Whew. Well, I'm not sure where to even begin with this one. My wife and I have been playing the game for several weeks, and we beat it a couple of days ago. (There are going to be unmarked spoilers in this post and thread, BTW.) We ended up clocking 90+ hours on the save file, although we semi-regularly left it paused for multiple hours, so I'd say a good 20 or so hours of that is from the game sitting there paused, calling to us to forget about meals and sleep and to come play it some more. So 70ish hours is probably more accurate, which I'd say is quite a lengthy Zelda game. We did complete all of the sidequests (excepting optional games which we at least tried out), rescued Batreaux, collected all pieces of heart, completed each Goddess Cube and respective treasure chest, and upgraded all necessary equipment.



As I said, I don't even know where to start, really. I guess I should say first and foremost that I absolutely loved the game and it's certain to be one of my favorite Zeldas, although I've finished it too recently to have the perspective just yet to know where I'd rank it overall in the games I've played in the series (pretty much all of them except 1/2 and the DS ones).



To me, what made the game so special is what I understand was a turn-off for a lot of players. Rather than vast, open and connected spaces to explore, the game sections off various chunks of the world into explorable puzzles to be solved, like outdoor dungeons. I like NPCs as much as the next person. Heck, I love the sidequests in Majora's Mask, which really make the game for me. But I felt like this game had a great and different idea for how to explore a world in Zelda. I'm not sure it's important to me that every subsequent Zelda follow this same philosophy--one thing I love about the franchise is that it's always reinventing itself--but it worked really well for me, here. I love that you revisit these puzzling areas in new and creative ways, be it through use of a new item, or those amazing forays into the Silent Realm.



Though flying, like swordplay, took me some practice to get used to, I came to really enjoy my time soaring through The Sky. It's a bit like sailing in Wind Waker. I will say I was hoping the upgrade air-spin move would help me to fly around more quickly, a la the Swift Sail, but you fly around decently quickly to begin with so that wasn't too much of a disappointment. I liked exploring the islands, especially once the Thunderhead was unlocked. The Lumpy Pumpkin was a neat little locale to check out, and Skyloft itself felt like a large combination of Windfall Island and Kakariko Village (the OoT version), plenty lively and the NPCs were definitely plenty diverse and engaging.



Specifically, I loved the Batreaux sidequest. I thought it was endlessly fascinating that his human form ended up being a person who looked pretty much exactly like he did as a "monster." Just goes to show that (a) it's possible people would have accepted him as he already was and (b) the grass is often greener on the other side, and I guess (c) if the people of SkyLoft really were terrified of Batreaux in his original form but accepted him as a human, that says something interesting to me about xenophobia and how a slight change in a person's appearance is enough for acceptance or rejection, as we often see in real life. It actually makes me think of that movie Focus, where William H. Macy plays a man who gets a new pair of glasses and is accused by anti-Semites of being Jewish because of that small change in his appearances. Anyway, I enjoyed the Batreaux sidequests quite a bit. The individual NPC gratitude crystal quests helped add flavor to Skyloft and reminded me of a cross between the Bomber's Notebook and Kinstone Fusion sidequests in MM and MC, respectively.



I'm really jumping around here quite a bit, so I'll talk a bit about bosses. This game has some of the most epic and memorable bosses of any Zelda I've played, and that's really saying something. Even though a battle like Tentalus wasn't terribly difficult, it was plenty epic and cinematic to play through. I'd say Koloktos was my overall fave, though it's hard to pick. The Ghirahim battles were extraordinarily visceral and really relied on your swordsmanship (which took some time to learn, as did the controls in general, but felt so good once you got the hang of 'em), even more so than the final battle with Demise. I did 8/10 Thunder Dragon battles to get the Hylian Shield. Koloktos was my final battle and I landed the final blow with 1/2 heart to my name. Just brutal! Totally satisfying, though.



What can I say of the twist with Impa? I hoped I was right in predicting it and it was so satisfying when it was revealed. It revealed hidden depths to her character and deepened the importance of Groose to the overall plot. It's endlessly fascinating to me to try to parse out the Zelda lore, and connections like this (past to future Impa) really strike a chord with me. I presume as well that just as the Zoras and Kokiri one day evolve into the Ritos and Koroks of the Great Sea, the Parella and Kikwis would one day become Zoras and Kokiri. Really neat touch with the timeline placement, there. Same thing with Demise's hatred reincarnating as Ganon (and presumably others). I believe this was also the first time Zelda was confirmed to be the descendant/reincarnation of Hylia, although I might be mistaken about that.



I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about Fi, who's always a polarizing figure around these parts. Going in I was armed with the knowledge of how much a lot of people disliked her as a companion, so maybe I just kind of knew what to expect, but I really actually liked her character, and I didn't find her too grating or intrusive at all, and not anything worse than other Zelda companions. Sure, on occasion she told me r e a l l y slowly about the Wiimote batteries being low, but in general she wasn't too bad, and I found her interpretive dances kind of hilarious, and I liked the bond between her and MaxJenET. I like that she is within the Master Sword now, protecting future Links and allowing them to wield its full power. I like that she and Ghirahim are subtly revealed to be two sides of the same coin, each serving their own Master, one the picture of poise and calm, the other filled with delusion and unbridled madness.



I'm sure there are other things I could still talk about. The epic dungeons, which I barely touched upon, from the brilliant Timeshift Stone mechanics in the Lanayru Mining Facility to the Buddhist minimalism of the Ancient Cistern, to the modular brilliance of Sky Keep. The OST, which was Zelda music at its classic, sweeping best. The various collectable bugs and treasure with their subtle interactions with the environment (I had to look up in the guide to find out I could collect bird feathers and bees!), the delight of catching a string of Tadtones successfully, and the satisfying click of correctly deciphering the placement of a thematic Boss Key, be it an Ancient Circuit or a Blessed Idol. For now, though, I'll just leave it at this: this is a great Zelda game, and I loved every minute of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRbROTdOgj0

Amazing level design, though I wish it was harder. First was terrible, the filler was obnoxious.

Also didn't mind the motion controls.

People give this game a lot of shit for the fetch quests towards the end. I just used a guide to avoid getting stuck. Made the game infinitely more enjoyable. I'd even agree with the 10's it got.

Probably my favorite Zelda, but I think I probably have a few favorite Zeldas. There's a reason why it's my favorite gaming franchise. Skyward was phenomenal.

Best game in the series.

i really didnt think the zelda team could top the dungeons that were in twilight princess, but they really did it with this game. the dungeon design in this game is godly. my only real problem with this game is the barren sky area.

Pretty good game. I really loved the story and the animation, and the dungeons. Also, while I loved the puzzled like overworld, I wouldn't want to see it become a standard for the series; a compromise of something like Wind Waker and SS would be better.

Also I really liked how Link felt much more human and alive.

This is one of those games that will be a hit or miss depending on whether a player takes the time to learn the finesse the controls make possible or gets impatient and blames them. It's up there with Wind Waker as my favourite of the 3D series, largely thanks to the dungeon design and the tightness of overworld spaces dense with activity, the best integration of abstract logic puzzles with environment design that the series has yet seen. The only truly rough patch of the game was the Tadtone hunt, and the one element where the game really skimped was in the mini-islands in the sky, which never lived up to the variety and depth of exploration in Wind Waker's Great Sea. But the three-dungeon middle act from Lanayru Mining Facility to the Sandship was perhaps the best and most consistently interesting stretch in any Zelda game to date.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was so disappointed by the end that I didn't even bother to beat the final boss.

I wish that I felt the way you do about the game. The only positivity I can drag out of this game is the Ancient Cistern.

Hated the game. But whatev's, glad some people really enjoy it

The density of design in those three 'below the clouds' areas was incredible.

It's definitely my 2nd favorite 3D Zelda. (Wind Waker is 1)

In my opinion the controls were great. Pacing, backtracking ruined the game. Great motion controls, poor Zelda game.

Sky keep: Yo dawg, we herd you like dungeons so we put a dungeon in Yo dungeon.

It's not a bad game but easily the worst in the series. That doesn't make it bad though, just good. Fi is the biggest problem with the game for me, right next to the padding and forced light heartedness of it when it should've been dark. The music, while great overall, I thought sounded far too much like something out of a Mario game every once in a while. Anywho, I like how the final boss was basically just the devil, straight up, and Link was the one person who could stand their ground in the presence of such a force.

linkman26 said:

Sky keep: Yo dawg, we herd you like dungeons so we put a dungeon in Yo dungeon.

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Bwahah. So true.

maxcriden said:

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70 hours wow! I racked up 50 hours with taking my time. It's a lengthy Zelda game where I think only TP and OoT exceed its length.

I felt the motion controls worked, (except in a unique case in my game where the two times you fight the Scorpion boss, the thrust wouldn't register properly on this enemy only) but in some cases they were a bit convoluted for when simple traditional controls could have made the gameplay more frustration free and straightforward . The fighting mechanics were well implemented, although I was searching more for an evolution in enemy AI or tactics rather than converting the game's enemies into puzzles. Not to say it isn't fun or satisfying, I really enjoyed the combat. But should it return for another game, I'm don;t think so. Moreover, spamming on the sword was still encouraged when you got your first hit in on an enemy, since it was exposed. I felt this was a slight loophole for some enemies in the game's fighting mechanic system.

I found a majority of the non- story relevant NPC's uninteresting in respect to their quests, or even the more interesting story characters having their story boil down to fetch quests. It is a shame when you compare it to WW or MM, with more engaging NPC's that even uttered only a few lines. Although I understand the lack of towns or habitants in the game in regards to the game's storyline , I felt it was particularly sparse relative to other Zelda games. Especially when you consider most of the side quests or NPC interactions were involved in Skyloft only, not in the Parella, Gorons or the Mountain animals. The game's world and fiction was weakly exploited in the game's surroundings when compared to MM. Although the game's storyline itself was particularly interesting in many parts (although much of the dialogue could have been constrained to a few lines).

The conversion of the overworld into puzzles was the right idea, a lesson learned from TP to make the game dense. But a large amount of the overworld puzzles were too simple in comparison to some of the game's incredible dungeon design. Take Kikiwi Forst, a legacy of Beta Forest that was attempted to be implemented in TP and Ocarina. The idea of searching through a large and thick forest is exciting in my prospect. But the execution was weak. After completing the search quest (which I found to be partly fun), there was little to do. The game wasted the potential of the most explorable and possibly dense part of the game on a simple find quest. And they did it again with the latter part of the game when the forest was flooded. The whole dynamics and environment had completely deformed and changed and the story quest was to collect tadtones? What? This was more infuriating then fun, and the flooded environment reverted back to normal as soon as you have finished the quest. Unlike a Mario 3D World game, where new environments and power ups are fully utilised to provide and interesting and sometimes challenging stages, Skyward Sword fails to capitalise on it. I hope the Zelda team take a few lessons from the Mario team.

A large part of why I don't regard this game as my favourite is the lack of an open world or the lack of an illusion of an open world with interesting optional explorable content and incentive rewards. Compared to the Great Sea, The Sky had a large amount of tiny mounds of land with relatively no enemies if compared to WW rafts and towers. There were little if not no mini dungeons to explore as opposed to WW. This helped the constrained feel I had in The Sky whereas in I felt there was a large amount of content to explore in WW. The illusion was stronger in WW and even OoT. The Goddess Cubes were an interesting design, but boxed these islands into houses for these chests you found. You did the work at the land below, and in the Sky all you had to do was fall at the right place or use the hookshot. Not to say falling from the Sky was exhilarating, that was one of the nest feelings I've experienced in a Zelda game. Dropping from the Sky off your bird into an island with no loading times is extraordinary.

This may seem like a very critical or scathing eye at the game, but I enjoyed it. I see it as a game with the highest highs and some of the lowest lows. The production upgrade in this game is fantastic (although i still think Wind Waker out charms this game) from the OST and the story/cutscenes. The dungeons are sometimes absolute genius, especially with the timestone manipulation. This game introduced one of the best items in the series with the Beetle. A versatile item that could be used a a substitute for another item. It introduced more ways to defeat enemies and encouraged you to utilise different tools with a quicktoggle inventory system. There was an interesting balance of freedom in the hubs you were allowed to explore once you cleared the critical path.

EDIT: Fi is a terrible character, possibly the worst.

MilesTeg said:

In my opinion the controls were great. Pacing, backtracking ruined the game. Great motion controls, poor Zelda game.

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You "backtrack" in that you have to go through the three main locales again, but you generally revisit areas in most games like this looking for things anyway, and during the "backtracking" segments you're met with completely different gameplay scenarios. Going through these parts again were nothing like going through them the first time.

My least favorite game in the series by far. It did have some nice dungeons though.

And dat Koloktos.

Really loved it, no my favorite zelda, that would be twilight princess, but it probably has my favorite characters of the series barring Midna, its great.

very short zelda even with all the sidequests. took me like 34 hours

.fuck fi
fuck the empty overworld
fuck the underworld which isnt connected
fuck thelack of different environment...like only 3 locals?


great combat, controls, characters and some of the best dungeons in zelda though

I like it a lot.

EhoaVash said:

fuck thelack of different environment...like only 3 locals?

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As if previous zeldas had different locales aside Volcano, Desert, Forest and Lake

The places in SS are the same of the Usual Hyrule but with the sky instead of the central field

It's not my favorite, but probably in my top 5 if not just for the awesome dungeons and bosses. I also liked the story and art style as well. It had some issues (like backtracking/the water music note part/world design had some cons), but I liked the controls and had no real issues with them.

EhoaVash said:

very short zelda even with all the sidequests

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Simply not true. It's longer than most of them, if not all of them. I would say only Ocarina and Twilight rival it in raw length.

fuck the empty overworld

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So fuck Ocarina and Twilight's overworlds too. Most Zelda games have barren overworlds. It's the extension areas (water/desert/forest/volcano) where the real meat of the games lie. Same for this one.

fuck thelack of different environment...like only 3 locals?

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Plenty of environmental variety within these three major locales. The desert alone had the main section which was huge, the temple, the sandsea (including that fucking awesome mine cart coaster thingy), the caves, the gorge, and not to mention the actual dungeon itself.

Entryhazard said:

As if previous zeldas had different locales aside Volcano, Desert, Forest and Lake

The places in SS are the same of the Usual Hyrule but with the sky instead of the central field

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TP had Forest area, Fire mine, lake hylia, desert, snowy mountain, city in the sky, the twilight realm, not to mention all the different towns, locals in places all over the map

while skyward sword had just the Forest, desert and volcano sections but expanding to them...using the same old assets constantly. Not to mention outside the 3 gorons and those stupid octopus things you see once. the land below severely lacks any other locals, towns villages etc.

I have no problems with Skyward Sword controls, I love the idea of turning the world into a big dungeon (just like you, I like the way the franchise is constantly reinventing itself and I'm very open to Aonuma's ideas) and I like the story a lot. Also, I really like Zelda, Groose and Impa in this game, they are amazing characters.

However, pacing is a problem. I hate going back to places I've already been to (except when they completely changed, like the flooded forest, which many hate, but I actually love). I also wish the game was shorter. NPCs in this game are usually praised, and I like them, but... I don't know, Skyloft is really boring to me.

That said, I love Skyward Swords. It's not perfect, but it's an excellent game.

Glad you liked it, Max. Love the puzzle overworld. Really cool setup I hope they revisit to some extent in Zelda U.

EhoaVash said:

TP had Forest area, Fire mine, lake hylia, desert, snowy mountain, city in the sky, the twilight realm, not to mention all the different towns, locals in places all over the map while skyward sword had just the Forest, desert and volcano sections but expanding to them...using the same old assets constantly. Not to mention outside the 3 gorons and those stupid octopus things you see once. the land below severely lacks any other locals, towns villages etc.

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The city in the sky and the twilight realm are just dungeons, i should count the sandship in that regard at least. Also the mining facilty is the first technological dungeon IN THE ENTIRE SERIES

And the lake is in SS too (I'm not saying when the forest is flooded).

All the different towns? Aside the useless starting village you only have Kakariko and the City.

Also the TP Field is terribly barren with just some hole in the rocky walls.

Yep, I love this game as well. Once you give the controls a chance its fantastic IMO. People exaggerate with the fetch quests.

Wasn't a fan of facing imprisoned many times though

Yep, there is a lot about that game that is very puzzling. It's almost as if it wasn't made by Nintendo. By far, the worst 3D Zelda.

Glad you liked it. It's a really well made game, one of the greats.

Everything was just one big dungeon. Sure, you sacrifice pure exploration, but you get really solid gameplay instead.

Honestly, the game is like a third person Metroid Prime.

I enjoyed the game too. Fi sucked and fighting that same boss three times was dumb, but everything else was really good.

Mr. Macintosh!! said:

I wish that I felt the way you do about the game. The only positivity I can drag out of this game is the Ancient Cistern.

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Likewise. I hated it; loved the game's 'water temple' (and its boss).

Mostly I hated the controls. They worked fine, but it got annoying to play in a big "obstacle course" that I had to swing my wrists like crazy to make an progress. That x 40 hours[?] of gameplay....*yaaawn*.

I really tried to play and like this game, the controllers arent for me, I sphad lots of issues with the Skulltulas in the first dungeon and I couldnt even finish the first dungeon.

Hopefully we'll get an HD remaster with a bettter controller scheme.

Skyward Sword fucking rules. Stand and be counted!

This game was all dungeons and combat. I enjoyed that highly, but a lot of people don't and that's where the divisiveness comes from. A lot of people want to explore and do things in the order they want (like in ALBW or Skyrim) and don't care that comes at the expense of well balanced difficulty progression and dungeon complexity.

I've been meaning to replay this and Twilight Princess back to back. But yeah, while I understand where some complaints came from, I loved this game

Game was good. Still one of my fave Zelda games even if it's rather polarizing.

-Horizon- said:

Game was good. Still one of my fave Zelda games even if it's rather polarizing.

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Well that's every Zelda game, so whatever. I'd rather have a series that was consistently polarizing along different axis then one that was consistently good but repetitive.

EhoaVash said:

TP had Forest area, Fire mine, lake hylia, desert, snowy mountain, city in the sky, the twilight realm, not to mention all the different towns, locals in places all over the map

while skyward sword had just the Forest, desert and volcano sections but expanding to them...using the same old assets constantly. Not to mention outside the 3 gorons and those stupid octopus things you see once. the land below severely lacks any other locals, towns villages etc.

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If you're going to include Dungeons it went like this; Forest, Volcanic Caverns, Factory (!), Reservoir+Tomb, Ship, Fire temple.

And yeah, the world below lacks people; that's kinda the point of the back story where the world got plagued by demon wars and Skyloft got chucked up into the clouds. Did you notice a particular trait shared by all the races minus the Gorons? They could hide themselves easily or escape in ways that others found difficult to trace. Don't get me wrong, it would've been cool to see some ruins of settlements from before Skyloft was sent up, but I think the desert ruins already did a good job of filling that niche.

On topic, I agree that SS gets more hate than it deserves, and I agree that Fi is an interesting character, just a poor mechanic. the only gripe I have as far as what it lacked were some traditionally beefy enemies; Darknuts, Iron Knuckles, etc. Also, it's a freaking CRIME that the

trixx said:

Yep, I love this game as well. Once you give the controls a chance its fantastic IMO. People exaggerate with the fetch quests.

Wasn't a fan of facing imprisoned many times though

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I actually really loved facing The Imprisoned. He was so cute.



Look at those toes. He just wants you to tickle them with your sword!

Great game, one of the more memorable Zelda games for me.

JasonMCG said:

Skyward Sword fucking rules. Stand and be counted!

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I will be counted. Skyward Sword and The Last of Us are the greatest games of Last Gen.

And to think you almost skipped it.

Awesome game, for sure.

Skyward Sword was my GOTY in 2011 and it's close to the top in my fave Zelda's. Glad you feel the same, OP.

Definitely one of my favourite Zelda games, i'm due a replay soon!

There were so many monets when I was playing with a wide eyed sense of awe. It's hard to choose which is my favourite part in the game as there are just so many memorable moments.

edit - Actually I can't start a replay soon, Hyrule Warriors is up first!

I'm such a zelda fanboy, but I loved this game so much. Glad to see some positivity towards it.

Heroman said:

Best game in the series.

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If Zelda were about nothing more than puzzles, I would completely agree with you. But it's not and that is why this is one of the worst Zeldas if not the only one that magnifies every flaw of the Zelda series thus far.

I said this in another thread yesterday, but Skyward Sword is most likely my least favorite Zelda. Inconsistent controls, lackluster story, uneven dungeons, and godawful hand-holding combine to make an overall very frustrating experience.

And the problem with the controls - even if they work and are great for 90% of the time, that still leaves that 10% of the time when they don't work properly. And that makes for a pretty infuriating control scheme, despite whatever benefits.