The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Celebrating 25 years (35 years for Switch) of Zelda!
Protagonist(s): Link
Genre(s): Action-adventure
Platform(s): Wii
Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Wii
EU: November 18, 2011
NA: November 20, 2011
JP: November 23, 2011
AU/KOR: November 24, 2011
Nintendo Switch
WW: July 16, 2021
Developer(s): Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Country: Japan
Series: The Legend of Zelda
Predecessor: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Successor: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (by release date)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (chronologically?)


The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a 2011 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii for the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series. An HD version was released for the Nintendo Switch on July 16th, 2021.

Why It Goes Skyward

  1. Very impressive and advanced motion control technology.
  2. Combat now requires actual strategy as enemies will often guard themselves from a certain direction, and require you to attack in the unguarded directions.
  3. It is very graphically impressive for the Wii, using a style that resemble watercolor paintings and falls between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in terms of cartooniness.
  4. Great orchestral soundtrack.
  5. The dungeons are very fun to complete.
  6. The Goddess Cubes provide an incentive to explore the environments.
  7. Great characters and dialogue.
  8. Link and Zelda have an actual connection and relationship that goes beyond the normal damsel in distress dynamic typical of the series.
  9. The environments are fun to explore despite being a bit linear.
  10. Wide variety of Items ranging from series staples like the Bombs and Hookshot, to creative new ones like the Beetle and Gust Bellows.
  11. New world building additions such as the robots in Lanayru Desert.
  12. You are able to upgrade your items.
  13. Rupees are actually useful as more items and services are sold and are more expensive, fixing the Rupees uselessness in the previous games.
  14. More potion types and your are able to make them more potent.
  15. Materials you find are actually useful.
  16. Your Loftwing controls very smoothly.
  17. The Skyward Strike adds variety to combat.
  18. YOU CAN DASH and do other acrobatics such as rolling and climbing ladders faster. Be careful as they use Stamina.
  19. Ghirahim is an amazing villain.
  20. New mechanics such for returning items like bombs (such as throwing them like a bowling ball) and the bow (now every shot needs to be charged).
  21. Combat is a lot of fun and enemies are more than just sword fodder and have actual strategies in combat.
  22. If motion controls malfunction they can be easily reset.
  23. More dialogue options such as a sarcastic remark, giving Link more of a personality.
  24. Long length, takes about 60 hours to complete.
  25. Dowsing makes finding stuff you need (I.E Goddess Cubes, Hearts, story related things) much easier.
  26. You can now place beacons to make navigation easier.
  27. Upgrades to your sword gives new attributes to it (I.E. Longer Reach, More Dowsing Slots, etc.).
  28. The opening, while somewhat slow and filled with tutorials, does a great job in establishing characters and Skyloft as a whole.
  29. Some of the most epic bosses in the series.
  30. You start with six hearts and can gain more through Heart Containers, while the Heart Medal gives you even mofe life.
  31. If you thought the game was too easy, you can play the newly introduced Hero Mode, which increases the damage you take and stops hearts from spawning without a specific medal.
  32. The Switch port makes several improvements over the original, despite being an HD remaster:
    • The framerate is increased to 60 fps.
    • You can use either button-motion or button-only controls, the latter of which uses the right stick to attack with your sword.
    • You can control the camera manually by moving the right stick (in conjuction with the L button, if using Button-Only Controls).
    • You can use the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo to go back to the Sky and to the spot you teleported fromat any point.
    • Fi no longer needlessly repeats information every time you restart the game.

Bad Qualities

  1. Handholding. The games gives you tutorials for everything and they are unskippable.
  2. The game gives you descriptions of every material and bug you pick up every time you start up the game.
  3. Like Wii Sports Resort, it requires a Wii Motion Plus to play.
  4. Several items are very situational and useless in combat such as the Whip (though it can snatch materials from enemies).
  5. The story doesn't really make much sense when you think about it.
  6. Demise is a somewhat bland main villain who only appears at the very end for the final boss. Ghirahim makes up for it though.
  7. Linear levels which can be a turn off for some.
  8. Each area is revisited multiple times leading to a lot of backtracking, though each visit opens up new areas.
  9. You fight the Imprisoned three times, which becomes very repetitive as almost nothing changes about the fights other than Groose using Link as ammo for his Groosenator and the extra parts the Imprisoned grows.
  10. The use of motion controls can be a turnoff for some.
  11. The Sky is very large, has little to do (aside from a few quests, minigames, and goddess chest hunting), and your Loftwing moves rather slowly.
  12. Some graphics look rather muddy.
  13. Fi can come off as uninteresting and annoying to some due to her robotic personality and her giving useless information you already know frequently. Thankfully, the remaster does tone this down a little.
  14. That infamous game breaking glitch that happens near the end of the game that makes the game impossible to beat. Fortunately, a "Channel Patch" was made to counter this, but because the Wii Shop Channel closed on January 31, 2019, you likely can no longer purchase it (unless it is already downloaded). However, you can homebrew your Wii to get it back.
    • The glitch doesn't occur at all on the Switch remaster.
  15. This game has a stamina meter, which depletes whenever you sprint, push or pull levers, lift heavy objects, use spin attacks, or even climb, and it can be a real pain, because once it's empty, you can't use any items, not even sword or shield, for a while.
  16. The HD remaster is being released at a $60 price tag when the original only costed $50 and even included a music CD unlike the remaster. To make matters worse, you can download the Wii version from the Wii U eShop for only $20.
    • Thankfully, it's not a limited release.
  17. While the remaster adds the ability to fast travel from anywhere other than the statues, it's something locked behind a certain Amiibo (Zelda & Loftwing), which is pretty stupid and really doesn’t help with the full price.

Reception

The game received universal acclaim, receiving numerous perfect scores from many outlets. Though in retrospect, the game is seen as very divisive and is considered to be the worst main entry in the series by some.

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