Developer: Nintendo (original), Tantalus Media (HD)
Available on: Wii (original), Nintendo Switch (HD)
Skyward Sword is the most divisive Zelda game of the whole series. Some people thought it was great, others thought it was not-so-great. I was on team not-so-great. In most aspects, Skyward Sword is an awkward middle ground between traditional 3D Zelda games and Breath of the Wild, and, in my opinion, it doesn’t quite capture the appeal of either.
As far as gameplay goes, Skyward Sword is very experimental. The developers broke off from many of the norms of the series and introduced a lot of new ideas and mechanics, some of which worked well, others not so much.
Link’s loadout throughout the game is much more customizable. To know what I’m talking about, let’s take a look at bomb bags as an example. In order to have bombs in your inventory, you have to first find the bomb bag. From there, in normal Zelda games you can find a couple of upgraded bomb bags hidden in the world that increase the number of bombs you can carry. In Skyward Sword though, bomb bags are for sale. You can buy as many as you want, each increasing the number of bombs you can carry, but each take up a slot in Link’s finite inventory.
Players have to be strategic in terms of what they bring along on their adventures. Do they bring extra empty bottles, or do they bring extra slingshot seeds? They also need to make room for shields (which in this game have finite durability) and they may also bring accessories that have various positive effects, such as giving Link extra health or making enemies drop helpful items more often. Items and equipment can also be upgraded using materials players find in the world.
All of these are interesting ideas that would go on to be perfected in Breath of the Wild, but given the linear nature of Skyward Sword, I’m not so sure it works well in this case.
The biggest success of Skyward Sword is the introduction of the stamina bar. In Skyward Sword, Link can sprint and climb certain walls, both of which consume stamina. Stamina can also be used to make Link jump when climbing vines or ladders, hang onto ledges longer, craw under tight spaces faster, and quite a few other things. It makes for a big quality of life improvement over previous Zelda games and it also makes Link’s movements look and feel more human.
What makes Skyward Sword truly unique though is its use of motion controls.
I wasn’t in the room when they made this decision, but I’m willing to bet that the developers had said “Hey, we have a Wii remote and nunchuck with motion controls in them, why don’t we make them the sword and shield?” This was done to an extent in the Wii version of Twilight Princess; the “button” for swinging a sword was to swing/flick the Wii remote. However, with the Wii motion plus accessory (which was required to play Skyward Sword), the Wii remote was capable of detecting not only the speed at which it moved, but also the angle at which it was held. Now, the player can swing the sword in any direction they want, and many of the enemies and mechanics in Skyward Sword were designed with this in mind.
Unfortunately, these motion controls felt like crap. They were very unreliable. I could only get Link to swing his sword in the right direction about half the time, and as the game went on, it became more and more eager to punish me for swinging it in the wrong direction or for being too slow to strike.
I also hated the controls for the shield. In every other 3D Zelda game, Link would automatically hold the shield in front of him anytime the player locked onto a target. This made sense. If you’re in a fight and you have a shield, holding the shield in front of you to block attacks is second nature. In Skyward Sword however, in order to get Link to hold the shield in front of him, you have to shake the nunchuck. It made no sense and like everything else it felt finicky and unreliable.
These difficulties with the motion controls might’ve been easier to forgive if they kept it limited to the use of the sword and shield, but they didn’t. In fact, motion controls play a role in almost everything. They aim your bow/slingshot, they fly your bird, they control your drone, they throw your bombs, they play your harp, they’re used to swim, they’re used to roll, they’re used to swing on ropes, they’re even used to insert dungeon keys. Throughout the entire game you’re in a constant and frustrating battle with the motion controls.
The infuriating part is many of these controls, especially the ones involving aiming, would’ve felt great had they instead used the Wii sensor bar (like every other Wii game before it). And just to rub salt in the wound, this doesn’t even mean the Wii sensor bar isn’t necessary to play Skyward Sword as each time you boot it up, the game requires you to calibrate the Wii motion plus by having you point at the center of the screen using the Wii sensor bar.
With the improved hardware in the Switch’s joy cons, I was hopeful the motion controls would feel better in the Switch version of the game. Sadly, at least from what I gathered from about half an hour of experimentation, that’s not the case.
However, given the game also has to be playable in handheld mode, the developers also added a “buttons only mode” setting in the menu. In buttons only mode, pretty much anything that is normally controlled with the motion controls is instead controlled with the right stick. Almost instantly this made swinging the sword feel much more reliable and consistent. I could now hack and slash my way through most enemies with relative ease. However, it doesn’t quite fully get rid of the finickiness.
Also, when switching to buttons only mode, I was met with an unpleasant surprise: with the right stick now dedicated to using the sword, I could no longer use it to rotate the camera. All I could do is press ZL to make the camera face forward or use the motion controls to rotate the camera (another setting in the menu). After some more practice and experimentation though, I was able to get used to this.
As a whole, the controls feel fine in the Switch version of Skyward Sword, but with an actual controller in hand now, I found myself periodically missing the controls of previous 3D Zelda games.
I still haven’t actually beaten Skyward Sword. The first time around, on the Wii, I just got sick of dealing with the motion controls. The second time though, I just found it boring.
The whole atmosphere of the game feels a bit juvenile. Skyloft, the main hub of the game, is essentially a high school setting and not a village with real world problems. The dialogue throughout the game is very excessive and cheesy. Fi, Link’s robotic assistant, constantly says things like “my calculations indicate there is only a 5% chance that this rock is Zelda, so we can safely conclude that this is not Zelda.” The antagonist, Ghirahim, is just insufferable.
What does work is Link’s relationship with Zelda. In previous Zelda games, Link and Zelda are essentially just coworkers, meeting for the first time in-game and working together long enough to get the job done. In Skyward Sword, they’re lifelong friends, and it shows. The player actually becomes motivated to rescue her when she goes missing. In my case though, that motivation didn’t last long.
The worlds that Link explores feel pretty barren. There’s various characters and species that you interact with, but there’s no real civilization aside from the main hub area in the sky. The world is entirely filled with random enemies and ruins. The environments aren’t particularly interesting or beautiful and they don’t ever really feel alive. The maps themselves are also somewhat maze-like and annoying to navigate.
In general, Skyward Sword lacks the emotional, memorable moments of the previous 3D Zelda games. There’s no song of healing. There’s no saving a dying Midna. There’s no beating the shit out of the giant bird that kidnapped your sister. Whatever moments Skyward Sword does have is marred by its cheesy dialogue. The problem is made worse by its disappointing soundtrack. It’s not unpleasant to listen to, but there’s nothing in it that’s special or memorable.
Summary
The developers took a lot of risks with Skyward Sword, with the extensive use of motion controls, the flexible inventory and the introduction of the stamina bar. Many of these ideas worked well and would go on to be further improved by Breath of the Wild, but some didn’t work so well. The Switch version of Skyward Sword made a number of quality of life improvements, including the ability to omit motion controls, that made the game a lot less frustrating and more enjoyable. However, the writing, soundtrack and overall atmosphere of Skyward Sword doesn’t meet the mark of the great Zelda games before it and after it.