I have been a Legend of Zelda fan since I watched some of their games on Game Grumps and then bought Ocarina of Time 3D when I got a Nintendo 3DS. As for Skyward Sword, I tried playing it once because I have a Wii U and decided to get some Wii stuff for it, but the Wii accessories unfortunately did not work so my first experience playing the game was either standing still or running into walls until I returned the Wii accessories and the game. Now that it’s on the Switch and it moves better with the Joy-Cons, I can finally experience this game and have it actually work! I was really excited to play another game in this series because I find these games to be both exciting and calming at the same time. This game calms me down after a long day of work and brings a smile to my face!
Plot
This game is really interesting to me as this is the prequel to the entire series! So it features the first Link and Zelda. In this game, Link and Zelda live in the clouds in Skyloft which is peaceful. Until one day a tornado comes in and takes Zelda while her and Link are flying around on their Loftwings spending time together after he became an official knight. Link must find Zelda and fulfill a prophecy of a knight who will save the kingdom from evil. The villain this time is not Gannondorf, but Ghirahim.
Motion Controls and Gameplay
The motions controls in this game are actually really fun even thought it did take a little bit to master. The biggest issues for me were first, I am left handed and the sword is controlled with the right hand so it took some getting used to relying on my nondominant hand to swing a weapon. The second thing was that I usually play with both joysticks in the controller provided with the Switch. When I play this, I have to separate the joysticks and put them on my wrists otherwise the motion controls will not work well.
I spent the longest time mastering the controls via the sword tutorial. It’s really nice because you can just keep redoing it over and over again if you need to. I practiced both with the motion controls and the optional button presses so I could get both techniques down before venturing out into actual battles. I can say that it does feel like I’m physically using a sword and shield which makes the game really exciting! But, sometimes it can be frustrating. The biggest issue I had so far was the Skulltulas. They took so much health away because I have to use very precise strikes and thrusts.
The other little fun things are flying and swinging. You move the Joy-Con from side to side to keep the Loftwing from stopping. It again took a bit, but now I know how to keep the Loftwing going. Swinging involves physically swinging the Joy-Con to gain momentum. The hardest one so far is balancing as it’s easy to tip over. But, I found that when I kept resetting the Joy-Con pointer, it did help the game see that I was trying to keep Link balanced. That’s also another great feature. All you do is press Y and the Joy-Con instantly calibrates. This allows me to sit in any position or move my arms around and not mess up the motion controls.
The only minor thing I’m not a fan of is the shield durability. It is frustrating that I have to stop whatever I’m doing when the shield breaks. Especially since it can break fairly easily if you keep getting hit.
First Dungeon
It’s not a Zelda game if it doesn’t have dungeons! The first one was like a forest temple called Skyview Temple. This is where I had to deal with the Skulltulas. There were a lot of them and I don’t like spiders. The worst was when they started crawling towards me! I ended up just flailing my sword around when that happened especially when they grabbed on to me! My favorite was flying the beetle around, I cannot wait to use that more! The first boss was Ghirahim so I was introduced to him as the antagonist. He is a creepy villian and it took a couple of minutes to figure out how to stop him from deflecting all my attacks.
Favorite Moments So Far
The art style is so cute! I love the little Remlits (mostly like a cat, but with a lemur tail and use their ears to float) except at night. In the daytime they follow you around and want picked up! But, at night they get angry eyes and start attacking you. I also love the Kikwi tribe. They look like penguins but they’re also shaped like Kiwi and have big leaf tails! The Loftwings are also cute because they come in bright colors and I enjoy watching them fly!
I am loving this version of Zelda! She can be really sassy! I love when she stands up for Link in front of Groose and starts pointing her finger in his face like she means business! She can also be really sweet since she obviously has a crush on Link thinking about him during the entire knight exam.
What I’m Looking Forward To
I am looking forward to using the motion controls more for combat and also seeing whatever other tools I get in the game. I am also looking forward to seeing more characters in the game. I am very interested in collecting the Gratitude Crystals that may turn a monster back into the human and I’ve heard makes the Remlits friendly at night. I love that you get them by helping people or just finding them in the environment. I also really want to see how the story unfolds and how this connects to the other games.
What did you think of Skyward Sword? Have you played the remaster?
Why We Play Games 