At least so far, after the first dungeon. Zelda games usually set their stall out strongly in the early stages so I'm worried that I'm feeling so negatively about this one so far. Hoping it picks up.
(minor spoilers for the first few hours)
It really strikes me as a game built around a control scheme, smart game design is usually the other way round. I mean did they really replace the Big Key with an annoying block puzzle to demonstrate on-screen manipulation? Was a good meaningful boss fight sacrificed for a showcase of the different ways you can strike an enemy?
Most of the puzzles in general seem less about being aware of your surroundings and more about constantly paying homage to the motion controller, its like a tech demo at times. Playing Uncharted 3 at the same time shows the chasm of puzzle differences between the two, in Uncharted the puzzles are solved by thinking, noticing patterns or familiarity and adjusting positions. In Skyward Sword puzzles are solved by seeing which of the controllers features are require in this case. It's like a "How To" and "How Not To" of puzzle games.
Even beyond motion control there's a lot of other strange decisions made in this. The method of control for one, it appears someone in Nintendo thought the ideal world control for this game was to take that universally disliked bird flying mini game from the Mario Galaxy games and use that as your main source of travel. Despite the fact that this mini game was so difficult to control it was worth a star if you managed to not hit stuff more than 3 times along a 2 minute route.
A recurring problem in Zelda games is both how you're swimming in Rupees with nothing to spend them on and the rare need to ever buy anything from shops. They've rectified these and created new problems with these solutions, wtf is this shield breaking business about? Why create a mechanic to purposely discourage you from using your shield? The constant mutterings of Fi about it makes me believe that its the intended design that it breaks (or goes to low durability this much) and in one fell swoop the designers have their player excuse to revisit towns and a regular rupee sink. It's a short sighted solution up there with shooting the light bulb out because you want to go to sleep.
What did others who are further in think about it? I'm hoping for a dramatic improvement and that the game will get over its desire to hump motion control, upgrading will halt the excessive shield durability and the later boss fights won't be so goddamn bad.
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Smurf, the cream of Sonic fanboyism