Game Spotlight: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Sorry about the long wait between entries, I’ve been really busy redesigning StarWarsMMO.net and its forum in anticipation of the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. But enough of that, it’s time for The Legend of Zelda!

I am a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda, so at first I was going to write a really huge entry about every little detail present in the game, but it’s pretty obvious that I’m going to have a lot of good things to say about practically all aspects of Skyward Sword in the first place. So, with that in mind, this Game Spotlight will be a lot more condensed and I’ll try not to ramble on as much as I usually do…

The first thing I want to say about Skyward Sword just to get it out-of-the-way is that after a lot of thought after completing the game, I have come to the conclusion that this is one of my favourite Zelda games of all time along with Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Part of the reason why it’s one of my favourites is because it refers back to every single Zelda game released previously but also because of the new elements it brings into the mix as well.

The 1:1 Wii Motion Plus based sword controls are brilliant, of course. You move the Wii Remote in your hand, Link does the same. Swing the Wii Remote in any direction and Link does the same with very minimal lag time. Thanks to the precise level of control you have over sword combat, encounters with enemies become a hell of a lot more interesting compared to previous titles. While a battle with a couple of Lizalfos in Ocarina of Time had you attacking your enemies as aggressively as possible and then putting up your shield every so often to deflect attacks, trying to pull off the same tactics in Skyward Sword introduced you to a world of lost hearts. With every enemy encounter you have to play things with a lot more tactical finesse.

You either watch the enemies movements and then take advantage of an opening they present or you find a way to create an opening yourself either using your sword, shield or one of the many items you have with you. There are multiple ways to take out an enemy and while there are many ways to do things right, there are plenty of ways to do things wrong as well. All in all, this game gets you to control your aggression until you’re able to get in that one blow that opens you up to completely unleash all of your wrath upon them… it certainly makes each and every battle feel a lot more epic and pretty damn satisfying. It actually reminds me a lot of the gameplay mechanics for the Punch-Out! series. Nintendo has certainly come a long way from simply tapping a button to swing Link’s sword… I’m interested to see what they’ll do with the inevitable Wii U Zelda somewhere over the horizon.

Some other elements Nintendo added to the experience also helped make this game feel like it was heading into new territory. For example, adding a durability meter to shields and limiting the amount of items you can carry in your adventure pouch such as those all important bottles has added a new element to the game that is very RPG-like. Some have criticised Nintendo for this system being too simple, however I quite enjoyed it… for a Zelda game it was something new and made the adventure that little bit more interesting without overcomplicating things. It also adds even more of a challenge to the game during the second Hero Quest mode where enemies take twice as much to take down and don’t drop any hearts which means you have to rely on potions for health refills.

In true Nintendo fashion, they seem to find ways of adding layers of complexity to their games while at the same time reducing the learning curve required to master the game. That said, this game still proves that it is not afraid to challenge you. There were many times when I was close to being defeated as enemies I underestimated took off 1 and sometimes 2 full hearts from my health with each strike. At times the game could be brutal, but I never felt that the brutality it unleashed on me was ever unfair. Instead I realised the mistakes I was making and adjusted my tactics to finally win the fight. Like I said before, there’s a level of satisfaction that Skyward Sword presents you that past Zelda games don’t come close to… it also happens to be the hardest 3D Zelda game released so far… if you let it.

Of course, gameplay changes aren’t the only thing that has set this Zelda apart from others… I’m sure some of you are probably thinking that I’m going to talk about the orchestrated music, a first for a Zelda title… but no, I’m not. The music in Zelda has always been brilliant and epic whether it is orchestrated or not.

The thing that really defined this game for me was how rich the character interactions are between the main characters in the game as well as the roles they have to play throughout the story. Yes, while Skyloft felt like a much more simple version of Clock Town from Majora’s Mask, the interactions between Link and the other main characters of the game is where all of the truly golden moments are at.

From the very first moments of the game to the very last, Zelda, Groose and all of the other characters matter and have their own roles to play in your adventure. And then let’s not forget about the main antagonist in the game, the Demon Lord Ghirahim, who is one of THE most interesting bad guys to ever be created for any Zelda game. He has a hell of a lot of presence and every moment he’s on-screen is a lot of fun. Not only that, but because this game is Nintendo’s 25th anniversary celebration for The Legend of Zelda series, there are a lot of references from previous games from the series that are thrown into the mix.

Some of these references are extremely subtle while others are obvious to those who have at least heard a little bit about The Legend of Zelda. I’m actually surprised they didn’t throw in an “I AM ERROR.” joke in there somewhere… unless they have and no one has found it yet. Luckily these references are set in such a way that anyone who hasn’t played many or any Zelda games won’t feel left out of the loop.

By the end of the game I was really satisfied with pretty much all aspects of the game, though in a strange way it also made me appreciate past Zelda games even more than I did before. My advice to all those who have finished Skyward Sword and have yet to play Ocarina of Time is to either get it on Wii Virtual Console or on the 3DS and continue the legend that begins in Skyward Sword… or if you’re the type of person who likes a challenge, there’s always Hero Mode on Skyward Sword… it’s not going to be anywhere near as brutal as Dark Souls, but it’s certainly not going to be easy.

If I wasn’t so geared up for The Old Republic I’d be playing through Hero mode right now.