The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I just finished playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. (The bigger news is where I found the 60-ish hours to play it – mostly it was while I was holding our new baby so my wife could sleep. But that’s outside the scope of this blog, so you get to read about the game instead.)

It was very satisfying. I had been expecting (somewhat apprehensively) a departure from the standard Zelda format, but it turns out that’s not really the case; you still explore an overworld to find dungeon entrances, find items, etc. It is kind of linear in the sense that there is generally one way to go forward toward the next level (or even within the levels), but that is to be expected these days. It also suffers from “central open area with access to isolated regions” disease just like all the other 3D Zelda games – in this case in form of a sky area with portals down through the clouds to the surface. This is actually less annoying than, say, Hyrule Field in Ocarina if Time, because you can fly between portals or the various floating islands pretty quickly. So it’s still not as cool as the older games that let you explore freely or expand to new territory from the borders of what you’ve gotten to so far, but overall I was okay with it.

The coolest thing is probably the way you use your sword. With the Wii Remote’s “motion plus” thing, the sword follows your motion (in general), so you can slash in various directions, jab, spin vertically or horizontally, etc. This made for some very interesting boss battles. You can also use your shield more actively, but because that involves thrusting your left hand forward and because my left arm was generally busy holding my sleeping daughter, I didn’t make much use of it. (Also your shield will break if it takes too many hits without your use of active deflection techniques, which may discourage use. Eventually you can get a shield that regenerates automatically.)

Speaking of stuff I didn’t make much use of, this game had a lot of elements I didn’t really go into. You can collect bugs that can be used to upgrade potions, and while I did catch a lot of bugs, I didn’t use any until before the last few boss battles, and then it was just for health refill potions. You can also collect various “treasures”, which can be used to upgrade items. I only upgraded my bow and (right before the end) my shield. I also didn’t spent much time on the various minigames, which meant I missed out on some heart pieces no doubt, but it also meant I was spared what’s always the most annoying part of a Zelda game.

I wasn’t really a fan of the Pouch, which is a container for certain items: bottles, shields, expansions for limited item weapons (arrows, bombs), and medals (which give you special powers while you wear them, like making money appear more frequently when you defeat enemies). You start with four Pouch slots and can expand that to eight. If you have more eligible items than slots, you have to pick the items you want to carry at the moment and leave the rest behind at the Item Exchange. You can always return and swap items in and out, but that still means that you will spend most of the game not using a lot of the items you have found.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the controller layout. Whereas other games gave you three buttons that you could set to whatever item you wanted, this one has the A button do everything, and you have to use the B and Minus buttons to pick something from the Item or Pouch screen (respectively) for the A button to do. It’s confusing, it takes time to do that during battle, and it’s just a hassle to have to keep switching like that when you want to use more than one item in an area.

[Spoiler alert from here on]

The game’s geography was cool. The surface is divided into three main areas – forest, volcano, and desert – each with two levels. In particular I was a fan of the “sand sea”, which is an area that was a harbor in the past but is now filled with impassible sand. You ride around on a boat with a Timeshift Stone, which creates a circle around you that exists in the past – so as you move, the sand gives way to shallow water with nifty coral and stuff underneath.

There weren’t any catchy or memorable tunes, which is something I miss from the old games. The ending does feature a remix of the original theme song, which was nice.

The other big thing about the game was its plot: evidently it is intended to be a prequel to all other games, even the ones on wacky spin-off timelines. It kind of explains the phenomenon that a hero named Link and a girl named Zelda are repeatedly called upon to defend the Triforce from the forces of evil as the generations of Hyrule come and go. The ending feels like a nice transition to the rest of the series.

And finally, I was happy to not see the character Tingle in this game… until I got into Zelda’s room and found that she has a Tingle doll sitting on her desk. At least it doesn’t talk or move around like the real Tingle.