torkell | Entries tagged with nintendo switch

Look - an arrow! Clearly much more important than the raging tentacle monster 😅

Anyway, I've just reached Lanayru in Skyword Sword (one day I'll complete the blog series, promise!) and took on the dragon's Lightning Round challenge because why not. It went surprisingly well:

I think that's the first time I've actually obtained that in Skyward Sword, and I reckon I've earned that after that boss rush. One boss in Skyward Sword is physically hard work, let along eight of the blighters in a row!

To be fair some of them are complete pushovers by the time my sword's been upgraded to the Master Sword, and with the reflexes and skill that comes from being 30-odd hours into the game. Others... aren't. The biggest difference is between Imprisoned take 1 and Imprisoned take 2 - the second incarnation is tougher, faster, and cheats by climbing up the side of the pit. So of course Lanayru left that one to the end, and of course that battle went right down to the wire. On reflection that was the only truly difficult battle out of the lot, as the Imprisoned battles were the only ones with a hard time limit and the first incarnation I swatted in a minute or so (the powered up Master Sword makes a lot of difference!).

And as proof that Zelda games continue to surprise me no matter how many hours I put into them, Koloktos (the giant corrupted six-armed chakram-throwing Buddha-like statue at the top of the Ancient Cistern) apparently can summon cursed bokoblins. I've never seen it do that before!

The amount of physical effort needed (motion controls are hard work!) reminds me of fighting those three Darknuts at the bottom of Twilight Princess' Cave of Ordeals. Actually, no, that's harder - Lanayru gives you a moment to collect yourself between each boss, and even within the battles it's sometimes possible to slow down the tempo for a moment, but those Darknuts don't let up for one moment.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Wintergatan - Paradis [Wintergatan]

One thing I've noticed from playing through Skyward Sword HD is how... underwhelming the skyward strike appears, at least to begin with. It takes a fair bit of time to charge and does very little damage.

To be fair, last time I played Skyward Sword (7 years ago!) it was in Hero Mode because it was my second playthrough on my original save, and in that mode you start out with the fully powered skyward strike which one-shots everything up to the first mini-boss.

Anyway, after finding that even Deku Babas were hard to kill with skyward strikes I decided to apply SCIENCE to it. While I can't compare against the Hero Mode version (my Wii refuses to read my original Skyward Sword disc), in Skyward Sword HD I'd just reached the first upgrade for the sword, which lets me do a before and after comparison. I just need a willing volunteer...

Oh hai Quadro Baba, do you want to take part in some research?

I don't think Quadro Baba liked taking part in the research 😅

Several ~~volunteers~~victims later, I have my answers. To splat a Quadro Baba with the basic Goddess Sword takes 3 slashes or stabs, or 6 skyward strikes or skyward slabs, and charging a skyward strike takes 30 frames or 1 second (counting how long it takes the 'spark' to travel down the sword blade).

And after conquering the Ancient Cistern and finding yet more Quadro Babas to contribute towards my research, the shiny new Goddess Longsword now slices through a Quadro Baba in 2 slashes, one stab (critical hit?) or 3 skyward slashes or skyward stabs. Nice! It still takes the same 30 frames to charge up though, but the upgrade has doubled my attack power overall making skyward strikes more useful, even if they're still less powerful than just wading in and whaling on baddies with the sword.