Some Zelda Things

[Geno]

Skyward Sword is indeed linear to a fault. I thought it actually had some decent dungeons and boss fights. I liked the Ancient Cistern and Koloktos, in particular. But the sky was... very empty. There weren't many places to go in the sky. You spend most of the game on the surface, which feels like false advertising. I was promised a sky game where I get to fly around on a bird, but that part was little more than a glorified hub connecting the different areas of the world, which otherwise feel disconnected from one another. There's also a lot of retreading, and that section where you have to escort the little robot dude across the volcano was annoying. There is eventually a new location you go to in the sky as well as a boss fight involving your Loftwing, but for the most part, it feels like wasted potential. It could've been the Wind Waker of the sky. A lot of people complained about the amount of sailing you had to do in The Wind Waker, but at least there were islands with... you know, stuff on them. Most of the sky in Skyward Sword is just empty rocks. Otherwise, there's the main town, a mini-game, and like one or two other places of interest.

And yes, Fi is annoying. I don't love the hand-holding in some Zelda games, and Skyward Sword was one of the biggest offenders. Navi was annoying, but like you said, she could usually be ignored despite her annoying "HEY!" Tatl didn't bother me as much, I guess because she would make a ringing sound instead of a high-pitched yell (they played more into the Tinkerbell aspect of the fairy companion in that regard). The Wind Waker didn't overdo the companion character. The King of Red Lions offers some help and occasionally speaks to you through that sapphire necklace or whatever it was, but he doesn't solve entire puzzles for you. Midna is my favorite of the companions because she actually has a personality, and I like her sassiness. (Tatl is sassy too, actually.)

But yeah, the complete lack of a companion (other than the occasional telepathic message from Zelda) in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is nice. I also like that in these two games, there is no one right answer to solving puzzles, as you described. But yeah, I agree that it would've been nice to have full dungeons that are... actually good. Some of them were okay, but I don't recall any of them being great. The Wind Temple from Tears of the Kingdom had a really cool boss fight, though, with an epic orchestrated remix of the Dragon Roost Island theme from The Wind Waker. Speaking of games not having one single right answer to solving puzzles, has anyone here played Echoes of Wisdom? I rather enjoyed it; it's one of the smaller scale Zelda games, but it's still fun and charming, and you actually get to play as Zelda for once. This game also allows you to be creative with your abilities (the echoes, in this case) and solve puzzles in a variety of ways, and I appreciated that about it. It's not super difficult, but it's fun. I would even call it "cozy" as far as Zelda games go.