The Legend of Zelda Part 11

SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011 Nintendo Wii)

2011 was the greatest year to be a Zelda fan in living memory; it marked the 25th anniversary of the franchise and Nintendo pulled out all the stops releasing a wealth of Zelda content: the Symphony of the Goddesses concert series, the release of Link's Awakening DX on the 3DS, a 3D remake of Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, a remake of Four Swords on the 3DS with an all new single player mode and local multiplayer, Club Nintendo Zelda posters, the Hyrule Historia, a Zelda edition of the 3DS, and finally a collectors edition of Skyward Sword which included a soundtrack and golden Zelda wiimote.  I cannot overstate just how happy I was to be a diehard Zelda fan that year.  Out of all of these great things released, Skyward Sword more than took the cake.

Skyward Sword was the first Zelda game to take full advantage of the new Wii Motion Plus controls.  This added realistic sword movement literally tying the precise movements of the wii mote to Link's Sword and other weapons.  The Wii Motion Plus controls were showcased well in this game and one could argue that Nintendo used Skyward Sword almost as a tech demo for their new control system.

The story of Skyward Sword (SS) literally begins the lore of the Zelda universe.  Everything in the Zelda universe from the Gods to why Link's tunic is green is established in this game; an excellent set-up for those lore hungry Zelda fans.  The story begins as it almost always does in Zelda games with an intro video explaining some of the back story: in a time of darkness for the humans living on Earth, the Goddesses with all their power gathered the remaining humans onto one plot of land and sent that land skyward.  Hoping to save humanity from the forces of evil the Goddesses and the remaining land dwellers fought a war against the forces of evil as had never been seen before.  Eventually, the Goddesses and the overall forces of good were able to seal away the forces of evil once again bringing peace to the land.  However, the Goddesses decided to keep the humans and their land in the Sky knowing that the seal on the ultimate evil would not be able to remain in place forever.

Personally, I love the setting and the explanation for why the humans are in the sky for this game.  Skyloft (the main hub in SS, pictured to the left) is an excellent little town and its colorful backdrop paint an excellent picture.  Nintendo clearly wanted the colors of the world to be showcased and they did so to great effect with the city in the sky.

As the story and the gameplay begin, the player learns that today is the day of the annual Wing Ceremony: a ceremony held for graduating students of the Knights Academy.  One of the main aspects of living in the Sky is the chosen mode of transportation for the people of Skyloft: large birds known as Loftwings.  These birds come in many different colors and are used as simple modes of transport to tools in combat; as demonstrated by all those who attend the Knights Academy.  The evening before the Wing ceremony Link has a terrible vision of a giant monster and a strange spirit.  Before the vision can proceed any further Link is awoken by Zelda's Loftwing, handing him a letter telling him to meet her in front of the Statue of the Goddess.

Here, Link learns that Groose (one of the local bullies) has hidden Link's Loftwing in an attempt to keep him from the Wing Ceremony.  Despite Groose's best efforts Link finds his Loftwing and proceeds to complete the Wing Ceremony faster than anyone else, winning the favor of Princess Zelda and of the people of Skyloft.  As Link and Zelda fly on their Loftwings together, a huge black tornado comes barreling through the Sky knocking both Zelda and Link from their birds.  While Link's Loftwing is able to scoop him up and bring him to safety, Zelda falls through the clouds and disappears without a trace.  The next morning, Link wakes up in his bed and is met by Headmaster Gaepora (Zelda's father and head of the Knights Academy) who tells him to rest and not to worry.  Link however is stirred by the same mysterious voice he heard earlier in his sleep.  The voice calls to him and eventually leads Link outside to the Statue of the Goddess where it opens a secret door to the inside of the statue.  Inside, Link encounters a sword in a pedestal and is told by the spirit to remove the sword from where it stands.  Initially weary, the spirit introduces herself as Fi and tells Link that Zelda survived her fall through the clouds and that it is up to him to rescue Zelda from the forces of evil.  Fi then gives Link a piece of a map which illuminates a path through the clouds to the previously forgotten surface world below.  From this point onward Fi's role in the story becomes immediately apparent.  Much like Navi, Tatl, Midna, or Ezlo Fi's job is to provide the player with useful information and hints throughout the gameplay.  Throughout the story you learn more about her role as the Spirit within the Master Sword and why the Goddesses created her.  Unfortunately, you also learn how annoying her gameplay actions can be at times.  Constantly throughout the game she is bugging you to try and talk to her so that she can give you what she thinks are useful bits of information; in fact the are quite useful for the first hour or so.  After that though, her frequent chiming in becomes more than a bit of an annoyance.  Nintendo was definitely attempting to cater to their so called "children" demographic with how many hints she gives you.  But for the seasoned Zelda player or even your average gamer, you tend to just want her to let you play the damn game without bothering you around every turn.  Thankfully, her character development and some of her dialogue can be quite amusing at times (especially when she talks like a methodical robot) and it doesn't ruin the experience of the game in the slightest.  I will say though that her frequent interruptions do slow down the pacing of the game to the point where you wonder why Nintendo did not give you the option to turn her off apart from necessary story elements.  Thankfully you often have to push up on the D-pad to talk to her so at the very least you have the option of ignoring her some of the time.

Traveling from the Sky to the surface below is the main focus of movement in this game and is done so with Link's Crimson Loftwing.  Flying around in the Sky is one of my favorite parts of this game.  At any time, Link can command his Loftwing to go higher, to dive bomb, speed ahead or Link can even just jump off the bird and let it catch him as he falls.  The player controls the Loftwing with the Wii Mote held horizontally and the Wii Motion Plus controls add a very fin tuned control scheme.  As with any new control scheme, learning it can take a bit of time but with practice it just becomes to fun to simply fly around the upper world.  For each new area that Link opens up, a large column of light will appear that literally hovers over a hole in the clouds.  Link cannot travel below the clouds apart from these specific areas which if I'm honest is a tad disappointing.  This feature feels a bit limiting to the overall openness of the Sky realm, but I don't believe it takes away from just how awesome flying around on your giant bird can be.  Also, in a pure gaming fun sense I love skydiving off of the land of off of your Loftwing; it's a ton of fun. When Link eventually does travel below the clouds he encounters one of the more beautiful areas in all of Zelda: Faron Woods.

Like many Zelda games, the "forest" area is often the first one.  These areas are usually some kind of intro area, helping explain the gameplay through some simple tasks with some easier enemies thrown into the mix to make it interesting. Faron Woods is one of the best intro areas in any Zelda game to date.  It does not simply spoon-feed you what the player has to accomplish.  There is a necessary element of exploration here and the area is large enough to encourage this behavior for the player.  I also simply love the art-style of this game.  The pastel dominated colors and the lush greens really bring forth feelings of warmth and comfort to the player.  In fact, all of the areas in this game offer a unique visual perspective not seen before in the Zelda series.  None of the other Zelda games with the possible exception of Wind Waker have this vibrant of a color scheme and it truly shines through in every area of the game.  Another area I find simply beautiful is Lake Floria.

The mix of blues, purples, pinks, and greens really make the area just pop with color.  Clearly some hard work was put in to making these areas not only feel real but look visually stunning.  Not only is the art style brilliant, but every area of the surface world feels very fluid.  Too often in Zelda games we find a really cool area only to have the temple seemingly stuck randomly somewhere in the middle of it, making the area and the temple seem very separate.  In SS however, each area and the temples that reside within them feel very fluid and rationally connected.  Each area also has its own story tied into it and because the humans in the Sky have been isolated from the surface for so long all of the story seems fresh and exciting.  Most of the surface world feels separate from the Sky because it truly is and while that should seem obvious, I feel Nintendo did a superb job making Skyloft and the surface world their own entities while preserving the overall story.

The dungeons (or temples, these terms are thrown around pretty interchangeably in Zelda games) in SS again showcase the beauty of the art style and demonstrate the excellent items Nintendo created for them.  The first dungeon, Skyview Temple (commonly referred to as the forest temple since it resides in Faron Woods), introduces one of the best items ever conceived in any Zelda game: the flying Beetle.  The Beetle has several different functions throughout the game including picking up items for Link, dropping bombs on enemies, cutting down certain things, and hitting hard to reach objects for Link.  The Beetle is versatile and is controlled the same way as the Loftwing: the player holds the wii mote flat and than tilts the controller in the desired direction; the player can even hold A to make the Beetle move faster.  The Beetle has a surprisingly large range of movement and you can move around with basically until you bump into something.

I think the Beetle is one of the most brilliant items every introduced in the Zelda series.  Its versatility practically negates the need for a boomerang or even the slingshot and I hope Nintendo makes the smart decision to somehow include it in future titles.  The Wii Motion plus controls really make the player feel accomplished when you can pull off a tricky maneuver using the Beetle; true badassery in motion!  Another dungeon and its corresponding item that I love is the Earth Temple inside of Eldin volcano.  While volcano areas are no stranger to the Zelda series, in fact they are one of the most popular, Eldin volcano in particular truly utilizes the art style that Nintendo was going for.  There aren't just simple reds and oranges but dynamic colors and in fact signs of life and architecture of the people that may have once inhabited this strange place.

Inside the temple Link is introduced to a new type of species to the Zelda universe, the Mogmas.  Mogmas are mole like creatures that use large claws on their hands to dig under the ground to move around and to search for treasure.  Link meets several of them on his way up Eldin Volcano and is later gifted a pair of Digging Mitts as the main item for this temple.  The Digging Mitts allow Link to find soft pieces of Earth and to dig below the surface so that he can find special items and move from one place to another inside the temple and in other areas of the game.  The Mogmas become very appreciative of Link for his role in clearing out the Bokoblins (enemies) from their home and take several opportunities to help Link on his quest; giving him rupees and other rare treasure that they find beneath the surface of the Earth.

The Earth Temple really does feel like an old place of worship.  Beautiful stone structures are all over the place inside making one wonder who were the ones to build this great place; feeding the crap out of the Zelda lore whore inside many Zelda fans.  One of the best things about this temple is that once Link receives the Digging Mitts he never has to worry about putting them on or taking them off again; they simply remain in place ready for use at any time.  Too often in all video games comes the constant need to change items and Zelda games in the past have been guilty of this atrocity (most notably with the iron boots in Ocarina of Time, but more on that later).  I cannot stress enough just how much I enjoy all the items and dungeons in Skyward Sword.  Several of them require aspects of time travel and all of them make the player want to explore them.  My one critique of every temple is that they might be a bit too easy.  I say this because on my first play through of the game not once did I have to consult a guide or video of any kind to beat them.  To me this says one of two things: either Nintendo designed the dungeons so well that they naturally allow the player to figure them out or the temples are not all that complex.  While I do agree a bit with this criticism I have to defend the integrity of the dungeons in SS.  I think all of them are polished and methodically designed, keeping the art style pure and giving the player a great sense of accomplishment in figuring out the puzzles within them.  I think it's also fair to say that this kind of design allows the pacing of the game to not be interrupted because, as gamers, we all know how frustrating it can be to have to stop your game out of pure frustration of not knowing where to go.  I do hope in the next Zelda game that the dungeons are a bit more challenging, but that does not mean at all that these dungeons in SS are not worth experiencing.  In fact, I'm not even going to tell you about my favorite dungeon because I love its gameplay mechanics so damn much.

The bosses of Skyward Sword have some of my favorite gameplay elements of any Zelda game and most of them make excellent use of the items in each temple and of the new dynamic sword movements.  One boss I want to mention in particular is the boss of the Ancient Cistern, Koloktos.

Koloktos is a boss I love fighting because it demonstrates the capabilities of the Whip that Link acquires within the temple.  Link has to whip and grab onto certain spots of Koloktos, pull them towards him, and then slash at them with his sword all while avoiding getting hit and dodging several enemies that spawn in the process.  This battle takes full advantage of the Wii Motion Plus controls and I enjoy it quite a bit.  One thing that I feel SS is guilty of is lack of utilization of the items found within the temple during each respective boss fight.  None of the boss fights are bad, but some of them make you wonder why Nintendo could not find more creative ways to make use of the items found.  The Koloktos fight is a perfect example of item utilization coupled with swords fighting; something that Zelda series is known for and should strive to be great at at all times.  The boss of the Earth Temple, while a fun fight, does not make use of the Digging Mitts at all; a missed opportunity on Nintendo's part. Another thing Skyward Sword does, and I give them less crap for this because it does help the story quite a bit, is make you fight different versions of the same boss as many as three times.  This happens with one of the main villains Ghirahim (the one trying to destroy the seal on the ultimate evil) and with The Imprisoned, the evil incarnate beneath the seal.

While none of these fights are boring (in fact I kind of like that you get to fight The Imprisoned and Ghirahim three different time) one wonders why Nintendo made this creative choice.  Each of these fights does fit in with the story very well, but in any videogame where you fight the same boss multiple times players are going to accuse you of laziness and they would not be totally wrong for doing so.  People play games for all the different experiences they offer and to Nintendo's credit they did an excellent job of making these fights feel extremely relevant to the story where for me I did not mind fighting them several times.  I however would not blame anyone for calling Nintendo somewhat lazy in this regard.

One thing I need to touch on with this game is the overall presence of the motion controls.  Obviously the game is one the Nintendo Wii so motion controls are to be expected.  For what it's worth, I think Nintendo did a fantastic job utilizing the motion controls for this game.  On the other hand though, I find some of the movements to be a bit convoluted.  Some of the sword movements for example require specific quick movements to the left and then up, or holding the wii mote vertically to charge up the sword.  While the end results of this can be very cool, there are definitely points where the motion controls get in the way of the gameplay a bit.  They are by no means game breaking but if I'm going to be completely honest and impartial here I have to admit that at times I was annoyed by certain aspects of the control system.  One has to wonder why Nintendo did not give the player more freedom with the sword, especially when you consider how responsive the wii motion plus is.  Why would Nintendo require specific left to right or up and down movements with the wii mote when they could just have easily given the player complete freedom with the sword?  I feel this is a valid criticism but I urge you not to let this influence your decision to play this game.

On a final note I have to mention the wealth of extra content available in Skyward Sword.  Every citizen in Skyloft has some kind of an extra quest attached to them, all of which feel original and tie into the story very well.  Plus, this game has Beedle and his shop! One of my favorite side characters in the Zelda series; any game with him in it is a better game for it.  The Sky itself has several other islands within it making you want to fly from one end to the other in a regular basis.  There is also a pretty advanced upgrade system whereby you have to collect certain items on the surface world and in Skyloft to upgrade your shield (which can break if you don't fix it) and your other weapons.  These upgrades are all worth getting and they make you return to the Sky to get them (something that I love to do).  Each upgrade while entirely optional feels necessary.  The game makes you want to upgrade them all.  There is also a boss challenge mode where you can fight all of the bosses you have already fought to win certain very awesome rewards that I will not divulge here (trust me on this, they are totally worth your time). And finally, there is a "Hero Mode" to Skyward Sword where the enemies deal double damage and do not drop any hearts.  Second Quests are no stranger to the Zelda series and in fact seven games in the main series have second quests (including Zelda 1). You also get access to the final boss in the boss challenge area upon completing Hero Mode.  I simply love the amount of replay value that this game has and Hero Mode is a serious challenge to anyone who calls themselves a Zelda fan.  While I did not mention everything there is to do in this game, I must encourage you to play it and experience the wealth of content this game has to offer.  I'm also not going to tell you anything about the final boss because it is so much fun that I feel I won't do it justice by writing about it.  You just have to experience it for yourself.  I have also kept several very key story elements away from the reader in the hope that you will play this game and still be able to discover things on your own.  Skyward Sword is a worthy and excellent addition to the Zelda series and one of my personal favorites in the series.  More a lot of the Zelda games Skyward Sword makes a serious effort to make the story the main focus of the game as opposed to others where the gameplay is the overall focus.

Thanks so much for reading!  We are about to crack the Top 5 Best Zelda games as decided by me!  Holy Wow! Cannot wait! Until next time!