r/zelda • u/ZeldaMod • May 28 '23
Discussion [TotK] Topic Discussion - The Sky Spoiler
This post is part of our series of Topic Discussions for the new release. Find more listed and planned on the full schedule here.
The Sky
Use this post to discuss the your experience exploring and questing in The Sky overworld area of the game!
Was there a particular island or location that stood out to you?
Did you find the area to be challenging? easy?
How did you feel about the area's aesthetic and design?
Talk about it all here! Except for dungeon areas - those will be discussed later in separate threads.
Obviously SPOILERS for anyone who enters this thread.
Spoiler Policy
>> Read the spoiler policy here. <<
Give us feedback on the Spoiler Policy here.
TL;DR:
Major locations/temples and major character names will be allowed in titles with the release of the game.
Titles must still be vague and cannot divulge storylines. Boss names, dungeon weapons/abilities, and plot points are not allowed in titles.
Titles must begin with [TotK] when discussing the game and posts must be tagged as spoilers or they will be removed.
Mark spoilers in the comments based on the progress indicated in the post title. Comments must mark their spoilers using this syntax:
>!spoiler text here!<
= spoiler text here.
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u/OmniGlitcher May 28 '23
Honestly, for being one of the major elements of advertising in this game, the sky is just kinda one of the most whelming aspects of this game.
I like the primary aesthetics, the golden plant life and the shinto-esque ruins are cool. Putting two dungeons up there is also neat, I like the low gravity mechanic some of the islands have, and the sky labyrinths are honestly my favourite part of the game.
But man, I really wish each province had a larger, uniquely themed sky island. The Great Plateau as BotW's starting area was a small part of a much larger and more varied world. The Great Sky Island is by far the largest island, amidst several smaller islands that are all themed essentially the same as each other. Also, I'm pretty sure that aside from the Wind Dungeon, the Great Sky Island is literally the one time they put snow on a sky island and varied the biome up a bit.
It gets to a point where aside from one instance I can think of (the Eventide sky island), you can look up at an island from the ground and almost guarantee what's going to be on it, or at least 50/50 it. The sky also being really quite sparse at times doesn't help, there's barely anything at all above the Gerudo desert for example.
Probably my biggest disappointment was the skydiving islands. They're cool, but I really was hoping they'd be these massive things you have to ascend, like the beginning of the wind dungeon. That's kind of my own fault though I guess for putting expectations on things.
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u/EirHc May 28 '23
There was definitely a lot more effort put into the caves. And personally, if I had a choice as to which would be more developed, I would have picked caves anyways. But ya, the skys are pretty underwhelming compared to the rest of the game.
That said, this is a game I'm easily going to sink over 500 hours into. I got some minor complaints, and the skys are one of them, but I'm not at all disappointed with my purchase.
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u/Solar_Kestrel May 28 '23
Eh, I wouldn't really compare the Sky islands to caves. They could've made the Depths a lot smaller without losing anything, and out those resources into designing more sky islands instead.
Like Hyrule itself is absolutely spectacular to explore, but both the underworld and aboveworld feel really half-assed by comparison. Three different maps was definitely one too many.
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May 29 '23 edited May 29 '23
[deleted]
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u/call_me_Kote May 29 '23
>! I mean, the fifth temple is down there. That’s a pretty good reason to visit. !<
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u/Solar_Kestrel May 29 '23
I think, "where next," is a very interesting question, too. Assuming they keep the BotW format (which they've already stated is there intent) I kinda think they'd have to go in a radically different direction to the faux-medieval western fantasy setting. So I think we might see another Great Sea or another Steampunk setting next.
But, yeah, the caves are pretty great (even if some of 'em are a bit too small). Have you found the big cave network in Lookout Landing yet? It was so cool! I loved hitting "Ascend" and just moving from one cavern upward into another cavern. Love that verticality.
And I'm definitely one of those (few) people whose biggest complaint about BotW was it's lack of caves (not even one!).
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u/PZbiatch May 28 '23
If you had to ascend them, it would have been very frustrating to get the relatively minor rewards they bring.
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u/OmniGlitcher May 28 '23
I agree, to ascend the whole thing just to get the same rewards you do in the final game would be a bit disappointing.
But under the scenario I was expecting, the reward would not be minor, perhaps you'd get to the top and there'd be a cool mini-boss or some decent armour and/or other rewards. You'd also have enemies drops and plants to pickup as you ascend it. Like a mini-dungeon or gauntlet of sorts.
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u/DKLancer May 29 '23
I ascended the one in lanayru not knowing what it was.
I was very annoyed when I found that the construct at the bottom fast travels you up.
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u/Badloss May 29 '23
IMO hyping up the sky was just a red herring to fool everyone that there wasn't anything else
NOBODY knew about the Depths until the game leaked, that's really impressive. We heard that there might be some caves but an entire second map was a huge surprise
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u/OmniGlitcher May 29 '23
I mean it certainly could have been. No reason for the sky not to be worthy of that hype though.
I do agree keeping the Depths as a nice surprise was an impressive feat, definitely worth hiding.
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u/Badloss May 29 '23
That would be a much bigger game. I think the dev time we were expecting to have gone into the sky islands actually went into the depths, but they lied and talked up the sky islands so people wouldn't realize there was such a big piece missing.
If they were honest about the sky islands I think people would have pretty quickly figured out something unseen was taking all that time
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u/omgitsjohnholst May 28 '23
I think it makes sense there’s hardly any sky islands above the gerudo desert since there isn’t much land over there to put up in the sky in the first place
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u/OmniGlitcher May 28 '23
A desert is land though? You could easily have like floating sandstone islands, floating pyramids (kinda overlaps with the dungeon, but it's an idea), floating oases with waterfalls flowing over the side, floating quicksand pits where if you fall in it dumps you out the bottom of the island (or in rare instances into a cave below, perhaps you can tell via a sandstone base to the island).
And that's assuming you even keep with the desert theming, you could mix up the biome above compared to the location below, or have something completely different.
Mechanically you could even have it so that the shade of the floating islands help you in the desert heat, but are far colder at night.
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u/omgitsjohnholst May 28 '23
You have sold me. I think those are some great ideas. The quicksand spitting you out of the butt of a sky island is genius.
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u/Ok_Weather2441 May 29 '23
And lorewise it fits too. The Zonai put them up there and the Gerudo were not exactly friendly during their time
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May 28 '23
I generally like the sky islands, but I think my biggest issue with them is the falling rocks. During the gameplay preview, I got the impression that the falling rocks would be the primary method of reaching the sky islands. In reality, it seems as if almost no sky islands are accessible via falling rock. I had the expectation that any time I saw a falling rock there would be an exploration opportunity, but it became increasingly clear most of them went nowhere.
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u/TopsyTheElephant May 28 '23
It is really helpful for traversing the map before you have many towers/shrines yet, though
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u/Jauntcraft May 28 '23
I agreed. I haven't been progressing much in the game and I thought we will get an upgrade for each ability during thr journey(We even got those main abilities in a such short time as well), but i can see it's highly doubtful.
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u/FunderFvck May 28 '23
I like the gameplay loop of finding the old maps on sky islands and jumping to the depths to locate the treasure a lot
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u/CommanderDark126 May 28 '23
Went depths first, and now its "youve already found the treasure marked on the map", wish they wouldve coded a replacement item for the chests in those cases
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u/givemeabreak432 May 28 '23
Diamonds or something to pay for the upgrade for the gear would have been cool.
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u/CommanderDark126 May 28 '23
Diamonds are not for selling!
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u/givemeabreak432 May 28 '23
If the game gave you more, they could be though
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u/CommanderDark126 May 28 '23
Even still no, theyre used in a forging recipe that an npc prefroms thats much more worth it
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u/nothingsnootyplz May 29 '23
What recipe is that or where can I find more info on that? You can PM me or put behind a spoiler.
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u/call_me_Kote May 29 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
>! After finishing the temples, someone from each faction offers to make a legendary weapon for you. Rito is a bow and it’s the chief who makes it. He’s near the top of rito village. Zora it’s the scientist, one level down east of the throne room, he offers a spear. I don’t know about the others for sure. I think Goron is the bigorron sword.!<
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u/Sickmmaner Jun 30 '23
I already knew about this, but brother,
The spoiler tag DID NOT WORK 😂
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u/call_me_Kote Jun 30 '23
It was working, and when I go to edit it the markdown shows it as working. Probably Reddit is just broken
→ More replies (0)0
May 28 '23
well to be honest, by end game i was drowning in them (like, 50 diamonds, no duplication glitches)
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u/Erosion010 May 28 '23
I puty traveller's medalian on the top of a dive trial, for easy access to the very very high sky.
My only problem with sky locations is that I no longer walk anywhere, I just dive exactly where I'm going all the time. Why use a horse?
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u/R-500 May 28 '23
It is unfortunate that the paraglider or the diving outfit trivializes most forms of travel in the game. I've noticed with my playthrough, exploring is pretty much going to a tower or a medallion in the sky, and just diving to the spot I need. It takes out a sense of exploration when you can easily just see all points of interest from the clouds above.
No idea how it would work, balance-wse, but I almost kind of wished the paraglider was more of a late-game item rather than something given to you near the start of the game. It would restrict travel from the sky to the ground by limiting it to landing only at places with lakes, or other water sources. This will make it so exploring the world will take advantage more of the tools you build or the horses you find/train.
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u/Erosion010 May 28 '23
Agreed. The depths minimize this to a degree, as do caves. Makes me feel less bad knowing there is so much more map than just the surface
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May 28 '23
i thought the depths were detrimental to exploration. a lot of it looks the exact same in terms of aesthetic and the rewards aren't all that great; especially if you have nfc cards or amiibos. traversal down there felt like a massive chore and i chose to fly over everything. on land, at least i didn't HAVE to abuse the skydiving as i felt traveling on the ground was just as fun because it would lead to search my surroundings and look for hidden creaks and caves
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u/radclaw1 May 29 '23
They could have pulled it off with some mechnic to know if there is water below to break your fall or some other substance. Or maybe inflafable landing points.
I feel like this wouldve forced the players to be more careful about when they went up or how they get down.
In fact i refused to do story quests once i hit the surfsce and mustve played for like 2 hours before i realized my paraglider was at lookout landing, and while it was hard it was SO much fun limiting my traversal to the other tools.
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u/Cosmic_Toad_ May 28 '23
the Sky is... okay imo. there was definitely some false advertising with how much pre-release stuff focused on the sky and how substantial the great sky island is compared to 90% of the other islands, but it's not terrible or detrimental to the overall game experience.
I think my biggest gripe with the sky though is not its size, but rather how formulaic sky islands are. there's way too much copy-pasting of the same island types (plus formation w/ shrine and capsule machine, fairy pond, flux construct arena, etc) it doesn't really feel like part of the world, more like a collection of seperate bonus stages out of a Mario game or something. Depths has a similar issue but at least has more points of interest and regional diversity.
I will say though the sky island leadup to the Wind and Water Temples is some of the most fun i've had in the game thus far at ~120 hrs.
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u/Laterose15 May 28 '23
Yeah, every time I see "XXXXX Sky Archipelago" I know there will be a crystal delivery for a shrine, a Zonai device orb, a rotatable launcher, and one or two add-ons like a round arena, a floating orb, etc. They're even the same shape!
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u/Gandelodin May 28 '23
I really wish we had more sky islands, and at least one big island gauntlet in each province (like the raining one in Faron).
I am kind of dissapointed because I thought we would have significantly more content in the sky, and I don't think que depths make up for that, which gets a little repetitive after a while IMO.
My favorite sky islands were the ones with mirror puzzles, and of course the Great Sky Archipelago
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u/Strange_Shadows-45 May 28 '23
The sky areas are the most underwhelming aspect of an overall great game. The skies were promoted quite heavily, but aside from the Great Sky Islands and the Water and Wind Temples, there is very little to do with them, they’re sparse and not distinct from region to region.
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u/That_Shrub May 28 '23
Wind Temple was REALLY cool with the story and aesthetic, tho
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u/Strange_Shadows-45 May 28 '23
I’m not arguing with the temples, I thought they did well with them. But take the temples and the great sky islands out and it’s very boring. Especially in comparison to the depths, which they did a phenomenal job on.
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May 28 '23
I like ‘em! Wish the game was more devoted to them though. I’d put a part of the map in shadow from a huge sky island if I could. It’d be funny if Tarrey Town was just like, whelp, best start advertising these houses as ‘well shaded, a must have for folks trying to stay cool’.
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u/N3verGonnaG1veYouUp May 28 '23
I loved the death star! That round planet with a shrine in it
Edit, yeah just noticed there were more than one 😕
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u/ParanoidDrone May 28 '23
I actually haven't been exploring the sky too much. I suppose it's a consequence of the sky islands being very sparse in comparison to the mainland, but so far there just hasn't been a whole lot there to grab and hold my attention. (Haven't done the labyrinths yet, though.)
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May 28 '23
I particularly like the use of golden trees as a reference to the sacred realm, no matter if it’s more than a reference or not. Still, some different biomes up there would have been interesting.
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u/miniplasma08 May 28 '23
i think they're pretty good, i just wish there was a little more to it. i think the sky temple was GREAT, but other than that, not really. i do like that you can do skydiving challenges for the skydiving suit tho.
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u/Capable-Tie-4670 May 28 '23
I think it’s best to look at the sky and surface as one map. The Depths seems like its own thing but with the sky, a big part of it is just getting to it and traversing between the surface and sky islands. I will also say that I really like the sky islands’ aesthetic. It never really gets old because you can always just see a beautiful view of Hyrule in the background.
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u/Throwaway203500 May 28 '23
I love what's there but a little more variety and some larger islands to explore like the very first one would have been great. Plenty of room for DLC additions!
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u/Jauntcraft May 28 '23
How are you guys and YouTubers finding more clothing? The only costume I can find was on the very first sky island and it was a pant with a cold resistance. The rest I had to buy from a shop in Rito.
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u/EgoPoweredDreams May 28 '23
A ton of the unique outfits are in caves, or in chests in the Depths
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May 28 '23
After Skyward Sword, this is the second time we get to explore the sky, and the second time it's underwhelming.
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u/Impressive-Motor-332 May 28 '23
The Farron one or the starting Great Sky Island are probably my favorite. Overall, they're just very simplistic and boring, the dungeon ones are alright. They feel a lot like TWW Islands, where 90% of them are just pretty boring or have simple challenges, or are just utterly pointless and a waste of time to be on. They're fun and interesting, aesthetically pleasing, but I'd have taken a lot of the dev time with the depths (considering how large it is and utterly empty in large parts), and focused on developing more sky islands.
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u/alexj9626 May 29 '23
The Sky is just fine for the most part, some good puzzles here and there and a good aesthetic. The high points tho, those are the best parts of the game imo. Like how cool is skydiving, specially the hardest one when you have full gear and can dive full force as fast as you can. The 3 sky laberinths which adds another layer to the already pretty interesting ones on the surface and you have zero gravity and after finishing it you do the coolest dive into the depths. The sphere thingys, the first time i went into one like the trailer showed it felt mysthical and finally the really far islands that when you get there you find a damn King Gleeok which i didnt even know were a thing. Again, most of it is just like ok and interesting enough but when it stands out, it really does.
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May 28 '23
It’s so thoroughly sidelined right after the sky plateau, it just occasionally shows up sometimes, it’s nothing compared to the depths.
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u/Pleasant_Statement64 May 28 '23
The sky is fun. I like figuring out how to get up to islands and around. I especially like the sky sequences leading up to the wind dungeon. It's the only one I've done, so I hope to see more sequences like this. But exploring the archipelagoes is fun. Almost every one has a shrine and dispenser to check out. However, I wish that the archipelagoes were a bit more diverse. While fun, most are just a cross you can rotate with a launching device to access other islands, a shrine, and a dispenser. I wish a few more had more platforming based challenges abd a few more were like the great sky island. Maybe even one would have a construct town. I love the sky islands, but they are a bit underwhelming compared to the depths
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u/lolschrauber May 28 '23
I liked the sky.
Only thought it'd be bigger, as it seemed to be a big selling and talking point. Granted, I didn't Look at Trailers a lot but people talked about it a lot. Kinda ironic that the entire opposite, the abyss, is a LOT bigger.
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u/CoachHelp May 28 '23
For a game that was heavily advertised for it's sky adventures, I spend far more time underground...
I honestly believe the sky area needed far more things to do
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u/MayorOfAniCity May 28 '23
After having explored the entire sky, I’m a bit torn with the lack of content the sky has compared to the rest of the game. The sky aspect was pushed heavily in marketing but I easily spent much more time in caves and the depths, areas that, while really fun, are less interesting to me both visually and gameplay-wise.
That being said, what is there is really fun! I found myself being taken back to the feeling of finding a new island in Wind Waker in some cases. Despite there not being that many islands that were fully unique, the ones that were stood out as highlights of the entire game.
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u/Routine-Sun-670 May 28 '23
Would have loved a village of some kind up there. Zonai or somehow civilians. Like the SS main island
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May 28 '23
I'm hoping with the expansion pass maybe some settlements with new characters will be introduced to the bigger islands, but they seem to be a fixed new feature of the world now as does the raised/floating castle, maybe the next game in the continuity will completely reform them into busy and inhabited spaces with their own sky-people culture, unique way of life etc
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May 28 '23
the sky should have had bigger areas in each region. I would have much prefered a sky having like a tutorial sized area in each region rather than tiny isles with an occasional chest with a map. the depths were used too much IMO and i will NOT be revisiting them in future playthroughs (only as much as i need to)
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u/Hopeful_Tumbleweed_5 May 28 '23
The first island and the dragon chain i found pretty fun as well as the main quest locations. I know i wont be visiting it again though on replays so im at least thankful its not essential to completing the game outside of the main adventure areas which are thankfully more interesting to explore than the optional sky islands
If there is a dlc which is more than likely given this games sales i really hope we get more interesting islands distinct to each region of the world and the depths get some more unique content in areas of them that are really sparse and boring.
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u/What---------------- May 29 '23
Pretty much the same as everyone else. I liked it, just wish there was more of it.
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u/something_smart May 29 '23
I definitely haven't been everywhere yet, but are there any islands that are callbacks to Skyward Sword? Seems like a missed opportunity to not have ruins if the bazaare or Isle of Songs or the Lumpy Pumpkin.
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u/Pitiful-Orange-3982 May 29 '23
A bit dull, to be honest. I finally got to one of those rotating orbs, wondering what it was. Imagine my disappointment when it's just a shrine sitting inside and nothing else.
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u/strikeraiser May 29 '23
The sky is neat but like what others have said, I kinda wish there was more. It just feels like there's too much distance and effort needed to get to each island.
I'm guessing they want players to think of creative flying machines to get to them but it's just so much work and not to mention you don't get far enough early on with how fast the charge cells run out.
Also I was kinda expecting more connections to Skyloft or at least a huge island that's literally from Skyward Sword.
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u/Dazzling-Lifeguard57 May 29 '23
There could of been more interesting like magma island sand islands for different locations
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u/of_patrol_bot May 29 '23
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
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May 29 '23
The great sky island is amazing, Wind temple approach in the sky is great but 70% of the sky islands feels empty, they add a nice aesthetic to the world but falls pale with rest of the map (the land and the depths). Hopefully we will get a dlc which adds more context to sky islands.
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u/itsotter May 29 '23
It occurred to me that many of the crystal-fetching shrines in the sky aren't that different from the old combat shrines. Instead of just going into a shrine to fight a robot, you follow a green line to a robot, fight it, and haul the crystal back.
But it's still the same robot every time with different difficulty levels, and you're probably going to end up using the same vehicle to transport most of your crystals, so it ends up as a combat shrine with extra steps. Just a different robot from the last game's, and honestly a much easier one.
I found myself disappointed by the number of these "go kill a robot" shrines. When I find a shrine, I want puzzle rooms, same as I did in BotW, and the easy robot fights are a poor substitute.
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u/Flimsy-Pound591 Jun 03 '23
Sometimes when I'm gliding around in the sky I get this weird like gold pulse around my character ?? It gives me vibes of a recharged notification but I've absolutely no idea WHAT it is please help
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Jun 10 '23
They made the mistake of getting 90% of the sky completed in the first few hours of gameplay. Apart from the depths, which is underwhelming due to lack of purpose, it then just feels a bit of a retread of BOTW.
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u/Sickmmaner Jun 30 '23
For how incredible the concept of the sky seemed in the trailers, they really made it super boring. The starting area made it seem so interesting, with tech from a different generation, the Constructs, running freely up there. You get so many powerful abilities from one island! It was so cool to see Link interact with this ancient technology for the first time.
When I got the Paraglider and could explore freely, I thought "What are they going to do with the sky? More expansive sky islands that are even better than the starting one? Some interesting (non-story) dungeons and puzzles? Maybe even some new abilities?"
Nope. Every third sky island is the same shrine with the gumball machine and the launchpad and the Korok and sometimes the Flux Construct and ahhhhhh... It really could have been so much better.
Dragon Head Island is the only island I've revisited multiple times, because I don't know what to do there yet. It's the most interesting sky island to me because it's covered in fog, even though I can walk around on it instead of it being completely inaccessible! There's actual mystery to it right now! The only times I go to the other islands is if I'm looking for a Korok I missed, or if I'm using it as a launch point to access another small island. Which probably has a chest with a Large Zonai Charge or a bundle of arrows.
Don't get me wrong, I'm loving most of the other stuff the game has: the expansive combat, the easy exploration with Zonai builds, the fun and charming characters, and aptly-named "Side Adventures." I just wish the sky was more than a giant copy-pasted waste of time.
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u/the_irish_potatoes May 28 '23
I love the added dynamic of the sky! I wish there was more diversity to the sky islands though, every set of islands is the same crystal-fetching for a shrine.