LOZTP: 1 hr.

Unfortunately I have spent quite a bit of time being confused. It appears that I am supposed to find a sling shot for some of the children in the village, but I have not found a place that looks much like a store. The character that I believe I am supposed to get the slingshot from wants me to retrieve her cat. This seems simple enough. I need to take my newly acquired fishing pole and feed the cat.

The fishing mini-game utilizes the Wiimotes sensitivity to the angle at which it is held to create a very fun, very life-like fishing experience. It is life like insofar as up and down motions of fishing are mimicked with the Wiimote. There is no "reeling in" or anything of that nature. The realism is simply given through manipulation of the controller.  My problem however, has been catching fish. It seems like no matter how much I change my approach the “reeling in” feature I can not get a fish on the line.

Sadly enough, a friend of mine, watching me play, tried to catch a fish and succeeded on his first try. What is more, is that he has never played this game nor many others in his life. A humbling experience to say the least.

(It was at this point in the game, after spending 45 min or so failing the fishing mini-game that I erased my file and started the game over. I was worried that maybe I did not pay close enough attention to the dialogue and missed something crucial to succeeding in fishing/feeding the cat.)

Catching the fish has finally allowed me to make progress in the game. I was able to procure the aforementioned sling shot and advance to a few tutorials. The first tutorial was for using the sling shot. The second is for wielding my wooden sword.

The sling shot tutorial also made use of the Wiimote's aiming feature. To aim the slingshot, aim the Wiimote at the screen and move the cursor over the intended target. This feature had been used once prior in the game. There is a small sequence in the village that allows you to call down an eagle and command him to sore as a missile-like projectile into an intended object. To give the eagle a path to follow the Wiimote is used a in a similar fashion.

The tutorial for the sword allowed me to start using some of the interface features I had been wanting to try since I chose this game. To wield Link's sword you can shake the Wiimote for a normal slash and then by a series and combination of buttons together with shaking the Wiimote I am able to use Link's starting line up of sword techniques.

LOZTP: 30 min.

The opening cut-scene lacks some of the realism that many of the reviews claimed made up for some of the noticeably sub-par graphics. I am thinking specifically of the water effects. The opening cut-scene is a dialogue takes place near pond with small water falls, but the waterfalls don’t particularly grab my interest.  The dialogue however, does seem rather interesting. The character Link, who I only recognize because previous experience with Nintendo, is being addressed by another older, unknown man. The man mentions three places specifically which I assume will be significant as the game progresses. He mentions (i) the village where he and Link live, (ii) Castle Town, the settlement surrounding (iii) Hyrule Castle, and (iv) the rest of the world.

The scene opens just before sunset (also called twilight ironically enough). The man recounts something of a myth detailing that twilight is the only time when the spirit-world intersects with the world of living and this is why loneliness comes at twilight.

 I was hoping that cinematography of the cut-scene would be more impressive. It is fine that it is not. A game does not require that graphics exhaust technological capabilities in order to be a good game, but it does seem like a luxury to play a game that is as pleasing to watch as they are to play. 

I was prepared by the reviews for the lack of spoken dialogue in the game. A game like Final Fantasy X (FFX), which boasted strong graphics and captivating story lines, seemed like it was able to capitalize on its voice acting and cinematography. [Since FFX was the last video game I played seriously, most of my comparisons are going to involve FFX]. I do not get the impression that the creator of LOZTP had similar goals in mind. My research told me that the “no spoken lines” rule was a small controversy for this game. I think that I, personally, would have enjoyed the added drama that voice acting brings to the table of a game like this.

Off the bat, many of the interface aspects of the game are intuitive. The game did not prompt me to use the control stick on the nun-chuck to move my character. And when I first started playing it did not occur to me that I had not been prompted.  My first reaction to having control of Link is to start trying out the buttons. I have a presupposition that buttons harder to reach will be used less often. Buttons such as “+” and “-” pause the game in different ways. With “+” pause, I see a profile of my character and the only item he has (his wallet). I expect I’ll be using “+” pause to equip items to Link in the future.

Both in the pause screen and in game play, I see a small blue fairy that I can control by pointing my Wii remote (hereafter Wiimote) at the screen. It doesn’t seem to do anything.

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I’ve been roaming around the village with my horse, Epona for a few minutes now and have just figured out that where I was supposed to go. I was supposed to help a villager  with the task of herding his goats. Herding the goats ended up being a mini game where i chase one or more goats into a barn while riding Epona. I hope my initial confusion is not a foreshadowing of how the game will remain.