The Wii started with a Zelda game, and now its last hoorah is also a Zelda game. Go out with a bang, Nintendo.
There has been a lot of hype surrounding this game since its first teased at E3 three years ago. It has gotten a lot of people's hopes up and expectations in the clouds. With the integration with the Wii Motion Plus and the celebration of 25 years of Zelda, it is the highest anticipated game for the Nintendo universe. With all of that riding on it, especially with the Wii's current standing in the gaming world, it's safe to say Nintendo and Miyamoto put a lot of effort into this game. I can safely say though, that they hit the mark.
Let’s start with what we know, the game is integrated with the Wii Motion Plus technology, and it really shows. All enemies can guard themselves and you must pick which of the nine strikes will harm it. Yes, the sword has one to one movement, but as for your sword, you have only 9 attack patterns: up and down, left and right, upward/downward right slash, upward/downward left slash, and stab. The game utilizes this by having every enemy guard themselves in a specific way, so you must choose a swing pattern that will hurt it, or else its blocked, or worse you can be damaged. Which sounds great and awesome on paper, however actually playing it, it can get very frustrating. It could be just me however, so I'm not really criticizing it. I had to teach myself to slow down when attacking and to take my time and not rush, which gets hard when you're facing a boss and you're getting caught in the adrenaline rush from successfully hurting it. Though sometimes it DID read my swinging motion incorrectly. I swung the Wii Mote left to right but it thought it was an upward right slash, however I can defend it once more because of the way i was positioned according to the screen and the sensor, or perhaps i really was but it didn't have a dramatic incline. So, I’m not entirely sure if this is a Wii problem or a me problem. Lastly was the problem with me and stabbing. I couldn't get it to work nine times out of 10. Again, it could be just me.
However, since the Nunchuck isn't as developed as the Wii Motion Plus so it still has its bugs. Case and point: in order to raise your shield [if you have one] you must thrust the Nunchuck forward and the shield will be activated. Makes sense right? Well, sometimes when I was swinging the Wii Mote with some energy, as I said I got caught in the adrenaline, the shield would then come out instead. Another example is when you get your bow and arrow, you can hold down the ‘c’ button and “pull” back the Nunchuck to arm it, however you can also move the Nunchuck forward and the same result will happen.
Let’s move on to the subject of the actual game. There’s not many differences in this game but there are a couple noticeable changes. They added a couple rpg elements to the game, where you have to collect things in order to upgrade some items. Though these are not necessary for you to beat the game, but the ways you collect these items are generally not fun. I had to collect a certain item to upgrade my shield, however I had to buy an item and use that item to catch an animal in order to get the item, and there’s no other way of obtaining this item, and even after beating the game I still don’t’ have one particular item, I don’t’ know what it is, because I never found it.
An additional change is the new inventory system, it’s a little bit different. You get your important items on one screen, where you can access one at any time, but then items like the shield and your bottles are in your “adventure pouch.” It holds 4 total items at the start and you can find and buy additional pouches. So I had a sidequest where I had to save a girl and in order to do that I was given an item, however my adventure pouch was full, and I had NO idea how to get rid of items. I’m not sure if this was explained in the game, but you have to go to the bazaar and there’s one shop where you can exchange items. I had to find a video of a guy on youtube who was literally raging over this to find out how to free up space. Lastly about this topic, upgrades to your bomb bag, quiver, and seed bag are bought and take up space in your pouch instead of the actual item. I don’t personally don’t understand these additional changes into the game, I guess the argument is to add realism, but you’re talking about realism in a game that there’s clouds you literally can’t go through clouds and that you ride giant birds. I don’t buy that.
So, you’ve seen all these negatives, but don’t let that get you down, there are TONS of positives. I loved this game from beginning to end. The story was wonderful and deep. The characters were well displayed like from Wind Waker and deep and developed like from Majora’s Mask. The world was very imaginatively created with four different areas, each with its own theme and creatures. However, these areas are NOT connected to each other in any way, minus the sky. However, the areas…are actually small in comparison in size of Hyrule Field in Twilight Princess. The three areas under the ground are about medium size, and they have pretty good amount of stuff to do, but yet the sky area is expansive, but there’s not much to do up there! It’s like the ocean in Wind Waker but more emptiness. I think they gave up the world space for the story telling. This is just a theory because we all know the Wii’s limitations.
A fantastic feature is its music! Everything was orchestrated and beautifully composed. It’s not typical of Zelda music but it works SO well with Skyward Sword’s world, and I can’t think of any pieces of music that could have made it any better. I can’t wait to get my hands on the soundtrack, if they decide to release one.
Again though, these are just small little factors in this large wonderful game. As much as I would LOVE to go into the story, I won’t. The story is deep and fascinating, it’s a great game and I didn’t want to put down the Wii mote. It’s an almost perfect game, and any problems are really just nitpicking. They don’t really take anything away from the game, just sometimes makes you question a couple things. Overall I will give this game a 9.5/10. Yes it’s another silly number but the biggest issue was the world. It was large but yet nothing to do and it’s nowhere near the size it could have been, but yet the rich story could have been its consequence. If you haven’t already, pick up this rare awesome title for the Wii.
