Thursday, January 26, 2012

Skyward Sword: Ideas for Medals


In my Skyward Sword review I complained that there weren't enough medals in the game. That it was a great idea, which felt like a last minute addition. Well, I don't want this to be nothing but hot air, so I will present some ideas for medals, which could have been made for the game. Many of them are based on the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages and Seasons, others are inspired by masks and others are just new ideas completely.
  • Razor Medal: doubles your sword's attack power
  • Healing Medal: slowly regenerates you
  • Charge Medal: lets you charge Skyward Sword strikes in an instant
    (like at the end of Hero Mode)
  • Lightning Medal: half damage from electric attacks
  • Roc's Medal: increases speed of your bird,
    gives you one additional attack charge (four instead of three)
  • Pegasus Medal: increases running speed while dashing
  • Discovery Medal: shows the locations of unopened treasure
    chests on your map (outside of dungeons)
  • Hunter Medal: shows the locations of enemies on your map
  • Shield Medal: further increases your Shield Gauge
  • Bombproof Medal: no damage from own bombs
  • Toss Medal: lets you throw and roll stuff (like bombs) twice as far
  • Item Medal: lets Arrows, Bombs and Deku Seeds appear more often
  • Fairy Medal: lets Fairies appear more often
  • Hornet Medal: Deku Hornets won't attack you
    (perfect to collect Hornet Larva)
  • Quicksand Medal: crossing quicksand takes less stamina
  • Sacred Medal: no effect from curses
  • Steadfast Medal: you can't get knocked over by enemies
    and it's easier to keep balance on tightropes
  • Hero's Eyes: shows life meter of enemies
    (like the Hero's Charm in the Wind Waker)
  • STFU Medal: silents Fi
I'm aware that some of this stuff might make an already easy game even easier. But let's just pretend it was somehow harder. And some medals like the Toss Medal or the Quicksand Medal might break the game, but it's not like I could test these ideas. Well, my personal favorite would be the Discovery Medal. It's hard to judge whether you found all treasure chests on the overworld or not, it would have been helpful for writing my guides. And the Hero's Eyes would be cool, I thought that was a cool feature in the Wind Waker and would make perfect sense as a pouch item.

If you wouldn't have all the potions you could also add medals for the three potion effects:
  • Guardian Medal: reduces damage by half
  • Stamina Medal: increases stamina
  • Zora Medal: lets you breathe under water

Do you also have any cool ideas for medals? Post them in the comments!

12 comments:

K2L said...

Owl Medal: Allows Link to fly at night.
Pickup Medal: Pickups dropped by enemies or grass or jars go to Link automatically (inspired by Okami's Lucky mallet).
Wiimote Medal: Makes the Wii battery last twice as long (it sucks to have a battery deficit in the middle of something =/ ..... )
Morpheus Medal: Whenever Link sleeps, his dreams are playable.

Sorry for the crappy ideas, yours nailed it perfectly and I couldn't think of something better. =/

K2L said...

Sorry for the double post, but it would be nice to have at least two or more pouch spaces. There are several useful stuff and it sucks to only have eight possible spaces (and that's if you can find the extra four ....)

TourianTourist said...

I like the Pickup Medal.

The Owl Medal is a little bit too much for a simple medal, because exploring more areas at night is a big extension of the game. And this probably would have been done with a head light item for your bird, similar to what the knights are using.

About the extra pouches... I think that 8 is the perfect number. It works great for the game. You can't have too many or otherwise it breaks the purpose of the whole concept. It's about deciding what stuff to take with you. What do you need more, an additional quiver or a Rupee medal? What are the most useful items for you? These are interesting choices. If you had too many pouches, there wouldn't be any interesting choices, because you could bringt all your desired stuff without limitations, which is boring. In fact during the normal game I rarely changed the content of my pouch, it wasn't until the Hero Mode, that I got space issues. So, I'd say that 8 is more than enough.

In the Oracle games you could only bring 5 (of 64) rings with you and you could only use ONE at the same time. These limitations were a lot tougher. ^^

Stefy said...

i would like to have a medal that protects you from bee stings... ¬¬

K2L said...

OK, at least there should be some space dedicated to stuff other than medals. I had to keep out the quiver, bomb bag and seed satchel (all of them upgraded for nothing =/), as well as bottles, just because somebody thought it was a good idea to have TWO Heart Medals, TWO Rupee Medals, TWO Life Medals .... That's six pouches already.

By the way, I'm simply unable to complete the Boss Mode in Hero Mode. Whenever Ghitrashim III pops up, I know I'm not going to make it. =/

TourianTourist said...

@Stefy:
I already covered that idea, it's called the "Hornet Medal". ^^

@K2L:
Wait, you're already at the Boss Challenge in Hero Mode? That was fast. Well, Ghirahim III is not a problem, if you practice a little bit. Demise takes a lot more practice and the Horde Battle is nearly impossible to beat (at least for me). I had to use a Guardian Potion+ to get the Hylian Shield.

And what do you need two Rupee Medals for? I can understand the urge to bring both Life Medals and at least one Heart Medal in Hero Mode. I like to bring the Treasure Medal, but I never used the Rupee Medals. To make money I collect Sand Cicadas and sell them. xD

Also, you don't really need additional Quivers, Bomb Bags or Seed Satchels. At first I always brought them with me, but it's not necessary. There are always Bomb Flowers around, if you need them. And the Slingshot is not so important. A quiver can't hurt though.

K2L said...

"Wait, you're already at the Boss Challenge in Hero Mode? That was fast. Well, Ghirahim III is not a problem, if you practice a little bit. Demise takes a lot more practice and the Horde Battle is nearly impossible to beat (at least for me). I had to use a Guardian Potion+ to get the Hylian Shield."

The thing about Ghitrashim III is when he somehow voids my attempt at breaking his BIIIIIIIIIG sword. He even puts it horizontally after one second. It's very frustrating. And I'm already aware of the horrors from Demise and the Horde (why the latter, though? Wouldn't the Bylocite-infected Levias make more sense? Just saying. =/

"And what do you need two Rupee Medals for? I can understand the urge to bring both Life Medals and at least one Heart Medal in Hero Mode. I like to bring the Treasure Medal, but I never used the Rupee Medals. To make money I collect Sand Cicadas and sell them. xD"

One name: Beedle. Ever since PH, he has begun to sell dementedly expensive products. Gotten even worse now in SS, as if Nintendo somehow thought that it's funny at all to keep cutting grass for money during nine hours.

"Also, you don't really need additional Quivers, Bomb Bags or Seed Satchels. At first I always brought them with me, but it's not necessary. There are always Bomb Flowers around, if you need them. And the Slingshot is not so important. A quiver can't hurt though."

Tell that to the retarded Bokoblins that pop up so often in Eldin Volcano, as well as the horde.

TourianTourist said...

@Beedle:
Like I said, there are easier ways to make money than cutting grass for nine hours. ^^ You can sell treasures and insects. Some of them are easy to farm, yet they bring quite some money. It's 50 Rupees for a Sand Cicada, you can easily get 99 of them if you know the good spots.

During my first playthrough I made all the required money during the Fun Fun Island minigame. I was just trying to get the Piece of Heart and made thousands of Rupees on my way... xD

K2L said...

Well, the Fun Fun Island is indeed a good source of money .... once you dominate it, of course.

By the way, here's a last Medal that came to my mind: One that gives two extra boosts for the Loftwing, adding to the existing three.

Stefy said...

hornet... *facepalm*
sorry for that!
well i think you shouldn't make yourself the game too easy... it's easy enough! ;)

TourianTourist said...

@K2L:
I already got that one, it's called the "Roc's Medal".

@Stefy:
Yeah, I already said that some of this stuff would make the game too easy. My point was that there could have been more than just 7 different Medals and I was throwing out as many ideas as possible.

Btw you can always catch the hornets with your Bug Net. So, they're not a big threat anyway...

17Lugia said...

Great ideas! I was thinking of a medal that acted similarly to the magic armor in Twilight Princess... It drains rupees, but protects you from being damaged