4/5 ★ – brudanos's review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.

Skyward Sword has one of, if not the best, stories in the Zelda Franchise. Taking you to the very beginning, we discover the origins of the feud between Good and Evil, the creation of the Master Sword and the Hero of Time and the curse that would follow these protagonists across thousands of years and split timelines. Filled with creative dungeons, unique weapons and tools at your disposal, this journey is unlike any other. It’s unfortunate that the game is mired by difficult controls adapted from the Wii’s motion controllers and location/gameplay repetition that makes you wish multiple times for the credits to roll. When I turned 6 years old, I got a Super Nintendo along with The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past for my birthday. I became enamored with the world, the characters, the dungeons and the story and it was the start of how The Legend of Zelda became my favorite franchise of all time. I was a Nintendo guy through and through, that was until the Wii came out and unfortunately the motion control style of gaming turned me away. I had played and completed every Zelda game up to this point in Nintendo’s history however Skyward Sword was always the one massive omission in my Zelda gaming history. I never had a Wii and as time progressed, there was just no feasible way for me to play this game. For years I wished for a port and was excited when it was announced for the Switch last year. So first let’s talk about the controls. I applaud Nintendo for making the effort to translate their motion controls to a standard controller scheme and for the most part they were successful. Every button and swipe of your joysticks works as intended however it doesn’t make the process any less frustrating. Having to hold down a button to move your camera, imprecision in your sword swipes when precision is the name of the game and an item wheel that is cumbersome to use just sucked the joy out of some game encounters. As creative as the weapons you will find are, the motion control adaption just made them a pain to use. Bombs being one that would explode while I held them more times than I cared to count. Having to assign the item, take out the bomb, move the joystick up or down to throw or roll, hold the joystick, aim, and then press the action button, was a recipe for disaster. If I messed any of those up, which I often did … 💥. The whip, as cool an item as it was, was the bane of my existence. Having to do flicks of the joystick in the right direction to grab and then move the levers, especially in areas that required timeliness, was a nightmare. Lastly the use of shields, a staple of the Zelda series, was difficult and I realized near the end of the game that I had played the entire journey, without a shield. With that said though, I appreciate Nintendo’s dedication to their move controls as they went all in and used it in very creative ways. When it works, it felt good! Taking down enemies by getting past their defenses and analyzing their behaviors to time your attacks made for some of the best combat in the Zelda franchise. Skyward Sword also boasts some of the best bosses in the franchise and all were so creative and fun to take down using your arsenal. Skyward Sword also has an upgrade system in place by collecting materials in the world. I’ll be honest, I didn’t use this much nor found much of a need to and didn’t go out of my way looking for new materials. The story this time around is the highlight of the game for me. Watching the story unfold as someone who has loved this franchise for over 30 years was beautiful to see. The lore building and how it connects to future games was so interesting and the cast of characters you interacted with were a lot of fun. I loved every dungeon but need to give a special shoutout to the Lanayru Mines and their use of the time stones. I also found there was a decent amount of challenge in the puzzles this time around that had me look up a guide or two to find my way through. My only gripe outside of the controls is the repetitiveness of the locations and gameplay elements. You will discover 3 locations and beat their respective dungeons and then you will continue to visit those 3 same locations, albeit sometimes new areas of that location, repeatedly. You will perform the same task by collecting x amount of an item in a realm that will repeat itself, then do another dungeon and then go fight an entity trying to escape and rinse and repeat. I clocked 32 hours to beat the game and there were multiple times where I was hoping that I was nearing the end. Little did I know I was a little over halfway done. Essentially you have fire, sand, forest/water areas you will be exploring, and I wished they had given us a little more variety. Skyward Sword had the potential to be my favorite in the Zelda Franchise, or at least a close second to Majora’s Mask. It had the creativity, ambition, storytelling, and unique gameplay to make it happen. Some tweaks in its pacing, repetitiveness and controls is all it would have taken to push it forward. Issues aside, I absolutely recommend this game for anyone who enjoys the traditional dungeon style Zelda gameplay as it has some of the most memorable levels wrapped in a beautiful origin story. Beat: 3/20/22 Time: 32 Hours