Whew! What a final 5 hours! I must say, in true Zelda fashion, the last dungeon, mini-boss, and boss sequence really made up for a lot of the issues and downfalls I saw in the game. The last dungeon was really well put together and enjoyable. It required extra thought then the others in a new way and it really found a way to get you to use all of your gear and items you had gotten up to that point in the game.

The areas after the last dungeon threw a variety of things at you that kept it refreshing and new even though it was a lot of content. I'll save the mini-bosses/bosses discussion for another time, maybe farther away from the release, but they were really great as well.

Closing thoughts on the game... I think I would put it right up there with Wind Waker and Link to the Past, but still one step behind Ocarina of Time. It introduced quite a bit of new concepts and ideas to the Zelda series and most (minus the controls) all of them were a blast. I can't wait to see what comes next, and plan on taking part of the 'extra replayability' sometime down the road. Cheers!

I'd love to hear thoughts on the last 5 hours, basically last dungeon and on. Of course, if there's spoilers, remember to use the spoiler tags.

Whew! What a final 5 hours! I must say, in true Zelda fashion, the last dungeon, mini-boss, and boss sequence really made up for a lot of the issues and downfalls I saw in the game. The last dungeon was really well put together and enjoyable. It required extra thought then the others in a new way and it really found a way to get you to use all of your gear and items you had gotten up to that point in the game.

The areas after the last dungeon threw a variety of things at you that kept it refreshing and new even though it was a lot of content. I'll save the mini-bosses/bosses discussion for another time, maybe farther away from the release, but they were really great as well.

Closing thoughts on the game... I think I would put it right up there with Wind Waker and Link to the Past, but still one step behind Ocarina of Time. It introduced quite a bit of new concepts and ideas to the Zelda series and most (minus the controls) all of them were a blast. I can't wait to see what comes next, and plan on taking part of the 'extra replayability' sometime down the road. Cheers!

I'd love to hear thoughts on the last 5 hours, basically last dungeon and on. Of course, if there's spoilers, remember to use the spoiler tags.

Yeah , those last 3 hours were ZELDA AT ITS BEST !

I think the game is fudging fantastic . The only problem I had with the game was that I wished the sky area was a bit bigger and it had 1 more town. Other than that...DAMN !!!!!!! great game . I'm starving for more zelda :D I don't understand why a lot of people are sick of the formula .. As long as they change a bit ... not TOO much .

Also , why are the SS forums dead here on GB . Is everyone else disappointed ? : ( or maybe its because of Skyrim ...

@spankingaddict said:

Also , why are the SS forums dead here on GB . Is everyone else disappointed ? : ( or maybe its because of Skyrim ...

It's Skyrim. We Nintendo fans are too few and far between around these parts... or the majority of us remain silent.

The last dungeon was pretty cool and really threw everything at you, but that's usually the case with every final dungeon in every Zelda game. I was more surprised to see more variety in the other later dungeons like the Fire Sanctuary. You end up having to use your entire arsenal of weapons and items instead of focusing mainly on the thing you find in the dungeon.

It was a fantastic ending, but my final 5 hours consisted of mostly finding the remaining heart pieces, cubes, and other trinkets just to beat it 100%.

I will probably be getting it for Christmas, hope it's good.

@Dalai: Regarding your spoiler text...

@spankingaddict: Dalai kind of hit it right on the mark. So many great games have come out recently (holiday season), especially Skyrim. People are playing these games in the order of importance to them. I finished Zelda first, now on to Skyrim.

I strongly dislike slide puzzles so that part of the last dungeon was a hassle. I loved the ending.

I need to fucking hurry up and finish this game.

@Loopah said:

@Dalai: Regarding your spoiler text...

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

What's different in Hero Mode?

So I kind of ruined my ending by using a Guardian Potion + during the final boss battle.

And don't get me wrong I love me some Zelda, but I really screwed myself over. So fair warning if you can avoid it, don't use a Guardian Potion + in the final bout!

I can't use spoiler tags because I'm using the mobile site. So, don't read this if you haven't played the game because there might be some minor spoilers.

I was a bit disappointed with the final dungeon tbh. It was basically harder rooms from different dungeons you finished previously.. with the addition of an annoying slide puzzle that you need to do over and over again before you move on to the next room. Using the same stuff from older dungeons is not necessarily a bad thing, I just wanted to see something new that's all. I don't know, but I feel the developers ran out of new ideas in the last 15 hours of the game.

As for the boss fights, I really got tired of sword duels after I fought Ghirahim the second time. Guess what? The last two boss fights are sword duels. >_
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this game, but I think there are a few aspects that could've been much better.

@Legend: Regarding the last Ghirahim fight:

I enjoyed the last dungeon, it wasn't mind blowing, but a nice mashup of everything.

The final battles though, I did enjoy, even if they didn't live up to what I wanted them to be. When you're running down the hill to Ghirahim and hordes upon hordes of enemies are coming at you, it was actually pretty fun how they did it, just about everything was a 1HKO so it does a good job of making you feel strong going into the final encounter. Which leads to Ghirahim, this fight didn't feel harder than the last two times you encounter him and you don't actually get to end him, which left me disappointed, as I had a strong yearning to murder him via sword something fierce since the first dungeon.

The final fight with demise was good, but it suffers from what I feel Final Fantasy IX suffered from, the final boss is in the game for all of 10 minutes, there just isn't any satisfaction with this fight. Sure he's evil, has the same red hair that Ganon has and wants to conquer the whole world, but there just isn't any animosity here. For me, this turned into an exercise in shield bashing. The first half of the battle, it made sense, so I did it and success. The second half, which I was fully expecting to be more than a guy with an electrified sword also came down to this. Everytime I tried to attack, shocked and stunned, charge me sword? Lighting slash hits me, so I just shield bashed until I could hit him. Then fatal blow and checkmate. I still wish Ghirahim were the final boss, would've felt more fulfilling.

The actual ending though, felt really good and you can see A LOT of this game in previous Zelda games. The resting place for the Master Sword alone looks like it's in a few Zelda games. On top of the other easter eggs.

Overall, the last 5 hours were great, but I had a few complaints, but I still loved this game, it overcame the nitpicks I had. Hell, it overcame Fun Fun Island.

@fenixREVOLUTION: <3 Fun Fun Island!

@Loopah: It wasn't SO bad, but it took me a good 2 hours split up to get the hang of the rings, then another bit getting the right spot.

@fenixREVOLUTION: I agree about the end boss not being around for long enough to make much of an impact. I was kinda hoping for something more along the lines of Demise taking over Groose's body to form Ganon and then having to kill Groose to destroy the evil. Would have been a more fitting end to Groose's story arch- from rival to companion to sacrifice for the greater good.

Also I can't be the only one who figured out who Impa was a couple of dozen hours before it was revealed?

@TeenageJesusSuperstar: Haha, I won't stretch the truth enough to say I got it way beforehand (the Impa connection), but it was a few hours. I guess I wasn't really looking into that much. Pretty obvious in hindsight.

@TeenageJesusSuperstar: I was glad Groose lived, he turned out to be a pretty cool character in the end, I'm glad he didn't end up dead, he became heroic in his own right by the end of it.

I didn't catch onto Impa being the old woman until maybe an hour or two before the game ended.