5 Reasons Skyward Sword’s Hero Mode is NOT Worth Your Time
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been out for almost a month now, and I am sure that most of you have already beaten the game, or are about to seeing as how the game could actually take up to 60 hours just to beat. You may or may not have heard about the second quest that is available after completing Skyward Sword for the first time called “Hero Mode”, but before you decide to take on this epic journey, you may be wondering whether you should even bother. After putting in over ninety-one hours into this game with over fifty of those hours being in “Hero Mode”, I am here to tell you that it is not, and here are five reasons why.
1. Fi becomes extremely annoying and 99.99% useless
Gamers quickly noticed Fi’s inexplicable ability to state the obvious. We were even given the option to call upon Fi for quick recaps of our current objective (here one and only way to be useful), advice, or analysis of the area Link is currently in. Her “Advice” consists of going over tutorials, or explaining how to catch Deku Hornets regardless of the fact that you already have 86 of them in your collection. Throughout “Hero Mode”, you will constantly find yourself screaming at Fi to just “shut the front door and let me play my game!” There is absolutely no use for Fi whatsoever as you already know where everything is, not to mention the many occasions when she suggests dowsing for items after you have already collected half of what you were searching for.
2. Dialog barely changes
When you start Hero mode, several of the NPCs mention the fact that you are playing in Hero mode; many of them even allow you to skip certain tutorials because you “already know what you are doing.” This made me jump for joy as I thought I was just going to be able to enjoy the best part of this game: gameplay. Then, about thirty minutes in, I started to notice that no one was recognizing that I had done all this before. The game began thrusting tutorials upon me once more as items like the slingshot were explained to a point of redundancy. Hero Mode quickly became nothing more than New Game+ utilizing a different name as a tepid attempt at being different.
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Why you’re still surprised by anything Nintendo does is the real shocker here. So glad I passed on this waggle crap they only put out to save face.
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Bull. Just beat hero mode and found it very challenging and fun. Especially the boss rush. Not to mention the instacharge the master sword gets is amazing. The heart medals don’t make it pointless either. You still take double damage and can’t use the medals for boss rush. Fi isn’t annoying either. If anyone is annoying, it’s people who whine about story related dialogue.
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Yes, this is something that must be addressed in later installments. Zelda needs some kind of achievement system, or second quest is customizable.
Enemies: Regular Hard Really-Hard(This makes em SMARTER)
Health: Regular only-hearts no-hearts no-potions NO-CHAIRS!!(oh yea, twice the damage)
What i really want is to run into enemies in the overworld that i am truely afraid of. Enemies i give a second thought before i fight. I want rally smart enemies!! I want a really challenge, but not annoying at the same time. It is possible and Nintendo needs to achieve that.
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Seems pretty much pointless to complain about the heart medal if you can just ignore it. It’s there for gamers who want a bit more challenge on their next playthrough, but aren’t up for going without recovery items.
Good news is that there are codes that you can use if you have Wii Homebrew installed that can take away messages for treasure/bug pick-ups, some Fii warnings, etc. I’ll be using those myself when I decide to play Hero mode.
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1. So the Exposition Fairy is useless because you’ve already played the game. So what? Are you trying to say you should never replay games because you know how stuff works?
2. …it’s the same game? There aren’t tutorials. The only thing like that is the five second description from Fi. And you know, someone might be playing Hero Mode without it being their game, so they wouldn’t know how to do stuff.
3. What, double damage and no hearts aren’t hard enough for you? Thanks, but the enemy AIs are difficult enough. This isn’t supposed to be impossible.
4. So don’t use it. If it wasn’t included, people would complain that Hero Mode was too hard.
5. There are virtually no cutscenes that are longer than thirty seconds. The only ones you might want to skip are the plot ones, which you can.
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One reason why this post sucks:
1. Writer is a douche.
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I’m surprised how many people disagree with him. I think all his reasons are legitimate. After playing normal mode and seeing how easy it was, I was looking forward to Hero Mode and thinking (hoping) it would turn out to be similar to what they did in Master Quest. In my first play through of the game, I was just a little disappointed how linear the game was. There was not much to do outside of the main story. Sure you can find Goddess Cubes and search for them in the sky, but other than that and Grabitude Crackles, there wasn’t really anything that you can find/do that someone else playing the game might have missed. Every time I thought I did find something, it ended up being part of the story later in the game. Also, health was never an issue for me even though I was very reckless when going up against enemies. I might eat these words when I do play Hero Mode, but I doubt the lack of hearts will be a big challenge considering I can still use potions, something I barely had to do in the normal game. Also, the fact that I was able to buy everything in the game before I was half way through the game was a little frustrating. I had so many rupees to spend… but what could I buy? Just upgrades and potions. Not to mention I could sell all my treasure and bugs for even more money. The puzzles/dungeons in this game were also not as hard as I’d hoped. They were awesome and some ideas were really cool, but I never once got stuck for more than 10 minutes, which happened on just two occasions. Some of these issues are what I was hoping Hero Mode would fix. So it is reasonable that some of us would be a little annoyed to find out that all it does is double the damage and get rid of hearts. I also understand what Price is saying about using the heart medals and I agree, to an extent, that I’m not going to purposely make a game tougher for myself if I can help it (unless I’ve played the game too many times and I’ve gotten sick of it). What we’re saying is we were hoping that we wouldn’t have to rely on ourselves to make the game more challenging and fun because it just feels weird to ignore an option that will help me on my quest. And I can see they tried. It’s just a little… underwhelming. And lastly, Fi was annoying the first play through, so she will be even more annoying the second time around. Cut scenes I can deal with though. They weren’t bad to watch. I’m not saying Hero mode isn’t worth trying though. I’m definitely going to play through it again. I just don’t think it is going to be as enjoyable as the first time.
Overall I did enjoy the game, however. The temples were fun, the story was great, and there were a lot of cool ideas in this game.
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I just got to the Lanayru Desert and activated the Goddess Cube behind the tower you initially descend on, but this chest only contained a silver rupee and no heart medal. Is the goddess cube order different in hero mode? I am very confused…
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Hasn’t the “hero mode” almost always just been another lap ’round the game in the Zelda series? I assumed it would include the cutscenes and tutorials…
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Lol, after beating the final boss, do not do the same mistake as I did.
The game asked me if I wanted to try hero mode, so I pressed “yes”. It then said that my progress would be lost, which I assumed meant my progress since the last save. I then clicked “no”, which led me to a menu which said “quit without saving?”, but, as I wanted to save, i clicked “no” again, which led me back to the hero mode question, which again said progress would be lost. So now I feel like I’ve played zelda for 45+ hours for nothing, as I had spent lots of extra time completing side quests. Fuck you, nintendo.
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I’ll have to disagree with this article entirely, but I’m glad several commentors seem to have the right idea.
For crying out loud, I’m doing a degree in games design, and no, we don’t just learn how to make games, we critically analyse them to a depth you’ll never understand.
It looks as if you just don’t like Hero Mode, and won’t look at it from an fundamental view.
Pardon me if I sound rude but reviewing games or parts of them like this won’t get you far.
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> we critically analyse them to a depth you’ll never understand.
It’ll be a cold day in hell when people with a degree in game design realize that people without one can have an informed opinion on the quality of game design decisions too (and like me, may even work in the industry in said field).
I for one find the constant, non-optional hand-holding in Skyward Sword atrocious and the fact that much of it has carried over to the second playthrough makes me doubt the competence of Nintendo’s finest.
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Who ever said Zelda needs an achievement system is brain dead. Achievements are just excuses to give bad games replay value. Zelda is not a bad game. Zelda is perhaps the greatest game series ever IMO, and an achievement system would just ruin he fact of 100% because there is already side quests, heart pieces, poe souls, gratitude crystals, gold skulltulas, masks, etc. Those are achievements enough.
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This is the perfect example of how sensitive Zelda fans are. It feels like some commentators here are seriously offended by an article that has several valid points. I love the Zelda series to death and yet even I agree with some of the main reasons of this article.
They could’ve done a bit better with the Hero Mode, no if’s and but’s about it. It lacks polish, even though its still something to be grateful for.
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OK, lets break this down
1. Fi is useless? Alright, that is true, whatever she says is something you will know. But is that any reason to ignore Hero Mode, higher difficulty has NOTHING to do with parters
2. Dialog Barley changes. What were you expecting? The dialog changing is supposed to make the game more difficult? And do you seriously lack one messages’ worth of patience?
3. The difficulty changes. You said in the point that the game was much harder until you got the Heart Medal. You JUST said that the game is harder, so why are you complaining that it is not hard? You are contradicting your own point.
4. Heart Medal makes hero mode useless. First of all, the chances of hearts appearing is next to nothing. Secondly, do what I did, Keep it in your Item Check. There, still massive difficulty!
5. Cannot Skip cutscenes. This is the ONLY point I agree with, but that is a game flaw, not a reason to not play Hero Mode.
I know that there are some flaws with hero Mode, but this article covers NONE of them.
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Thanks for the heads up. I’m nearly finished SS and was considering Hero mode, but I probably won’t bother now.
One thing about SS that pisses me off, which I’m sure they haven’t changed for Hero mode is the fact that the Sail opens automatically (at major drop points). I hate this feature so much! It takes away such a feeling of freedom and achievement. They should have made it so that if you didn’t open your Sail, you’d hit the ground and be left with just one heart. Or even just a quarter of a heart…players would have learnt their lesson very quickly.
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My only concern with this article is the writer mentioned that the game was harder until he got the heart medal, and used it, and said it made hero mode too easy. He then said that he used it because he can’t let himself make the game harder intentionally. Using this logic, the writer would also select the easiest difficulty in games because he doesn’t want to make the game difficult for himself. It’s your decision, if you don’t like that an optional item makes the game easier, don’t use the damn item.
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Benjy, my whole point was that I could choose to make the game harder without playing Hero mode. The heart medal makes Hero mode a complete waste of time as the only difference at that point would be the fact that Link takes double damage.
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My point to that being don’t use it. I understand you being mad about it being in the game in hero mode but if it makes you this angry, the simple solution is to not use it. Also, double damage does make things much more difficult in my opinion.
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well to be honest i was gonna play through hero mode with only 6 hearts, that should make things interesting. i don’t think there is an enemy that does more than 2 hearts (4 for hero) so i think it’ll be cool to try. always did that with all zelda games that allowed it, don’t get extra health.
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Did everyone on this website forget that this game is meant for children?
I mean, seriously.
Nintendo is for kids.
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Double damages sounds more challenging to me. Anyway just beat the game. Will probably do heroic mode one day, but sounds like I shouldn’t rush into it until I have 100% completion and there is nothing more to do.
Zerker – Anyone who calls Zelda a kids game is obviously not a gamer and never will be. Go back to your mindless shooter games and leave the real games to the big boys.
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@saad
1. Yes, partners do have to do with it.
They could have at least considered it would be harder without her, let alone how annoying she is. Plus the fact that they left her in Hero Mode after already angering you only gets you angrier.
2.It’s more annoying than you think. Maybe you have more patience than us, whatever. It’s pointless to keep a gamer in a cut-scene he already knows.
3. That isn’t contradictory, he meant that the game was as “hard” as it could be before the heart medal.
4. No, he just said placing it in the item check would be changes the game to make it harder, which goes against his own rules on playing games.
5. Okay.
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If you’re wanting “Hero Mode” to be more of a challenge, then don’t pick up the Heart Container’s you receive after every boss fight. That should make things more difficult. Also, don’t buy a shield. (not that they were used much anyways…) Just a couple of suggestions…
If you don’t find that challenging… I dunno what to tell ya. :/
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Wait what else should you do if you completed the game.Sure you can do side quests but you have done everything you had to do.So hero mode is great idea because it also makes enemies strong sure there dumb but if they were smart would you even have a chance to beat them.Also if you think Fi is annoying then just ignore her =l.
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Are you crazy? Fi is a magical, floating blue sword spirit. She’s sexy.
When she comes to life and stabs the guy who started this whole mess, I may chuckle a slight bit. Most likely, I’ll grab some popcorn and my wiimote and get back to the game. I enjoy Zelda. Nintendo is on the right track. Let them do what they do best and stop complaining. Try ignoring said heart medals; heart container ignorance is another way, I guess. I prefer the cutscenes. They improve the tension and adrenaline this game provides. Seriously, as a nerd, do you really think I can find other ways of adrenaline better than playing video games and moving at the same time. (Without moving my legs)
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Wally G. is an idiot. Passing up a game because of “waggle crap” (which actually works quite excellent) is stupid.
This game is excellent and shows that Nintendo still can but out quality titles . This is my personal game of the year though my favorite game of 2011 is Skyrim. I’ve had more fun with it, but Skyward Sword is a better game overall.
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Harder difficulties should make games harder. It’s not the gamer’s job to make a game harder on himself – it’s his job to have fun and win. If I was playing hero mode I would get upgraded equipment because I like using the best equipment. I would not avoid good opportunities to make “hard mode” even harder – afterall, winning is the main objective. Just like it would be stupid not to use a heart medal if you thought it would help you win, it would be stupid to always use the slingshot even when you have a bow! You’re not crazy for wanting a harder game while choosing to use your best equipment. I REPEAT, it’s the game designer’s job to make hard mode HARDER, not the gamer’s.
If I was playing a video game and nightmare mode was essentially the same as expert mode – I would think it a chore to go through one to get to the other (if you had already beat the game on normal). It comes down to whether or not harder modes are much harder than the regular mode that you won with. If it isn’t much harder, then yes, it could feel like a waste of time winning again. In games like that I usually choose not to play an unlocked, harder until years later when I may have forgot parts of the main game. Especially if I’m not going to get a bonus special ending.
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Hey Wally-G! You’re a piece of shit
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It’s amazing to me that there is no one here who can see even the slightest degree of balance. The article says nothing positive about Hero Mode, and all the comments either 100% agree or 100% disagree.
There are some decent points in this article, and some crap points. The fact that not a single person here seems to be able to see that doesn’t bode well for this site or its readers.
1. Yes Fi is almost Navi-like in her levels of annoying, but she might remind you of something you forgot. If Nintendo had added a way to ignore her (maybe up on the d-pad would make her stop bugging you as if you’d actually pressed down and read the dialog) she’d be a lot less annoying. But yeah, I don’t need to know every time my batteries run low, that’s what the flashing red icon in the corner is for.
2. No kidding the dialog doesn’t change. It’s the same game – if you expected the dialog to change, you’re probably about as bright as one of those NPCs you’re complaining about. But yeah, making all dialog skippable would be nice, since it is a second playthrough.
3. The difficulty is absolutely not the same, since each hit carries twice the consequence (and is not as easy to heal). And what you’re asking for isn’t smarter enemies, it’s completely different enemy behavior. Lizafos taunts are an integral part of their behavior – and how smart, exactly, did you want a plant to get? Besides, if you throw a bomb at it, it’s screwed anyway. What did you think it was going to do, grow legs and run away?
4. Hero Mode with a Heart Medal is still far fewer hearts than normal mode with no Heart Medal. And if you’re so good, then yeah, leave the Heart Medal behind and load up on Rupee, Treasure and Bug Medals – it’s not like you’d just be leaving it behind for zero tradeoff.
5. Yeah, I can’t argue there.
So it’s not black-and-white, guys. Maybe pull your heads out of the sand and actually examine the thing for what it is, rather than predetermining “great!” or “crap!” and then making up evidence to fill in the blanks so you can get the answer you wanted.
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Hey isn’t this supposed to be a KIDS/adults game? Kids wouldn’t care about a second time threw they’d just want to play it for fun. Not because it’s harder for FUN.
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When I played through the first time I wanted to leave the temple and check out the areas in the past. Which in hero mode would be great. Increased difficulty and new areas(or differently mapped areas) would definitely add challenge
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I disagree with you about the Heart Medal. The hearts are still quite rare, and you could always just not use it.
I agree with you about the dialogue though. It would be great if it was all very different; not just for tutorial things, but some regular dialogue as well. That would make talking to people cool and interesting, just to hear what they will say differently. And I don’t think it would’ve been hard to implement either. Dialogue is just text, and text takes up mere kilobytes on the game disc.
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“I cannot actively make a choice to make the game tougher.”
Uh… what is the game forcing you to do, exactly? You can literally play the entire game with zero items… no shield, no medals, no bottles, no nothing. Nothing forces you to block or drink potions… it’s just easier. You could’ve done this any time… hell, you could have done it in regular mode.
Seriously, does that concept completely blow your mind or what? You could have been playing a more challenging game THIS ENTIRE TIME.
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I’ll be 30 yrs old this July, and have been playing this series since the DAY it was released. I have no complaints whatsoever about something as trivial as content of a 2nd playthru (Hero mode) when your talking about whats most likely the greatest game franchise ever. Hell, they could have not added it at all and erased your gamesave at the end, right?
With this caliber of gameplay, style, story, characters, soundtrack, AND they change things up a bit for my next playthru, I for one am not complaining.
So if those are the reasons not to play hero mode, what are our other options? Either dont ever play it again… at all (fat chance), or play it again on normal difficulty (why?). I HIGHLY doubt the author will/did choose either of those options.
Also, just wanted to add, i see alot of ppl only clocking in around 50hrs or so? They arent playing this game to its potential! I logged 124hrs on 1st playthru (every item/heart/cube collected & did boss-rush 3 times plus MANY treasure/bug hunts). Did the same with Twilight Princess too. These games are just too enjoyable to scrutinize… So dont!
P.S.- game has THE BEST soundtrack ever. Period.
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See, I understand why you would say Hero Mode sucks. But as a Zelda newbie (it’s the first game I ever tried), I, as for my own experience, have to disagree. You see, I absolutely loved the game, and still do. I am now halfway through Hero Mode and I don’t regret starting it at all. It allows you to relive the game’s, well, epicness, and it DOES become harder, Heart Medal or not. I do have a hard time defeating enemies now they slay me twice as fast and it still gets me excited to defeat the bosses, to the point where I’m jumping through the living room. Truth be told, I don’t think anyone would bother this much, only indeed the diehard gamers who are so good at this sort of things that they beat the game twice with their eyes closed. For me, still, this is about having a good time, beating own records, exploring things for which I hadn’t had the patience before and maybe become as proficient like the videos you find on youtube, in which people beat for instance Demise in less than a minute with no damage and perfect combos.
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Once this game prompted me to delete my progress and start Hero mode, I did some googling and was brought here. I am not going to save. I will simply copy my progress to another folder and play Hero Mode on another save file. I had fun this Zelda game, but I don’t think it is worth another playthrough. Was anybody else very annoyed at flying the bird?
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One reason why Skyward Sword’s Hero Mode is ABSOLUTELY worth your time:
The game is amazing and is enough for second play through, let alone a third or fourth. I just lost all respect for this website because of this post alone.
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