darkSpyro

I finally got around to beating it, and I know why: The levels.
Not enough of them, and the ones we have are long and boring.
Seriously, Spyro's Adventure was great. The Levels were perfectly proportioned in my opinion.

For me, longer but fewer levels = more shorter levels. For me, all three games were too short. They're just moving around the perception of bigger.

If you get a kick with the stars/accolades there is actually more to do with the same old tiring chapter level format. I think everyone is saying it's boring because they stuck to a formula. Content wise there's more to Swap Force over previous games.

All IMO and not really going to debate it. Cases can be made for just about anything.

I played Giants first, and when I subsequently played SSA I found most of the levels to be tiny - there were a few bigger ones I can recall.

When going for the Time Attack goals, I could sprint Stealth Elf to the end of most levels in less than two minutes - probably due to a combination of the level size & the lack of a Difficulty option.


I'm going for all Accolade stars in SSF and it's a huge grind, but I'm about 95% there now.
17 Swap Force zone 3rd stars to go and a few Arena stars, plus the remaining Collection Accolades - but they're just a matter of throwing money at the game.

I found the Swap Force levels too long, they should have chopped them all in half. By the end of most levels I was a little bored especially if I was looking for some collectibles. Speed running them wasn't that bad though.

Honestly I'm fine with the length of the levels, but I agree they should make the overall game longer.

However, halfway through going through the campaign of the game I burned out. The story was just so bad. I've gone over why I think good writing is important for the Skylanders series before and I'm not writing about it again, but I honestly think it may have been what ruined SWAP Force for me. The gameplay is fun but I didn't feel any connection to these characters or my army of Skylanders and I just didn't care about it, because the story had nothing interesting to offer with flat characters and no lore and lack of Portal Master Magic™(and the interesting things it did have, it never expanded on properly). Plus story CAN be a huge part of the experience of a game, and in this case I think it is. The immersive story was a huge part of why I liked the first Skylanders and it wasn't there in SF, or even Giants(but for the record I feel like it's easier to excuse Giants because it was rushed and it was still more entertaining than SF's story). And this gameplay is really at its core very similar to the last two games. I'm not saying it's a copypaste but after the novelty wore off it wasn't keeping me enthralled. The in-level gimmicks like the shooting minigames weren't interesting so "new gameplay experiences" weren't really encouraging me to continue the story. I just wasn't motivated to beat the game. I wasn't motivated to go beat the Big Bad because he's been Flanderised into an idiot and I've already beaten him two times before.

And another point: FILLER. Content that doesn't serve a significant purpose to progressing the story and is mainly- usually fairly blatantly- just there to pad it out. The worst offender here is Giants' Chapter 10, which saw you getting ambushed by a ghost ship that had nothing to do with the plot and was pretty much there just so that they had a Chapter 10. (I realise that Ghost Ship appeared because Dread-Yacht was "cursed" but they never really expanded on that and still, I don't think that was really so important it deserved to take up 1/16 of the game.) I feel like a little too much of Giants and SF was filler(especially in the case of Giants). Not to say filler is inheriently bad or ruins something- everything really has filler, and filler can help balance stuff out if used correctly- but if it came down to having a somewhat longer game or a short-but-sweet game, I would rather have the latter as I can probably squeeze more enjoyment from it if I enjoy more of the game overall and have more fun replaying it anyway.

Would you rather have a Skylanders game which would take you longer to beat at first that you would return to less, or a Skylanders game which wasn't as long to initially complete but you kept replaying later? I'm not saying we can't have both but... I honestly don't see that happening, just from looking at the current trends of the games. And I don't know how long the main story could keep me entertained for, considering how basic the plot is(they'd have to go back to SA's writing style which expanded more on lore- that could keep me entertained because it's interesting seeing the lore of this world expanded on, even if it's not directly moving the story forward). Considering the main draw of the games is really playing all the different characters I'd rather have a game I found myself wanting to come back to more because I'm just going to be grinding over and over on the same levels anyway...

The main story of Spyro's Adventure on the 3DS only took me two days to beat but it's still my favourite Skylanders game and I still enjoy coming back to it two years later...

The lack of Heroics really kills SSF replayability for me.

In Giants it gave me a reason to play as every character to improve their stats - I used to leave the Treasure Chest on the portal while doing it so I could level up and buy upgrades as I went.

By the time I completed the Heroics for someone their Quests would be mostly complete, so I would finish them off and put the Gold Top Hat on to signify they were complete.

Ironically, I couldn't be bothered doing the SSF Quests for anyone apart from Magna Charge, even though you get a greater reward than in Giants.

So I have 50 hours playtime on Magna Charge & 20 hours on Spy Rise and next to nothing on anyone else because I find them best for grinding SSF Accolade Stars, which has taken over from Giants Heroics as the thing to grind.

At least Heroics gave you a reason to play as all characters, and gave you a reward for doing so.

Just my thoughts.

Edit: no Heroics is better for my wallet, though - no reason to buy reposes unless I really want them.

Argghh! Swap force levels are such a long drag for me! Id rather they be half the size and just have double the levels. Every time I play, I just get bored. You have to be quite committed to get through them, and even then I never ever do them again. Thats my opinion

Quote: Arc of Archives

Actually,Aerial Attack was there more to get people a last taste of the cannon sections,since it's the first and only time you have to use the Dread-Yacht's cannons in a chapter,before they were random ones or Machine Ghost.Though I felt more like the writers were fumbling with the smaller number of things to do compared to SSA: Before it was all fetch quests with a clear goal by the end of 2-3 levels,but for Giants it was only 'get to the Iron Fist before Kaos' and they had to write to that. Doesn't excuse them for some levels or level sections,but it's a mistake I can relate to(you'll always want to stick a bad guy in a place that really doesn't need one so the journey to X place isn't a total bore). xD

I loved that chapter...to each their own I guess. Story wise not much there, but isn't it about the journey and not the destination (so the case now since Kaos is a clown).

Yeah...pretty much.

Well, in terms of story I suppose it wasn't that great. But jumping really is the saving grace, SSA and SG just felt so limiting in terms of movement when you couldn't jump! Also the portal master levels and collecting stars can give something extra to do while you're going through content anyway, so that was a decent addition. Admittedly some of the chapters are too long, yet the overall campaign could be longer - though considering the lackluster story as is, I'm not sure how much elongating it further would've accomplished. Of note though as an adult gamer is that SSF is more difficult on the harder difficulties compared to the previous games, which is nice.

yep, the levels take me like 2 hours to finish, so i barely touch it.