So Far So Good 5-10 hrs.

There have been some really awesome cut scenes. Again, I’m a little bit saddened by that fact that cut scenes can not boast the same realism that FFX seems to have in abundance. I’m also a little bit sad that their is not voice acting. I know, I know, there wasn’t supposed to be any, but I’ve already been poisoned by the FF monster from the last generation of consoles that made use of their highly brag worthy graphics.

Story line however is still very good, not great . . . yet. There is this over arching story line that has to do with Zelda and the King of twilight. That however, is not on the front of my mind as I play. I get a little more caught up in solving the puzzles and working my way through temples that I forget what the over all goal of my pursuits is. I get a few reminders every now and then that I’m looking for my friends. But now that I found my friends (except one) the same unaware feeling of no direction is looming. I’m sure I’ll get reminded as more and more cut scenes come along.

The game is fun to play to be sure. It is not the addictive kind of game i thought it would be, but it is still quite fun. My one worry about the game is its repetitiveness. This is the second time I’ve had to run around a new are collecting tears for the spirit. once i collect the tears then it’s time to be a temple. Interspersed in there is the story line, some new items, and new characters to keep things interesting. New items are my favorite.

I’ve beat the second major boss of the game, a tormented, mountain, mole creature whose chains kept him locked away until the very moment I walked in chamber. I must say that these boss battle are not that difficult at all. I am not complaining mind you, I care a little more about advancing the story than I do hours of puzzle-play, and boss battles that take 30 attempts. Long boss battles were definitely one of my major complaints with FFX. The story of FFX entranced me, but I could not advance the story after a certain point because I could not beat the bosses. Well, without the story to keep me coming back, I soon forgot about the game and never finished it even though I was over 50 hours into it and had little more than 5 hours of game play left (If i could just get passed that one boss that is).

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This second temple (of the moody mole people) is not as challenging in a way as the first temple was. This temple seemed to be about getting to the next room, that was the goal. The first temple was about scavenger hunting i.e. collecting monkies to get me to the temple boss. In this temple however, I was motivated by collecting the Bow and Arrow (which was almost exactly like the sling shot except more powerful) and getting to the next room. This section of the game so far has employed the new Iron Boots that I got. The weigh me down so that I can sink to the bottom of bodies of water (this is necessary because Link refuses to swim under water of his own volition), stand firmly against angry mole people who will roll at me and push me off ledges with out them. Also there are magnetized pathways on the roofs of the mines (the mines are the outer parts of the temple) and when I am wearing my iron boots they allow me to walk on vertical and upside down surfaces in the game.

The actual temple portion of this part of the game required me to do a little more quick jumping from ledge to ledge. If i missed a ledge then I would burn in lava. This is where I think the game suffers just a little bit. Because there are no independent camera controls (that I’ve discovered) it is hard to make sure that Link is facing the right way at the right time. I may need to jump to a ledge in one direction and then jump 90 degrees in a different direction. This is a very difficult task when I am racing against the “clock” to get to a particular place before a gate closes or what have you. I can use the Nunchuck Z button to center the camera behind me, but this is not always as efficient as I’d like it to be because Z also locks on to enemies and causes Link to strafe.