Discussion The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Writeup

[Christi Junior]

This is one of my older Fediverse video game reviews/writeups, one which I was actually quite lucky to find again because I didn't have it saved anywhere, and since most Fediverse search engines are awful due to trannies being scared to death of accountability and therefore sabotaging our ability to find old posts. Just another reason to hate these subhumans. Anyway, this is quite different from my more standard writeups, but I still think it does a good job getting across how I feel about this game. I'll also add a section dealing with Skyward Sword's Based Morality score, to bring this writeup in line with my newer ones. And with that out of the way, My Skyward Sword HD thread/writeup, with lots of thoughts about the remaster, Skyward Sword as a game, and comparable Zelda games:

Starting off, Skyward Sword HD is a really nice remaster, albeit a low-effort one. A lot of the changes people are loving (reducing handholding, making Fi less annoying, eliminating redundant item explanations, speeding up text boxes etc) were extremely easy, nobrainer fixes for Nintendo, and obviously stuff they ought to have gotten right back in 2011. However, they're still changes that make the game significantly more enjoyable, and Nintendo historically has actually been pretty poor at implementing easy, but impactful fixes in their games. Furthermore, they had in Skyward Sword Wii originally doubled down on handholding and excessive explanations even after people complained about them in Twilight Princess. So 2021 Nintendo has either changed their design philosophy significantly (presumably due to BotW's incredible success), or they listen to their fans more, either one being a good thing.

Beyond that, this remaster runs at 1080p 60 FPS, which is the Switch gold standard. The visuals aren't changed much besides the higher resolution, but I always thought Skyward Sword had a really nice art style anyway, one that fit the Zelda series way better than either Wind Waker or Twilight Princes. The use of colors is great, and while some faces probably look way goofier than intended, I still find the game quite easy on the eyes overall.

As for the biggest addition to the HD remaster, namely the alternative to motion controls, I never even tried them. The actual motion controls worked great for me, at least as good as in the Wii original, and I never felt the desire to switch away from them. Relatively frequent recalibration IS necessary, but that's a very quick and easy process anyway. I liked the motion controls in the original, and I liked them here too. From what I've heard about the motion control-alternative in the remaster, the non-motion sword controls work decently well, but are far from ideal and have a significant learning curve to them. It's still a good addition that probably makes the game way more accessible, but given how SS was designed around motion control sword combat, sacrifices were always going to be necessary when discarding motion controls.

As for the game itself, Skyward Sword has always been one of my favorite Zeldas. As I've long said, SS has some of the best items, puzzles, dungeons and bosses in the entire series, and the remaster just reconfirmed all of that. Furthermore, Skyward Sword more or less fixed tons of the minor and not-so minor gripes I had with Twilight Princess. I'd actually argue that Skyward Sword has way less flaws than Twilight Princess overall, but those flaws are generally significantly bigger - but in my case, pretty much all of TP's flaws really bugged me, while I for some reason found it easier to look past most of SS's comparatively bigger flaws.

Part of this is because Skyward Sword feels way more fresh and innovative than Twilight Princess. TP is very much Ocarina of Time 2.0, same structure, same Hyrule, same races (minus the Gerudo and with the addition of Midna's race, which we barely even see outside of the big booty Imp), and yeah, Ganondorf ends up as the main villain again. It's Ocarina of Time, only bigger and prettier (as well as way more sloppily designed), and if it wasn't for Midna the game would barely have had any identity of its own at all.

Skyward Sword by contrast has a very different setting, a very different world structure (for better and worse), lots of new mechanics, lots of new races, and a new (and really great) main villain. The story structure is largely the same as it's been in Zelda games since A Link to the Past, but while this game is not nearly as original as Majora's Mask overall, it still brings enough new elements to the table (many of which made it into BotW), that I find it easier to judge Skyward Sword on its own merits compared to Twilight Princess, which just invites constant comparisons to OoT, usually unfavorable ones.

 

[Christi Junior]

Here's just some stuff I feel Skyward Sword did way better than Twilight Princess:

Exploration - Twilight Princess had a way bigger, fully connected world, but it just feels so flat and empty. In Skyward Sword's much smaller, more compact land-based areas, I actually felt like I was constantly finding useful stuff, be they Goddess Cubes, chests, collectibles (a great Skyward Sword addition), Gossip Stones or Gratitude Crystals. Very rarely did I revisit an old area in Skyward Sword and not find something to make the trip worthwhile.

Characters and Story - Twilight Princess has some pretty garbo storytelling, slow paced, weak payoffs, foreshadowing that goes nowhere and is basically style over substance, with some really cheap misdirection thrown into the mix. I find it really hard to understand why that game gets so much praised for its story. Part of the problem is that the cast of characters is so weak - Midna is the TP's one truly good character, that's it. Skyward Sword has the likes of Groose, Ghirahim, Zelda (both Zelda and Ganondorf were boring af in TP) and, hot take incoming, Fi. Yes, I actually really liked Fi as a character even while she was something of a nightmare as a game companion in the original, I really like her emotionless robot personality that nonetheless sometimes shows sparks of sass and wit. And in the HD remaster she isn't even annoying during gameplay anymore!

As for the story itself - Skyward Sword's big moments generally hit harder and are more emotional, the slow parts actually set up characters and story beats that lead to a real payoff, and I've never been as motivated to save Zelda as in this game, with SS Zelda EASILY being my favorite incarnation of the character, both in terms of design and personality.

Rupees - Money generally felt so worthless in Twilight Princess, yet the game kept shoving it down your pockets and treating it like a worthwhile reward for exploration, which made TP's already disappointing exploration (due to the aforementioned flat, empty overworld) feel even less worthwhile. In Skyward Sword, you actually have useful things to spend money on until like 80-90% into the game. This matters more than you think - it turns money into an actually worthwhile reward for exploration, it makes messing around with bushes and killing enemies way more satisfying, and generally makes faffing around a lot more fun.

Originality - Already went over this, Skyward Sword is just way more fresh and original than TP and has a strong identity of its own (even if you completely ignore motion controls).

Visuals - Super subjective obviously, but I much prefer Skyward Sword's art style. Twilight Princess is just so brown and dull by comparison, and going for Realism back when the GameCube was already in the process of being rendered seriously underpowered was not an inspired choice. Skyward Sword was a big step in the right direction, before BotW basically perfected 3D Zelda's visual style.

Challenge - while not a hard game by any means, enemies and bosses in SS definitely pack more of a punch than they did in Twilight Princess, which pulled its punches almost as much as the notoriously easy Wind Waker did. Skyward Sword even has a Hard Mode available, but I won't give the game too much credit for that feature, because Nintendo made the absolutely RETARDED decision to require you to finish SS in order to gain access to this mode - and even worse, they didn't fix this boneheaded decision in the Remaster. Thankfully, even the default difficulty was spicy enough to make SS the most challenging 3D Zelda game until BotW.

Item use - I'll go more over the Skyward Sword items soon, but one of the reason they're so great is that they stay useful throughout the game, both in terms of mandatory puzzles and utility. Twilight Princess also had a really great item selection, but several of the coolest items were barely ever used outside of their signature temple. The Spinner could have ended up as one of the all-time great new Zelda items, but the designers had like no more ideas for it once you had beaten the temple.

Seriously though, the item selection in Skyward Sword is so good: The Beetle is up there with Oracle of Season's Magnetic Glove as one of the best Zelda items of all time, the Gust Bellows gets put to such cool and creative uses beyond just sand blowing, and the whip is the star of the game's best dungeon. Furthermore, SS brings back a Godlike item like the Double Clawshots, and refines old classics like the Bombs and Arrows. And then there's the fact that many of the items can be upgraded, which is just such a cool addition. Remember when a longer hookshot was a main dungeon item in Ocarina of Time? In SS you actually have all these vast improvements to key items be completely optional, breathing new life even into items as Meh as the slingshot and the bug catching net.

Even better are the puzzles: I know some people don't like how many of SS's pre-dungeon areas are basically glorified obstacle courses, but I really enjoy all the different ideas and challenges that are on display even before you get to the dungeons, there's just so much cleverness and creativity at work here. Special shoutout to the Timeshift Stones, which might just be the coolest mechanic in all of Zelda, and which Skyward Sword just gets such incredible use out of, the developers constantly coming up with new and interesting ideas and challenges, even near the very end of the game. And yet, the best dungeon in the game doesn't even utilize the Timeshift Stones at all, which just goes to how SS is no one-trick pony.

While Twilight Princess does have the stronger dungeon selection overall, due to the sheer number of good dungeons (despite not a single individual TP dungeon being on par with SS's Ancient Cistern), all the good SS puzzles outside of dungeons easily makes SS have the best puzzles and gameplay overall for me. Again, the creativity, cleverness and fantastic utilization of an amazing item selection makes so much of the game a joy to play for me.

 

[Christi Junior]

For some balance, here's something I really dislike in Skyward Sword: The minigames. Some of them are good mind you - the minesweeper one is neat, the sky diving minigame is way more fun than I remembered, and the minecart challenge is pretty cool. However, the pumpkin-carrying minigame might be the worst in all of Zelda, the bamboo cutting game is absolutely retarded and just desyncs the motion controls like crazy, and the target-shooting minigame is SUCH a disappointment. Using the bow is so much fun in Skyward Sword with the motion aiming, as well as the zoom-in and the ability to move around while targeting, but in the lone bow minigame in SS you just stand still and slowly shoot one pumpkin at a time (pumpkins and Skyward Sword minigames really don't mix).

The worst thing is that Skyward Sword had such great potential for minigames with its neat new mechanics, its really quick and agile Link, its excellent item selection and even the Flight sections. In the story there's actually quite a fun Loftwing target breaking mini-game, which you never get to replay. The truly bizarre thing is that Twilight Princess, a game with generally much weaker side content than Skyward Sword (SIDEQUESTS, that's another thing SS does way better than TP that I forgot to mention earlier!), actually has way better minigames that what you find in SS. Very weird.

Most other issues people have with Skyward Sword don't bother me much: The escort sections are dumb, but they are few, short and easy enough to not be a huge deal, and I don't find the padding or the excess boss fights to be nearly as egregious as the haters make them out to be. And I actually quite like flying around on my Loftwing and exploring the Sky, it gives you some of that special sense of freedom that could be found in The Wind Waker, but in a much more condensed form, making traversal much less cumbersome. If there had just been a handful more populated islands, I think the Sky section of the game would have been genuinely great - as things stand, I still think it's a pretty neat aspect of the game.

For various reasons I finished Skyward Sword way more quickly on the Switch than on the Wii. On the Wii I'm pretty sure I needed more than 50 hours to hundred percent the game, on the Switch I did it in like 37 hours. It's actually a really nice length for this kind of game, which is one reason I've come to like Skyward Sword more than Breath of the Wild. Both games have A LOT of moments that make me go "Wow, that's so cool", or "Wow, that was so much fun!", or "Wow, that's so clever", but in BotW those moments feel far more scattered and rare than in SS, because BotW is just so much more time consuming in general. That's one reason I feel BotW is the one Zelda game that comes across as less than the sum of its parts.

Even with the Filler content in the main story, Skyward Sword still kept me way more consistently entertained than BotW, and the superior story and more focused design strikes me as a fair price to pay for less freedom. I definitely suspect that if future Zelda games end up copying BotW's extreme non-linearity and gigantic overworld, the more linear 3D Zelda games will end up seeming way more refreshing and admirable than they do right now, because you don't really appreciate what you have before you lose it.

Skyward Sword also fares well in terms of culture war issues, which was to be expected for a 2011 Nintendo game. My Based Morality score for this game is Neutral, as I think this is a very clear-cut case of an apolitical and pure game. I guess if you're very strict on these sorts of things, you might object to the friendly Demon character Batreaux, but the game is never in danger of entertaining subversive Humans Are The REAL Monsters themes, and the fact that a Demon Lord (Ghirahim) is literally the MAIN VILLAIN of the game should appease even the likes of Frieren.

Speaking of Ghirahim, he's certainly quite flamboyant and effeminate, making it an open question if the character is actually homosexual. Personally, I have no idea if he is or not, but if Ghirahim IS written as gay, I'm actually all for it: I fully endorse villains and other contemptible characters being portrayed as gay or transsexual, that's the kind of LGBTP representation I can get behind, as it promotes the right message AND is true to life. Regardless of whether this Demon Lord is gay or not, he's certainly one of my favorite Zelda villains, and whether his peculiar mannerisms and lack of respect for Link's personal space is due to poofery or just a desire on Nintendo's part to make him creepy, it was definitely an effective way to make the character more memorable.

Overall, for all the talk of Skyward Sword HD being lazy and overpriced, this has actually ended up being favorite retail Zelda game on the Switch, as it took a game I already adored and actually fixed some of my main problems with it. And of course, I much prefer the traditional 3D formula to the new Open World approach.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Its ok thats really just it for me simply ok.