Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Skyward Sword: Introducing Phi and Ghiharim, Swordless Realm, Locked Dungeons, Mole Mitts and Shield Meter

Many more details are coming in from different sources at the E3 2011. There was a Nintendo developer's round table, where they revealed more infos from the game, and several reports about the demo show up.

There are good news and bad news. First let me introduce Phi and Ghiharim. Those are the names of the Sword Spirit and the bad guy, who we have first seen in the GDC trailer. He is actually a fightable boss in the E3 2011 demo. Take a look at the fight here.



The fight looks really cool. That's the kind of 1on1 combat that I prefer in a good boss fight. The part where he fights you with no sword looks really creepy, the way he moves and everything. He also tries to steal your sword and use it against you. Really cool fight and the new Heart Container design looks cool.

Well, this guy looks more like your typical Agahnim or Zant figurine. I wonder, who the puppet master will be at this time...? You could rule out Ganon(dorf), since Ocarina of Time showed his rise and this game takes place before Ocarina of Time.

Ah yeah, I forgot, the blonde girl, which looks like Zelda, is actually called Zelda. She is a priest on Skyloft or something.

Also, the demo shows what's the Shield Meter for. As explained here shields can now break after a while and the meter shows what's left until your shield shatters. The demo also already introduces THREE different shields, the Wooden Shield, the Iron Shield and the Hylian Shield with the latter being the most durable. I at least expect a Mirror Shield at the end of the game, which doesn't break. Or some sort of Magic Shield, where the Shield Meter will be used for magic stuff. But this is exciting, we knew that all the items will get upgrades, but already getting three shields in a demo is a big deal. The last three Zelda shields didn't have more than two shields. Phantom Hourglass for example only got one!

In the round table there was also a demo, where a dungeon would be locked, similar to dungeons in Link's Awakening. I recently stated that I would like to see this feature return, so I love this. During this the Skyward Sword works like a metal detector, it makes sounds if you get closer to a key. Like the Shard of Agony. And there's some kind of Mole Mitts item, Iron Gauntlets that Link uses to dig.

But there's also bad news. Apparently this game also features a Twilight / Dark Realm mechanic, the Siren World. But to enter this realm, Link has to leave the Master Sword behind. And then he has to collect Tears of Light to take out the guardians. And there will be save zones, etc. So, the Phantom gameplay from the Nintendo DS Zelda games is back again... and everyone who feared a swordless Link after the E3 2009 artwork was right. Here we go... This game should all about MotionPlus powered combat and what was shown so far looks really fun and great. So, why take the sword (and with it the fun) away? Why? Because the Phantom parts were so much fun on the Nintendo DS? I don't think so... I think this mechanic was fine for the Nintendo DS Zeldas, but it gets really overused by now. It feels like this is getting a new staple in Zelda games...

1 comment:

Thesis Writing said...

sample picture looks cool, i am sure i download this. Thanks for such cool sharing.