Legend of Zelda Do you like Skyward Sword?

[ezm1100]

I've been playing through Skyward Sword for the first time recently. I know critics like the game but I've heard a lot of fans say they don't like it. So what's your opinion?

 

[TigerBizNiz]

How does anyone not like Skyward Sword? It has freakin' Groose in it!

 

[Phislamajama]

I personally enjoyed SS outside of a few parts like collecting the notes in the flood, that didn't feel very Zelda-y if you know what i mean

 

[Arc1llusion]

I liked Skyward Sword. I thought the environments over all were really done, and I really liked this version of Zelda. I thought it was fun to see her have that kind of playful personality, and have her own part in helping Link. One thing that drove me nuts though is that every time you turn on the game you have to sit through all of the item prompts again when you get it for the first time in that session. If there was an option for that, I missed it. The game also started to drag towards the end of it.

I personally enjoyed SS outside of a few parts like collecting the notes in the flood, that didn't feel very Zelda-y if you know what i mean

I both liked and loathed this part of the game. It was fun to some extent and was a decent break from the game for a short while, but also terribly annoying at times.

Silent Realms hold a similar position. I liked them for their atmosphere and adrenaline boosting properties, but was always a little miffed when I got to one.

 

[Himynameisisaac]

I absolutely LOVE Skyward Sword! I don't understand the hate towards it. Maybe i can understand the art-style getting a little backlash (I don't like pig nosed Link) but overall it's an amazing game! One thing though.. What's with the obsession with Groose? I, personally, couldn't stand him. But to each their own!

 

[tmonty17]

It was worth the play through but it's definitely not one of my favorites. I liked the controls, the sprinting feature, and it had some of the best dungeons in the series, but the tedious BS you have to do between dungeons is pretty obnoxious.

 

[Cowzorz]

I personally have never been able to finish it. >x<

I really don't care for the controls and wish it would have been made into a more classic Zelda game. I didn't care much for the dungeons or the whole "surface" idea, and Hyrule Field was sorely missed as I flew around a brown and grey expanse of nothingness on my Loftwing.

However, I love Fi. I want to snuggle her.​

 

[wingedarcher7]

I loved the art style, I loved the story, and I loved the dungeon designs. What I didn't like about this game was the controls, I'm just not a very big fan of motion controls, it made the whole thing a pain to go through for me. I also didn't like how they kept using the same forest, volcano, and desert over and over again. It felt like it got old as I played. Those two things would be my biggest gripes, the controls definitely being the biggest one, even though others insist about how perfectly they worked.

I don't hate the game like some do, but it is nowhere near a favorite of mine for the series.

 

[BirthNote]

I thought it was solid on my first playthrough. It felt different from other Zeldas and I had fun at times with equipment, some bosses and gratitude crystals, but the ending bummed me out. I felt like I didn't really win if Demise was gonna come back to haunt my kids and their kids and their kids and so on.

I tried a new playthrough a couple months back, and I remembered what I hated about the game: Fi. I couldn't stand her robotic interrupts of **** I aleady knew or could realize in 5 seconds. The kikwis were annoyingly wimpy, but not something I had to deal with the whole game, and by the short time it took to get to Eldin Volcano it felt like Fi interrupted gameplay and exploration for every 10 steps Link took to hit me with walls of text. I wonder how I even beat the game once with her "help", but I damn sure wouldn't try again. There's tons of ways to have her speak without stopping gameplay, or make her realize I'm not a complete idiot, but as it stands she's my least favorite sidekick in the series.

 

[Xzsmmc]

Hate it.

-Gameplay is a frustrating laundry list of:
"Go to new area
Dowse for X amount of plot coupons
Beat dungeon
Return to Skyloft"
There's more padding in this game than in foam rubber.
-Flying is a tedious chore that was completely unnecessary
-The music, despite being orchestrated, is for the most part very forgettable. Mario Galaxy this ain't.
-Fi is far more annoying than memeified Navi could ever be. The sheer amount of handholding the game has is ridiculous.
-For a late Wii game, the graphics are pretty meh. Some of the textures are very poor, and pretty much every human other than Link or Zelda is ****ing ugly. The monsters are also too silly looking. Especially the evil toed Muppet that is The Imprisoned.
-The story is absolute horse****. You have no idea what's going on for the first third of the game, and when you finally see what is? It reduces the entire Zelda series to a endless cycle of reincarnation, a trope I abhor. Not only does it basically say that Zelda herself is destined to be a damsel in distress, it completely throws the only humanizing moment Ganondorf has ever received out the window, saying he was simply born and destined to be evil with no choice in his actions.
-Silent Realms being repeated four times killed what might have been a fun and varied experience. Running away like a little ***** is not a test of power.

For what it's worth, there are a few things I like about it. Ghirahim is a lot of fun, some of the dungeons and bosses are decent, and I like that you need actual finesse when swordfighting.

 

[Kenith]

-The story is absolute horse****. You have no idea what's going on for the first third of the game, and when you finally see what is? It reduces the entire Zelda series to a endless cycle of reincarnation, a trope I abhor. Not only does it basically say that Zelda herself is destined to be a damsel in distress, it completely throws the only humanizing moment Ganondorf has ever received out the window, saying he was simply born and destined to be evil with no choice in his actions.

I can sort of see your point on this, but maybe that bit about Ganondorf isn't so bad. Maybe they could do a game where he realizes this vicious cycle of reincarnation and aspires to become a truly good person only to be forced into his old ways due to being rejected harshly by the world. It would create a sympathetic aspect to Ganondorf that he could benefit from. Wind Waker had the right idea, but it wasn't implemented quite right. It's still quite the kiddy game after all.
That being said, Demise was easily the weakest "character" in Skyward Sword and Ghirahim should have stayed the main focus as a villain.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

Nope. Way too much hand holding & cutscenes you can't skip. For the other things I don't like about SS, there's the godawful story (Anyone else think Zelda sleeping forever should tie into Zelda 2 instead of giving the game a happy ending?), the characters & enemies looking way too goofy, & Fi (worse than Navi).

 

[Jam Stunna]

Skyward Sword is one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I've ever had. For every one good thing about the game, there are at least three poor design choices. Others have covered some obvious ones (Fi, the item menus, the backtracking/fetch quests), so I'll instead write about how lazy the game is.

For a game which billed itself as having over 100 hours of gameplay, it's incredible how lazy it is in several places. Three separate fights with The Imprisoned. Three fights with Ghirahim (granted, the third fight was pretty different, but the second Ghirahim fight may be the most disappointing boss fight in Zelda history). Two fights against the eyeball scorpion- and speaking of eyeballs, it honestly felt like every boss had a screaming "Hit me here!" weakpoint that made the battles chores instead of fun or strategic. The game quite cleverly reused the same exact areas over and over again, slightly expanding them when you had to return to them for the umpteenth time. The developers apparently couldn't even be bothered to include a day/night cycle, so you can't even fly at night or visit the surface. Even the Boss Rush mode was missing a boss- what happened to Bilocyst? Battling Demise was uninspired and dull.

There's so much more to say about how Skyward Sword presented a completely underwhelming finished product for five years of development. I played it once, and haven't touched it since.

 

[tmonty17]

Hate it.

-Gameplay is a frustrating laundry list of:
"Go to new area
Dowse for X amount of plot coupons
Beat dungeon
Return to Skyloft"
There's more padding in this game than in foam rubber.
-Flying is a tedious chore that was completely unnecessary
-The music, despite being orchestrated, is for the most part very forgettable. Mario Galaxy this ain't.
-Fi is far more annoying than memeified Navi could ever be. The sheer amount of handholding the game has is ridiculous.
-For a late Wii game, the graphics are pretty meh. Some of the textures are very poor, and pretty much every human other than Link or Zelda is ****ing ugly. The monsters are also too silly looking. Especially the evil toed Muppet that is The Imprisoned.
-The story is absolute horse****. You have no idea what's going on for the first third of the game, and when you finally see what is? It reduces the entire Zelda series to a endless cycle of reincarnation, a trope I abhor. Not only does it basically say that Zelda herself is destined to be a damsel in distress, it completely throws the only humanizing moment Ganondorf has ever received out the window, saying he was simply born and destined to be evil with no choice in his actions.
-Silent Realms being repeated four times killed what might have been a fun and varied experience. Running away like a little ***** is not a test of power.

For what it's worth, there are a few things I like about it. Ghirahim is a lot of fun, some of the dungeons and bosses are decent, and I like that you need actual finesse when swordfighting.

I agree with everything you said. I did enjoy the dungeons tho. If somehow you could skip all the BS and just play a "dungeon mode" or something to that affect, then i would be all about it because I really did like the controls and I don't remember disliking any of the dungeons. It was just all the painful fetch quests and dowsing in between that ruined the game for me.

 

[Tonzura Koite]

It's better than the CDI games and has more depth than Link's Crossbow Training.
But I'd take anything else over it.

 

[Xzsmmc]

I can sort of see your point on this, but maybe that bit about Ganondorf isn't so bad. Maybe they could do a game where he realizes this vicious cycle of reincarnation and aspires to become a truly good person only to be forced into his old ways due to being rejected harshly by the world. It would create a sympathetic aspect to Ganondorf that he could benefit from. Wind Waker had the right idea, but it wasn't implemented quite right. It's still quite the kiddy game after all.
That being said, Demise was easily the weakest "character" in Skyward Sword and Ghirahim should have stayed the main focus as a villain.

They probably won't. Ganondorf isn't like Bowser, where you can make a game with him as the star. He's not as flexible. Hyrule Warriors is probably the closest we'll get.

Ganondorf has always been my absolute favorite Zelda character, and I hate this plot twist so much because it cheapens the character.

I'm not going to pretend that his characterization in Wind Waker was particularly deep. He gives a small speech explaining why he aspired to conquer Hyrule to begin with. Despite its relative insignificance to the plot, it adds some significance to the character. Up until that point, Ganon's character was limited to "I'm evil and want to rule the world". This little speech showed that at some point, he was at least a less selfish and more well-intentioned man. That's rare for a Zelda villain.

With Skyward Sword's revelation though, that part is rendered completely moot, and he ended up evil not because he went mad with power and ambition, but because he was destined to. He literally had no choice in what he would become. That's like if they came out with a Superman comic saying that Lex Luthor hates Superman so much because he's actually the disguise of an ancient enemy of Jor-El's great great great grandfather or something.

It's a total asspull as to why he keeps coming back, akin to the 'The Force is actually microscopic blood vessels' nonsense in the Star Wars prequels. This isn't even getting me started on how much I loathe the destiny plotline being played completely straight.

 

[Ryan.]

I just got Skyward Sword yesterday. However I'm unable to play it as I don't have the motion plus adapter just yet. Really excited to try it out! (Hence my current avatar)

 

[Jam Stunna]

I completely agree with @ Xzsmmc about Demise/Ganondorf. WindWaker is the best Zelda game storywise, because it's the only Zelda game where the characters actually make choices and aren't guided by completely uninteresting "destiny." OoT/MM comes in second, as the boy of destiny suffers the consequences of being chosen (culminating in his status as a Stalfos in TP). But Skyward Sword took destiny so far, with no consequences. Lazy storytelling for a lazy game.

 

[Agro_98]

It is not my favourite Zelda game but I do not hate it. My main gripe with the game is that the story is very weak, and this leads me to dislike the linear gameplay. I'm fine with a game being linear, but it needs other things to balance it, these things being gameplay, story and characters. There are some fun and memorable characters, but the character interaction is quite limited to specific and few cutscenes and while on skyloft. That leaves the gameplay, which I actually did find interesting. I would never pick motion controls over standard controls, but for this game it works. The puzzles of fighting enemies were cool, however, by the end of the game they were just tedious. And there is the problem that the motion controls do not always work. That's not to say that it didn't do anything right, it was just not my kind of Zelda game. I hope Zelda wii u can take what past zelda games did right and improve what they did wrong.

 

[Hayzie]

It's a great game. It's not perfect with the Fi handholding (I do like her, though) and messages you can't skip about the same gem you've collected a million and one times now, but the overall design is genius. The game is one constant interconnected puzzle. Coming up with that in a perfect fashion isn't easy at all. Even if you'd rather push a button, the combat was easily the best and most satisfying. I had no problems with it. The adventuring was totally lacking, though. This huge sky I thought I was able to travel and find settlements/islands like in Wind Waker just wasn't there. It was pretty linear. Where it was linear, made up for it in immense amount of puzzle-solving, though. I love puzzles. You can't blame Nintendo for trying something new every time. Some people want a huge overworld, some people want more puzzles. Luckily we're in a new generation where we should get the best of both worlds now.

 

[GreatDave]

I know a lot of fans have complained about Skyward Sword, but I wanna tell ya...this is my favourite Zelda ever, no doubt about that!
So, don't ban me

Ocarina of Time is not included in my speech, just beecause I played it when it came out (1998), I was 17, and that masterpiece left a mark in me. Playing OoT on N64, when it arrived (and not now, after nearly 20 years, on 3DS), was really an umbelievable experience, nothing similar had ever been played since then. OoT was revolutionary, the first real 3D action/adventure, a great story, great characters, the chance to explore, to feel free to go around, amazing soundtrack, perfect difficulty level, a lot of dungeons, good puzzles. For this reason, I've idealized it and tend to compare EVERY Zelda to OoT. It's a great mistake, I know. And now, after several years, slowly, I'm acquiring the ability to judge a Zelda title without thinking about OoT. Probably OoT will always be my favourite videogame ever, but I wanna consider that something separate.

For this reason, I say Skyward Sword is my favourite Zelda. I really enjoyed that. The graphic side has its reasons and it's someway beautiful, the musics are awesome...and I loved every character, most of all Zelda. She's not anymore a cold princess, but a warm-hearted friend who loves you...there's surely love between Zelda and Link, but in a particular way, it's not explicit but the player can understand that looking at their way to look each other...it's so sweet and sensitive. I moved more than once, playing this game. Tears poured my cheek, I swear!
I found the puzzles very clever and stimulating, also thanks to WMP, and handling the sword was very enjoying. Dungeons weren't too huge and dispersive as in Twilight Princess were, small but concentrated. On the ground you had to follow a track and you hadn't a great sense of exploration, but I enjoyed that anyway; you could explore the sky, some flying islands...nothing too big, but I loved it. I loved most of all the puzzles and the enemies.
Every Zelda game is a good game, some of them are wonderful, but...Twilight Princess had no real news, Nintendo risked nothing, Hyrule was too large and "empty". The Wind Waker...great game, but the dungeons were few, the game was too easy, the sea was too large and empty, sailing was soooo boring.
Skyward Sword is the only game which has really MOVED me...

 

[Ryan.]

I just got Skyward Sword yesterday. However I'm unable to play it as I don't have the motion plus adapter just yet. Really excited to try it out! (Hence my current avatar)

Finished it a couple weeks ago and loved it. The main complaints I have about it are Fi (I hate her, Midna is so much better), and having to visit the same three places the entire game. I didn't like the whole Timeshift Orb thing either, it was just a pain. I loved there being only 2 shops though and getting to go back home any time.

 

[etecoon]

Good game in spite of being very flawed, has more charm than WW and TP("how can we make a game that's more OoT than OoT"). As much as it does suffer from motion controls, badly thought out mapping for said bad motion controls like how recalibrate changes when you're flying so that can be used for Fi when there are other buttons available, Nintendo generally giving it's players ZERO respect, lazy boss design, degrading the series' big bad into a reincarnation of a much less interesting villain, an empty sky that had much more potential...the game did a lot right too and I'd rather see Nintendo swing and miss half the time rather than more conservative and consequently uninspired games.

I'm not going to pretend that his characterization in Wind Waker was particularly deep. He gives a small speech explaining why he aspired to conquer Hyrule to begin with. Despite its relative insignificance to the plot, it adds some significance to the character. Up until that point, Ganon's character was limited to "I'm evil and want to rule the world". This little speech showed that at some point, he was at least a less selfish and more well-intentioned man. That's rare for a Zelda villain.

This is assuming he was being honest of course. Another interpretation would be that he was trying to take advantage of Link and Zelda's naivete, which also gives Ganondorf more depth as it shows his cunning manipulative side that we otherwise only really see in the background of OoT and LTTP. It's pretty interesting that the same character with the same motivations chooses to play the "poor picked on me, my people lived in a harsh wasteland" card with little kids but makes no pretenses with TP's Link.

The simple "I'm evil" villain isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when realistically the nefarious things that a villain does can't actually be justified by outside circumstances. By the very nature of what he does you can tell Ganon is a conceited psychopath, if he really believes his own excuses that would just make him confused...a confused villain that's tricked himself into thinking he has good intentions, that would put him a little closer to Bowser than you thought.

Since you brought up the Star Wars prequels, Palpatine and Anakin are actually a good juxtaposition for what I'm talking about. Palpatine is pure evil, the man just takes great joy in doing horrible things. Anakin is a narcissist that has more complicated motivations, but ultimately he's just a conceited ******* and the fact that he slaughters children proves it. Palpatine is by far the best character in the prequels, and Anakin is so bad that it ruins Darth Vader for a lot of people. That guy that went around killing and torturing people that were no threat to him in the OT, was an iconic villain that everyone loved? Much more effective when his backstory was simply "seduced by the dark side" instead of trying to make him some kind of sympathetic character

 

[pokemario]

I've been playing through Skyward Sword for the first time recently. I know critics like the game but I've heard a lot of fans say they don't like it. So what's your opinion?

I picked up Skyward Sword on release date and absolutely loved it. I actually prefer it over Twilight Princess. I never had problem with the motion controls and I thought the story was pretty good too. It also has some of my favorite characters in the series, like Groose, and Ghirahim. The only big downsides to me were Fi and the Imprisoned fights. I think it's better than a lot of Zelda games to be honest.

 

[toadster101]

It's my least favorite game in the series behind the DS Zelda games. No more motion controls, please. The controls work well for the most part, but the most part isn't good enough. If they don't work 100% of the time, the controls are flawed.

 

[etecoon]

It's my least favorite game in the series behind the DS Zelda games. No more motion controls, please. The controls work well for the most part, but the most part isn't good enough. If they don't work 100% of the time, the controls are flawed.

Well the Wii U's gimmick is a touch screen so...

How'd everyone like the controls from Phantom Hourglass?

 

[Timmay08]

I found SS intriguing and cool. I mean, you get to fly and that's always cool. I really enjoyed it and I loved the music in it. Overall it was pretty fun for me.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

How'd everyone like the controls from Phantom Hourglass?

It was awful. The controls don't work half of the time & in my personal opinion, they're a lot worse than SS's controls. Not to mention how easily forgettable it is when it comes to the story & music. A godawful sequel to a Zelda game I really love.

 

[Supersmashbrothers.]

I personally like Skyward Sword but I can see where the people who say the story is weak. It felt kind of bland at points.

 

[etecoon]

I personally like Skyward Sword but I can see where the people who say the story is weak. It felt kind of bland at points.

It was kind of weak but I can't really think of the Zelda games where it was way better, aside from the fact that most are more simple and aren't TRYING to make the story a major thing like SS did. Even the games that go to weirder places and deal with more difficult themes like LA and MM were presented in a more simple way with most of the depth being implied and inviting you to read between the lines, SS tried to go JRPG and wound up with a lot of the flaws that those games have storytelling wise

 

[Starbit]

Love the game hate the motion controls.

 

[LuffyLink]

I don't like Skyward Sword, I LOVE it ! It's one of my favourite Zelda games with A Link Between Worlds and Majora's Mask .The motion controls are the only things I hate in this game .

 

[SphericalCrusher]

Love it. One of my favorite Zelda games.

I don't like Skyward Sword, I LOVE it ! It's one of my favourite Zelda games with A Link Between Worlds and Majora's Mask .The motion controls are the only things I hate in this game .

Gotta admit though, they worked really really well. At least I thought so.

 

[Soupy]

I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Currently on my 2nd file.
:']

 

[Spak]

I got it on release day, played through it until I got to the mining facility, then couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. I got so bored of it (something I rarely feel from a Zelda game) that I've barely touched it since 2011-12.

 

[Soupy]

I got it on release day, played through it until I got to the mining facility, then couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. I got so bored of it (something I rarely feel from a Zelda game) that I've barely touched it since 2011-12.

Gonna be honest with you. The mining facility is a pain in the butt. But if you can push through, it only gets better.

 

[Spak]

Gonna be honest with you. The mining facility is a pain in the butt. But if you can push through, it only gets better.

OK, I might try picking it up again when I have the time. I enjoyed everything up to the mining facility immensely, but the mining facility itself was kinda boring.

 

[Soupy]

OK, I might try picking it up again when I have the time. I enjoyed everything up to the mining facility immensely, but the mining facility itself was kinda boring.

The desert area in general is just pretty tough. You do have to go back there at some point but besides that, I think those are the only times off of the top of my head.

 

[Dr. Krumm]

I like it, but I will admit that it was the weakest 3D Zeldas to date. Still a fun game though!

 

[Spak]

One thing just about everyone would agree to is that the 25th annaversery soundtrack that came with Skyward Sword was great.