darkSpyro

So, just wondering....when we had all of the unknowns...seeing tidbits of the game and characters...wasn't it new? exciting?

Now that the game's out....the most important topic are the bugs...Is half the fun in this franchise the waiting and detective mode?

Discuss.

I feel the same way, wen they where advertising it looked fun

now its boring as hell


still gonna get them all, but seriously...... the game IS BORING!

I haven't beaten it yet, but in my opinion it is FAR from boring. Here's a list.

1. Longer levels
2. Strategy to bosses
3. Better graphics
4. Stronger enemies
5. Shock and Bolt puzzles (anyone agree?)
6. Over 256 styles of play
And more!

Apart from sometimes freezing up, I'd have to say its great.
(Thank god they removed skystones)

i don't find it boring
i think the game is FUN !
i agreed with I-Brawler

I am not disappointed by Swap Force, at all.

The game has much improved difficulty level enhancements.
The arena battles are epic and challenging on the higher difficulty modes.
The side games are entertaining.
There's a greater "exploration" element to Swap Force compared to previous titles.
The graphics are definitely an upgrade.

There are a few minor things I dislike about the game, but overall it's a high quality title that my kids and I are both enjoying.

Three words.Best.Game.Ever.

Ehh I don't feel it was amazing it was ok after a while it gets repetitive and boring

I've made it a rule to not get too excited before something new is released. I intentionally stay away from knowing too much as I'm usually disappointed. My ability to dream of amazing things beyond the scope of reality is my downfall.

So to me, the game is way more fun.

Quote:

Ehh I don't feel it was amazing it was ok after a while it gets repetitive and boring

That's pretty much the definition of all video games, even the best ones.


Right now we're working on 3 stars on all levels of Hard and I'm finding that fun. Also teaches my son (6) about working to accomplish goals.

I'll let you know after I have played it, still over a month to go. My anticipation isn't so much to play the game as it is to see my son as he opens them up and we try them out together.

I don't know that the most important topic is the bugs, unless maybe you have the Wii version. Which they said was going to be a downgraded experience anyways. The amount of downgrade being acceptable varies per person, and I can see the issue some have with Activision over it. If you want to experience Skylanders ideally, it isn't on Wii anymore. Yes that stinks for people that only own Wii, but the franchise has to either move on or die. The Wii is dead, part of me says release bug free code to all platforms! The realistic part of me understands that even the Wii version is a great deal more complex than the old days, and there is a limited amount of resources Activision was willing to dump into a dead console to make sure it is perfect.

Honestly, if you are into Skylanders paying $75 for the game, plus who knows how much else for figures, consider upgrading to the WiiU for one of the great WiiU deals this holiday. Play the game the way it was meant to be played.

^Yeah I'm gonna get that holiday bundle sometime soon.

Sometimes with games, just like Christmas or… other adult stuff, the anticipation is often more fun than the actual event. There is that period of time before you get your object of desire, where there is nothing but dreams and possibilities, and hype/ anticipation builds to almost fever-pitch.
No matter how great the eventual product is, it can struggle to live up to the hype.

For what it’s worth, I think that Swap Force is the best game yet – way more to see, way more to do. Time trials, and racing to beat my own times, is a great distraction, and it’s more fun than grinding out the heroic challenges was back in SSA/SG.

Our household is STILL grinding heroics to this day. I won't miss those much, to be honest. And I hear that their bonus effect in swap force is marginalized anyway?

I still have fun with the game, but will agree that the fun seems majorly waiting for the game, expecting cool characters and getting all of them. I love hunting the Skylanders and collecting them, especially when my favorites are around.

The day I logged on and saw pics if LC Smolderdash, the legends, a ton of packaging, and a ton if figs, was better than the game in my opinion.

The day the game was announced ws better then the game.

The game is very good and all the improvements are amazing. But after playing the levels 2-3 times they get very boring. Not a lot of replay value

Just to clarify---I'm comparing the Darkspyro "buzz" before and after the launch in gauging "interest".

Quote: Takadox360

The game is very good and all the improvements are amazing. But after playing the levels 2-3 times they get very boring. Not a lot of replay value

How are you playing it? A special mode or story mode?

Quote: Tel Prydain

Quote: Takadox360

The game is very good and all the improvements are amazing. But after playing the levels 2-3 times they get very boring. Not a lot of replay value

How are you playing it? A special mode or story mode?

What do ypo mean with special mode? I'm playing the story on nightmare mode.

Yes,and the hype somehow stayed. The game has improvements but killed several good parts of the old game,yet despite the story being much like swiss cheese and the characters looking lifeless and boring everyone seems to have forgotten the old ones over better graphics.Not sure if that's a coincidence compared to how VV also seemed to forget them over more bells and whistles.

Wait... you think the story was any better in the previous games? SSA had the same 'find each element' aspect, only without the twist at the end. And the SG story was just a mess.

I'm one of those people that has to be able to unlock everything right away or else I'm not going to enjoy it to the fullest capacity. That being said, being down a stealth character has really drained some of the hype away from the game and I've been playing others while waiting for wave 3 to release. My fiancee is actually having more fun playing the game then I am, and I'm the Skylanders nut/guru in the house!

For me though too, on that note, I've never been a fan of the games themselves anyway. I've always gotten my joy out of collecting the figures and finding out the best/cheapest way to get them all. I'm certainly more of a collector than a gamer when it comes to this franchise.

Quote: Tel Prydain

Wait... you think the story was any better in the previous games? SSA had the same 'find each element' aspect, only without the twist at the end. And the SG story was just a mess.

Well,there's a difference between having a lot to do and a solid story. SSA was just that - the mother of Fetch Quests; but the characters were all likeable/annoying in a reasonable way,and there was nothing to overcomplicate it: you just got the items,met some nice guys,defeated Kaos,there and there. SG made it deeper while keeping it simple,and even when it had its whut moments(Kaos' unexplained ability to break out of toy form,Machine Ghost being revived out of nowhere), it was still more of a normal story with a lot of things that made it great,from the balance between new and old characters, the lore and how Kaos actually won and you had your great moment of heroism in going after him anyway.
SF throws the simplicity and balance out of the window. Dozens of new characters are introduced while all old ones but the villains and Flynn are forgotten in less than one cutscene,and almost all of them are forgettable or do nothing to improve the story(at most Tessa and the guy who made the Dread-Yacht some monstrosity in primary colors are the only ones who stood out for me,maybe Avril if I try really hard) when it comes to depth and immersion. The game itself breaks immersion with most of the NPCs being hopelessly useless unlike the Mabu(in the Tech Elemental Source arc in SSA) and the 'Portal Masters using Skylanders to save the world' replaced by 'Skylanders do everything' - which SG was slowly creating already. The story drags on and on when it didn't need to,and when the supposed climax happens... Kaos' mother is an utter waste of a dangerous villain. An hypocrite at best while doing everything she said Kaos was doing wrong and with the same effects,a mess of a character while she's portrayed as smart when she does stuff like jump between worlds which actually puts her in disavantage.
Kaos himself was also at his worst. In SSA,he was the accidental genius with way too much power with properly,and was a threat. In SG,that was made up to eleven,when he actively tries to kill other characters in almost kid unfriendly ways(trying to bury the Skylanders alive/crush them) and actually holds his own in a fist/magic fight. Now he was kiddified and that's one of the worst things you can do to the best character in the games - He's now nearly harmless except for his powers,he's portrayed as dumb and recklessly violent(not that he never tried to be that,but usually the plans were prioritized) and needs his mommy to cause damage. The immersion and feel of fighting strong and powerful villains was destroyed in this game,and for me it all felt like one of the 3DS games with better graphics.

But that's not to say I won't play the game just because of the story(it it was because of that The Eternal Night wouldn't be my favorite TLOS game) - there are other reasons too,which I explained in the Fan Reviews thread along with the detailed explanation of how the character design was bad which no one replied to :I

To be quite blunt, there has never been a game which I've watched eagerly until release where the game was more fun than the anticipation.

Usually if I try to scrape for any kind of info on a game besides trailers, it ruins stuff that would genuinely surprise me. I find the game more fun if bonus features, environment design and the like are new to me. Usually, I'll just watch the reveal trailer, maybe read one or two articles, and then that's it so that I have minimal spoilers, but I can still go "I remember seeing that!" When I see an environment they showed off before. Following all info and searching for it is extremely fun, but I try to do it as little as I can control myself to because it spoils it the experience when I actually get to play the game. It baffles me how some people insist on finding all info and compiling every secret known about a game before it even comes out(ahem, Pokemon @ GameFAQs).

Anyway, SF is no exception. I looked at extra info (while still restricting myself from some character trailers and the like) before release. I took a break from it this week and returned today but I honestly wasn't very interested in sitting down and playing it. I upgraded my Legendary Grim Creeper, but that's about all I did before switching off the console. Which is strange- as I've been itching to sit down and play it, but then I got tired of it right away. I'm already getting bored with the main levels- though they and Bonus Mission #1 have been my main source of replay value so far, so replaying them over and over certainly makes them much less exciting... I've only played one bonus and survival level each and no time or score attack levels nor any SWAP Zone Challenges, and I left Tower of Time alone, so I have stuff to do later- hopefully when I get around to those they keep me interested. But I'm already kind of fatigued with the content I'm playing now, so I'm worried. To be fair, I also haven't been playing the 3DS game much, so I hope that can break the repetition a bit since it's better for levelling characters(although I only like replaying about three levels on it anyway which is exactly why I haven't been using it). In most other games, getting bored of the main story after replaying it multiple times would be absolutely reasonable, but I think Skylanders should hold up better since the majority of the time spent playing the game is, rather, with replaying it to complete your characters. Outside of getting everything done with your Skylanders, there isn't a lot of content, IMO. Too many figures, not enough content for them to stay interesting while you level and upgrade them, once you've finished a bonus mission or survival arena or a level over and over it just isn't that interesting any more, yet that's how you train your Skylanders.

I love the ideas behind the bonus modes but I feel like they aren't fleshed out enough. There aren't that many bonus missions and survival arenas, and the ones I played only lasted a few minutes each. If I'm hearing this right, time attack is just playing the main levels trying to beat them as fast as possible, which is lame for me. So yeah I see myself getting tired of grinding for experience on my old toys pretty fast. Playing those levels over and over with a complete collection of figures will get boring before the next game gets shown at Toy Fair in February. The levels are a lot better than Giants(they have much more action), but still have similar issues... A lot of puzzles clogging things up and not that many chapters anyway. Starting to get boring now. I'm looking forward to using new characters and trying the stuff I haven't, but I don't think the extra content will last too long. A lot of toys on my shelves, and I'd love to spend time with them all, but it'll just be boring replaying the recolour of the second repose of Spyro in levels I've played over and over with other characters.
Gold's not an issue- it's ludicrous how much you can get- it's mainly the XP grinding that gets to me. It's just painful how I can have every Quest and every Heroic and every upgrade on so many characters and still have to replay them on a Survival Arena for another hour or so to reach the max level. Stupid. I played Giants and SA to death, so those won't help me much in levelling new reposes. Hopefully I can control my play time more in SF and stretch it out a bit- and use the 3DS game some more(it's a ton faster, though it will get just as repetitive if I overuse it)- I don't know, that's what I've been trying but it usually results in the reaction I had upon playing today. I hate having to "schedule" my play time for video games but if I just play everything right away, which is what I would want, I would get sick of everything and have nothing left fairly quickly. That's what happened with Giants. And sadly, there are just toys I would NEVER want to pick up and play for fun because I just don't find them that interesting- if I just played and levelled who I felt like, covering Skylanders as I was going to play them anyway, my least-favourite characters like Terrafin would be doing nothing but sitting on my shelf, and I would barely touch any S1s, leaving them forever "incomplete"(and training my Skylanders to the best they can be is my favourite thing about the series).

I also agree with Bifrost on the story... Meh. I did find the lore very cool but I feel like VV failed to give it enough depth, just like the characters and plotline. And your Skylanders getting all the credit takes a lot away from the experience. VV need to understand why the first Skylanders was considered so unique- the Portal Master integration, the story directly treated you like a Portal Master, the characters did, it wasn't just a gimmick in the game. It was a part of the experience. Toys to life is cool- but I don't feel like a Portal Master in SF, which is why I loved the idea: I was a part of the story in SA. Normally, I hate having cutscenes in games as it just takes away control from me, but since I was referenced in those cutscenes in SA... Well, I just was genuinely interested in them, and they added onto the game. Nearly every NPC in Giants and SF, on the other hand, will just totally ignore you and talk to your Skylander instead. Sure, in reality this is just a game and the Portal Master backstory is ultimately just a magic trick and the toys to life puppet show is just for making money, but in SF, it simply doesn't hold that illusion well at all.
As I've ranted about before, I'm also completely sick and tired of Kaos and Flynn's obnoxious and dumbed down, predictable and annoying antics- and of course... they were the only returning characters in the main cast. Sigh. SF felt way too immature story-wise. It's fine in a game like Mario to have an excuse plot, but in Skylanders, the storytelling is a major part of the game experience, and if it isn't that good or I feel like it interrupts actual gameplay too much, it will taint my view of the game more than a bad story in a Mario game would. After all, Skylanders is supposed to be an "interactive movie".

...
So overall, somewhat closer to "yes" for me, but if you view only MINIMUM spoilers you will probably find the game much more exciting than someone who has seen clips of characters and levels. YMMV.

Quote: Skylanders Dad

Our household is STILL grinding heroics to this day. I won't miss those much, to be honest. And I hear that their bonus effect in swap force is marginalized anyway?

No, the extra stat's are worth it.

Definitely not boring.

The first two games got boring after 100% but this game has SOOOOOOOOOOOO much to do!
SSA:
Story mode
Battle mode
Heroic challenges
Collecting
Upgrading

SG:
Story mode
Battle mode
Heroic challenges
Collecting
Upgrading
Arenas

SSF:
Story mode
Battle mode
Collecting
Upgrading
Survival arenas
Bonus Missions
Time attack mode
Score mode
Swapping

I didn't really get into Swap Force much, unfortunately. The anticipation for me was definitely more fun than the game itself.
I completed it, but I didn't feel like I wanted to return to it. Maybe when the PS4 comes out I'll change my mind.

I'm on the line. I do not find the game boring at ALL, in fact I find it more enjoyable from a pure gameplay perspective than the previous games, things like jumping, tougher enemies, etc have just made it so me as an adult can break a sweat (or close to it heh) while still maintaining what I loved about the series - the ability to not have to 'study' - anyone can pick up the game and within a couple minutes be able to play.

However, the game reminds me of MW3 - they finally made some of the changes I'd been clamoring for - I hated the 'three pathways per stage' concept they had and wanted something more organic - but they just took it to far - the levels were too short before, now they are WAY too long, especially with them having multiple combinations of elemental gates and swap gates. I find myself only doing a level an evening and then doing my adult stuff haha, while previous installments, I could - without doing a speed run, get through 3+ levels in that same timeframe. The beauty of that - it enticed my wife to play. Now she only plays like once a week with me, because the levels are just too long.

Then, with such a rich cast of characters from previous games, they 'water them down' in terms of effectiveness - making the new characters seem more powerful, and ignoring all my old figures. Wrecking Ball has never felt OP, yet when I put him on he felt even weaker. Watching my characters go slower and the such, it was all just a bit disheartening...feeling as though I should only play the new S3 characters and Swaps. I only played with ONE of my giants, and thats because my son (2.5y) wanted to play as Mini-Brawl, so as Daddy I had to match (hehe).

I've only had one 'glitch' - which was visual and cool (Fire Zone w/ Dragon Parade & Fire Aura at the same time), and the things like lip synching aren't worth enough to me to comment anywhere beyond this post here. I didn't even see the lip synching until I read all the complaints here. Kaos is just fine to me, and his mom is almost exactly what I think the story needed (a secondary villain to act as a third faction, not a replacement is what I really wanted). The majority of the other NPCs have always annoyed me more than anything - except Flynn - so I actually full on agree with the path they took of dropping everyone.

The only 'hype' aspect that was a let down for me? The waves. I started with Giants and Spyro at literally the same time (bought Spyro, but Thumpback was just CALLING me haha) - and I started around the time Scarlet was everywhere and Ninjini was actually worth more on the open market...so I was 'past' all the waves. Dealing with it now, while good for my wallet in some regards, not only is bad for it in other regards (I'm buying all the new characters - not reposes, instead of finding out "Oh Scorp looks horrid and so does Slobbertooth") but not being able to p[lay certain content because the swaps aren't out, or certain Swaps that I want just aren't available (Trap Shadow I'm looking at you), has made it a bit frustrating for me.

But the game is a blast for me, not perfect, but the hype was met.
- Unreall

Guys,Time Attack mode was ALWAYS on the series,it was just one of the stage objectives and it still took stellar speedrunning to get.Don't refer it as a new feature since again,bells and whistles as it was separated from the maingame and is totally radical now.

And Unreallystic,was Kaos' mom what the story really needed,or just what it could have? I can think of several things to spice Kaos' evil plots up without the need of new characters(And Onk Beakman never seems to run out of them either). without having to take his air of dangerousness-despite-the-recklessness. SF pretty much killed that,and GLUMSHANKS had more character development than him(and he was the only thing I loved about the story - he evolved from the overall failure of a minion to being competent,just pessimistic enough to never fight for his dreams without some outside help). Kaos' mom was portrayed as the 'omigosh so dangerous and more evil than Kaos' when she wasn't any of that - except a lot more murderous and petty,which spices up a villain but doesn't make one. Mesmerelda was just a bit better than her,but her potential also got completely wasted as Lorne gave her a 20-second boss battle song in a loop and made her musical act be cutscene-only...And after that she just disappears from the story with no explanation whatsoever. If this was just Kaos and Glumshanks back again(Conquertron will be forever missed),no needless plot twists,no overcomplicated pacing,just good old evil guys doing evil things and causing destruction on the way,the story could've held its own. Again,my point of having the story not be full of action and characters and things going on,but solid - quality over quantity.

I'm glad this is here. I was going to make a thread about my thoughts, but now I can just do that here. I was very excited for Swap Force, as this was the first Skylanders game that I would be on board for in the beginning. I was all into this leading up to its release, and I found myself wanting to get home from work and throw on Giants to work on characters and levels.

With all of that said, I've found myself increasingly putting Swap Force back on the shelf and returning to Giants with reposes past characters that I haven't gotten to use yet. I couldn't figure out just why I wasn't as into the new game as I was with Giants. I thought maybe it was that SG was my first Skylanders game, so much like your first love: it's hard to move on past it. However, recently I finally put into words my issue(s) with SSF.

Before I point out my problems, I will start off with the positives from this game. The graphics are beautiful and the amount of time I have to put into levels are fantastic. They really increased the size of each level a considerable amount. I spent a great deal of time working on Tower of Time and multiple playthroughs before I could get 100% on that one. I certainly enjoy the swap gimmick. I like getting to use my favorite top half with my favorite bottom and see what they can do together. Let me not forget the ability to compare portal master ranks, level data and collections with other people on my Xbox account. Granted, the only people I know who play it are my brother in law and nephew. I suppose if I knew more people on Xbox that play the game, that would make it more fun to see. But it's a step in the right direction for me.

Sadly, there are some things that (for me) ruin this game. Some are small things that don't totally ruin this title, such as the annoying inablilty to skip things. I'm so tired of watching some of the same cut scenes and listening to Rufus ramble on... and Gorm or whatever that clown's name is. you're stuck listening or watching these things so many times, the last game actually let you skip past them right away. While this doesn't ruin the game for me, it sure does make it more annoying.

The game killer for me is simply this: in Giants, I felt that my effort was rewarded. I haven't yet gotten to play SSA, so I hope to go back to that game someday. As such, I can't speak about that title. In Giants, my effort was rewarded for doing most things. Most people hated heroics. I can't say I liked them all, but I did enjoy having them for 2 reasons. For starters, after a long day of work I enjoyed something mindless to do. That was heroics: about as mindless an activity as I could get. Secondly, they were a pain to go through sometimes, but the overall stat boosts I got in the long run made them worth it. If you put forth the effort of forcing yourself to do heroics, you were rewarded beyond somebody who decided they didn't feel like doing them.

My Granite Crusher did every heroic, and he was able to fly across levels with his speed boost. I put him onto SSF and he was as slow as the day I took him out of the box. Not only did I feel lied to when I listened to that interview where... I can't think of his name... Whoever it was being interviewed, said if your character has a speed of 90 now, it will still feel like it has a 90 speed. I saw Crusher crawl around as slow as ever, and I felt slapped in the face by that guy. Not only do I not feel any real reward for my effort this game, but the effort I put forward before was all but totally erased. I'm sorry, but a +3 to speed from every single heroic I did in Giants is far from a just compensation. That right there just put a bad taste in my mouth early on.

Even accolades offered a reward for my effort in Giants, since it increased the amount of XP I could earn during the game. With all those accolades done, I could level up a new character a ridiculous amount with the right level. I believe Kaos' Kastle would get a level 1 character up to level 10 by the end. This game came with many more accolades to complete, which I was all for. But what am I really rewarded with besides stars and a portal master rank? I would have liked to see them keep the XP bonus with accolades besides the rank. Sure there are way more accolades to get through this time, but they could have made the percents you earn smaller to make it around the same amount of boost as they did before.

I also don't feel the reward for doing quests this time. Now granted, they do give you HP this time instead of a hat so I'm willing to say this could be just me not liking change. I liked getting the ranks and getting a hat only obtained through them. Don't know how I feel about the HP boosts, but it's just not as exciting to do quests as it was before. Having the game this long, only Boomer has gotten to gold and it was a huge task to get it for him. Some of these quests are ridiculous this time around. Eating on fruit instead of all foods this time? Fruit spawns at random and I've found it spawns way less than other food items. The spark lock puzzles for tech characters... So far I only have one level with multiple locks, besides seeing a random chest or the one in Woodburrow. Quests just seemed easier to complete in Giants as there were certain heroics you could easily obtain certain ones in. Plus there were the PVP elemental advantages that could get you the elemental quest as well. I tried it with Boomer and I noticed they didn't have that anymore.

I think it just bothers me that I have no way to make my character any different than someone else's beyond a hat. It's not like heroic boosts at all. It seems to me, your rather stuck with whatever progress and treasures the other person puts on their game when you bring a Skylander over. I haven't done this yet, so I don't know for sure. Either way, I miss the ability to be rewarded for my effort with stats while someone else who didn't had a harder time. This is the part that really ruins this game for me, but that's just my two cents anyway.

Oh yeah,I do remember the interview where a dev said the character speed wouldn't change too drastically.Watching Aura's LP in which she used mostly newer 'landers,I didn't even think of that. They really should've balanced the character speed to the new levels,since they're huge now - In SSA and Giants I actually self imposed challenges of doing the Time Challenges with a character that I couldn't dash(though my favorite,Hex,obviously couldn't do it in most of them,since she's too slow compared to everyone else even with Heroics). It's probably really hard to do Time Trials now if you can't get,say,Ignitor to go any faster after some HCs.

I've found the game a lot of fun, though a little bummed that they took out a few things like swimming.

Quote: Eggers

I'm glad this is here. I was going to make a thread about my thoughts, but now I can just do that here. I was very excited for Swap Force, as this was the first Skylanders game that I would be on board for in the beginning. I was all into this leading up to its release, and I found myself wanting to get home from work and throw on Giants to work on characters and levels.

With all of that said, I've found myself increasingly putting Swap Force back on the shelf and returning to Giants with reposes past characters that I haven't gotten to use yet. I couldn't figure out just why I wasn't as into the new game as I was with Giants. I thought maybe it was that SG was my first Skylanders game, so much like your first love: it's hard to move on past it. However, recently I finally put into words my issue(s) with SSF.

Before I point out my problems, I will start off with the positives from this game. The graphics are beautiful and the amount of time I have to put into levels are fantastic. They really increased the size of each level a considerable amount. I spent a great deal of time working on Tower of Time and multiple playthroughs before I could get 100% on that one. I certainly enjoy the swap gimmick. I like getting to use my favorite top half with my favorite bottom and see what they can do together. Let me not forget the ability to compare portal master ranks, level data and collections with other people on my Xbox account. Granted, the only people I know who play it are my brother in law and nephew. I suppose if I knew more people on Xbox that play the game, that would make it more fun to see. But it's a step in the right direction for me.

Sadly, there are some things that (for me) ruin this game. Some are small things that don't totally ruin this title, such as the annoying inablilty to skip things. I'm so tired of watching some of the same cut scenes and listening to Rufus ramble on... and Gorm or whatever that clown's name is. you're stuck listening or watching these things so many times, the last game actually let you skip past them right away. While this doesn't ruin the game for me, it sure does make it more annoying.

The game killer for me is simply this: in Giants, I felt that my effort was rewarded. I haven't yet gotten to play SSA, so I hope to go back to that game someday. As such, I can't speak about that title. In Giants, my effort was rewarded for doing most things. Most people hated heroics. I can't say I liked them all, but I did enjoy having them for 2 reasons. For starters, after a long day of work I enjoyed something mindless to do. That was heroics: about as mindless an activity as I could get. Secondly, they were a pain to go through sometimes, but the overall stat boosts I got in the long run made them worth it. If you put forth the effort of forcing yourself to do heroics, you were rewarded beyond somebody who decided they didn't feel like doing them.

My Granite Crusher did every heroic, and he was able to fly across levels with his speed boost. I put him onto SSF and he was as slow as the day I took him out of the box. Not only did I feel lied to when I listened to that interview where... I can't think of his name... Whoever it was being interviewed, said if your character has a speed of 90 now, it will still feel like it has a 90 speed. I saw Crusher crawl around as slow as ever, and I felt slapped in the face by that guy. Not only do I not feel any real reward for my effort this game, but the effort I put forward before was all but totally erased. I'm sorry, but a +3 to speed from every single heroic I did in Giants is far from a just compensation. That right there just put a bad taste in my mouth early on.

Even accolades offered a reward for my effort in Giants, since it increased the amount of XP I could earn during the game. With all those accolades done, I could level up a new character a ridiculous amount with the right level. I believe Kaos' Kastle would get a level 1 character up to level 10 by the end. This game came with many more accolades to complete, which I was all for. But what am I really rewarded with besides stars and a portal master rank? I would have liked to see them keep the XP bonus with accolades besides the rank. Sure there are way more accolades to get through this time, but they could have made the percents you earn smaller to make it around the same amount of boost as they did before.

I also don't feel the reward for doing quests this time. Now granted, they do give you HP this time instead of a hat so I'm willing to say this could be just me not liking change. I liked getting the ranks and getting a hat only obtained through them. Don't know how I feel about the HP boosts, but it's just not as exciting to do quests as it was before. Having the game this long, only Boomer has gotten to gold and it was a huge task to get it for him. Some of these quests are ridiculous this time around. Eating on fruit instead of all foods this time? Fruit spawns at random and I've found it spawns way less than other food items. The spark lock puzzles for tech characters... So far I only have one level with multiple locks, besides seeing a random chest or the one in Woodburrow. Quests just seemed easier to complete in Giants as there were certain heroics you could easily obtain certain ones in. Plus there were the PVP elemental advantages that could get you the elemental quest as well. I tried it with Boomer and I noticed they didn't have that anymore.

I think it just bothers me that I have no way to make my character any different than someone else's beyond a hat. It's not like heroic boosts at all. It seems to me, your rather stuck with whatever progress and treasures the other person puts on their game when you bring a Skylander over. I haven't done this yet, so I don't know for sure. Either way, I miss the ability to be rewarded for my effort with stats while someone else who didn't had a harder time. This is the part that really ruins this game for me, but that's just my two cents anyway.

Nice post, I think I can sum it up nicely with the statement: "They took the life out of toys to life." As a matter of comparison going from SSA to SG they rewarded you more for your efforts since they both shared the heroics mechanic...

I haven't played SF yet, but know that the changes you are criticizing are the same ones I am. However, my intent on starting this thread is finding out where the threads of excitement for this game are, cause I haven't seen them

Quote: Aura24

I've found the game a lot of fun, though a little bummed that they took out a few things like swimming.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

You guys need some cheese to go with your whine.

We aren't allowed to say our opinions?

Of course you are.

Likewise, I am allowed to call someone out when s/he needs some cheese to go with his/her whine.

Giants is an incredibly boring and incomplete game in my eyes. It just feels so rushed and incomplete, the worst game in the series and a terrible game overall, below my expectations and a huge disappointment. SWAP Force is significantly more enjoyable for me and my little cousin and I find myself playing it quite a bit, though again, its still not as good as it could've been and wasted some of its potential.

Quote: Bifrost

Guys,Time Attack mode was ALWAYS on the series,it was just one of the stage objectives and it still took stellar speedrunning to get.Don't refer it as a new feature since again,bells and whistles as it was separated from the maingame and is totally radical now.

And don't forget Survival mode, which is the most overhyped thing ever. I mean a lot of people are really excited about it and are like "thanks for finally adding it in VV!", but it's just a tweaked Arena Challenge mode(in fact, I prefer the arena battles since the levels in that actually had varied goals). We had Survival Mode in Giants, it was just called Arena Challenge mode instead.

Quote: Bifrost

Guys,Time Attack mode was ALWAYS on the series,it was just one of the stage objectives and it still took stellar speedrunning to get.Don't refer it as a new feature since again,bells and whistles as it was separated from the maingame and is totally radical now.

And Unreallystic,was Kaos' mom what the story really needed,or just what it could have? I can think of several things to spice Kaos' evil plots up without the need of new characters(And Onk Beakman never seems to run out of them either). without having to take his air of dangerousness-despite-the-recklessness. SF pretty much killed that,and GLUMSHANKS had more character development than him(and he was the only thing I loved about the story - he evolved from the overall failure of a minion to being competent,just pessimistic enough to never fight for his dreams without some outside help). Kaos' mom was portrayed as the 'omigosh so dangerous and more evil than Kaos' when she wasn't any of that - except a lot more murderous and petty,which spices up a villain but doesn't make one. Mesmerelda was just a bit better than her,but her potential also got completely wasted as Lorne gave her a 20-second boss battle song in a loop and made her musical act be cutscene-only...And after that she just disappears from the story with no explanation whatsoever. If this was just Kaos and Glumshanks back again(Conquertron will be forever missed),no needless plot twists,no overcomplicated pacing,just good old evil guys doing evil things and causing destruction on the way,the story could've held its own. Again,my point of having the story not be full of action and characters and things going on,but solid - quality over quantity.

It's not 'her' that I wanted, but the mythos just isn't explored enough, he felt like the only bad guy - ever, and while I like him (KAAAOOOOSSS!) I wanted someone else there also to play off him in various capacity, whether it be via partnership, or putting him in a subservient role. She did a little of all of that, but it wsa just a 'little'. I mean the way I see the series...Spyro sort of debuted when I was a teenager I believe, it looked to kiddish and I just never got into it (my sister loved it though). Because of that I came in not knowing what to expect from a 'Spyro' game, with him being the main character...but not really the main character, I don't know how much they call back to the Spyro series, but I imagined that if they opened up the Spyro universe to include all these Skylanders, that the same would happen with villains, and they would be somewhat parallel in power.

But I - being honest - am not hung up on it. I don't play skylanders for story, I play it as an easy-going brain relaxer...though some of the arenas can get a little intense (which is good when it happens, get the blood flowing heh).

However, I do agree with the person up above me a couple pegs - the cut scene setup is ridiculously annoying. I keep meaning to install the game to my harddrive (360) in hopes of speeding up load times so I can skip the cut scenes quicker, but I would much rather them have an option to watch cut scenes in options, then to play them at the 'begining' of each 'load'. I've found various ways around it, but I shouldn't have to do it.
- Unreall

Quote: Arc of Archives

And don't forget Survival mode, which is the most overhyped thing ever. I mean a lot of people are really excited about it and are like "thanks for finally adding it in VV!", but it's just a tweaked Arena Challenge mode(in fact, I prefer the arena battles since the levels in that actually had varied goals). We had Survival Mode in Giants, it was just called Arena Challenge mode instead.

Arena Challenge is pure torture and darn I love it xD It's not completely survival(it depends more on the objective of the challenge),but it sure was hard and extremely satisfying to beat. Not sure about Survival since I only watched a few videos of it.

And I understand,Unreallystic. I guess Skylanders Giants spoiled me for a better story/character interaction,and SF ended up being a downgrade instead of an update. But I guess that as long as the game is playable(Wii version isn't getting fixed anytime soon,but let's pretend it will) and it's not horribly cringeworthy,I guess the story can be put aside for a little bit.
And they do call backs to Spyro a lot,but it's so subtle that it's not easy to notice the first time around(I'd love if they dropped the sublety for at least a few things,since there's a lot to get from those games). One I can remember right now is the Spyro skeleton in SSA - either someone playing around with his model to make decoration or a really clever take that to Skylanders haters.

This game is awesome but something feels different and I can't quite figure it out...

But to me, even when I look at Giants - the story wasn't that compelling either, the only stand out moment wsa when the robot/ghost sacrificed himself - outside of that, it was still a 'find this item' style quest - so when people compare SWAP to Giants from a storyline stand point I'm still 'meh' about it.

Frankly speaking, SWAPs story is the same as Giants.
Old Skylanders of elite nature 'neutralize' an evil threat years ago
Something happens that brings them back
Kaos is in the middle of it
Kaos is trying to find things before you
Engage Kaos in a vehicle
Instead of dealing with big robots, you deal with Kaos's mom
Deal with Kaos

It's an over-simplification I admit, but its not far off.
- Unreall

But still, what's the point in repeating something if you can't get better at it? I mean this is a sequel and for a game like Skylanders I would expect them to improve the storytelling. It's not really the same comparison- since TFB had less time to make Giants... 1 year... It's somewhat more forgivable if they slumped on it when they needed to rush it out. SWAP Force had the same development time as SA but, to put it nicely, I think that VV should have invested some more of that time into the story. In any other game I wouldn't be bothered, but VV said that this is supposed to be like an interactive movie(which is what I always imagined), and if you chopped all the dialogue together as a movie it'd be good but unspectacular.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/11...-to-activision/

Does anyone have actual numbers to quantify this article?

Nope,but Acti is being really silly.If Infinity and other stuff really affect SF,they should've had planned ways around it instead of complaining it's someone else's fault. Not to mention that last quote couldn't be more wrong - we're LOSING attachment to toys the more are released,and knowing about the game doesn't mean anyone can afford it(I know I can't).

I feel as my older character are not as used.

In fact they aren't.

Quote: Bifrost

Nope,but Acti is being really silly.If Infinity and other stuff really affect SF,they should've had planned ways around it instead of complaining it's someone else's fault. Not to mention that last quote couldn't be more wrong - we're LOSING attachment to toys the more are released,and knowing about the game doesn't mean anyone can afford it(I know I can't).

Isn't society have a just blame others instead of taking ownership of issues?

Well usually people know how to be a bit less blunt about it - Bad luck,bad timing,not straight up 'we're the best franchise ever,it's not our fault that we didn't sell well',it doesn't even make sense.