| Pros: | Cons: |
| Absolutely stunning impressionist art style | Some minor control issues |
| Beautiful orchestrated soundtrack | |
| Tear-jerking story and cinematics | |
| Ingenious dungeon and overworld designs | |
| Massive quest with plentiful sidequests | |
| Phenomenal 1:1 sword combat | |
Skyward Sword: a name of a game that I looked forward to for years. Before it was Skyward Sword, it was simply called Zelda Wii. Sure Twilight Princess was released for Wii, but Skyward Sword was the first to be fully designed with Wii in mind and therefore took advantage of every last aspect of the Wii. Skyward Sword is a once in a generation event that I’ve been excited for since E3 2009, and now, two and a half years later, enter the Hero of Time…
One of the largest issues that gamers have with the Wii is it’s lackluster graphics ranging from draw distance to detail to animation. There have always been some exceptions however including the Super Mario Galaxy games and Twilight Princess itself, but for the most part the Wii hasn’t really had many standout visual design, until now. Possibly the best looking Nintendo-made game to date, Skyward Sword looks absolutely stunning. The art style itself looks like an impressionist painting from long ago and ranges in style from Mongolian volcanoes, to Arabian Deserts, to cute little forests, and of course, Skyloft itself which is one of the prettiest areas in the game. The frame rate, character designs, and animation is all smooth and gets the job done as well, but the one standout feature of the visual design is the draw distance which is magnificently handled by blurring areas in the far distance. The amazing thing is how well it fits in, it looks like some watercolor painting in the background and you mostly don’t even notice that it just covers up the Wii’s poor draw distance capabilities. It’s a seamless feature that just makes the visuals that much better. Another great thing is how dense the areas have been designed, gone are the sparse deserts and boring walkways. There are now mushrooms, butterflies, and bugs roaming the terrain as if it were their own. This adds to the realism to the game and makes it that much more enjoyable.
The audio featured in the game has its ups and its downs but is overall one of the best sounding Wii games, only behind games like Super Mario Galaxy. The orchestral soundtrack is both grand and fitting to most of the locations, and helps set the mood and feeling of adventure throughout the entire quest. The only issue I have with the music is that there are hardly any standout themes such as Lost Woods or Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time, but my favorite theme of the game, The Ballad of the Goddess (the game’s main theme), is simply gorgeous and made even better because it is Zelda’s lullaby in reverse. Some of the dungeon themes sound great and even better than its predecessors, I just wish there were more memorable themes overall. The sound effects all work well including the noises made by the Skyloft civilians including Beetle, Zelda, and Link. Voice acting is nonexistent but the game advantages from the lack of voice acting instead utilizing funny grunts and groans from NPC’s like the new Goron character, or Groose (the bully of Skyloft who turns out to be a hero). I love some of the enemy noises in particular the Bokoblins (red trolls with swords) who scream as they roll down mountains, run from Link’s items, and jump if you sneak up behind them. Little touches like this help to make the game much more real and natural. One issue with the sound is with Fi, Link’s new counterpart: I find her voice to be well done, creepy, and mysterious as it should be, but I feel that it is overused to the point of madness. Fi talks way too much and both her text boxes and her voice gets extremely redundant. For the most part the sound in the game is perfection, but there are some minor gray areas to complain about.
One of my absolute favorite aspects of the game is the story line which tended to surprise me, please me, and excite me at every twist, turn, and dive that it threw at me. The opening scenes provided some nice romantic characterization for Zelda and Link which helped me to invest in their characters more than I ever have in a Zelda game. Zelda’s fall to the ground below was filled with great symbolism that intrigued me enough and that feeling of intrigue stuck with me for the entirety of the adventure. And speaking of symbolism, most of the Zelda franchise has been built upon symbolism ranging from the Master Sword, to the Triforce, to the Hero of Time, and the Great Evil that returns again and again. It was incredibly pleasing to finally learn the backstory behind these characters and objects that continue to be a major part in Zelda lore, in particular learning the history of the Master Sword. There were some confusions in the story but I highly enjoyed the time structure similar to Ocarina of Time, the introduction of Impa, the awakening of Groose as a hero, and the bits with Ghirahim that turned out to be creepier than I could have imagined. All of these great moments were told through stunning cinematics that could easily be strung together and watched as a movie. This is by far the highest production values seen in a Zelda adventure, and one of the best looking cinematic adventures crafted by Nintendo perhaps only beat by Metroid Other M. The presentation here is timeless.
As with most Zelda games, the central part of gameplay is the dungeons themselves, and for the most part the dungeons in Skyward Sword are all brilliantly designed with new interactive puzzles and enemy fighting. Some of my favorite dungeons included the Ancient Cistern, a water dungeon that focuses less on water and instead on the new whip item and its Zombie-like basement, and the Sky Keep, which seams together all of the game’s dungeons into one final dungeon that you can cleverly change the layout to. While the game only had seven dungeon compared to Twilight Princess’s nine I do wish there had been a bit more, but is instead replaced with the overworld which feels like a dungeon in itself. The overworlds in the game have many more puzzles, and much more enemy fighting than before. And not only that, but they are re-visited many times in the game only slightly different each time you visit them. Similar to style to Metroid Prime, you now revisit locations up to three times each time completing a different objective than the time before, and although it may seem like re-using areas, each time the area seems completely new and re-purposed for your new mission. I honestly prefer this structure over the previous game’s trend of visiting an area once, and then never again. The new items in the game are all useful and serve a purpose and whereas like in previous titles, they are not overused in their respective dungeons, and are used much more spread out through the entire adventure. One of the more useful items is the Beetle, which allows advanced exploration of a nearby area and also allows bombing sessions which can come in handy when approaching an enemy when on low hearts. Skyward Sword’s gameplay is some of the more challenging in the series, I experienced many more Game Over’s than I ever have in a Zelda game. Some of the new features in the game, such as upgrading your items and shields are welcome additions, though I wish the game wouldn’t explain materials to me every time I found them. Other welcome additions include the ability to customize your interface for the controls, the game allows you to completely remove the control explanation icons, or leave them there for less experienced players. The new ability to dash adds strategy to the gameplay being commonly utilized in dungeons, and also makes traversing large areas much more efficient and enjoyable, and it once again adds realism to the game in the form of running out of breath. These new advances to the formula help set apart this game from the Zelda franchise, and I personally hope each of these ideas return for the next Zelda adventure. The boss battles in the game are on a much larger scale both in size and the way of battling them. While not all the boss battles are winners, I found the battle with the Imprisoned to be one of the largest boss battles I’ve ever experienced, and the battle with Koloktos, the Ancient Cistern’s boss, was creepy, fun, and exciting. The gameplay in Skyward Sword is a brilliant testament to the Zelda franchise and is one of the most revolutionary in the Zelda series. It’s a fantastic game with some truly brilliant designs.
Although the world is smaller in size, the dense design of every level makes Skyward Sword the largest Zelda game yet in terms of content. Sure, there aren’t as many dungeons and areas to explore, but the dense design saves unnecessary time of running back and forth, and the re-using of areas adds to the game’s length. There are plenty of sidequests to engage in, and tons of intriguing characters to talk to for the players who want to milk the game’s content completely. And when you’re done with all of that, the game offers a Boss Challenge mode (accessed through the Thunder Dragon), and a second quest Hero’s mode. But even if you don’t want to engage in extra content, the main quest itself will last hardcore fans a good 35-40 hours, and casual players up to 50+ hours of fun.
Over the past few years, the biggest discussions regarding Skyward Sword were relating to the game’s new motion plus control system. I was generally happy with the new control scheme introduced by the game, and the controls are much more realistic and well-done than Twilight Princess was five years ago. The controls make the game much more unique than any other, and I while I still enjoy traditional controls, motion control is proven to be a nice alternative to Zelda games. Some aspects of control that work extremely well include the dash button, flying on your Loftwing, selecting items (which happens in real time), dowsing for hidden items and characters, and most of the items work well (including the bombs, beetle, etc.). I did have some minor and major issues with a few control types which included the harp, the swimming controls (which should’ve been left as analog control), and anything including the pointer, which seemed to need constant calibration. The shield controls also felt unrealistic and the shield health meter seemed unneeded and should have been left out of the final game. The best and worst aspect of the controls comes from the sword itself. Fans were promised true 1:1 sword-swinging motion combat, and for the most part Nintendo delivered. Swinging the sword feels extremely solid and rewarding and much better than traditional controls have ever given us. On the other hand, the controls sometimes went out of calibration and I experienced several control related deaths thanks to my sword swinging the wrong way. I do give Nintendo kudos for not allowing players to wiggle the remote and instead must strategize against a good variety of enemies that must be fought during the quest. Overall, the controls aren’t perfect, but still prove to be one of the best motion controlled games yet.
The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword is so freaking good that I can’t even put it into words. The gorgeous visuals, beautiful soundtrack, and cinematic story-telling make it the most artistically advanced Zelda adventure, and the superior length and level design make it the best playing Zelda adventure yet, despite a few control issues. I had a hard time deciding the game’s final score because I found that it wasn’t a perfect game, but it was so darn close to perfection, I gave in and gave it a superior score nonetheless. Ladies and gentlemen: this is a masterpiece, if you don’t already have this game in your collection then shame on you. As I end this review I look back upon the last five years and the history of Skyward Sword, I feel as though a generation has just ended, and another has just begun. Whereas I smile at the brilliance of this game, I sadden at knowing we are several years from the next. Good job Nintendo, good job on a true work of art. Oh and one more thing: what happened to Dodongos? Dodongo dislikes Skyward Sword, but I like it, I like it a lot.
| Graphics: Absolutely stunning impressionist art style with detailed worlds and characters 10.0 |
| Audio: Beautiful orchestral soundtrack with an amazing main theme, great sound effects 10.0 |
| Story: Romance, drama, action: the story is a truly cinematic way to tell this Legend 10.0 |
| Gameplay: Ingenious dungeon and overworld designs, brilliant new items, unique levels 10.0 |
| Gameplay Amount: Massive quest with plenty of sidequests and Replayability 10.0 |
| Controls: Phenomenal 1:1 sword combat and control, some pointer issues are annoying 9.5 |
| Overall: Perhaps the best Zelda game, possibly the best Wii game, and likely the best game of all time, Skyward Sword is a fantastic adventure that includes perfection in all areas of its design. Don’t underestimate this game’s brilliance, Skyward Sword will remain a masterpiece and should be compared to other artistic feats like “The Titanic” and “Romeo and Juliet”. My absolute highest recommendation, my favorite adventure, my favorite Legend… 10.0 |
Sidenote: Yes, this is my first perfect 10 that I have given out and it will likely remain the only 10 for quite some time. Games like Skyward Sword really don’t come around all that often, embrace this game and don’t let it go for it is a true masterpiece. Make sure to check out my Top Zelda feature later this week where I name my top 5 Zelda games as well as some surprises.
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