Archview #38: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

  It's really good, despite its use and abuse of motion controls.

  Skyward Sword is the latest(To this day!) Zelda game, and the last one to grace the Wii. Like most other Zelda games, it's an action-adventure game in which you play as Link, the hero chosen by destiny. As one of the last games made by Nintendo for the Wii, it tried to make the most of the Motion Plus technology, to arguably mixed results.
 First of all, yes, motion controls are used everywhere, from riding your Bird, balancing over thin ropes and free falling to swimming, heck, all the sub items use motion controls. Do they work? Yeah, mostly, but there's a huge learning curve. Sword fighting in particular may take you a while to get used to it, it's not really 1:1, and you need to get used to thing's like recoil, lest the game registers one huge motion as two. Regardless, Swimming will always feel quite clunky, sadly, it's a shame they felt the need to incorporate moton controls everwhere, even to throwing items.

 Chronologically, this game takes place before every other Zelda games, and tells of the origins of the Master Sword and other trademarks of the series. This time, there's no Hyrule, instead, Link lives in the town of Skyloft, a town that lies above the skies, due to the Goddess Hylia sending it skyward in order to protect her people from harm, thousand of years before. In this town, every citizen has a partner bird, which they use to ride. This time, Link is being trained as a Skyloft Knight, in an academy, where he is a childhood friend of Zelda. For the first time in Zelda history, Link and Zelda actually share a very deep relationship, which is why him going through all these hardships in order to save her is so much more believable.

 The skies act as the overworld, using your bird to traverse them, but most of the dungeons lie below the clouds. There are three distinct zones, accessed through the sky, that besides having their own theme( Farore's woods, Eldin's volcano and Lanayru's dessert) each has their own gimmicks. A disconnected world is a bit of a departure from the other console Zelda's, but I didn't mind it much, since it made sense inside the context of the game.

 Throughout his adventure, Link will come across many items that serve as sub weapons or equipables. Some of these, like Shields and the bow, can be upgraded in Skyloft by collecting various materials found on the lands below the clouds. Gathering materials and insects can be quite fun, however every time you reset the game, the "Got a new item plus description" scene plays every time you pick up an item of a kind for the first time, which will become quite annoying. Upgrading items, however, is a great new addition, you can even empower potions and add more effects. Given this new mechanics, you'll also notice that money is way more plentiful than in other Zelda games.
 Another new addition is the Stamina gauge. It's a bit of a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of thing. Sprinting is a great idea, and it consuming the Stamina gauge? Fair. But other actions are now governed by the same gauge, like pushing blocks or carrying some items, that's not so fun. Then there is dowsing. Many times during the game, you will have to dowse, point at the TV screen and search for a glowing target, and find the source. It's not engaging nor interesting, and it's very overused throught the whole adventure.

 Visually, it's fantastic. It's not as brown and washed out as Twilight Princess, but it's also not as overly cartoony as Wind Waker, it's probably my favorite look of the series yet. Characters, from the NPCs to Link himself, are extremely expressive in their facial expressions and body animations, pretty impressive actually. Most dungeons are also a visual treat, having some of the most visually appealing dungeons in the series yet, like the Cistern. Soundtrack has a very epic feel to it, and you might run across some familiar tunes. Sadly, like the other Zelda games, there's no voice acting. I don't mind reading, but this game could've benefited from Voice acting, but then again, the animations help convey the feelings of the characters perfectly.
 The game lasts a solid 30 plus hours, with many items for the player to find. After beating the game you unlock Hero Mode, which makes it harder. This would probably be my favorite Zelda, had it not been for the use and abuse of the motion controls, and to be fair, sometimes moving Link himself feels a bit clunky, lining up jumps can sometimes be a bit harder than it should. Regardless, it's a pretty good game, you just need to get the hang of the Swordplay in order to fully enjoy it.
 8 out of 10.