Coming late to a franchise as old as Zelda is a funny thing. See, I got this game the day it came out. Back then, I was fairly new to the series, so I didn't know about the template Zelda games had been following for years. As such, I completely understand why there are such a diversity of opinions on Skyward Sword. Much like Twilight Princess, those who played this as one of their first Zelda games tend to love it. Series veterans, on the other hand, often bemoan the lack of new ideas.

While I like Skyward Sword, the veterans are not wrong in their assessment. The "new" elements of Skyward Sword are refinements of ideas from past Zeldas. The silent realms were just better Twilight sections, flying was another mode of transportation like Wind Waker's sailing, and the story hit similar beats to previous games. What's worse is that Skyward Sword failed with ideas that past entries got right. The Sky competes with Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field for the most barren overworld in the series; the motion-based combat, while fun to me, is seen as shallow by some because directional swinging is all you do (something I cannot disagree with); Fi was a downgrade from Midna in every way for reasons everyone knows; and the game felt the need to tell you about items CONSTANTLY. I KNOW WHAT AN AMBER RELIC IS!!!

The flaws of Skyward Sword on Wii are so prevalent that I do not blame anyone for dismissing the game entirely, even with the QoL features in the HD version. Some issues, like the game's linearity, cannot be "fixed" without changing the core experience. Regardless, I still value several of its features. The aforementioned silent realms are thrilling, several of the characters are amazing, the orchestral soundtrack is good, and several of the dungeons are among the most imaginative in Zelda history.

The dungeons are actually the key to why I enjoy Skyward Sword so much. They have always been my favorite part of Zelda and were designed extremely well in Skyward Sword, but Nintendo also did something fairly unique by designing the three surface worlds like dungeons. They incorporated loads of environmental puzzles requiring a decent level of critical thinking. These types of puzzles are not new to Zelda, but previous games rarely had you solve them in areas outside of dungeons. I believe this was a great idea, as the content between dungeons in other Zelda games often came across as filler (catch a fish, talk to these NPCs, obtain these random items, etc). There was still some of that in Skyward Sword, especially later on, but for the most part, the game gave you a puzzle to solve and incrementally rewarded you with more interesting puzzles and story progress. The game kept my attention the whole way through and I would personally like to see more handcrafted challenges like these in future Zelda games.

The last thing I will address is the game's linearity. I'm not opposed to linear games. In fact, I usually prefer them over open-ended games because they often have a harder time crafting unique challenges for the player. However, Zelda was created to be about exploration and this entry did not have that, even though the Sky would have been a perfect place for it. One could argue that its linearity created a more focused adventure, but one need only look at previous 3D Zeldas to see how Skyward Sword didn't need to sacrifice its exploration. With the exception of Breath of the Wild, all of the 3D Zeldas are linear. Despite this, they felt expansive and packed a respectable amount of optional content in their worlds. Skyward Sword did have optional Skyloft quests and collectibles, but the world felt small, and that is unfortunate.

Skyward Sword is not a bad game. It's worth a playthrough if you prefer Zelda to be all about dungeons, puzzles, and epic storytelling. It satisfied me, but it won't satisfy everyone. I'm okay with that though. The series experienced an important shift in its design philosophy going forward and it wouldn't have happened if Skyward Sword wasn't so flawed. If nothing else, it is part of the series' legacy and should be remembered, warts and all.

Reviewed on Jan 21, 2023


Comments