The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)

I don’t have hard feelings toward this Zelda. It is rather solid when judging this game as a standalone title. But when we compare it to other Zelda titles it does come off as rather bland and sometimes even forgettable.

For me, every Zelda title has a certain theme and a certain color palette. Skyward sword is going for the sky theme as you are a member of a community living among the clouds. It is a setting that has a ton of presence in other games and media. Air themed worlds and nations usually distinctly different from fire, water and other worlds with their technologies like airships, air bending magic, interesting clothes…

But this Zelda doesn’t do much to create an immersive sky tribe environment to me. In fact people and buildings look exactly the same as if they would live on a small island in the middle of the sea. Therefore the whole sky theme feels rather uninspired. Because of that, I wasn’t very motivated to explore and really immerse myself into the sky world. Especially because there isn’t much to explore to begin with. There are just a bunch of floating rocks in the sky. The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker from 2002 did a way better job creating small yet unique and interesting islands to explore, so I don’t think that’s a hardware limitation.

Besides overall theme, the next important ingredient of a Zelda game are of course dungeons. Forest and volcano dungeons were rather forgettable, but the desert one was truly a delight. They introduced just these 3 dungeons/worlds to which you return to, when you obtain a certain skill, in order to unlock the next area. A mechanic similar to metroidvania.

I like what they were trying to do here, but in some instances they did a horrible job with that mechanic. In some levels they basically forced you to redo the whole dungeon again without introducing anything substantial. And repetition seems like quite a theme in this Zelda as you have to beat a certain boss 3 times without much variety.

I played this Zelda on Wii and therefore I used motion controls. They were quite fun actually with exception of precise swordplay. The instance where I almost rage quit was the first boss. First boss! It required some kind of precise sword twitching that I couldn’t figure out. And I still don’t know how I did it.

However I feel like the motion controls are a very good reason to actually play this Zelda as it is the most unique feature of this title. I feel like a lot of the actions, like rolling a bomb or whipping a whip, are actually fun mechanics of this game just because you are performing them with wii controller. This Zelda is much more about the way of performing actions, rather than figuring out how to solve something. So I feel like a lot of that charm can be missed out when playing without the motion controls.

I will recommend this title for anyone who likes motion controls. In this regard it is a solid experience. If you are new to Zelda games, go play Ocarina of time 3D instead. For the existing fans of the series it might be an interesting take on Zelda. As it was for me. There is still a ton of small details that are enjoyable and unique.

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 a weird one. The game is great. But compared to the other 3D Zelda It is probably the least enjoyable for me. The dungeons and bosses are great. It is the first Zelda game to be orchestrated. The music delivers. The characters are nice. Especially Ghirahim. But it has a horrible overworld. Skyloft is barren and empty. The ground is very boring. It's extremely repetitive and suffers from backtracking, padding, and wonky motion controls.

If you like Zelda play this. But don't expect it to be the best one

3/5

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.

When released this was seen as one of the great Zeldas, not one of the all time greats to topple Ocarina of Time or Link to The Past, but still in the top tier. But now, with breath of the wild scoring such high reviews and with taking such a different approach taken in this game, how does it hold up today?

Really well. It has vibrant side quests, great dungeons and items, fantastic graphics and a huge and vivid overworld. It takes the charm of Wind Waker and fuses it the the meat and bones of Twilight Princess to create a game with best aspects of both. In Wind Waker the overworld sections all play like mini bits of a dungeon. Yes there is little exploration of freedom to explore as you wish, but the puzzles are incredible.

In many ways the change f approach of breath of the wild, shifting back to open world gameplay, is a testament to the success of Skyward Sword. It would be hard to ever top this game by competing in the puzzles compartment, so Breath of The Wild took its character and much of its art style and then made a very different type of Zelda game which is a perfect compliment to it.