Console Zelda titles aren't a regular occurrence. It has been a long 5 years since Twilight Princess hit store shelves, by the standards of a series such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed we would have received 4 or 5 new games in that amount of time. When it comes to Zelda you feel as if Nintendo care about the series as much as their fans do, and fans can appreciate this.
The hype surrounding Skyward Sword hasn't been as strong as it was for Twilight Princess. When I remember back to 2006 I was so hyped for Twilight Princess that it was impossible for it to live up to my expectations. So I tried to lower my expectations for Skyward Sword, and avoid what hype Nintendo tried to push, and it felt like a lot of other Zelda fans did also. So I feel that I can now give a good, honest review of Skyward Sword without looking through any rose-tinted glasses.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is certainly the game that the Wii was designed for, but it isn't the Zelda game that I wanted. It’s enjoyable to play, but also frustrating to play. It feels like a Zelda game, but it also doesn't feel like a Zelda game. For every note that Nintendo hit with Skyward Sword they seemingly missed the same amount. As a result the game leaves that bitter-sweet taste in your mouth, and after five years of waiting this was disappointing no matter how hyped you are for it.
When you look back at Twilight Princess it was pointed out at the time that the game starts off rather slowly. Twilight Princess had some fantastic level design, but you had to shift through hours of filler content just to find it. Skyward Sword does nothing to combat this. It doesn't just start out as slow as Twilight Princess – it’s even slower. By the time you reach the first meaningful dungeon you've spent hours tackling what feels like the biggest tutorial opening that any video game has ever had. As a lifelong Zelda fan, and as a fan who has beaten all the games in the series, I can almost take offence at how much Nintendo treats me as a rookie with Skyward Sword. Seemingly every little action in the game required Nintendo to walk you through it, no matter how frivolous it seems. Granted, Skyward Sword will undoubtedly introduce a lot of new fans to the series, but do the veterans such as myself really need descriptions on how to swing your sword when the entire build up for the game pushed the fact that Link’s sword movements were linked to the swing of the Wii Remote Plus? Do fans such as myself need to be told any more that a green rupee is worth one, or that a blue is worth five, or that a red is worth twenty? Do we really need to be told, again, that we can lock-on to enemies when the last four console Zelda games have allowed the same thing? I have no qualms with Nintendo for having tutorials for newcomers, but why do fans such as myself, who know the series like the backs of our hands, need to sit through them too? Why couldn't Nintendo allow us to turn off tutorials when we start our save files? It feels a lot of the time as if Skyward Sword was designed squarely with newcomers in mind, with no cause of thought for those who have supported the series for decades.
And even when the tutorials stop it is still quite evident that the majority of your time in between dungeons is spent tackling needless filler material. Nintendo introduced a new feature called Dowsing with Skyward Sword, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it may possibly be the most pointless addition the series has ever seen. The whole idea behind Dowsing is to use the ability to find hidden things in the game world, but it isn't even remotely fun or exciting to use, and using it actually diminishes the sense of exploration. You may wonder why I used it if I hated it, but the fact is that at certain points in the story it is forced upon you, and when something is forced you resent it even more. And do you remember collecting those orbs of light to fill the Vessel of Light in Twilight Princess? Do you remember how tedious and pointless that was? Well, it seems Nintendo doesn't, because they have made the same sort of thing a requirement yet again in Skyward Sword. Later on in the game you have to enter a place called the Silent Realm, and when you’re inside it you have to do another of these needless quests. I wouldn't mind as much if they were enjoyable somewhat, but I couldn't help but shake the feeling that these sections were added just to fill out the game. They have no substance at all, and you can feel that they haven’t. It actually felt like a step backwards from what was offered in Twilight Princess.
Or maybe I'm being too harsh?
One of the reasons why classic Zelda games like A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening and Ocarina of Time were enjoyable is because they all had worlds that begged to be explored. A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening especially showcase this, as exploring their intricately designed 2D worlds was arguably the best aspect of both games. Some of the fun of exploration was lost somewhat when the jump to 3D occurred, but Ocarina of Time has been the best example to date of how to create a wonderfully designed 3D game world for a Zelda title. If exploration was one of your favourite aspects of the classic Zelda games then Skyward Sword will really disappoint. Skyward Sword is terrible to explore mainly because the entire world is a mess. There are two parts to the world, the sky and the land underneath, Hyrule. The game starts in the sky, but the majority of the dungeons are on land, so you will travel quite a lot between the two. But the sky world is terribly empty. Not quite so as the Great Ocean from The Wind Waker, but the Great Ocean simply felt better to explore because finding islands gave that great sense of adventure I imagine sailors had hundreds of years ago when they set off to find new land and countries. Most of the time flying across the sky world feels tedious beyond belief. And when you are actually on land it isn't any better. The land is split up in to three distinct areas, and each is rather large and varied in environments. But none of them really beg to be explored because you do almost everything each offers just getting to dungeons. And the most annoying thing is that, if you want to get from one area to another, there isn't any warp option, and each of the sections are completely closed off from one another. This means you have to travel back up to the sky world and fly across it just to reach another area. Twilight Princess received some complaints about the fact that it had a huge, but rather empty, over world, and Nintendo stated several times during Skyward Sword’s development that they were working to fix that issue. But in trying to fix the issue they went to the complete reverse extreme. At least Twilight Princess had a competent warp system.
Another hugely annoying aspect of Skyward Sword is Fi, Link’s companion. Companions have become a common element since Navi was introduced in Ocarina of Time, but Fi may very well be the worst of the lot. A lot of fans complain about Navi and her constant screams of “Hey” and “Listen”, but after playing Skyward Sword those fans will be begging for Navi to return.
The game also has a weak soundtrack for the standards of the series. The Zelda games are renowned for having some of the best music in the industry, even when the music isn't necessarily at the series finest. When Nintendo announced that Skyward Sword was going to be fully orchestrated I was excited to hear how the music sounded, but while it was recorded well the compositions themselves are no where near the standard the series has made for itself over the years. It was really disappointing.
By now you’re probably wondering if I have anything positive to say about Skyward Sword? Well don’t quit reading yet, because I do. The most important aspect of any Zelda game is the dungeons and the puzzles. They have been the core component of the series for 25 years, and no matter how advanced the series story telling becomes, and no matter which art style Nintendo utilizes, this will never change. Thankfully Skyward Sword is a triumphant success in these two key areas. It may take forever to reach dungeons, but when you’re exploring them it will become quite evident that the dungeon design in Skyward Sword is arguably the best in the whole series. Much in the same way that Nintendo has constantly re-imagined and mastered the platform genre with Mario over the years they have also achieved the same thing with the dungeon and puzzle designs in the Zelda series.
The game is also a step forward for the series in terms of storytelling. I wouldn't say that Skyward Sword has the best story in the series per se, but in terms of writing and structure it is probably the most well written any Zelda game has ever been. The main story actually tells of the creation of the Master Sword, which as any Zelda fan will know is an integral aspect of the series. And throughout the course of the game the story constantly hints and a love connection between Link and Zelda, and Zelda herself isn't even a Princess this time around. The game also introduces a new villain to the series, called Ghirahim. As a big fan of Final Fantasy I really enjoyed Ghirahim as he reminds me somewhat of Kefka Palazzo, the primary villain of Final Fantasy VI. He’s not as good as Kefka, naturally, but he is completely insane and he is an improvement over the likes of Zant and Vaati.
But the biggest talking point about Skyward Sword, even before its reveal at E3 in 2010, was the fact that it used Motion Plus to link the swing of the Wii Remote Plus to the swing of Link’s sword in game. The mechanic itself is much like the sword fighting game from Wii Sports Resort, but it has been fleshed out considerably. The controls aren't quite 1:1 accuracy, but they feel very close. It’s quite jarring to get used to at first, especially when we have been used to buttons for so long, but overall the combat feels smooth and fluid most of the time, and it puts to shame the control system from the Wii version of Twilight Princess. Of course, as is the norm with any motion-based games, the controls are prone to not working on occasions. Every now and again you will swing your controller and Link won’t react, or it may swing a different way on screen, but it isn't often enough to seriously put a dent in the game play. And the enemies in the game were all designed to really show off the control scheme. Unlike previous instalments you can’t just hack and slash your way through. Combat takes time, and is much more precision based. Enemies will now hold their swords and shields in set ways to defend themselves, and you have to adjust how you attack in accordance to how they are defending. It feels refreshing, because it has been years since I last played a Zelda game that required me to stall my attacks and assess the situation first before getting stuck in. Although I doubt Nintendo will go down the route of motion control for combat ever again, I really hope they do.
But the motion controls are utilized by most of Link’s weapons and items, not just his sword. Weapons from the Bow and Clawshots, to items such as your shield, also make use of the feature, and while it may take some time to get used to it is overall more precise using motion to control certain weapons. But unlike Twilight Princess aiming weapons like the Bow aren't aimed in Skyward Sword by aiming the pointer at the screen, they are all used by twisting the controller in your hand and exploiting its gyroscope function. At first I thought this was a step back from actually aiming at the screen, but as the game progressed I felt it was a lot more intuitive this way.
Skyward Sword also introduces a fleshed out item upgrade system to the series. Past games have allowed you to upgrade weapons, such as tempering new, stronger swords, or finding upgrades to weapons you already own (ie: swapping your Hookshot for a Longshot in Ocarina of Time). But upgrading weapons has never felt as good as in Skyward Sword. Now enemies drop materials, and these materials are what are needed to upgrade your weapons. When you have enough materials to meet the prerequisite, you take the materials to the inventor in Skyloft, he main hub of the game, and he’ll upgrade the weapons for a small fee. While upgrades aren't necessary to beat the game they certain help out, as a bow with a greater range or a shield with more strength will come in handy in various situations. I hope this type of upgrade system remains a mainstay for the series for years to come, and hopefully Nintendo can flesh it out some more in the future.
I've spent a large part of this review complaining about Skyward Sword, but in regards to my two favourite aspects of the Zelda series, dungeon and puzzle design, the game is a glowing success, and the motion controls work very well. Mix these things with a great new item upgrade system and you have a very solid experience. But in every other area the game seems to fall short. The world isn't enjoyable to explore, there is a huge amount of filler in between dungeons, Fi may be the most annoying side kick in the series and there is too much hand holding. When you’re exploring dungeons Skyward Sword is a blast, but when you’re not you’ll find yourself wishing the game would stop throwing filler at you. And regardless of how much I enjoyed the motion controls the whole concept of motion is still seen by many as a complete waste of time, so they really won’t please everyone.
Skyward Sword is certainly the game Nintendo envisioned when they first announced the Wii, and it is the culmination of years of ideas all brought in to one game. But although it is a good game by any standards it is also a rather disappointing overall Zelda experience.
Pros:
- Great dungeon design
- Good puzzles
- The motion controls work great
- Some neat new items for Link to use
- Item upgrade options are a real treat
Cons:
- Too much hand holding
- Too much filler
- Fi is annoying
- The game world doesn't fill you with that great sense of exploration the series is renowned for
- Disappointing music
Score: 7
Review by James Widdowson