1) The obvious... Story. That's what was advertised in this game, and that's one thing that shined through over mostly every other Zelda Game. Don't get me wrong- I liked OT and TP for their stories, but there really wasn't a whole lot to them. OT was good, but like many 64 games, focused mainly on gameplay, which is fine. TP had a good story, but I had no emotional connection for the majority of it (except when Midna got hurt, that was just awful!). SS really changed that. I'd put its story on a level similar to Windwaker, except more fleshed out. The initial Zelda-Link romance really kept it going, and even though some of the little quests could occasionally seem petty, you saw her enough to remember that you were, in fact, saving YOUR girl. Also, while it lacked any subtlety, it was cool to see Link evolve from everyone hating him, to everyone loving him as he gained more and more devotion and courage.
2) The obvious again... Game-play. Another selling point of the title, and another victory. I was beyond impressed with the motion control... I can understand why some people may bash this and say that the motion controls were annoying or not accurate, but if you aren't completely lazy and stand up and legitimately think about your swings, I don't think there is ever a problem. In addition to this, the motion controls eventually fell into habit which was a nice way to make it seem like as the game went on, Link got more experienced at using a sword (as you get more used to the controls). Beyond even the motion controls lied the excellent use of the items. This is honestly the only Zelda game, and one of the only GAMES I have ever played where every item is important for a significant amount of time (except MAYBE the bug net, but I personally still used it to catch tumbleweeds at the very least). Every dungeon used at least two of the items in your arsenal forcing you into much more thought than "get item in dungeon, use item in dungeon, put item in bag for the rest of game". To compliment this, a lot more resources are available to you. At first, I thought it would be a bad thing to have infinite amounts of bombs sometimes by picking them, but it turned out to fit in perfectly to the playstyle of the game. Most of the bosses were actually fairly difficult (unlike the laughably easy TP), and the dungeons had me thinking for periods of time that I rarely experienced in any Zelda game except KIND OF Windwaker. While the Imprisoned fights got kind of annoying, I can't remember any boss that was easy enough to be stupid, or difficult enough to be frustrating. It was the perfect balance in my opinion.
3) Miscellaneous:
-The quest for the Master Sword was sweet. I honestly felt like a champ when I completed the Master Sword. There were completely EPIC moments like this throughout the game... it was freaking awesome to actually complete the triforce and have access to the ultimate power in the game and be able to watch Link just wish away the bad guy in his time by making an Island slam down into him.
-Fi. Again, the perfect balance... not annoying like Navi, but still helpful. And to make it even better, she never helped in a boss battle since she couldn't get info until you actually beat the thing meaning you had to figure everything out on your own... Perfect.
-Fetch quests were balance quite well too. The only one that seemed even MILDLY annoying was the Tadtones one at the end, but even that paled in comparison to the horrid Triforce search in Windwaker. Oh and also, with a shoutout to Windwaker, the little quest to get all of your equipment back was actually surprisingly fun for how frustrating I thought it would be.
-The last boss was too easy, but suitably epic for a final battle so I can't really complain, I guess. It just seemed unfair that if I could just time my shields right, I'd be able to kill him without ever taking a hit, or using a Skyward Strike.
-Speaking of, I loved all of the subtle graphical allusions to the other games by using a combination of graphic styles. The Skyward Strike gave story to the old Sword Beam, when Zelda sleeps in her crystal, it's so reminiscent of the old Sages in OT. The list goes on.
-I also wish that Hyrule made an appearance in the game... Not even Castle Town or anything, but how it shows up in Windwaker was amazing, and I hope that Zelda games don't solely turn to the province system from now on.
-While I don't have a lot to say about the music, all of it was at least decent, but not much of it stood out (except the main theme, which was pretty awesome). Certainly none of it was bad, though!
-Also, the heart system was another thing I was cautious of, but the more I think about it, the better idea it seems to be. Naturally, the enemies hit harder and are tougher to block throughout the game giving it a hard difficulty curve, but in addition to this, starting the game with more hearts and winding up with the same amount as usual (with enemies hitting harder than previous games to make up for starting with more hearts) puts in a very well balanced soft difficulty curve as well. Awesome.
-Ok, so with all the praise, I did absolutely hate both of the stupid Loftwing things. It took me forever for the first one (although, that's because I didn't know I could flap my wings, so it took me ages to gain altitude through diving and coming up) and the spin attack one was also kind of a pain, though only because you had to go through dialogue every time you failed.
Well, thanks for reading, if anyone feels like looking at the long post, and I'd love to discuss anything about the game! Obviously, I really loved the game and I certainly hope for some posts!
