The newest game in the legendary series.
Apprehension filled me as I pulled out the disk and inserted Skyward
Sword for the first time. It's not that I was scared to play the next
saga in this great series, but that, like Twilight Princess, it wouldn't
completely meet my lofty expectations. The series, especially with the
DS Zelda games, had been turning in a direction that I did not like,
and this had me worried that such a great series might finally be
leaving me after all these years. Nintendo promised a completely
revamped experience, however; one that even longtime fans had never
seen. And, in many ways, that is exactly what they did. But before we
go too crazy into all the changes implemented in this game, it's still
obvious that it's Zelda. Skyward Sword is not such a complete overhaul
so as to make it anywhere near unrecognizable. It still holds many
similarities to The Legend of Zelda of old. But it has its share of big
changes, for the good and the bad. And while some aspects of Skyward
Sword are immensely entertaining, some changes indeed fall short of
expectations. It might not be perfect, but Skyward Sword is a great
adventure that sends off the Wii on a positive note.
The game opens in Skyloft with Link and Zelda as best friends in
Skyloft, the floating world housing the majority of humankind in this
pre-Hyrule era. Link must participate in a race that will allow him
special moment with Zelda if he is victorious, and both characters do
everything in their power to make sure that happens. They're both
students at the Knight Academy, a school drama setting that has been
heavily popularized in other franchises over the last two decades. The
beginning is very much a tutorial for the rest of the game, similar to
the farm setting of Twilight Princess. Therefore, you might be
similarly frustrated with the first five or so hours of Skyward Sword if
you found Twilight Princess' opening to be tedious. As would be
expected, it's very easy to progress at this point, you'll get an
introduction to the all of the gameplay mechanics, and the story moves
at a turtle's pace. But even though the school drama setting is
predictably lacking and there isn't much storytelling throughout the
game, longtime Zelda fans will have many gems thrown their way before
it's all over. For Skyward Sword is a prequel to the rest of the series
and the latter quarter of the game explains much of the history behind
the franchise, something that is very appreciable to those of us who
have been with the franchise for many years.
Flying is the method of transportation in Skyward Sword.
Link's first foray into Skyward Sword's method of transportation,
flying, occurs at the beginning of the game as the competition gets
ready to begin. While it's hard to say that this is a superior
traveling mechanism as compared to Epona and vast landscape of Hyrule,
it's definitely an exhilarating experience. The controls are easy to
get used to, and it won't be long before you'll have Link flying at
ridiculous speeds from one destination to the next. The problem,
however, lies with how sparse the territories are in the sky, which is
the only place where you can truly free-roam to begin with. There are a
lot of scattered islands, in which you can find treasure chests that
you've activated in the ground world, but are otherwise useless. It's
pretty much just Skyloft and a handful of other islands to explore and
enjoy, and you otherwise get no open exploration. The ground world,
pre-Hyrule, is unlike anything you've seen in a Zelda before, for good
and bad. There are puzzles and enemies throughout, so you rarely have a
dull moment. Even the backtracking you do will always see you with
something to do. The problem is that it's incredibly linear. No more
open fields of Hyrule to adventure and find the infinite secrets. The
lands below are straightforward and always force you in one direction if
you want to advance. While this is a direct response to the open and
empty world of Twilight Princess, it's hard to forgive the lack of one
of Zelda's key elements: that feeling of freedom and openness that few
other franchises have ever achieved.
While the ground world itself is full of puzzles and enemies to hinder
your progression, that doesn't mean there was any less effort put in the
creation of numerous dungeons, some of which are basically extensions
of the overworld while others are more traditional. You move through
these dungeons in the same manner as you always have, defeating enemies,
solving puzzles, and exploring every niche to find keys, items, and
whatever you need to progress. The key annoyance here is that the game
is overly helpful in almost every room you step foot in, and this is
despite there not being any difficult puzzles in this game to begin
with. The game always spotlights anything that might perhaps be a
potential hurdle, so it's very hard to ever get stuck for too long in
these dungeons. The dungeon design is otherwise excellent, but these
are the easiest puzzles a Zelda has seen in a long time, and it's hard
not to feel disappointed in that regard. The game's insistence on
telling you unnecessary and unwanted information oozes into other
portions of the game as well. If you catch a bug or pick up a
non-battle item for the first time after turning on the game for a play
session, it always brings up a menu showing you what you received. If
your hearts are running low or your batteries are nearing depletion,
this game's companion, Fi, buzzes an annoying sound until you call on
her and hear her worthless advice about your problem. These moments are
not only aggravating, but turn Fi into one of the most annoying
companion characters the franchise has seen. On top of that, Nintendo
continues to force fetch quests that serve as little more than filler in
the game, and are really dull to boot. Cutting out a few of these
jaded quests would go a long way in helping the experience, and this is a
problem the series has had since The Wind Waker.
The intuitive combat system makes sword-fighting more life-like than ever.
If the puzzles in this game are too easy, Nintendo tries mightily hard
to balance this with more difficult combat. This time around, unlike
Twilight Princess, the motion controls don't feel tacked on. In fact,
timing and precision are paramount if you don't want to see the game
over screen constantly. The Wiimotion Plus allows for sword strikes
that follow your Wiimote swings directly, meaning that the sword feels
like an extension of your arm, allowing for immersive battles. Combat
almost feels like a puzzle itself, with Link needing to utilize
horizontal, vertical, and diagonal swings along with thrusts and
Nunchuk-controlled shield bashes to defeat his foes. This can take some
time getting used to, but in the end it's well worth it as Skyward
Sword provides some of the most exciting combat in Zelda history.
Exciting doesn't necessarily mean perfect, however, as hiccups aren't
uncommon, which can be a pain as one mistake can sometimes be the
difference between life and death. It's also worth noting that you can
no longer swing while running, which is unfortunately noticeable. After
your sword and shield, Skyward Sword provides a plethora of other
interesting items, useful for varying instances of combat and
puzzle-solving. There's the whip, which can be worked with a flick of
the wrist, used for swinging across gaps and pulling certain enemies
towards you among other things. Then there's both a slingshot and a
bow, which are both utilized by pointing at the screen towards your
target. And of course, many other items join the aforementioned, all of
which use the Wii's motion controls to their fullest potential. The
only problem arises as the game constantly recalibrates the pointer
settings to help you aim no matter what physical position you're taking
while playing the game. To make things short, I wish they would've just
forced you to point at the screen at all times. As it is now,
fast-paced aiming gets quite awry at times.
Even though the controls present untimely problems, that's not the
reason the combat can get difficult. Some enemies not only present
puzzle-like challenges as far as the way you need to swing, but later
enemies are very quick and can counter you on a dime. But the small
fries have nothing on the bosses. The opening boss in Skyward Sword is
by far the most difficult this franchise has ever seen, and if you don't
have the controls down or go in greatly underestimating him, Link will
be eating dirt at least a time or two. Many of the bosses immediately
after the first are much easier, but unlike in The Wind Waker and
Twilight Princess, almost all of them present, at the very least, a
threat. It gets very rough near the end as well, as unprepared
adventurers might see themselves pummeled in ways no Zelda game has been
able to manage in many years. But this isn't a bad thing; for the
first time in quite a while, it actually feels like an accomplishment to
run your sword through some of these monstrous bosses. To make matters
tougher, enemies can destroy your shield. While the shield isn't
necessary and actually not needed at all through most of the game, it
can be useful later on, and there aren't many worse feelings that seeing
it destroyed as a huge boss bears down on you. If you need even more
of a challenge, then Nintendo has even added a Hero Mode and a Boss Rush
Mode to satiate you in that regard. I still wish they would get on the
ball as far as online leaderboards would go for things like Boss Rush
Mode high scores, but it doesn't take away from the thrill of that
aspect of the game.
The Wii isn't the strongest system, but Skyward Sword has some beautiful environments.
Other welcome additions include the item upgrading system, the variety
of useful items to purchase, the stamina meter, and the new item
selection interface. For the first time in a long time, rupees are
highly valuable. From buying additional (and expensive) slots for your
adventure pouch to buying upgrades for your items, there are many, many
uses for this game's currency. To help you out, Nintendo has added a
large variety of side quests, mini-games, and bug-catching to help you
rake in the cash. This adds a good distraction to the main quest,
though some of the side quests get tedious. Along with rupees, you can
find many different items out in the open and on defeated enemies that
you can collect, and these are the items you use to upgrade your
weapons. Almost everything can be upgraded (so long as you have the
parts and some money), and it's an intriguing feature that greatly helps
you on your campaign. To pull out your items, you hit the item menu
and point at the one you want to use. To use a potion, simply press A
and drink. You can also open up your adventure pouch, point at the
potion you want to drink (if you've already used one in the current
battle) and press A again to drink that one. This allows for non-stop
action and even more immersion, as it's not like a real enemy would give
you time to heal yourself before continuing to maul you. And then
there's the new stamina bar, which determines how long Link can climb,
sprint, and use power attacks. This adds more strategy to some of the
fights, and Link being able to sprint is a huge relief as you backtrack
some of the more lengthy areas.
While many players might not appreciate the colorful graphics, I thought
they fit in wonderfully considering the Wii's graphical limitations.
Everything is very colorful and vivid, and this often masks the many
areas of the game lacking textures. Nintendo also did an excellent job
of making most of the characters, bosses, buildings, and enemies as
smooth as possible, though some areas do contain noticeable jagged
edges. Skyward Sword has some of the best character models the Wii
system has ever produced, and let's not forget the game's ability to
hold frantic action with many enemies on-screen without any slow-down.
Some of the vast views you can behold are grand, and while they're often
blurry, some of these views look like true impressionist art and are
better than almost every sight in Twilight Princess. With some
surprisingly good lighting effects and solid draw distance, Skyward
Sword is one of the best looking games on the Wii. And this goes for
sound as well as graphics. Skyward Sword possesses an enchanting
orchestrated soundtrack with both new and familiar tunes. The
soundtrack blends magnificently with the environments, adding extra
charm to the adventure. Music is once again a key element to the game,
and playing Zelda's harp with your Wiimote makes for some of the game's
most remarkable moments. In contrast to the music is Nintendo's
continued stubbornness as far as voice-acting is concerned, and none
(outside of the occasional "Hey!") is present. It's still tough to get
completely immersed in a game these days when I see lips move but no
voice is emitted, but it's certainly not a killing blow to the game by
any means. Instead, there are many grunts, groans, and other such
utterances, but that's not really the same. The sound effects are
otherwise excellent, with meticulous effort put into atmospheric sounds
such as birds chirping, the wind blowing, and water running. The sound
and music coalesce to create an entirely convincing and even powerful
atmosphere that is really only missing one previously mentioned element:
the freedom of previous games in the series.
Zelda is once again the sweet character we loved from Ocarina of Time.
Skyward Sword houses a closet of mixed reactions, the majority of them
ultimately positive in the end. Before you're finished, you'll find
some of the most beautiful moments the franchise has ever gifted us, but
you'll also discover some of the dullest. And it's this inconsistency
that inevitably keeps the game from reaching its fullest potential,
other reasons aside. The combat, while not perfect, is outstanding, and
even longtime fans will be forced to admit that Skyward Sword has some
of the most entertaining and challenging boss battles of the franchise,
the best since the series moved to the 3rd dimension. But the dungeons
are too simple and almost balance out the difficulty of the combat, once
again illuminating the inconsistency so rife within the game. The
graphics are beautiful, the soundtrack stunning, and there is enough
content for hours and hours of playability past the approximate forty
hours it will take to complete the game. But once again, outside of
limited free-roam in the sky, the overworld of Skyward Sword is
dishearteningly linear, and that sense of adventure so wildly powerful
in other games of the series is almost inexistent here. And this
deficiency really sets Skyward Sword apart from its Zelda cousins, and
despite being a great game, it can't claim the excellence of its
forebears. Without a doubt, it sends the Wii off with a bang, and it
belongs at the top of every Wii owner's wish list who hasn't bought it
already. Skyward Sword successfully lays down the foundation of the
Zelda story with some bumps along the way, but is worthy of its
namesake.
Conclusion: 3.5/5 - Another great game in the series, though the linearity is a shame.