and melancholic athmosphere. Twilight princess is just nintendo giving early 2000's edgy kids, that thought they were "big boys" now and wanted them to stop making these "baby games", what they wanted. And it is dissapointing, no matter how much i like midna and some early wolf sequences.

Twilight Princess isn't "edgy". If it was edgy it would have blood, excessive violence, coarse language, etc. 

It had a measure of darkness and moodiness the same as Ocarina of Time did. It simply returned the series to an aesthetic and tone that had already proven to be beloved by its fanbase. 

Artistically it was closer to Ocarina of Time than Celda was, but Breath of the Wild looks the closest of any game since Majora's Mask. While Twilight Princess was back on track, away from the Celda direction, it kind of went a little bit too far on the washed out look... Although, I think this may have been due, mostly, to art conventions of the time as many games looked like that in the PS2 era. Skyward Sword was a little bit closer to Ocarina of Time's look, but I think Breath of the Wild nailed it (granted, it's like 100X more detailed, but it's a very similar art direction).

Here's a shot from Ocarina of Time's Concept art and some various shots from various Zelda games. Just my opinion, while I think Twilight Princess is WAY closer to the Zelda standard than Celda, I also think Twilight Princess is the one that is next most off:

Breath of the Wild was the first game that let us oldtime Zelda fans do what we've always wanted to do. Stand out on a cliff face and look out over hyrule.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 14 March 2020

I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Jumpin said:
curl-6 said:

Twilight Princess isn't "edgy". If it was edgy it would have blood, excessive violence, coarse language, etc. 

It had a measure of darkness and moodiness the same as Ocarina of Time did. It simply returned the series to an aesthetic and tone that had already proven to be beloved by its fanbase. 

Artistically it was closer to Ocarina of Time than Celda was, but Breath of the Wild looks the closest of any game since Majora's Mask. While Twilight Princess was back on track, away from the Celda direction, it kind of went a little bit too far on the washed out look... Although, I think this may have been due, mostly, to art conventions of the time as many games looked like that in the PS2 era. Skyward Sword was a little bit closer to Ocarina of Time's look, but I think Breath of the Wild nailed it (granted, it's like 100X more detailed, but it's a very similar art direction).

Here's a shot from Ocarina of Time's Concept art and some various shots from various Zelda games. Just my opinion, while I think Twilight Princess is WAY closer to the Zelda standard than Celda, I also think Twilight Princess is the one that is next most off:

Breath of the Wild was the first game that let us oldtime Zelda fans do what we've always wanted to do. Stand out on a cliff face and look out over hyrule.

Twilight Princess definitely had an earthier palette and less saturated colours than Ocarina, but to me it still felt the closest aesthetically of the games that followed, excluding Majora of course.

That said I still do really like BOTW's look, especially its use of lighting and its dense interactive grass.

Dunno if I'd call myself an "oldtime" Zelda fan; my first game in the series was Link to the Past, but it was Ocarina of Time that really made me fall in love with it.



Vodacixi said:
Wow, I'm shocked seeing so many strong opinions on this topic. Both are such great games I don't understand how so many people think that one of them is so clearly superior to the other. To each their own I guess...

I used the term "easily", but it was really just an exaggeration for me.  This is how I would rate the 3D games (2D is another matter entirely).

1. Majora's Mask (A+)
2. Ocarina of Time (A+)
3. Skyward Sword (A)
4. Twilight Princess (A-)
5. The Wind Waker (A-)

All of them are great games in their own right.  It can be tough to separate them, and I think that leads to hyperbole for a lot of people.

I haven't played Breath of the Wild yet.



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I liked Skyward Sword better for a variety of reasons.

The biggest reason is that I just absolutely so very much hate the Wolf Link segments of TP.

But even with those removed, overall I still enjoyed Skyward Sword more.

My only complaint with SS is how much it was death by tutorial.



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theRepublic said:
Vodacixi said:
Wow, I'm shocked seeing so many strong opinions on this topic. Both are such great games I don't understand how so many people think that one of them is so clearly superior to the other. To each their own I guess...

I used the term "easily", but it was really just an exaggeration for me.  This is how I would rate the 3D games (2D is another matter entirely).

1. Majora's Mask (A+)
2. Ocarina of Time (A+)
3. Skyward Sword (A)
4. Twilight Princess (A-)
5. The Wind Waker (A-)

All of them are great games in their own right.  It can be tough to separate them, and I think that leads to hyperbole for a lot of people.

I haven't played Breath of the Wild yet.

Get onto it man, it's amazing and will give you 100+ hours of gaming.