The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)

Played on the virtual console on the Wii U.

I finally finished Skyward Sword after starting it well over 2 years ago. Yeah it was a long time of on and off play so take this review with a grain of salt. A lot of the criticisms we've all heard about the game stand. I found the exploration of the surface to be really tedious but the dungeons are amazing! I know a lot of people did not care for the silent realm but I really enjoyed these challenges. I think that the early game is the most grating and that after you beat the second to last dungeon there is a lot of repetitiveness but at the same time I really enjoyed it. Part of why I took so long to beat this title was that getting the right time and place to play a game that relies on motion controls could be difficult especially when I have a little one who wants to be held. But overall I think the game is really enjoyable and gets(got) way too much hate. The story, art style, and of course music are all excellent and it has some of the most interesting dungeons in the series.

Back in 2009, the Wii Motion Plus accessory promised to further break down the barrier between the player and the game. In a smaller-scale title such as Wii Sports Resort, it actually worked quite well. Red Steel 2 did a great job utilizing this accessory in the context of a frenetic action game. And then, two years after the accessory's release, it was Zelda's turn to show the world how "one-to-one" motion controls can benefit a lengthy story-driven adventure game.

Skyward Sword released a week or so after The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and for perhaps the first time, Zelda was completely upstaged. Lost in its promise of immersive sword combat, Skyward Sword missed the mark on the direction that the adventure genre was moving in. It would proceed to be a bit of a sales flop, a preview of the struggles Nintendo would continue to face into the Wii U's lifecycle.

At the time, I was sorely disappointed by the game. Don't get me wrong--the game's combat could be a great deal of fun. The Wii Motion Plus was accurate enough that fighting against basic enemies such as Bokoblins and Deku Babas begins as an entertaining affair. But Skyward Sword's over-reliance on motion controls sours the entire concept. Basic actions like flying through the sky, swimming, or swinging from a rope require motion controls, and it quickly causes a great deal of fatigue (Mental and physical).

A decade after its release, Nintendo saw fit to release an HD remaster of the game for the Nintendo Switch, and this is the version of the game I used for this playthrough. The Switch's JoyCons are nowhere near as accurate as the Wii Motion Plus, and as such it turns the annoyance of those overused motion controls into an utter nightmare. The first boss battle against Ghirahim epitomizes this, requiring many quick and precise swings that the JoyCons are simply not capable of producing with their constant drift. Skyward Sword HD tries to help the situation by dedicating an entire face button to resetting the controls, but it's simply not enough.

Skyward Sword HD also introduces standard stick and button controls, which ended up being my preferred control method for this version of the game. But these controls aren't great either--since the right stick controls your sword strikes, you need to hold L to access camera control. It doesn't feel natural, and in practice, you lose all camera control while in combat anyway. Skyward Sword HD makes you pick your poison: will you use an inaccurate input method, or an unintuitive one?

But even if we disregard its control issues, Skyward Sword is still chock full of deficiencies. Twilight Princess gave us the most expansive and detailed Hyrule we had seen up to that point, and the compartmentalized, theme park-like levels of this game are a huge downgrade. Skyward Sword doesn't really even have an "overworld" in the standard Legend of Zelda sense. Its opts for a hub-and-spoke design, with the Sky world as its hub, and the three main areas that you can access from it behaving like mega-dungeons that you revisit repeatedly.

This structure compounds its worst problem: Skyward Sword is way too eager to pad itself out by reusing content. Skyward Sword gleefully makes the player fight the same bosses multiple times. At one point, it even makes the player revisit an old dungeon with minor alterations. By its endgame, you retread these same zones in a way that really highlights how small its world is and how little variety there is to experience in it.

By now, you may be thinking that I despise this game, but as you'll notice, I gave it three stars--so there must be plenty to like here!

In a way, Skyward Sword is a game that is as completely dedicated to the "dungeon" side of Zelda as Breath of the Wild is dedicated to the "overworld." For a game with such a focus, you'd expect for there to be a lot of good dungeons and puzzles, and that is indeed the case. Dungeons like the Sandship and Sky Keep are among the most creative in the entire franchise. Not only do we get great usage of items such as the Gust Bellows and the Beetle, but the motion controls also get a chance to shine in the puzzles that use them.

Skyward Sword addresses one of the series' biggest issues by giving you a lot of things to spend your rupees on. Shields can break, and you can even upgrade your arsenal of items to give them more utility. You can also buy many kinds of potions, which was useful in Hero Mode, the remaster's new difficulty option that disables heart drops and doubles incoming damage. This makes finding hidden chests and hunting down Goddess Cubes much more rewarding than finding rupees for your perpetually full wallet ever was in Twilight Princess.

One area where they really stepped up their game was in the presentation. Skyward Sword's art style was so vibrant and timeless that it required only minimal enhancements for its HD remaster. It still looks wonderful today, and the character animations were quite impressive for a Wii game. Skyward Sword is the first Zelda game to feature live musical arrangements, and boy does the music go hard.

Skyward Sword also felt like a love letter to fans of the series' lore. It's a fantastically told origin story to the entire franchise that still shines, despite some time-travel wonkyness that it could have done without. It features the best and most consequential incarnation of Zelda, as well as other great characters like the sadistic Ghirahim and the goofy Groose.

Fi, Link's companion, was a constant annoyance in the original version of the game, though. She constantly interrupted gameplay to deliver obvious information, and her robotic nature gave you little reason to enjoy her presence. She was easily my least favorite thing about the game's original release. The HD remaster addresses this by making a lot of her dialogue optional, which greatly improves the pace of the game and makes her a little less unlikeable.

Skyward Sword is easily the worst of the 3D home console Zelda games. Its cool reception caused Nintendo to completely rethink the series, and in the process they ended up cutting or diminishing some of the things that were good here. The triumph of completing a dungeon, and the thrill of discovering or upgrading an item are still strong, and I wish these things would return in future Zelda games. Even at its lowest points, Zelda has an unexplainable magic that can't be replicated elsewhere. Skyward Sword is a great example of that fact.

Alors. Gros morceau que ce Zelda Skyward Sword. Je n'avais pas pu le faire sur wii. J'attendais donc ce portage avec une grande impatience. La possibilité de jouer aux boutons, en mode portable, était prometteuse.

Au final je suis partagée vis a vis de ce jeu. Nintendo ne nous promettait rien de moins que d'entériner la chronologie Zelda, jusque là simple théorie populaire parmi les fans, en nous racontant les origines du cycle de réincarnation, de la Mastersword et du reste. Sur ce point la promesse est tenue, surtout que le jeu était à l'époque l'opus le plus cinématographique jamais sorti, multipliant les gros plans sur les expressions des personnages. La musique est quelque peu inégale mais nous livre quand même un des thèmes les plus marquants de la série avec le thème de Fi. Le charadesign a ses fans et ses détracteurs. Pour pouvoir montrer la palette d'expressions des personnages, Nintendo a fait le choix d'un style à mi chemin entre le cartoon et le style réaliste de Twilight Princess. A titre personnel je trouve le résultat peu harmonieux. En revanche, j'ai vu que certains n'aimaient pas l'aspect aquarelle-impressionniste-pointilliste des décors, surtout dans cet opus HD. Je le trouve au contraire charmant. Il donne au jeu une vraie identité graphique.

Le sujet qui fâche c'est le gameplay. Le motion Gaming a été très critiqué à la sortie du jeu et ce n'est pas cette présentation à l'E3 qui dira le contraire. Pour ce portage sur une console hybride, que l'on est sensé pouvoir trimballer avec nous, il fallait la possibilité de contrôler Link entièrement aux boutons. Et force est de constater que ce mode de contrôle a été introduit au forceps au pris de concessions difficiles en matière d'ergonomie et de gestion de la caméra.

Le jeu pensé pour le motion gaming avait ses moments frustrants (la visée, le célestrier...), son remake en a...D'autres. Les combats contre Girahim, l'usage du fouet... Tout cela est très laborieux à la manette. On a l'impression de martyriser son joystick droit pour sortir des coups spéciaux.

Le level design a mal vieilli. Le ciel en guise de hub central est trop vide et on a trop de mal à s'y déplacer (faire des aller retours entre Célestebourg et la Terre est un calvaire sans nom) surtout que le TP n'est pas libre. Pour aller dans différentes zones sur terre vous êtes obligés de passer par le ciel. Les différentes zones du jeu invitent à l'exploration mais reste quand même assez couloir (c'est symptomatique de l'époque, rien de choqant). Mais on est parfois un peu perdus, ne sachant où aller et Fi (qui heureusement est moins envahissante dans ce remake) n'est alors pas d'une grande utilité.

Et c'est là que viens ma conclusion. Est-ce que Skyward Sword est un mauvais jeu ? Non. Mais c'est un mauvais jeu nintendo. C'est là qu'on se rend compte à quel point on a, en tant que joueurs, de grandes attentes en terme de qualité pour un jeu nintendo. Et on en vient à le juger un peu durement parfois. Pour autant, je vous conseille de jouer à Skyward Sword, surtout si vous avez aimé Breath of the Wild dont il jette les illustres bases.

Like in many Zelda games, it's exciting to start a new game with a new setting, mechanics, gear, and cast of characters. Skyward Sword was not the exception in that regard. I had a lot of fun trying out the new items and solving the dungeon puzzles with them. Some boss fights and enemy fights were a bit frustrating due to the not-super-reliable motion controls but they were still exciting and action-packed, especially when you whacked your left controller at the right time for a shield bash and then followed by a flurry of swipes with your right hand to deal a shower of sword slashes. I was on edge, it felt a lot more like a real fight than just mashing the "B" button, and maybe, just maybe, I managed to burn a few calories.

Where the game fails I think is the repetition of the "and now we gotta revisit these areas and fetch these 3 items" that made the game feel a bit like a chore and one of the reasons I kept putting it down. Some of the side quests to collect gratitude crystals can be funny but are ultimately not very meaningful nor exciting. I ended up with way more rupees that I needed and upgrading my gear wasn't that useful either as most enemies are defeated by a good whack of the sword.

While the story sort of dragged out for the points made above, it does have interesting parts and gives player some insight into the origins of the Zelda universe.

If you're a completionist like me, I advice you to not worry much about completing all the side quests and finding every single goddess chest as it's not that useful and instead try to enjoy the main gameplay loop of clearing dungeons and beating bosses which is where most of the fun is.

While sometimes frustrating and even feeling like a chore at times, I still had a lot of fun and there were many times where I couldn't put down the game for hours. I recommend this game to any Zelda fans who enjoys the classic dungeon + boss beating loop and who wants to know more about the lore.

I feel like everyone assigns the worst title of worse 3D Zelda to Skyward Sword and while there are great arguments for this, I don’t feel it is justified. I personally found Skyward Sword to be a satisfying breath of fresh air for the Zelda series, it showed the potential for Zelda but demonstrated its strengths, but also notably its weaknesses.

Spoilers Ahead Regarding Zelda Mythology

I’ll start with what I liked: the story. Immaculate. The focus on Zelda’s mythology was super interesting and I adored the way the game structured around this religion of Hylia. I have always found the mythology of Zelda to be the most interesting, even remembering being 5 watching the scene explaining the Triforce in Ocarina of Time and being mesmerised. Although the game does leave questions as to how Hylia connects with The Three Godesses, it feels like a new expansion that players can theorise themselves. Away from mythology, the story regarding the relationship between Link and Zelda was very good and I loved how they developed this even further in BOTW. The opening gameplay of Skyloft helps situate the player to care about Zelda. This is in fact the only Zelda game (other than BOTW) that I felt active in wanting to find Zelda because I felt I knew her and genuinely wished to save her. Other elements of the story I enjoyed were the mythology of the regions (particularly Lanayru Desert and it’s aftermath of devastation), the time travel element, as well as the struggle between Hylia and Demise. I will say that although I enjoyed Demise, I still don’t know how I feel knowing Ganondorf is a reincarnation of his hatred. It’s definitely interesting, but I do think it demeans Ganondorf’s individuality. Maybe something to explore in BOTW2. The main thing I was NOT a fan of was the open world experience. Now don’t get me wrong, the environments are absolutely STUNNING. But having them separate from each other? No…it just created this feeling that each world was whole other dimensions and there was no cohesiveness. Consequently, having to return to these same areas over and over again to fulfill tasks or explore a SLIGHTLY different area was monotonous and tiresome. All in all however, I still think this Zelda game was very good and I would definitely recommend it to, obviously Zelda fans in general, but also fans who enjoyed BOTW but haven’t played any other Zelda games. The familiarity with the durability system and material collection may be better to ease into rather than jumping to Ocarina which may be jarring for newer players.

Side Note: Please don’t be deterred by the motion controls!!! In the switch they’ve gotten much better and make for a great experience. Especially when fighting Koloktos!!!

I played this entire game with my son watching. We had a blast completing the dungeons and working through all the puzzles. The stick controls I found to be too difficult to maintain, so I stuck with the motion controls. I had to zero the gyro before EVERY time I needed to use the sword. Eventually got used to just hitting the button before every sword fight. But the motion controls could have been cleaned up more on the switch. This loses a entire star just because of this annoyance. Overall the story was great and a cool lead up to Ocarina of Time. Graphics where good and game felt solid start to finish.

-Peace-

It took me 10 years to finally get around to this game, but I finally did it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the plot was a little lacking for 2/3rds of the game, and the (assumed) main antagonist was kind of underwhelming, even though the twist with ghirahim being fi's counterpart being kind of cool, but the mini-lore dump at the end made up for its short-comings.

The gameplay, namely the puzzles, were super inventive and I was shocked at how creative some of them were, even playing it post BotW. Just feels like a much tighter, if not more linear experience, but I didn't hate that. I'm someone who played BotW and didn't love how aimless it seemed, and that's putting it lightly. I don't really feel BoTW did much to progress the lore either and that the narrative fell flat because Miyamoto decided to make important story segments optional, and they were never meant to build off of each-other. Anyways, don't want this to turn into a BoTW hate post. Skyward Sword didn't let me down in this area. There was plot progression and a proper climax and all of the warm fuzzies and tearful moments at the end that I keep coming back to this series for. That's not to say there wasn't major tragedy- Well, anyone who has played the game to completion can tell you that it has arguably the most tragic development in the entire series, in fact it's the reason that there is a Zelda series at all, theoretically. Vague enough? Sorry. Play and find out. :)

Highly recommend this game to anyone who skipped out on it the first time around.

PS: I do have one complaint. My right wrist has been sore for a week after finishing this game. I hope I didn't develop carpel-tunnel, lol. Also, having to re-calibrate every 15-20 seconds for parts where I had to aim with the joycons was very obnoxious. I constantly felt handicapped, especially in that damn pumpkin shooting game!

I'll be honest. I always give Nintendo far too much of a break regarding their strange decisions, mostly because it's the strange decisions that have defined Nintendo for decades. But this issue with the $25 amiibo with the $60 remake is really making me reconsider.

I didn't like Breath of the Wild and was excited to finally play the only Zelda game I haven't played through a hundred times, Skyward Sword, but from what I understand, there is a major QoL feature locked behind the amiibo.

To be clear, I don't have the faintest idea how good of a QoL update this is, as I've only played the game for about an hour tops, but it really seems like it's something great based on what I've heard, that saves a lot of time with some sort of fast traveling system.

The amiibo is definitely in the lineups "top price" tier of $25, and I have collected amiibo for a few years, so on paper this sounds pretty cool and I'm ok with the cost of it. That being said...

There are two major gripes I have, one is a personal issue and the other is a longevity issue.

Issue #1: I don't want to have to keep an amiibo close by all the time [on a portable console no-less] for what sounds like is something you use quite frequently. That's a huge inconvenience in order to use a convenience feature. They cancel each other out.

Issue #2: locking QoL features behind physical DLC, with the Nintendo logo on it, can be summarized this way: "this feature will cost over $100 in 5-10 years once these amiibo are out of print". This is what truly bothers me the most, the shortsightedness of it all.

The high sticker price for Skyward Sword, I can understand. They really did have to change a good bit about the game with regard to the controls. And also, Nintendo will always Nintendo. The amiibo, however, should have been for little in-game bonuses (LIKE MOST AMIIBO) for the sole reason that in a few short years, players will be unable to use a feature they already paid for.

Actually, you know what? Forget Bitcoin, Skyward Sword amiibos + sealed copies of the game is the move here!

so i ordered a bunch of stuff having read i could use wiimotes for lightguns for PC (the main attraction) using a thing called Dolphinbar (a literal peripheral product for an emulator) and dolphin bar seems to work and does what its supposed to but the nasty little controllers i got where cheap chinese knock offs which did not include the motion sense technology they claimed. it's a shame that wii controllers are pricey at this point because i would like to experience some of these games at least and slowly make my way trhough it over time. However, I did get a used set off ebay last night made by nintendo.

IF any of this is interesting to people, here is another option that might appeal to some people who have a Switch

i saw another video that claims you can use a PS4 controller as well and saw third party Switch controllers playing Skyward Sword too.

I'm curious if anyone has any input on a PC lightgun solution using IR controllers. There are housing/furniture for Joy Cons to do this and most people have sensor bars already.

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword is the 16th game in the Zelda franchise, while being the first chronologically.

So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game. Really just one mixed feeling, everything else I have definitive feelings on. I'll address the elephant in the room right now. The major issues and blessing of this game is the control scheme. When it works, it works. It feels great and incredibly responsive. Link's sword mimics your Wiimote almost spot on. You're making precise slashes and stabs. It's awesome. When it works. Sometimes, it may be user error, it may be Wii sensitivity, it just doesn't friggin work. You want Link to shield bash and instead he does a spin attack. You want to do a spin attack and Link shield bashes. You swing from the right, Link swings diagonally. The camera is annoying. Trying to walk in a straight line is hard. Flying the bird and swimming are annoying and hard to control.

Now that that's out of the way, what does the game do right? Most everything else to be honest. The puzzles were great and the dungeon level design was fantastic. The story was pretty decent with some hiccups along the way; Zelda and Link had good chemistry. The music, as always, spot on. The art style was very cute, somewhere in the middle of Twilight Princess's gritty realism and Wind Waker's cartoony goodness. I want to especially shout out To and Ghirahim's clothing design. They are magnificent and stylish and I especially love Ghirahim's almost JoJo like design. Spoilers for final boss followDemise straight up looks like Akuma from Street Fighter tho.

General story spoilersI did find it very interesting seeing where many of the tropes of Zelda originate, in-universe. I find that Demise laying a curse upon the Link and Zelda "bloodlines" as we'll call them, basically implying that his spirit will become Ganondorf, the most iconic and recurring villain of the series, to be especially interesting. I'm a fan of JoJo and Castlevania, so any sort of "curse" upon a bloodline that the descendants have to deal with I find absolutely fascinating. Also Zelda's dad's "spirit" will eventually become a super annoying owl hundreds of years in the future so that's cool.

Now on to the one thing that I absolutely don't like about this game. There's a large amount of backtracking and padding in this game. It's quite frustrating. There's one area, that while it does boast some superb level design, basically gives you the "your princess is in another castle" treatment without furthering the plotline about 3 times. There's another area late game, where you are recognized as the Goddess's Chosen Hero, but you have to do a trial because the person you need to retrieve a MacGuffin from is bored. It totally wrecks the flow of the game at that point. Multiple times throughout the game, players are required to travel to a whole other area just to talk to one person to continue the storyline in the first area. Generally this includes about 7-10 short loading screens depending on where you're coming or going, and 2 lengthy boring flying sequences. General spoilersYou also have to fight the Imprisoned 3 times. I fought him twice in two hours my playthrough. It's super annoying having to fight him over and over, because the strategy doesn't really change.

The worst part, however, is the act after the 6th dungeon, where you have to collect the three parts of the Hero's song to collect the Triforce. It just feels like padding and it kind of throws a wrench in the pacing of the game. It could easily have been spread throughout the earlier six areas, or eschewed entirely.

Also flying does not replace an overworld, and the game feels kind of cramped at times. The entire game is a puzzle, and every bit of navigation is puzzle based. I like it most of the time, but its a chore some of the time.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time, because I managed to get over the inconsistent controls to enjoy the fantastic level and puzzle design, and decent story. If you can get past a wonky control scheme, I'd rate it 4/5. If not, I'd say it's a 3.5/5. Not a bad game at all and it got a lot of unnecessary hate.

Just want to give an update on Skyward Sword. I am obsessed with Ghirahim. He's so fucking fab.

Fi is growing on me. She's not a great character so far, but her design is pretty good and idk, I kind of find her stating the obvious, paraphrasing the cutscene I just watched, or telling me my heart's have decreased dramatically when they're at full to be kind of endearing in a goofy way.

Thoughts on a side quest I am a bad person and I cheated on Zelda for Item Shop Girl Peatrice. No Rugrats.

So, started Skyward Sword and I am halfway through the first dungeon. It's certainly interesting, using the Wii motion controls. I absolutely would have preferred a traditional control scheme, but it's fine. When it works well, it's actually really cool seeing Link slash the exact same way I did. But most of the time it's kind of wonky, and I'll do an incorrect slash or just bring my shield up for no reason whatsoever. But going bananas and just slashing wildly works pretty well for several enemies so far.

So far the story is really interesting, Link and Zelda's interactions are super cute. Fi is fantastic at verbosely restating the obvious, but is genuinely helpful at some points and will sometimes sneak in a quip that is actually really funny. So she's not the worst character ever. She's basically Navi, but an AI(?). It's really interesting seeing the in universe origins of many Zelda tropes.

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised, but I'll be happy when I play all the other Zeldas with a controller.

Brief and minor spoilers ahead, I guess.

Let me start by saying that I didn't love the motion controls. I didn't hate them, but I did find them tiresome; they didn't always work properly, and they made my wrist hurt. Let's move on.

I suppose I'll start with the story. As is fairly common knowledge, this is the very beginning of the Zelda timeline. Overall, the story is really cool and explains a lot of the history of Hyrule. However, the subplots of the game are kind of dumb. For example, we learn how the Master Sword was created. Cool. But to get the sword, you need the flames, and to get the flames, you need special items, and to get the items, you need to prove your spirit. Same kind of thing happens when getting the triforce. It gets a little tedious.

These sections of the game lead to some really awesome level design, but the dullness of the story makes it seem quite fetch-questy, and it starts to drag on. Some of it really does feel like filler, like when your robot inexplicably lands in the wrong spot, and you have to make your way through the whole level again. For a game that's already among the longest in the series, filler like this is completely unnecessary.

The worst of this, for me, is when you have to "prove your worthiness". Like, we find out right at the beginning that we've been chosen by the Goddess and that we're definitely the hero... what do we have to prove? It's not so bad when it's framed as "building" our power or courage or wisdom. But literally just testing us to see if we're really the hero, when we already know we're the hero? One test requires you to swim around a giant lake and collect tadpoles. What in the world does that prove?

Still on the topic of plot, some design choices made no sense contextually. For example, you revisit an old area and there are new enemies. Ok, sure, whatever. But then you go into a temple you've already cleared, and not only are there new enemies, but somehow someone's actually gone in, called a locksmith, and rekeyed the doors? What? Or you go behind a secret waterfall guarded by a mythical dragon that never lets anyone in, yet it's infested with monsters and she doesn't give you keys to any of the locked doors? And how the crap did Ghirahim get there?

That's the last thing I'll say about plot: Ghirahim showing up everywhere felt really forced at times. He's a cool character (reminds me of Lucius Malfoy from A Very Potter Sequel), but he kind of cheapened the plot by being in every temple (without having opened the locked doors) at just the right times, and then "sparing our lives" after we kick his butt. Ugh, whatever.

Ok, moving on from plot, let's talk about gameplay. This is an extremely puzzle-based Zelda game. Literally everything is a puzzle. There is no point where you're just walking to the next objective; you're constantly figuring out how to navigate the terrain or move past barriers. Seriously, even the boss keys are puzzles. It's insane.

Not only are there loads of puzzles, but they're some of the best puzzles in the series. However, this makes it a very slow and methodical game, and the pacing is way off. I generally preferred to take it one section at a time rather than binge playing, and I started to feel weary about halfway through. The puzzles were great, but sometimes I just wanted a break from them, and I was rarely relieved. Perhaps the side quests were meant to be that relief, but honestly, I didn't think much of the side quests, and really you need relief in the main quest in order to have good pacing. Because it's so long and slow, I have no intention of replaying it, something I can't say about many Zelda games.

The temples, however, are almost universally dope. The Earth Temple, Sandship, and Sky Keep are a few particular favourites of mine. Like Phantom Hourglass, the developers did a really good job of making them easily re-navigable by creating shortcuts as you progress. This technique wasn't isolated to dungeons either; they used it in the overworld as well, and I thought it worked brilliantly.

A lot of mechanics in Skyward Sword were reused and improved in the masterpiece that is Breath of the Wild: the stamina wheel, shields breaking, item collection, etc. You could tell the creators had some really great ideas, but they didn't execute them as well as they could have, so they fixed it in the newer game. I say well done to them.

Real quick, I'll fire through some things that dragged down the game for me:

Flying sucks.

Fi sucks.

Fighting Koloktos suuuuuucks.

Fighting the Imprisoned three times suuuuuuuuuucks.

The motion controls are actually pretty cool overall, but at times they absolutely suck. I think they knew they made the game harder in general, as this is the only Zelda game I know of where you start with more than three hearts right off the bat.

And finally, I want to talk briefly about the pouch. Basically, you get to prepare for your journey by throwing extra items (shield, bottles, upgrades, extra arrows, etc.) into a pouch to take with you. You can only take so many of these items at a time, so you're supposed to consider the particular dangers of a certain mission and prepare accordingly. Say there's an area with lots of monsters, so maybe you want extra red potions, or you know you'll be doing lots of shooting, so you pack an extra quiver. This is really cool in theory, but in practice, you never actually know what kind of dangers you'll be facing until you get there, so it's really hard to prepare properly. I ended up just taking the same thing with me every time, and then I couldn't be bothered to go back and change when I found out what kind of mission it was. And I think that pretty much sums up how I felt about much of the game. Really cool in theory, but in practice, it falls short at times.

Still, I can't deny that Skyward Sword delivered some of the best puzzles and dungeons in the series, had a great overarching story that sets up the entire series, and left me with a feeling that, much like Ocarina of Time, made me feel like I had really gone on a journey and accomplished something. It was an extremely long journey, but I was proud of myself for completing it. After beating Demise on the third attempt, I almost felt like I could give it a five-star review. But I just can't look past all the crap I had to deal with in those 50 hours, so a four it will get.

I rank this number 8 on my list of top Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is, to this date, the installment that appears to be the most influenced by the reception of its predecessors. Directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Skyward Sword is a game of a lot of ups and downs, which tries to fix some of the flaws that plagued the series, but keeping what worked, and ultimately reaching irregular results.

The plot starts above the clouds, on a floating island called Skyloft. Its inhabitants live a bucolic routine, completely ignorant to the existence of any land beneath them. They carry several portions of pumpkin from one side of the place to the other and like to race on their Loftwings – birds that are spiritually attached to every person in town. Link, the main, is about to graduate from the Academy and become a soldier in charge of protecting the people at night – a dangerous time when Skyloft is infested by dangerous bats, smiling green blobs and demonic kittens. The protagonist also intends to win a flight tournament, whose prize will be delivered by his best friend Zelda. However, an unforeseen event occurs during the end of the ceremony and the girl falls from the village above the clouds.

The story of Skyward Sword begins strongly, introducing the player to a new world and showing a very special care with the dialogues and the characterization of the characters. And it even builds an innocent, mysterious and magical atmosphere that is very reminiscent of the classic Disney films. In this sense, for example, the character Groose, who sees Link as the only and ridiculous obstacle to be overcome to win the love of Zelda, remembers in spirit and appearance the villain Gaston from The Beauty and the Beast, a comparison that is reinforced by his egocentric nature.

Here, Zelda has until this point her most captivating, complex and human version in the series. Even with little time available on screen, she can convince us of how she cares for Link – something that is also helped by the beautiful and energetic musical theme of their relationship – and entertain us by teasing him whenever she can.

Another character that certainly deserves attention is the villainous Ghirahim, who, always too busy to kill the protagonist, surprises with the discrepancy between the language he uses (“This news has just filled my heart with rainbows“) and his evil nature. However, if Ghirahim is an interesting villain, the same, unfortunately, cannot be said about his master Demise, a dull Akuma who is more unidimensionally evil than printers. That way, it’s a shame that the game devotes its final moments to the less interesting villain.

Now, it’s certainly the level design Skyward Sword’s most striking element, since it is in that field that one can see how developers have looked at and reacted to past mistakes and successes. As in Majora’s Mask, for example, which also focused on only one city, the Nintendo EAD team shows a special care when making each inhabitant of Skyloft special. The result is positive, since players really feel that those characters live in that place, each possessing their own house, personal problems and place of work. The problem with this design lies only in the fact that the developers have not created a lot of characters: Skyloft is beautiful and extremely well designed – the player will go aimlessly around the place to enjoy the good view and music – but it’s also ridiculously empty. The player will also find himself walking aimlessly because there will rarely be anything special to do. It is also curious to note that a large part of Skyloft’s population works by selling or repairing utensils (potions, arrows and shields) at the city bazaar, and, since the few others are too busy drinking in the “Pumpkin Bar” or training at the Academy, there will never be any living soul, other than Link, to buy anything from them. No one can deny, therefore, that the imminent end of the world did not serve to boost the local economy.

On the secondary missions, they are also hit and miss in some points. Some show an unusual sensibility, as when the mother of a Link’s colleague offers him a small amount of rupees to help her clean, tidy up, and sweep her house, and only later at night does players note all the personal and financial problems that their supposed aid caused. Others are fun and bizarre: the zombie / ghost hand of Majora’s Mask, who resides in a private room and looks for a piece of paper, is back and players are again given the chance to satisfy it with a love letter. However, various activities only boil down to a certain character losing such an item of vital importance to him and it is up to the players to go on a not so epic quest at some random spot on the surface to retrieve it. Spoiler Alert: that stops being fun after the first time. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that the memorable, but flawed, hunt for skultullas of Ocarina of Time has been replaced by a chase of crystals of gratitude that the characters magically release when they are… grateful to the player. And it is worth pointing out that this is a mission that achieves the feat of being even less … gratifying than the one from N64.

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released on the 25th anniversary of the LoZ franchise. This game is a beautiful celebration of 2 1/2 decades of one of gaming's finest series, and might end up being my favorite Zelda game, up to this point.

There are really two different types of Zelda games for me. The first is the one that gives you freedom, but to a point where it can become problematic. I'm thinking mostly of Twilight Princess, in which it's hard to tell if you're able to do certain things, or if you haven't found necessary skills or items yet. The other is a fairly linear story, akin to Wind Waker or Ocarina of Time, where the game sets you in one place, making it very clear where you should be and where you absolutely need to go next. In essence, this basically comes down to how much the game holds your hand. What blows me away about Skyward Sword is how this game presents both types of Zelda game, allowing the gamer to pick how they personally would like to play.

Skyward Sword allowed me the exploring I love to try in Zelda through a flying mode that let me search without worrying that I wasn't leveled up to a point I needed to be. But on land, Skyward Sword is linear in a way that I appreciate to be. The best aspect of this is how the game gives you tools to search out different items you need, without ever forcing you to use said skills. Again, Skyward Sword trusts its players, rather than constructing the game to their will. It's a brilliant design that I wish had been in place with the entire series.

But essentially Skyward Sword is everything I've ever wanted in this franchise. I actually cared about the characters and their journey and seeing the Link/Zelda story from the very beginning was a surprisingly affecting experience. Skyward Sword is also the best use of Wii controls that ever came out, bringing a level of skill and difficulty to this series that hadn't bee there. It's not just about timing your hit at the right time, it's also about how you swing your sword, which also works unexpectedly well.

Skyward Sword is a masterpiece, the best Wii game ever made, one of the most engrossing stories in the Zelda franchise and the near perfection of almost every single aspect of this series, even setting up many of the ideas that would be set into place with Breath of the Wild. A brilliant installment in this great series that deserves more credit than it currently gets.

For Zelda games, I really only find it interesting to compare games within the series; Zelda games in general are awesome and tend to do most everything right, but vary slightly from game to game. So I mostly judged this game compared to some of its ilk like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess.

Compared to those, this one held up pretty great. It created a very nice fictional world, had some very memorable characters, good weapons, dungeons, new ideas (like timeshift stones), great music, and generally is just a kickass Zelda game.

For things I think it did very right: the story, the characters, the cinematography, the baddie, and item upgrades.

The Story.
Wow, was this satisfying. Granted, this mostly concerned Zelda, so Link is unaware of the story most of the game, but towards the end things start to come together. It becomes more than just "Save the princess, save the world." It actually tells a story. And what's more than that, it's not just about Link, he's just a part of it. One could even say he is only half of the story. The rest of the story, Zelda's half, really felt refreshing and alive. It gave that such a sense of purpose when finishing the game.

The Characters.
Along with the story, the characters were just really well done, especially Link and Zelda. Yeah! Link! I mean you can only do so much with a mute, but it was mostly how invested in the story he actually is. He wasn't doing it because he was the chosen one, he was doing it for his friend. And Zelda, well, lone gone are the days where she is merely a damsel in distress. She literally has her own adventure apart from Link, one that is actually crucial to the story. More crucial, some would even say, than Link's.
Some other characters, like Groose and Impa, were refreshing as well, with a bit more life than ones from games past. And of course there was no supply of the other misc. civilians, most of whom were quite memorable.

The Cinematography.
I noticed while playing how much they were trying to make it almost like a movie, in the sense that everything told a story. Cutscenes like Link slowly descending into each new dungeon he discovered. It wasn't super strong, but it was enough to make me feel like I was truly hearing a story -a legend, even- rather than just watching scenes strung together.

The Baddie.
Ghirahim. In a lot of ways, he's similar to Zant from Twilight Princess: he's a pawn, he is cocky, and he's crazy as all hell. But he's different enough. I love that you meet him several times throughout the game rather than just at the end. He wasn't shrouded in mystery like Zant, you got a chance to see him slowly unravel at the hands of what he viewed as an insignificant bug. It made the hatred he feels towards you at the end that much more real. I can't justify everything about him, like his fashion sense, but he played his part well.

Item Upgrades.
This wasn't huge but I did like the ability to upgrade items. It took away a little of the extreme linearity of some of the past Zelda games. I am not sure I'd want them going all hardcore RPG on me in future games, but Skyward Sword's amount was great and I hope they keep the idea in some form for later games.

For things that I found lacking: the hand holding, the sidekick, the overworld, and the motion controls

The Hand Holding.
I was just kind of floored at how much this game tries to hold your hand. Most of this is done through Fi, the companion, like jumping up immediately after talking to someone to tell you what you just heard, but it's also more than that, like having an annoying glowing, beeping C button every time you learn a new dowsing target. I understand how dowsing works after the first time, yet the beeping will not stop until I view the new dowsing target. The other big thing I remember is how the map would painstakingly zoom in to where you are and then hold there for several seconds. Like you don't know how to check the map from the item screen.
Basically, there were many times in this game that I felt it treat me like an idiot, and that's not hyperbole. Like if I'm able to understand how to beat boss X or solve puzzle Y but cannot understand that I have low health, the game must think I'm an idiot to have Fi remind me. And please, don't get me started on her "Master, I calculate a 76% chance that the obvious thing you need to do is what you should do."

The Sidekick.
As I already mentioned, Fi was guilty of much of the handholding, but that's not the only problem I had with her. Mostly, I found Fi boring. She isn't even really a character. I understand, she's supposed to be practically a robot, spouting out statistics and being all Spock-ish, and I accept that. But if you're going to make your character that, at least make her interesting. Maybe this was just her contrasting how well the other characters were done, but she just doesn't have a personality. Spouting statistics isn't a personality. Dancing around and jumping into the sword isn't a personality. Everything she did felt like she was performing a subroutine, not coming from her personality. Even the final scene -which many people said was heartwarming- I found boring and did not really change the way I saw her. (Though it did change the way that I view the Master Sword, but that falls more under "Story".)
I'm not saying that I expect her to be a phenomenal character; I understand her purpose and it's not like Navi or Tatl had me super attached. If you want to make her simple and robotic, that's fine. But if you're going to make a character be the babysitter for the player, make her interesting too, otherwise she just comes off as annoyance incarnate.

The Overworld.
I felt this almost immediately: clouds are boring. I can't fault them too much because I really liked the idea of having a world in the sky and the world below. They didn't have much choice, but that doesn't change the fact that it's hella boring. This isn't a huge deal, but I can certainly say that I enjoyed the overworlds of OoT, MM, and TP far more than flying in the direction of a light. It's just simply unmemorable and not "fun" in the slightest.
The other parts of the world were stupendous though so I could have let this slide, if it wasn't for the motion controls of flying. Which brings me to the next point.

The Motion Controls.
By far the worst part about this game. I'm not a fan of motion controls to begin with, but I can firmly say that they were far worse than the motion controls in Twilight Princess. I understand that many, many people say that they never had any problems and I believe them. But all I can say is, I was not so lucky. I don't know if I was standing too close, if I had a defective Wiimote, or maybe it's because the sensor bar isn't the official Nintendo one. All I can say is that it sucked a lot of the fun out of the game for me.
At times this almost made the game unplayable. I had to realign the pointer probably every 5 minutes, probably even less. Multiple times in one boss fight. I would constantly die from it not reading what I was doing correctly. Nothing insane, a vertical slice. I would stand there, doing a vertical slice multiple times, and it would either not register any of them or register them as a horizontal slice. It made even killing a Deku Baba extremely annoying.
And that's just it, it wasn't because I just wasn't playing good enough or couldn't figure out what to do, I literally could not get my character to do what I tell him, even in the simplest of tasks. Flying was one of the worsts, which is one of the reasons I hated the overworld so much. Any time when I had to fly with any kind of precision at all, the controller would freak out and send me veering off in random some direction. I would try to regain control and nothing happened. Ultimately I would have to just drop the Wiimote to my side then point it at the middle of the screen until my Loftwing decided to stop spazzing.
I could keep citing examples, but the point I'm trying to make is that this was persistent, constant, and extremely annoying to the point that I simply did not enjoy many parts of the game. It's an entirely new type of frustration. It isn't the level design being too cryptic. It isn't the game relying on cheap difficulty. It isn't monotonous. It's failing to adequately perform basic movements. Dying not because you timed something poorly but because the controller registered a stab as a swing. Having absolutely no idea how to even control your character because the callibration is off and you have no idea where the "center" of the screen is.
Simply put, it's maddening.

However, even with all that ranting, this is still a superb game and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who likes video games. The motion control did make it less enjoyable for me, certainly, but that mostly just culminated in shorter play sessions and more cuss words shouted aloud. All the other gripes were really just complaints rather than flaws. The end of the game still left me feeling content that I had experienced it and fulfilled as only a great game can do. And I really can't fault it for my own personal control debacle when so many people -including my brother- say they never had a problem. So I'd still say this game ranks up with all the other Greatness that is the Zelda series.