The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Review

Over the 35 years since the first Legend of Zelda game was released, players have come to agree that some entries are excellent, others not so much and then there are a small handful that are just ignored. Skyward Sword sadly fell into that last group, not because it was a bad game as a whole, but mostly due to the reliance on motion controls that made it unplayable for many. Now the game is back with the HD treatment, but does a new control scheme and updated visuals make this a must play game in the series or is it nothing more than a sky-high dream.

Skyward Sword has a unique place in the Zelda timeline, as it is the first game in the series, at least as far as the legend goes, so the game spends a lot of time explaining things, that may not make sense at first, to those who know the lore. Regardless, the tale is quite interesting, Link, Zelda and many others, live among the clouds in the city known as Skyloft, while below them lies a sea of clouds that are too thick to pass through. While celebrating Link’s win in a race, Zelda is hit with a tornado and thrown to the surface, which sets Link off to locate her, diving beneath the clouds for the first time and finding all new lands, peoples and enemies to fight. Along the way Link will meet a varying cast of characters, some are just out exploring myths and legends themselves, others are looking for treasure but each is charming in their own way.

The problem where the story falls flat is with its length, not that it is too long, the entire experience is about 25 hours, no sadly the problem is that it does that Lord of the Rings element where it feels like it is building towards the end, before it drops off and then starts to build up all over again. Outside of the pacing issues, which are the same as the original Wii release, the most annoying issue from the Wii release has been corrected and that you can now skip cutscenes, which means if you know them, or just don’t care, you can now press a button and you are through to the other side.

That ties in nicely with a lot of the other enhancements that the game has seen, from control schemes to no longer treating every item you collect, like it’s the first time you ever saw one of those. We can’t really go any further without discussing the controls, because that was a big concern for people who played the Wii version and a reason many thought that it would never get a port to any other system. The original release of the game made use of the Wii Remote’s enhanced motion capabilities, however the game was far more ambitious than the controller was able to support, which meant you had more chance of hitting something in your playing space when you swung the sword, than you did in the game, thankfully the motion control here works perfectly when you have your sword out, at least most of the time. The times when it has issues are more to do with where your Joy-Con is, relating to the position of your TV or Switch screen, should you be holding on a weird angle, the game will have issues in registering that.

Fortunately, the folks behind this version of the game understood that it was important to be able to reset your position, without needing to pause the game, like the Wii version often required. At anytime you simply need to press Y and then, whichever direction your controller is facing is now the new north and your sword and items will respond accordingly. This works no matter the scenario, if you are in the middle of a combat encounter or you have your Beetle flying in the air, you can reset with a simple button press and the number of times I had to do this, highlight just how amazingly simple it is, were numerous. This is going to be your friend, especially if you play only with motion, because the game constantly resets the position between cutscenes and loading into the gameplay space, and as any gamer who enjoyed many hours with the Wii will tell you, holding things in the same place, for extended periods of time, is just not likely.

For those who opt away from motion and want to play the game with the new button only controls, that is possible as well and, for the most part is an even smoother experience across every aspect of the game. In their marketing, Nintendo has highlighted that you only need to flick the right stick in the direction you want your sword to swing and that is 100% true, there is convoluted system in play here, you flick and you attack. The other blessing that playing this way provides over the default motion-based option is that when you are controlling your Loftwing or trying to navigate the minecart tracks, you can just use the left stick, making it far easier to maintain a level playing space. Motion controls with the Loftwing have you shake it up and down, as if you were flapping a wing, to fly higher, but with the button controls, you just need to press A, it’s a far simpler and user-friendly approach to getting around.

There are some drawbacks to each though, with the button only option if you want to move the camera, you have three options, the first is that you can tap ZL to have the camera snap back behind Link, as if you were targeting someone, which works as long as Link is facing the direction you want. The second option and the one people are most likely to use, is pressing and hold L, turns the right stick from the sword function to a regular camera, controlling just like you would expect. The catch here though is that you will be constantly holding the button down in order to control the camera, which doesn’t work when you are in combat, because if you can’t attack, you are in trouble. The final way to control the camera is by enabling motion control, meaning that as you move the Pro Controller around, or the Switch if you are playing in handheld, the camera moves as well. It sounds like it could be fun, but the camera does react to minor motions, so it can be confusing.

You don’t have that issue when you are using motion controls for the majority of the gameplay action, because the right stick is no longer required for the sword, so it is free to control the camera. But the motion only offerings are also marred by them forcing motion onto actions that don’t need it and they do this constantly, I mentioned before about imitating a bird flapping its wings as one example. What I think the game really needs, is a blended control scheme, one that lets you use motion for the sword, but then lets you fly with the stick, or during any time when you swim underwater, removes the motion from that action. The same could be said for the L button camera control, I couldn’t play with buttons only because I am so used to using the second stick to control a camera, I kept forgetting to hold L down, or I would be holding it down out of habit, when I need to let go for attacking, being able to toggle that option or swap what holding it down meant, would be great.

Now that the controls have been talked about, it is time to look at the other aspects of the game, almost everything else you remember, if you played it before, is here now. The items are the same, the layout of the areas is the same and the characters are the same, but where the changes have been made is in the smaller aspects. Nintendo themselves announced that the game no longer tells you, each time you collect a rupee or other item and while that is not 100% true, as it still will when you loot a chest, in the game world, it now no longer reminds what everything is. Another improvement is that Link is far nimbler than before, the stamina meter is still here and unless you carry potions with you, all the time, is still a pain, but he now no longer takes forever to climb or get up small lips. One of the more interesting elements, being able to warp out of a dungeon and back into Skyloft, wasn’t anything I could test, because it is locked behind an amiibo, but it is an interesting addition. The final major improvement to the game, is that Fi no longer takes control of your game, to explain everything, whenever she feels she must, now the sword on your back, just lights up enough, with a small chime, to let you know she has something to say. There are times when she will pop up, but they are now more important to the gameplay progression than just needing to say something.

One area that perhaps doesn’t look like it got much of an upgrade in the HD version, are the graphics and a lot of that can be attributed to the games original water colour inspired design. Let’s not mince words here, there are a lot of shortcuts that the game used in the Wii days, to make things look bigger that now look weird when the visuals are clearly, trees being the big example have flat branches that overlock with each other, to build out size. But for all the weird things like that, the game is still somehow beautiful, from the open sky above the clouds, to the lava filled crevasse of Eldin Volcano and even characters like Fi, they all look stunning. Any time you get up close to walls, doors or anything really, you will spot the lower resolution textures and it can pull you from the experience, but that really only happens when you go into first person for dowsing, or through narrow tunnels, otherwise it is large open spaces you will see.

On the sound side of things, again, a lot hasn’t changed in terms of the music or the effects, rupee’s still make that satisfying clanging sound when they land on the ground, Keese still squeak in the air as they fly around and even the sound of wind rushing by you as you are flying sounds good. The characters still don’t stunted speech, where some will say a few words and others might just umm and ah, but it never detracts from the experience there, except with Fi. Ever since Navi from Ocarina of Time, the companion characters in the Zelda games have gotten more and more annoying and Fi is sadly still the case here as the most, her robotic chatter noise, quickly got on my nerves and while you can skip some cutscenes, there are a few important ones the game won’t let you skip over, so you have to listen to her still. One area that I enjoyed was the music, as the first Zelda game to use a real orchestra for it its score, there was always a grander scale applied to the music, from the first flight among the clouds, to the 100th flight, each time that score kicks in, everything feels more epic. Even the music in the grounded locations, boss fights and beyond all still sound incredible, which is why a lot of the music here, is some of my favourite from the entire Zelda series.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is an impressive release for a game that many thought would never get another chance. While the control offerings work in both motion and button only, each has their own drawback that will be something to consider and while a third option, or the ability to customise would have removed those concerns, the fact that you can play it without any sort of motion, is incredible. The story is still epic and while it has a few pacing concerns, they never really detract from the overall sense of adventure, couple that with the vast array of minor improvements to the gameplay, it makes this one heck of a release and one adventure I highly suggest you experience.

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

+The gameplay enhancements have removed all those little issues that plagued the original release

+Being able to play without motion, or with motion and having the experiences be mostly the same is incredible…

The Cons

-… though each offering still has some quirks you need to get used to, before you can really enjoy them

-The story still has those same pacing issues as the original release, but that really shouldn’t stop you from playing it