Friday, October 7, 2011

Medals in Skyward Sword: Return of the Rings?

I said I was going to avoid any new Skyward Sword info (haven't watched the intro yet, etc.), but I stumbled over this article at Kotaku today, where the reporter goes "blah, blah, blah" about how Skyward Sword has more RPG-elements than the usual Zelda game. We already knew about item customization and optional upgrades by collecting spoils and bugs, so mostly this was not surprising. However, one part caught my attention:

I clicked the option for [Fi] to speak. She started talking about a rumor that "medals" will give you beneficial effects as long as you're carrying them. [...] I didn't even have the one she described, which was a so-called potion medal that extends the duration of potion effects.

This sounds very similar to the ring concept from the Oracle games. I loved the rings. They added so much to the Oracle games. There were 64 of them and most of them did have a special ability (there were a few useless ones given out as some kind of achievement like "1000 monsters killed"). The classic stuff is increase in defense or offense, but there were lots of unusual effects. Like the Roc's Ring prevented that cracked floors crumble. The Red Joy Ring made finding Rupees easier. Or the Pegasus Ring lenghtened the effect of the Pegasus Seeds (which sounds similar to the mentioned medal, which increases potion effects).



You could only equip one at a time, but there's a perfect ring for every situation. Ever since the Oracle games I wanted something similar to the rings in future Zelda games. But this concept was abandoned completely...

Until now it seems. If the medals are really something similar to the rings, I'm going to be very excited. There are many possibilites. There could be medals that make certain spoils appear more often. Need those horns? Just wear the medal. There could be a medal that boosts you stamina, so that you can run faster, etc. And of course there could be a Red and a Blue Medal, boosting attack power and defense.

It would also add to the picture that Skyward Sword is taking something from every Zelda game to combine it into the "ultimate Zelda". The best thing they could take from the Oracle games are the rings.

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