If you were looking for Darker versions of Zelda, that would be called Twilight Princess, as Skyward Sword is more upbeat, colorful . etc.
Skyward Sword is a good game though, play it through. The last bosses are actually pretty hard and fun to face off against.

I'm playing it; I can't afford to not finish a game I've paid for. I may still look at Twilight Princess after this (I mentioned earlier on this thread that I bought this one because it was/is temporarily cheaper than TP and I was undecided - a swaying factor was my love for the combat in Red Steel 2) but as I said, Wind Waker definitely isn't as enticing. Hopefully the game will grow on me.

Yeah the first parts of Skyward Sword's story is pretty...eh...it does get better.

though I'm pretty certain your problem is that Skyward Sword is pratically the only Zelda where Link's personality is of any relevance to anything. Of course I find it hard to take criticism of Skyward Sword seriously if you're just gonna not mention Fi.

though you should definitely play Majora's Mask if anything. That game easily has the best use of darker themes in the series.

Yeah, whenever KK mentions Majora's Mask in a post, he's always right. Don't question it! :3

Personally I loved SS and hated TP. Huh.
After about the 1st dungeon it gets better but before that it's pretty boring.

Aliens Colonial Marines is a great game; Majora's Mask.

i like proving everyone wrong forever : D

I really enjoyed Skyward Sword's story myself and I definitely preferred the gameplay to that in Twilight Pincess.

hmm im abit torn between the two, one thing i acctually love about SS is the graphics and colours. but theres alot im not really into. alot of the bosses are tedious and boring and im not a fan of the 3 separate areas. but i do love the sky and all the characters in and around skyloft. twilight princess is basically an orcarina of time with better graphics and gameplay elements. i dont think i could actually pick one out of the two. but i can understand someone not liking SS as much.

TP is like, oh you want zelda BAM!!! there you go!! zelda plain and simple.

Link has a personality? Comes across as a Japanese style (as in the big-eyed art style) bland US teenager. Will they kiss? Won't they? Will they tell eachother how they feel? Do I care?

Majora's Mask I did start playing a few years back and I was enjoying it. Then I moved house and had to stop for a bit. When I came back I was completely confused as to where I was and what was going on thanks to its interesting non-linear narrative. That depressed me a bit as I realised I'd have to wipe the slate and start again with it, which I will do at some point.

As I said in my last post, this wasn't meant as a criticism of those that do like it: it's good that Nintendo cater to different audiences (despite the perception of them making the same game over and over again). Nice to hear that it gets better after the first dungeon though.

It gets better during the first dungeon imo. The Zelda and Link silly obvious relationship stuff is mostly done after the beginning, and what remains of that is done much better much later on. But, and not to be rude, I don't see Link's personality as much relevance to playing Zelda games. He just happens to be the hero involved in the story and characters that are more interesting. There are a lot of series, even beyond games, I'm a big fan of where I'm not a big fan of the main character. And Zelda games are more about gameplay than story, unless you're really into the timeline and the maybe intentional maybe not connections and themes you can possibly find if you look hard enough and think about in a certain way. Maybe.

I think Skyward Sword's biggest problem is that it tried to cater to everyone. I mean the relationship stuff is some lame attempt to appeal to shippers and the like or maybe they just wanted to try a love story (I guess?) in Zelda beyond sidequests. Though the major issue is that it tried way too hard to appeal to casual gamers by treating them like morons in a game where if they were that moronic, they could never possibly get far in a game as challenging as Skyward Sword (not that Skyward Sword is exactly Dark Souls, but they do use Fi to treat the audience like they could never beat the easiest Kirby games as far as I'm concerned)

so excited for this...
i have never played Wind Waker, so i'm definitely getting this - before that i'll buy Twilight Princess!
also hoping for a MM remake for the 3DS, that would be great : )

More like, you want Zelda? Play as a dog for an hour then you can play as Link with a sword, then play as a dog for an hour before you can play as Link again. Etc. Halfway through you can choose to turn into the dog whenever you want, but you still have to get through the first half first. It's like, ugh... I'd rather be playing Wind Waker and go sailing for hours.

You cannot be serious. Every time you start at the dawn of the first day the fairy tells you exactly where you to go. Majora's Mask NEVER leaves you questioning where to go next. What to do, on the other hand, you have to find out for yourself. But at least they tell you where to go and it's not like there's that many things to do in each area that it's overwhelming.

"you wanna help my saplings? Here, take some water that expires in 10 minutes and go from island to island on your boat over and over again until you save all my apparently dying saplings at the same time.".
That makes going on the boat ANYTIME seem like an unnecessary chore, even with the blessing that is the ballad of the gales.

Except, your example is an optional quest, whereas playing as the dog is mandatory. And I just said I'd rather play Wind Waker. If you wouldn't, then that's fine.

It may be optional, but you're bound to come across it once, and for me at least, that makes the "thrill of captaining" a boat magically disappear all at once. The triforce charts especially made me want to rip my hair out, as filling out the map is optional, but if you don't, you've got a looooooong time to go before you find the triforce pieces. I did just play through windwaker again recently, and I'll admit, my a good portion of my old hatred of it was far too harsh; the gameplay is typical quality of Zelda and the temple design was more intelligent than I remember, but the art style is still extremely hideous in my eyes. What was the point of my post again? ._.

Whilst, from my limited exposure, I agree with you, you don't seem to be very consistent in your position.

Huh. Maybe I should try rebooting again and sitting around doing nothing while the clock ticks down to send me back to the beginning. I'll go make dinner or something.

I thought the Zelda-Link romance was very sweet myself and the fact that they told so much story with just character expressions was a great achievement in game storytelling. But I guess I'm just a sentimental fool in a sea of cynics. I should also point out I'm pretty new to the franchise, having only played the Wii ones, so I'm looking forward to Wind Waker as it will be brand-new to me.