Opinion: Is Skyward Sword Better as a Metroid Game?

Does The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword fit in line better with the Metroid series than The Legend of Zelda series? I think it just might.

Released as the Wii's beloved swan song in November 2011, Skyward Sword got a lot of mixed press and mixed criticism. The game certainly wasn't hated (it has a 93 on Metacritic, for whatever that's worth) but it wasn't quite loved. Critical response included many comments on the game's length, scope, linearity, more RPG-like systems (such as crafting/upgrading equipment), graphical fidelity, and overall different feeling than previous games in the franchise. Personally, I greatly enjoyed the title. That being said, I admit if you look at Skyward Sword next to another 3D Zelda title -- like, say, The Wind Waker HD -- you notice there's something uncanny about it. It feels familiar, but not the same as what we've come to expect.

In my opinion, it feels familiar because you have played something like this before: it was called Metroid Prime.

First, let's look at what makes a Zelda game a Zelda game.

1. Open world exploration
2. Self-contained settings, such as towns and dungeons, connected to the overworld
3. Real-time action combat, generally involving a sword, shield, and selection of equipable items
4. Puzzle-solving
5. Heavy inventory management
6. Character power-ups, such as more health and magic

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has all of these elements and follows the series's established tenets quite well, with the exception of the first two points. These two I want to look at closer.

1. Open world exploration

Every Legend of Zelda game has an overworld waiting to be explored: Hyrule, Termina Fields, the Great Sea. Typically, this overworld is an expansive area that connects all of the other pieces of the world -- like towns and dungeons -- together. You travel the overworld to get from one destination to the next. You explore and enjoy the overworld in hopes to come across secret caverns (or grottos) holding treasure or fairies (or cows). Generally, you can expect to pretty evenly split your play time between the overworld and your destinations.

This started all the way back with the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. The overworld is expansive and without borders, meaning you could go anywhere you'd like. Puzzles were limited to using bombs or fire to find secret entrances. Combat was scattered but not mandatory: enemies played the role of obstacles. This paradigm was carried over into 3D with Ocarina of Time and has continued since. Hyrule Field has a few enemies scattered about and hidden rooms to find through the use of bombs or other items.

In Skyward Sword this overworld is the sky around Skyloft, but there's not much there. It's less of an overworld and really more of a hub to visit different locales -- not unlike the observatory in Super Mario Galaxy. You don't explore the sky as much as you pass through it. This may sound nit-picky but it means you no longer evenly split your time between exploring the overworld and being off of the overworld; instead, you spend maybe 5-10% of your time in the sky and the other 90-95% at a specific destination. This brings me to my second point...

2. Dungeons

Dungeons are your primary destinations on the overworld. Inside, the experience is far less about exploration and more about combat interspersed with puzzle-solving in order to advance to a discrete goal: enter a room, avoid obstacles, find a switch, kill some baddies, and progress to the next room -- repeat until you clear the dungeon. Your advancement through rooms typically isn't linear, however. Back-tracking is involved as you find locked doors and in turn search for the keys or switches to bypass them. A notable feature of dungeons is that they are self-contained: what happens and what exists in a dungeon stays in and only affects that dungeon. There is also only one way to enter a dungeon and a dungeon is complete once the boss has been slain. With only a few exceptions -- such as golden skultulas in Ocarina of Time -- there is never a reason to revisit a dungeon once it has been cleared. Again, this was established in the first Legend of Zelda and has carried through since. The Adventure of Link even went as far as to use a different camera -- side-scrolling versus top-down -- when you entered a dungeon or town.

Skyward Sword follows this rule decently -- and has some very good dungeons! -- but it also takes some liberties with what is a dungeon and what isn't. Skyview Temple and Lanayru Mining Facility, for instance, are obviously dungeons but the Faron Woods and Lanaryu Desert around them act a lot like dungeons as well. Think about it: they involve besting baddies, solving puzzles, avoiding obstacles, and even a light form of back-tracking. These areas have an almost equal blend of exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving. The only stark differences from dungeons are that they don't have bosses to battle and you are encouraged -- even required -- to revisit the locations.

What this means is that the line between "overworld" and "dungeon" is blurred in Skyward Sword. What might normally be thought of as a part of the overworld certainly feels like a dungeon. Due to how diving-from-the-sky works, they almost even have doors you must enter through.

Metroid Prime, on the other hand, has little-to-no distinction between "overworld" and "dungeon" -- it simply has a world which you explore. Therefore, in Metroid, all of your time is split between exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving, with shifts in focus being much more organic or subtle. In Metroid you're nearly always looking for the next place to go and you frequently have to battle creatures or solve puzzles in order to get there. The franchise is also well-known for encouraging and requiring back-tracking: that is, returning to areas previously visited with new utensils in order to advance further. Skyward Sword is one of the only Zelda games to do this.

Skyward Sword blurs the lines between being in a dungeon and not being in a dungeon. It requires returning to old locales with new gear in order to advance further. The sky could be just another region (or "dungeon") with portals to each other region -- very much like the Talon Overworld connects the other regions in Metroid Prime through elevators. The game even has a "scan visor" (dowsing) which must be used to find hidden objects or paths forward.

What do you think? Does Skyward Sword follow the Metroid Prime franchise better than it fits in with its Legend of Zelda brethren? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was developed and published by Nintendo.

The Majesty of Final Fantasy IX's Opening

I'm a come-and-go fan of the FINAL FANTASY series. Generally, any discourse I have about the franchise ends up with a rant. I'll avoid ranting today. Instead, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite installments and roar about some of its brilliance.

I really like FINAL FANTASY IX. Frankly, I think it's easily the best entry on the PlayStation. (You heard me, Cloud. I don't love you.) And one of the things I really, really like about it is the opening scene. Why? It does everything right. It appeals to your imagination, introduces you to the world, and teaches you everything you need to know to enjoy the game in five minutes. (Suck it, Kingdom Hearts.*)

First, let's make sure we're on the same page. If you're unfamiliar with the opening scene -- or would just like a refresher -- take a moment to watch it here before reading further. Got it in mind? Then let's continue with the crunching.

Let's assume we've never played a FINAL FANTASY game before. We know it's a game about a fantasy world, but nothing beyond that. Actually, let's say we've never even played an RPG. This is even our first time to hold a PlayStation controller.

We put the game in and turn on the system. Tranquil, but somewhat mysterious and alluring music begins. We make it to the title screen and are presented with two options. A hand is pointing to "NEW GAME." At this point, the only buttons on the controller that respond are the up and down arrows as well as the X button. We press X, the screen fades to black, and the game begins.

Lessons learned:
1. Use the directional pad to move the cursor between selections
2. Press X to choose an option

First up when starting a new game is a cinematic to set the mood. We see a nightmarish storm, a beautiful princess, and a magnificent kingdom. There are also credits presented like you'd see at the opening of a movie. This gets our minds working and starts the spark for adventure. Finally, we see an airship -- more adventure! -- and a strange man with a tail moving around inside. It's this man that we follow into a dark room.

Lessons learned:
3. This game is about a princess who appears to have a troubled past. She's dressed for a very important event.
4. This princess lives in a sizable kingdom. It appears the world may be quite large as well.
5. Airships appear to be a common means of transportation. This again suggests the world is quite large.
6. Not all characters in this world are human.

The cinematic is over. At this point we're looking at in-engine graphics. We see the monkey-man standing in a dark room. In fact, he's all we see, so he must be important. "Sure is dark..." he says. We press the X button -- because we know that's how you select things to advance (Lesson #2 above) -- and the dialogue continues. Once the dialogue is done, we're left staring at this monkey-man standing in the dark. Shortly, a hand shows up, pointing at the character. Since we know we can use the directional pad to move the cursor on the title screen (Lesson #1), we see if it works here -- and it does! The monkey-man is our avatar and we can move him around. We're playing a video game!

So now what? Where do we move to? Well, there's not much to look at right now, so we're forced to explore our surroundings. As we do, we notice "!" and "?" speech bubbles. We press X to confirm them and either receive items or trigger a scripted event.

Lessons learned:
7. The main character -- our character -- is the monkey-man, not the princess.
8. The game is played from a fixed-camera, mostly top-down perspective.
9. We move our character with the directional pad.
10. We can interact with the environment when speech bubbles appear by pressing the X button.
11. We can sometimes find hidden items in rooms.

Once the room is lit, we get to give the monkey-man a name (Zidane by default), and three men come rushing in. Through some dialogue, we find that these are acquaintances or friends of Zidane's. Suddenly, a dragon-headed man bursts in from the opposite side of the cabin. The environment swirls and we go into a battle scene -- Zidane and his three friends against the dragon-man!

A menu pops up with the hand cursor pointing at the "Attack" option. We press X and the active character lunges forward. Gradually, these options are shown again and again for each character. Sometimes the dragon-man attacks Zidane's group. Numbers appear anytime a character is attacked. Actually, there's quite a bit going on right now between the attacking, the numbers, green bars filling up and emptying, and options popping up. Fortunately, the dragon-man mostly just bumbles around and hardly hurts any of our characters when he does manage a hit, so we're feeling okay. No pressure. We take our time fumbling around in the options, watching the cause and effect of what we choose, and eventually win the battle. Hooray! Oh, and the dragon-man was actually our clumsy captain.

Lessons learned:
12. This game has battles!
13. Battles can be triggered during dialogue sequences.
14. We can fight with up to four characters in our party at once.
15. Actions take turns and the turn order is determined by the "ATB" bar on the right. This means actions tend to happen pretty fast, so it's best to stay alert.
16. Each character has his own set of available actions, including attacking, stealing items, using items, and more we don't know about yet. (The gap between "Steal" and "Items" indicates more actions may be available in the future.)
17. Characters lose HP when they are attacked. Characters die when their HP is depleted.

This concludes the opening sequence. Game play continues from here and quickly ramps up. We find out the Zidane and crew are headed to the kingdom seen in the opening to kidnap the princess during a big royal performance. Excitement and drama await!

Five minutes in and you know how to navigate menus, explore, and battle. Best of all, no explanatory dialogues were used. Instead, we were given the freedom to play in a safe environment. When learning how to move and explore, there was nothing in the room to distract or threaten us. The darkness inspires curiosity and provides a motive for searching around. The battle is scripted in such a way that losing isn't an option, giving plenty of time to take in everything that's going on. Starting with a full party gives a glimpse of what's to come; keeping the characters low level as well means there's not an awkward handicap to adjust to not having later on.

The opening cinematic is even nice, establishes the setting, but doesn't overstay its welcome. Long introductions can deflate the desire to actually play the game.

I love this opening. I miss this attention to detail in introductions for games. (Again, I'm looking at you Kingdom Hearts.) Tutorials are boring and I despise controller schematics. Learning from playing is always the best option.

Good job, Squaresoft.

*I love Kingdom Hearts, I really do, but its tutorial segments are ridiculous.

FINAL FANTASY IX was developed and published by Squaresoft.