Cantaim
Shriekbat
Well, I've been on a bit of a Zelda kick recently. I got back into Tears of the Kingdom a month or so ago, after doing a replay of Breath of the Wild. In the middle of that Tears of the Kingdom replay, I realized I had received Skyward Sword HD as a gift many months ago and never played it. Not one to ignore a mistake upon realizing it, I decided enough was enough, and that I'd give the last Zelda game on the Wii a chance on my Switch.
For reference, on top of never playing this game on the Switch, I never played this game on the Wii either! I know of parts of the games thanks to osmosis and getting bits and blurbs from the first Hyrule Warriors. So, I knew of Ghirahim and Demise, that this was a sort of origin story for the entire series, and how the game is a bit hit or miss in spots. But, without further ado, let's dive in.
The first thing I'd like to talk about is the music of Skyward Sword. As far as I'm aware, this is the first console Zelda title to use a live orchestra for its soundtrack. It might also be the first in general, but I'm only 100% confident on the console part, haha. But, back on point, as the first game of its kind musically on consoles, you can definitely tell that going in, the composers knew they'd eventually take their tunes to orchestras. There's a really big emphasis at the start of the game for these large sweeping tracks. Now, the downside for me is I was not very good at Skyward Sword, so I often had the tracks interrupted by the low heart sound effect. Though, on the bright side, I did generally like the tracks I heard without interruptions! Some of my select highlights are below.
(Insert famous bit of trivia about how this is Zelda's lullaby backwards here).
(They said not to break the chandelier. You didn't, right)?
Overall, one of the things I think the game did really well musically was giving great calming and relaxing music in Skyloft. Yes, the surface world isn't as bad as they thought, but the further you get in the game, the clearer it gets that Skyloft really is paradise. The music reflecting this in most every Skyloft location was really nice to me.
To look ahead, I think it would make sense to talk about the graphics and art that accompanied all the music of this game. Coming off the grittier fantasy look that Twilight Princess had, Skyward Sword went for a gentler watercolor look across all its environments and enemies. Colors are bright but not too vibrant; the most common enemy, bokoblins, are actually rather silly to look at, and nothing seems to be trying to stress you out too much while playing. I think part of the influence for this might have been due to its heavy use of motion controls. I have no source for this and could be proven wrong easily. But I felt like, art-wise, it was all done so as to keep people from getting too stressed or intimidated during fights due to the heavy use of the Wii mote.
I've put some choice screenshots below if anyone wants 3 doses of Skyward Sword.
Not entirely done with this, so I'd like to talk about enemies. Part of the fun for Zelda (at least for me) is seeing how the team interprets classic monsters and bosses of the series with each new entry, along with their own original creations for their entry to stand alongside them. Truthfully, for the regular enemies, there weren't many I thought of as iconic. The most fun I had was in the second half of the game when the bokoblins got really into character in the dungeons they were in and dressed thematically with them. But what did not disappoint me were the boss designs! I am actually a sucker for quite a few of the bosses and mini bosses in this game. Ghirahim and Demise had fun designs; the pirate captain was inspired, and I found myself loving most all of the dungeon bosses!
Like before I've put screenshots of some but this time added comments beneath each picture.
Phew, that was a lot of pictures. I think that's about it on the art and enemy design side. I could easily ramble about this for a few paragraphs, but I think it's best to keep things a little bit in scope. I think the natural thing to move onto next is gameplay since I brought up motion controls earlier.
I am a bad person to ask about this for a few reasons. One, I love when games in long-running series experiment with wild new things, and a mostly motion-controlled Zelda game was fascinating for me. I played mostly with the non-motion-controlled Switch setup. But I did make sure to do bosses with and without motion controls. The game is so centered around motion controls you can easily tell you are not playing the original vision when not using them. Which makes talking about this hard as I'm aware I didn't get the full experience. But in my time with the boss fights, while I loved it when it worked, I did not love it when it didn't! Something I think summarizes the entire game's control scheme. It can be a great and interactive experience, but it can also be a frustrating interactive experience within seconds of each other. This was true for me in the controls as well as the dungeons themselves. I'm not really going to talk about the dungeons. I know some love Zelda for them, but to me, I really do play the series for everything else. But if I'm not going to talk about the dungeons, I suppose I can move onto talking about the story. I had fun with it, so I'm kinda pumped to lay it out and chat about it!
Skyward Sword has a lot of things going for it. It's the first fully original Wii Zelda game, it's an origin story, and it's celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series in general. There's a lot on its plate, and I think it by and large nails most of what it wants to do. To start, we find ourselves in Skyloft. Link, in this game, is a knight in training at Skyloft Academy. He is currently having a foreboding dream before he is abruptly awoken by a...
Loftwing?
Well, we can't all have a glorious beginning, but I think this fits Skyward Sword Link. We have Link here on the day of his graduation, being a bit unimpressed that he got woken up early at Zelda's request. If he can win a ceremonial game later in the day, he'll be a graduate knight of Skyloft Academy and begin the next phase of his life! Through context clues and reading Zelda's diary later in the game, we can find Link didn't seem to spend much (if any) time preparing for this event. It sets the stage for this Link to be a little different than every other version, in that he seems to be a little lazy—a trait that may come to bite him in the butt later. Back on point, though, Link was woken up early in order to get some practice in before the event, at Zelda's request. The problem is his Loftwing (the giant birds you ride) isn't answering its summon. Upon investigation, we find the culprit behind this t...
GROOSE. Wow sorry don't know what happened there Groose broke in. But yea Groose locked up your bird and as a result Link free's it, wins the event, and gets to have a special ceremony with Zelda afterwords. Zelda like Link is different in this game than normal. In Skyward Sword she's a lot more playful and kinda flirty with Link. A stark contrast to her Twilight Princess version that was very stern.
At the special ceremony, Zelda presents Link with a sailcloth. This comes full circle later, but legends say that the Goddess Hylia gifted this to her chosen hero. After this intimate moment, you and Zelda go for a flight on your Loftwings before a tornado erupts and forces Zelda beneath the cloud sea. This sets off a chain of events that lead to Link finding the Skyward Sword in Skyloft and departing beneath the clouds to the land below.
As far as prologues go, I liked what this game did. I'm told it takes much longer in the Wii version compared to the Switch port, so that is also a plus. But for a game with a very limited cast, this portion does a good job at setting everything up to be paid off (by roughly the halfway point). I won't further recap the story as I'd be here for a while if I did. But Link's mini character arc starts here and wraps up at the end of the third dungeon. He starts off the game not really pressed about anything and doesn't seem to mind that he just missed finding Zelda at the end of the first dungeon. By the second dungeon, he arrives late again only to be chewed out by Impa for not getting there on time and helping Zelda. Then at the third dungeon, Link finally arrives on time to interrupt Ghirahim's surprise attack and ask Impa if he made it on time. Impa smiles and says "yeah," and that brings a close to Link's small arc. No longer the slacker, he's someone ready to tackle the challenge without holding back.
Other fun story highlights are that legend at the start of the game about how the goddess gave a sailcloth to her chosen hero. Well, over the course of the game, it's revealed that Zelda is the mortal reincarnation of that goddess. After this reveal, time travel is introduced, and Link goes back into the past to talk to Zelda, who has now fully regained her memories as a goddess. She then reaffirms to Link that he is her chosen champion of legend. Then in the finale, you go back to the past one last time to defeat Demise, the evil that the goddess and her champion fought. I don't think the game points it out at the end, but reflecting on this scene, it's rather cute. Nobody at the time knew this, but the legend isn't some impersonal epic about a god and her champion. It was actually a story about Link and Zelda.
I have some more thoughts about the game and story but it's probably good to end here. I'd love to talk more about it so if anyone is down to chat after reading this text dump feel free to post!
For reference, on top of never playing this game on the Switch, I never played this game on the Wii either! I know of parts of the games thanks to osmosis and getting bits and blurbs from the first Hyrule Warriors. So, I knew of Ghirahim and Demise, that this was a sort of origin story for the entire series, and how the game is a bit hit or miss in spots. But, without further ado, let's dive in.
The first thing I'd like to talk about is the music of Skyward Sword. As far as I'm aware, this is the first console Zelda title to use a live orchestra for its soundtrack. It might also be the first in general, but I'm only 100% confident on the console part, haha. But, back on point, as the first game of its kind musically on consoles, you can definitely tell that going in, the composers knew they'd eventually take their tunes to orchestras. There's a really big emphasis at the start of the game for these large sweeping tracks. Now, the downside for me is I was not very good at Skyward Sword, so I often had the tracks interrupted by the low heart sound effect. Though, on the bright side, I did generally like the tracks I heard without interruptions! Some of my select highlights are below.
(Insert famous bit of trivia about how this is Zelda's lullaby backwards here).
(They said not to break the chandelier. You didn't, right)?
Overall, one of the things I think the game did really well musically was giving great calming and relaxing music in Skyloft. Yes, the surface world isn't as bad as they thought, but the further you get in the game, the clearer it gets that Skyloft really is paradise. The music reflecting this in most every Skyloft location was really nice to me.
To look ahead, I think it would make sense to talk about the graphics and art that accompanied all the music of this game. Coming off the grittier fantasy look that Twilight Princess had, Skyward Sword went for a gentler watercolor look across all its environments and enemies. Colors are bright but not too vibrant; the most common enemy, bokoblins, are actually rather silly to look at, and nothing seems to be trying to stress you out too much while playing. I think part of the influence for this might have been due to its heavy use of motion controls. I have no source for this and could be proven wrong easily. But I felt like, art-wise, it was all done so as to keep people from getting too stressed or intimidated during fights due to the heavy use of the Wii mote.
I've put some choice screenshots below if anyone wants 3 doses of Skyward Sword.
Suprise secret 4th Ghirahim
Not entirely done with this, so I'd like to talk about enemies. Part of the fun for Zelda (at least for me) is seeing how the team interprets classic monsters and bosses of the series with each new entry, along with their own original creations for their entry to stand alongside them. Truthfully, for the regular enemies, there weren't many I thought of as iconic. The most fun I had was in the second half of the game when the bokoblins got really into character in the dungeons they were in and dressed thematically with them. But what did not disappoint me were the boss designs! I am actually a sucker for quite a few of the bosses and mini bosses in this game. Ghirahim and Demise had fun designs; the pirate captain was inspired, and I found myself loving most all of the dungeon bosses!
Like before I've put screenshots of some but this time added comments beneath each picture.
The picture may be low quality but the feeling of excitement when you realize he's gonna rush you is anything but!
I've seen some people say they don't like this leviathan and that it's too silly. But to me this is stuff I love. A silly design that would absolutely make me poop my pants if I was looking over a boat and saw a giant orange eye stare back.
A very simple boss that was another rendition of the classic "hit a ball back and forth" boss the series tends to always do. I loved the section before this where you chased down the infected sky whale and the infection itself is this great mix of dinosaur and virus.
GIANT ROBOT ALL CRITICISMS INVALID
Phew, that was a lot of pictures. I think that's about it on the art and enemy design side. I could easily ramble about this for a few paragraphs, but I think it's best to keep things a little bit in scope. I think the natural thing to move onto next is gameplay since I brought up motion controls earlier.
I am a bad person to ask about this for a few reasons. One, I love when games in long-running series experiment with wild new things, and a mostly motion-controlled Zelda game was fascinating for me. I played mostly with the non-motion-controlled Switch setup. But I did make sure to do bosses with and without motion controls. The game is so centered around motion controls you can easily tell you are not playing the original vision when not using them. Which makes talking about this hard as I'm aware I didn't get the full experience. But in my time with the boss fights, while I loved it when it worked, I did not love it when it didn't! Something I think summarizes the entire game's control scheme. It can be a great and interactive experience, but it can also be a frustrating interactive experience within seconds of each other. This was true for me in the controls as well as the dungeons themselves. I'm not really going to talk about the dungeons. I know some love Zelda for them, but to me, I really do play the series for everything else. But if I'm not going to talk about the dungeons, I suppose I can move onto talking about the story. I had fun with it, so I'm kinda pumped to lay it out and chat about it!
Skyward Sword has a lot of things going for it. It's the first fully original Wii Zelda game, it's an origin story, and it's celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series in general. There's a lot on its plate, and I think it by and large nails most of what it wants to do. To start, we find ourselves in Skyloft. Link, in this game, is a knight in training at Skyloft Academy. He is currently having a foreboding dream before he is abruptly awoken by a...
Loftwing?
Well, we can't all have a glorious beginning, but I think this fits Skyward Sword Link. We have Link here on the day of his graduation, being a bit unimpressed that he got woken up early at Zelda's request. If he can win a ceremonial game later in the day, he'll be a graduate knight of Skyloft Academy and begin the next phase of his life! Through context clues and reading Zelda's diary later in the game, we can find Link didn't seem to spend much (if any) time preparing for this event. It sets the stage for this Link to be a little different than every other version, in that he seems to be a little lazy—a trait that may come to bite him in the butt later. Back on point, though, Link was woken up early in order to get some practice in before the event, at Zelda's request. The problem is his Loftwing (the giant birds you ride) isn't answering its summon. Upon investigation, we find the culprit behind this t...
GROOSE. Wow sorry don't know what happened there Groose broke in. But yea Groose locked up your bird and as a result Link free's it, wins the event, and gets to have a special ceremony with Zelda afterwords. Zelda like Link is different in this game than normal. In Skyward Sword she's a lot more playful and kinda flirty with Link. A stark contrast to her Twilight Princess version that was very stern.
At the special ceremony, Zelda presents Link with a sailcloth. This comes full circle later, but legends say that the Goddess Hylia gifted this to her chosen hero. After this intimate moment, you and Zelda go for a flight on your Loftwings before a tornado erupts and forces Zelda beneath the cloud sea. This sets off a chain of events that lead to Link finding the Skyward Sword in Skyloft and departing beneath the clouds to the land below.
As far as prologues go, I liked what this game did. I'm told it takes much longer in the Wii version compared to the Switch port, so that is also a plus. But for a game with a very limited cast, this portion does a good job at setting everything up to be paid off (by roughly the halfway point). I won't further recap the story as I'd be here for a while if I did. But Link's mini character arc starts here and wraps up at the end of the third dungeon. He starts off the game not really pressed about anything and doesn't seem to mind that he just missed finding Zelda at the end of the first dungeon. By the second dungeon, he arrives late again only to be chewed out by Impa for not getting there on time and helping Zelda. Then at the third dungeon, Link finally arrives on time to interrupt Ghirahim's surprise attack and ask Impa if he made it on time. Impa smiles and says "yeah," and that brings a close to Link's small arc. No longer the slacker, he's someone ready to tackle the challenge without holding back.
Other fun story highlights are that legend at the start of the game about how the goddess gave a sailcloth to her chosen hero. Well, over the course of the game, it's revealed that Zelda is the mortal reincarnation of that goddess. After this reveal, time travel is introduced, and Link goes back into the past to talk to Zelda, who has now fully regained her memories as a goddess. She then reaffirms to Link that he is her chosen champion of legend. Then in the finale, you go back to the past one last time to defeat Demise, the evil that the goddess and her champion fought. I don't think the game points it out at the end, but reflecting on this scene, it's rather cute. Nobody at the time knew this, but the legend isn't some impersonal epic about a god and her champion. It was actually a story about Link and Zelda.
I have some more thoughts about the game and story but it's probably good to end here. I'd love to talk more about it so if anyone is down to chat after reading this text dump feel free to post!
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