Good game, but still has it's flaws.
Is it weird that I found this game similar to Demon's Souls? You get your hub worlds (Skyloft and Nexus) and all you basically do is buy, sell, upgrade, and repair weapons/items. When you are ready to continue on with the game, you would touch a archstone and go through a linear level in Demon's Souls. In Skyward Sword you would fly to a drop spot and go through a linear surface world. Although Demon's Souls is a lot more linear, the similarities are still there.
Anyways, this game is great. It is one of the best Zelda games to come out, but I still feel as if something is missing. The surface world is linear. This isn't the real problem of the surface because there is a lot to do in each area. The problem is the exploration. There isn't any real secrets to find. You do get to find boxes that transport to the sky in the form of treasure chests, but they aren't really hidden. I mean some of them are right in plain sight which really takes Zelda a step back. Look at Ocarina of Time and the hidden skulletas. They were everywhere and a lot of them were very hard to find. Granted OoT had the exploration of a central map (Hyrule Field). Surface world is linear yes. But it's done well to the point where it feels like a Zelda game, the "hidden" boxes are a letdown.
The Sky......The Sky is where this Zelda game falters the most. It's almost completely void of anything. All you do is fly (very slowly) around, either land on teeny tiny islands with hardly anything to them, or fly to a drop spot for the surface. That's it. A huge sky filled with almost nothing. You find treasure chests, but the map tells you exactly where they are at so exploration is dumbed down again. The sky really needs at least 10 side dungeons, with good length to them, that have treasure/heart pieces at the end of each one. The sky is the biggest problem of the game in my opinion.
Controls can get annoying. Sometimes I go to stab, but end up swinging the sword instead. And the constant centering of the controls are somewhat annoying.
But, the boss battles are very cool. Some are actually challenging in this Zelda game. The dungeons are awesome. Some of the best to date, but the back tracking through them is a little annoying. New combat can be awesome at times too.
Overall, if you played any Zelda game then you know what to expect. This one does things a little different, but still works well.