Day 118, Game 118 - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The epitome of a Zelda game, and the first game in the franchise's fictional timeline. It was the last new Zelda game to be released, and critically acclaimed to be one the best ever, receiving perfect review scores from many different video game news outlets. 

Obviously, this was going to be the last Zelda game I played in my week of Zelda, as I had that planned from day one. But that's not because of how great it is, how new it is or how gorgeous it is. No, I chose to play it because it is the only Zelda game I never finished, and it is the first game in my "pile of shame," otherwise known as the stack of games I own that I haven't played or beaten yet. 

That's right. Skyward Sword might be the only Zelda game I've yet to beat. And honestly, not for any particular reason other than I just never did. Before the game came out,  I was more excited about it than possibly any game that has ever been released that I was excited about before. It came out a day or two before my birthday, so I bought it with the understanding that this was the only birthday present I needed or wanted. 

When I started playing it, I fell in love immediately, It is a beautiful game, the game play mechanics are fantastic with the Wii Motion+, and the story is unbelievable. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the game that would ever keep me from wanting to finish it. 

Yet, I put the game down, after playing it only a couple different times, and never returned to it. Never. Until today, that is.

Maybe it was because I knew this was the swan song for the Wii, a very important console to me in my gaming history. Maybe I was already mentally and emotionally moved on to the Wii U, causing me to subconsciously dismiss any and all Wii games. Maybe it was because of the impending holiday season, and the hustle and bustle of it all kept me from spending the amount of time needed to keep me engaged, and because it is so story-heavy, it was almost impossible to just pick up casually and play. You need to stay engaged in the story to fully appreciate it's awesomeness, and unfortunately, I lost that connection.  

I realized this when I tried to fire it back up today after over a year away from the game. I had no idea where I was in the story, what was going on, or why I should care about what I was doing. Even the few cut scenes I came across didn't help refresh my memory. This was disappointing, as I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, just because of how disengaged I was in the story. I know it's a great story, but without context, it's impossible to get behind. 

And this is why I think people can't get into Zelda games as I think they should be able to. All the other Zelda games, I have beaten (some several times), and because of that, I have lots of context for the storyline. I also have played so many of the Zelda games and am quite familiar with the overall storyline as well, which helps with whatever game I pick up to play in the series. For someone new to the series, however, I honestly understand now how intimidating it would be to jump into the series fresh, or even worse after a very long hiatus from it. 

I understand, all you non-Zelda gamers. I understand. 

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