Instead, I decided to use this time to get caught up on the very large backlog of Video Games I have been unable to play over the last few years. I started with Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, a game that has become (in)famous for its terrible controls. The rumors were true as I discovered.
Now I got through the first part of the game almost dying a few times to silly things like the newly dangerous Skultullas (giant spiders for those of you who are not Zelda Veterans) but I expected the enemies to be troublesome with the hard controls. What I was not ready for, and the point of this post is the Boss Fight at the end of the first dungeon.
Breaking the normal Zelda Tradition, the (apparent) main villain of the game engages you himself at the end of the first Temple to toy with you. Now Ghirahim is a creepy little Demonlord who the fandom like to debate the sexual orientation of, but that also is not what matters here.
What does matter is how much of a Wake Up Call Boss this guy is. As already is clear at this point, the controls are the hardest part of this game. Enter a boss who walks towards you and mimics your motion sensor controls trying to predict how you will swing your sword so that he may rip it from your clutches. And he did, the first couple times I tried to swing at him.
Once he takes the weapon from you, he even taunts you, saying things such as "How do you expect to win with predictable attacks like that?" Of course this is the game hinting to the player how to beat the Boss, but it was still a nasty dose of humility, for again and again he would grab my weapon instead of me striking him.
I ensured that he failed to rip the sword from clutches, but it was still an agonizing thirty minutes of me trying to trick the AI into blocking the wrong way to my swings before I finally got to the second half of the fight where the Demon Lord decides to draw a sword of his own, a Masamune that looks like it belongs to Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Being as tired as I was from being frustrated with the first half of the fight, I did get a game over. Yes I know, I got killed in a Zelda Game. I was pretty remembered with my poor performance.
After a little bit of rest, I decided to try the boss again with a very different tactic. Instead of swinging one way then quickly reversing, I decided to flail the sword around as Ghirahim walked towards me with the thought of "If I don't know where the weapon is going, how will the game?" As sad and foolish as this tactic sounds, it worked perfectly and I got to the second part quickly and got my vengeance on the boss for stealing my no game over clear.
Its funny though, for even after beating him, I could not stop thinking about how for the first time in a very long time, I felt quite satisfied at my victory and even felt a little like a character from a video game or movie that defeated a vastly better opponent by thinking outside the box. I'll admit it was a feeling that I don't think I have experienced much before.
When a video game can give the player enough immersion that these emotions can surface as they did with me, that is a sign of a well constructed game. I will continue to plow through this game despite the game's fake difficulty having felt some emotions that will certainly help with my writing.
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