At long, long last, the somewhat divisive Legend of Zelda:
Skyward Sword has been given new life in the form of an HD remaster. Arriving
years after the remasters of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and
Twilight Princess on the 3DS and Wii U, respectively, Skyward Sword HD now has
its turn to be both discovered by those who missed out on its charms back on
the Wii, and of course to be experienced a second time by those who have played
it.
Skyward Sword has always been a somewhat controversial entry
in the series, having been developed exclusively for the Wii and taking full
advantage of its motion controls; specifically, its Motion Plus peripheral.
This fact, along with its release towards the end of the Wii’s lifespan at a
time when many had moved their attention to other consoles, meant that Skyward
Sword was a game that many fans haven’t played or finished, making it ripe for
a remaster.
It comes to the Switch with full 1080p visuals at 60 FPS,
with various improvements to tone down the game’s somewhat aggressive hint
system, speed up the dialogue boxes, and other little tweaks that go a long way
towards a smoother experience. The most major addition is the button-only
control scheme, which allows you to use the right analog stick to recreate the
game’s motion elements. As someone who always felt that Skyward Sword was
somewhat under-appreciated, I was looking forward to the game being given a
second chance, and of course was looking forward to getting to re-experience it
myself. I’m happy to report that Skyward Sword HD is the definitive way to enjoy
the game, even if the Joy Cons have to be recalibrated in motion mode far more
frequently than they should be, and even if aspects of the game’s structure are
more flawed than I remember them being, something I similarly remember thinking
with Wind Waker’s HD remaster a few years ago.
A surprisingly cinematic introduction sets the stage pretty
quickly for what promises to be a much more story-driven Zelda game than its
predecessors. The dialogue remains text-based, sadly, but the cutscenes are
very well-presented and as movie-like as I think text box cutscenes have ever
managed to be. Taking place in a village in the clouds called Skyloft, the
citizens of this world live above an undeveloped, far more dangerous world
below the clouds, one which consists of essentially 3 areas that are traveled
through and are further explored numerous times as the game progresses.
The humans explore the sky world by riding on birds called
Loftwings, while numerous Skyloft citizens train to be knights, who, among many
other things, rescue those who fall from the sky island. Skyloft’s a town with
a lot of character, and serves as a pleasant, albeit fairly under-populated,
hub world of sorts, where numerous side quests can be taken on and where
charming NPCs can be interacted with in typical Zelda fashion. The sky world
you can explore is somewhat reminiscent of the ocean from Wind Waker, though,
it has to be said, on an almost astronomically smaller scale, and with very little
in the way of populated islands to visit beyond Skyloft’s boundaries. Still,
there’s something cool about leaping from Skyloft, summoning your Loftwing, and
(after an unfortunate but brief second or two of loading) soaring through the
clouds. The little islands scattered throughout house treasure chests, which
have to be activated in the world below before they can be accessed, along with
a bar called The Lumpy Pumpkin and one or two other cool little gems. Still,
there’s not much out there, and the vast majority of Skyward Sword’s
exploration and gameplay takes place in Skyloft and on the ground.
But first, the scenario. It’s in the midst of a ceremony
where Link is about to be made a knight that Zelda is swallowed up by a
mysterious force and dragged through the clouds, initiating Link’s journey
below to rescue her. What’s fairly cool about the way Skyward Sword plays out
is that Zelda is both brimming with personality and also bravery; far from
being captured, she teams up with another character named Impa and sets off on
her own journey. At risk of overselling the plot too much, it’s true that in
typical Zelda fashion Link undergoes much of the journey on his own, and the
game follows the standard Zelda blueprint of minimalist storytelling and object
collecting, but Skyward Sword sees it being given the greatest emphasis it has
ever been given in this series (even more so than in its successor, Breath of
the Wild) and there are one or two scenes that are genuinely impactful
emotionally, and are pulled off incredibly well and seemingly effortlessly.
It’s a story definitely worthy of its journey.
As Link pursues Zelda into the land below, he finds a world essentially
divided into 3 different areas, (Faron Woods, Eldin Volcano, and Lanayru
Desert), areas which expand as Link learns new abilities and the story
progresses. The locations serve as cool areas each with their own compelling
charms and surprises (possible exception of Elden Volcano aside) but it feels
like a sad limitation that you can’t travel between them on foot in-game as one
full world, instead having to choose one to descend to from the sky. It’s
something which bothered me much more today than it did back in 2011, making
each area feel segmented from each other, lessening the feeling of full
exploration. Exploring the sky world seems like it was meant to be a
replacement for this, but given how barren much of it is, and given the fact
that the majority of its treasures have to first be unlocked on the ground
before they can be accessed in the sky, it makes Skyward Sword unquestionably
feel like it’s among the most linear of the series, even though there’s still
quite a bit to explore and even though at one point towards the end you’re
given the ability to progress through the rest of the story somewhat
non-linearly.
Skyward Sword’s gameplay contains both some of the series’
best along with some of its more tedious. The dungeons, unquestionably, are the
most fun the series has seen, with excellent pacing, great use of Link’s
abilities, the addition of in-dungeon save points, and some clever puzzles. The
much-dreaded Water Temple here is actually a full-on blast, and arguably the
most fun dungeon in the game. As someone who found its predecessor, Twilight
Princess, to have had a few too many dungeons, Skyward Sword’s a Zelda game
that could have used at least one or two more of them, and falls into the same
trap of Wind Waker in that towards the end it recycles previous dungeons rather
than having contained a much-needed additional one or two.
The bosses range from some of the series’ cooler ones to
bland, swordplay-driven encounters, but thankfully the majority of them are a
lot of fun. Like the rest of the game, dungeons make frequent use of the motion
controls, though as Skyward Sword HD is now fully playable without them, they
should hopefully serve as much less of a barrier to people’s enjoyment of the
game.
The area in which motion controls have the largest impact
(and where they thankfully work the best) is in combat. Enemies have to be
targeted with your sword at certain angles, with swiping your Joycons at those
angles triggering 1:1 motion. It’s something that worked quite well on the Wii
and it works very well here too. Combat’s so satisfying with motion that while
I tried switching back and forth between motion and non-motion controls, I
ultimately stuck with the motion ones because they just make combat feel so
much more vibrant. Playing without motion still features the same targeted slash
mechanics, though this is achieved by sliding the right analog stick in the
directions needed to defeat enemies. This is also something that works well,
and its addition serves as a good choice for people who just can’t stand motion
controls. The only major weakness to using this mode is that you lose some of
the seamless camera control offered in motion mode, as button-only mode
requires you to hold down the trigger before using the right analog stick to
move the camera, since otherwise the right analog stick is taken up by the
sword controls. It’s a slight drawback and something to consider when deciding
which control scheme to use, though thankfully the control methods can be
switched at any time.
The biggest issue that’s exclusive to this remaster is that
the Joycons need to be recalibrated almost constantly, at least, in my
experience. It was something that occasionally had to happen with the Wii
Motion Plus, which required the Wii Remote to be set flat on a table and
recalibrated with the TV. Though Skyward Sword HD thankfully streamlines this
to simply pointing your Joycon at the center of the TV and pressing Y
instantaneously, this has to be done almost all the time; whenever I wanted to
use a non-combat ability that required motion for its movement, (which is most
of them) the motion seemed completely off, and had to be recalibrated. It feels
almost broken, and served to constantly remove me from the immersion that the
developers intended. Were it not for the fact that the motion controls are more
reliable (once calibrated) and that Skyward Sword HD is far more forgiving with
various motion actions than the original, I’d almost argue that the motion
controls worked better on the Wii because the controller didn’t have to be
recalibrated so frequently. All in all, it winds up being a draw. As far as the
enjoyment of using motion controls is concerned, the powerups are all fun to
use, fitting the Boss Keys into their slots is always a cool little exercise, and
the motion elements keep things fresh and interesting. What remains tedious
with motion controls is flying your Loftwing, and it's a bummer that using an
analog stick (while in Motion Control mode) wasn’t an option, as it’s really
the only thing that I’d rather have used the Button Only control scheme with.
Visually, Skyward Sword HD is a beautiful game. The art
style was one that I struggled with on the Wii, feeling unsure of what they
were going for and thinking that things looked colorful, but incredibly blurry
and washed out. In Skyward Sword HD though, what was intended with the visual
style is far clearer, and the game looks gorgeous in most areas. It’s
unquestionably one of the weaker art styles the series has seen, but with this
remaster I’m now much more able to appreciate it and understand it, and overall
I’d have to say that it works quite well for what it is. Musically is where
Skyward Sword really shines; it goes with a full orchestrated soundtrack, but
unlike many other MIDI series that attempt this (Tales of, Atelier, Dragon
Quest) Skyward Sword pulls it off without losing the charm and vibrancy of the
music this series has always been known for, and it sounds incredible. Aside
from the high quality of the music, the tunes themselves are some of the best the
Legend of Zelda has seen from the beginning.
Though this remaster goes a long way towards fixing several of
Skyward Sword’s issues, several still remain. There’s no quest menu for
sidequests, forcing you to remember who assigned them to you and what the quests
were. I found myself using the Switch’s snapshot feature to note whenever I
took on a sidequest, which is a semi-solution, but still feels sloppy. Finding
quests to take on can also be a challenge, as many citizens of Skyloft seem to
spend most of their time in their homes, which means you have to randomly enter
house after house searching for NPCs who will offer you quests to take on.
It's in this sense that while there’s a solid amount of
people to interact with in Skyloft (though considering its supposed existence as
the home for all of humanity, it just doesn’t feel populated enough to serve
that purpose) and many quests to take on, it never really feels like it, and
much of the side content will likely remain hidden from many players as a
result.
These issues were completely remedied in Breath of the Wild,
thankfully, but even in 2011 Skyward Sword’s weaknesses in this area were
readily apparent, with the game’s lack
of any sort of interface for locating and tracking side content always feeling
like an obvious oversight.
What I didn’t seem to notice back then, but what feels like
a significant drawback today, is Skyward Sword’s segmented world. Though each
of the game’s 3 ground areas greatly expand to reveal new locations as you
progress through the story, that they’re all separated from each other gives
them a very disconnected feel. It doesn’t help much that the game design’s
incredibly repetitive; it follows the same formula when you arrive at each area,
each time, which begins with an incredibly frustrating Dowsing section, where
you have to wander the environments in a Find the Object mode before you can
progress the story, something that I grew to dread each time I arrived at a new
location. Two of the three locations (exception being Eldin Volcano, which is
pretty much exactly as it first seems) offer some very cool surprises and interesting
mechanics, but the formulaic nature of Skyward Sword’s progression becomes
abundantly clear early on, and it’s hard to pretend that it doesn’t exist,
especially once the game stops throwing new dungeons in your direction towards
the end.
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword however is a game that was a
blast to re-experience. 10 years later, I still feel that it’s criminally
underrated among a faction of the Zelda fanbase, and hopefully this remaster,
with the option of turning off the motion controls, will help it find new fans.
Speaking for myself however, the motion controls are an essential part of the
game’s experience, and I wound up keeping them on, even if the constant need to
recalibrate the Joycons kills the immersion and winds up feeling like a step
back from the Wii Motion Plus. The story here is easily the best-told in the
series, with some genuinely moving moments and great characters and settings. The
dungeons and music are also easily some of the series’ best to date. Skyward
Sword’s repetitive and formulaic progression, the segmented nature of the world
below, a tragically empty sky and a lack of a quest menu does leave a mark, as
does the developers’ decision to re-use previous dungeons and bosses towards
the end, something Wind Waker fans will definitely be familiar with. In fact,
as with Wind Waker HD, the structural weaknesses of the game design became far
more apparent to me when re-experiencing it than they were back when I’d first
played it, and though it does tarnish my thoughts on the game a little bit, Skyward
Sword HD is overall one I’d easily recommend, and one that, flaws aside, holds
up well and was fully deserving of what turns out to be quite a solid HD
remaster.
4/5
