When returning to the surface, Link is able to go to any of the bird statues he’s activated. Opening the dungeon requires hitting a crystal switch; once the door is open, a cutscene plays as Link walks in. Fi pops up to say that there are too many creatures in the dungeon for dowsing to work. As an alternative, she suggests Link look around to determine what to do next.
Why? Why did Nintendo assume players would need an NPC to reiterate what they just read and give obvious advice? “Look around to see where we should move next.” And here I was, planning to sit on my thumbs and hope the boss came to me and brought the dungeon item [1]. And later when Link gets the map, it’s “You got a map. You can use it to find your way around the dungeon.” Well, I’m glad you’re here to tell me these things! And, sure, the compass is no longer a separate item – the map comes pre-marked with all the relevant information – and that’s important to convey to the player. But the text popup window, as well as all the icons appearing on the map, would have worked just fine without having Fi explain it.
Let’s imagine Fi in some of the other games…
“Master, the man has said your journey will be dangerous and offered you a sword to use. You should take it and use it to fight Ganon’s forces.”
“Master, Agahnim has accused you of kidnapping Princess Zelda in an effort to turn the people against you. You should be careful with whom you speak.”
“Master, the mural says that Koholint Island is a projection of the Wind Fish’s dream. This means if you wake the Wind Fish, Koholint and its inhabitants will disappear.”
“Master, your fairy companion has shouted to gain your attention. She likely has something to tell you.”
“Master, the moon is about to crash into the earth. You will almost certainly not survive this.”
“Master, this is not Peach. It appears to be one of her retainers. You may find Peach in a different castle.”
I’m not exaggerating – in fact, the opposite, because I refuse to arbitrarily assign percentages. Link’s had companions who have pointed out things that shouldn’t need pointing out before. I didn’t think anyone would be able to pass Ezlo, but now… I am going to do my best to let Fi’s more useless statements pass unacknowledged from here on, but sometimes they may slip through.
Skyview Temple is a first dungeon, forest dungeon, and water level dungeon. There are two major changes to the key dungeoneering components. First, as mentioned, the compass is gone, and its features have been folded into the dungeon map. Second, instead of a Big/Boss Key, Link finds a golden sculpture thing, and the boss door has a niche for it, and because this game wants to use motion controls every way possible, you have to rotate the sculpture to fit in the niche by waving the Wiimote.
This dungeon solidified my opinion of the motion controls. For swordfights, as long as it interprets my swings properly, they’re… okay. I can see why they’d have wanted to put the time into developing this. The miniboss is a Stalfos who defends from two directions at once, so Link has to come at him from one of the other directions, and I had little trouble beating it, and it was actually a bit of fun. On the other hand, some of the doors are protected by eye guardians, and the solution is Link needs to wave his sword in a circle so they get dizzy and fall out to die. This was amusing once. The second and third time, the challenge is meant to be standing in the right place to get the attention of two or three at once. Instead, I had no trouble with that, but then getting the eyes to follow the sword and going in a big enough circle that they die hurt my shoulder. At least this still uses the sword, so I can see why they’d want to use motion controls instead of the thumbstick…
Unlike the dungeon item, the Beetle. The Beetle is a remote-control bug that can scout, retrieve objects, cut threads, and hit switches. It can affect enemies, but it’s too slow and cumbersome to really use in battle. It’s like the natural evolution of the boomerangs’ intricate flight paths, but it had to sacrifice the combat utility to get there. And of course, despite piloting with the thumbstick seeming natural, it’s controlled by the Wiimote’s motion controls. So there’s my opinion of motion controls: okay for swordplay (when it accurately interprets what I’m trying to do), but shoehorned into situations where there are better options [2].
New and returning enemies include green Bokoblins (hey, someone tell the Kikwis they do exist), Skulltulas (who sometimes break free of their ceiling webs, need to be flipped on their backs with a vertical slice, and finished off with an ending blow) and Walltulas, and a Staldra, a three-headed skeletal thing which lines its heads up and Link needs to cut the right way to kill them all at once. (That’s the other thing that bugs me about motion controls in combat: every enemy more advanced than a ChuChu has some sort of defense Link’s got to cut the right way to get around. It works for things like the Stalfos, but for common enemies it breaks immersion, which is probably the opposite effect from what they intended.)
There’s a heart piece in the dungeon, giving Link his first full heart container.
Next: I got so annoyed about Fi’s writing that I ran out of time for the boss.
[1] Actually, given who the boss is, if I sit long enough, this may not be out of the question.
[2] I didn’t mention this, but they’re also used for aiming the Slingshot.
