The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii): 10/10
Part of me wants to give it an even higher rating, but I think that's a bit tacky. Kind of beats the point of the rating system when you do that.
Anyways, here's my review.
Nintendo has done it again. The newest iteration of Nintendo's popular Zelda series is an absolutely incredible piece of work. The story, characters, setting, gameplay; I can't think of a single part of this game that left me unimpressed. I'll delve into some specific aspects of this game in a bit, but it's not too often nowadays that a video game interests me enough to actually write a review this long online.
Gameplay: The gameplay in Skyward Sword is fairly similar to the Wii port of Twilight Princess. You use the Nunchuk extension to walk around, press the A button to interact with people and objects, hit the B button to use items (bow, bomb, slingshot, etc.), and swing the Remote to swing the character's sword. Unlike the Wii port of TP, however, which only registered a few motion commands, the motion controls in Skyward Sword are almost flawless. You swing the remote left, the charater swings his sword left. You swing your sword up, the character will slice upward. You swing your sword at 52 degree angle from horizontal, the character...well, you get the picture. Heck, even minor things like rotating your remote while walking will cause the character to rotate his sword in his wrist in tandem with the player. It really gives the player a much more immersive feel to be able to fight off a horde of monsters this way than by simply tapping a button repeatedly.
Outside of the standard controls, Skyward Sword also introduces a lot of new gameplay elements. For the first time, the hero now has a Stamina Bar, which allows him to run up walls, sprint, move objects, climb vines, etc. The game also introduces shield durablity, upgradable items (at least items that the hero now has the option to upgrade whenever he wants), upgradable potions, and an "Item pouch", which is essentially a separate spot for storing potions, shields, "badges" (a new item), quivers, and bomb bags. The Item Pouch really adds a new layer of customization into the series, which I absolutely loved. I never use my stupid slingshot, and I rarely use bombs or potions, so I used the majority of my pouch to hold Heart badges (two badges take the place of Heart Containers in this game) and Quivers, so I could reach my beloved 20-hearts and hold a ludicrous amount of arrows for my bow.
Dungeons are still heaps of fun, and significantly harder than some of the past few Zelda games. I got fairly close to dying in the 2nd dungeon, in fact. Even more challenging, though, IMO, were the game's "Silent Realms". Once you reach a certain point of the game, you must travel to a sort-of alternate dimension, and collect tears (similar to Twilight Princess) while evading Guardians (similar to the Phantom challenges in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks). It might sound easy, but some of them can really be a challenge. You basically have 90 seconds after collecting a tear until the Guardians wake up, and the things are stupidly fast! I found myself just barely escaping a Guardian's scythe as I would have to sprint to the next tear.
Instead of a horse or a boat, the hero's mount in this game turns out to be a bird. As crazy as it sounds, it's really awesome. I had loads of fun flying through the clouds to reach distant islands. I had a few issues controlling it when I first started playing, but it really gets easy the more you do it.
Now, for items. Most of the standard Zelda items return, like bombs, bow, slingshot, etc, but I really enjoyed a lot of the new additions. You get random items from a remote-control robot that lets you hit hidden switches to a, basically, Sacred Leaf Blower. The bow is probably one of my favorite items though, and I love how they incorporated the controls Nintendo previously used from the archery mini-game on Wii Sports Resort. Basically, you can fire arrows by pointing at the screen (like in Twilight Princess), or you have the option of pulling the nunchuck back like an actual bow, than releasing the trigger to fire an arrow.
Also, Skyward Strike. YES. He's done it in a lot of the handheld/2-D games, but I believe this is the first 3-D game that allows Link to fire beams from his sword. You basically point the remote "Skyward", and you'll be able to fire a big
Getsuga Tenshou cutting blast. I found myself madly in love with this addition.
Finally, I should probably note the overall exploration of the game. Much like Wind Waker, a previous Zelda title, a lot of emphasis is placed on exploration in this game. The dungeons are great, but the majority of the game will definitely be spent exploring the world map. To be honest, though, I actually preferred this setup. I thought the amount of dungeons was perfect, and I really enjoyed the quest events and bosses you would randomly have to face while exploring. On top of that, the treasure system (and also a bug-catching system) from Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks returns in this game, and I thought random things to collect mid-adventure really made that part of the game much more enjoyable.
Story: I've enjoyed the storylines in most of the Zelda games I've played. They usually are written in such a way to appeal to the player without alienating new fans. This applies to Skyward Sword as well, though I'd have to say that the storyline of this game has really appealed to me more than any of the previous titles.
For the most part, the game revolves around Link going on an adventure to save Zelda, which isn't anything new, as far as the Zelda series goes. In this game, though, rather than Link (the hero's default name) and Zelda being the chosen hero and the princess for the majority of the game, the two are childhood friends who go to class at the same academy. Because of that, Link's goal of saving Zelda takes on a much more personal feel for the player. As a player, I smiled when Link and Zelda were reunited for the first time, frowned when the reunion ended, and even teared up a little when...well, I'm not gonna spoil that.
Now, it's really hard to make this next claim, since it seems to change from player to player, but I'd say most Zelda games I've played have had at least one point of the game where I'd start to grow bored. Either due to revisiting old areas, similar looking maps, or just an unreasonably lengthy collection quest, it seems like there's usually a point where I grow a little bored, and have to push myself to get out of that funk. I did NOT have that problem in Skyward Sword. There's a lot of revisiting old areas in this game, but each revisit introduces something drastically new, be it a new area, Silent Realm, game event, or even a boss. Basically, this is one Zelda game where I found myself thoroughly interested start to finish.
Shipping: I was debating whether or not I should add to this review. It might not be the most relevant thing, but seeing as how this is a site tailored towards shippers, I think most people would be able to appreciate it.
As I mentioned, the relationship between Zelda and Link is introduced in a different light in this game. Rather than being the princess of the kingdom, Zelda is Link's childhood friend, absorbing similar roles filled by Saria, Ilia, etc. from previous titles. However, even though they apparently are only friends, it is instantly made clear to the player that their relationship goes beyond that. The game begins with Zelda waking Link up, wanting him to be the first to see her in her ritual outfit. She playfully teases him, while at the same time shows great concern over a personal problem at the beginning of the game. She even almost kisses him in one scene, and asks to spend time alone with him right afterwards. I could really go on for a while, but basically it's much more than implied that the two have feelings for each other. It really drives the story forward, IMO, especially when you see their reaction after becoming reunited, or seeing the look of pure anger on Link's face after seeing Zelda get kidnapped at one point (it's my current av, actually).
Basically, it really seems like Nintendo is aware that shipping makes up a large portion of it's Zelda fandom, after seeing some of the stuff in this game and its predecessor, Spirit Tracks. Heck, Nintendo even released a "Romance Trailer" before the game came out, showing off a few Zelink scenes from the beginning of the game.
Characters: I really liked the characters in this game. For the most part, the game felt like a fusion between Twilight Princess, one of the more realistic-looking games in the series, and Wind Waker, which used cel-shaded graphics and a more colorful and cartoony color pallet (and was also my personal favorite prior to Skyward Sword). The characters are probably moreso inspired by the latter game, but given more adult appearances. For example, Beetle, the big-headed silly Merchant from WW (as well as the DS titles), returns in this game looking much more like someone from TP. A lot of other characters have very silly appearances, like the fortune teller, the Scrap Salesman and his mother, and the new Kikwi and Mogma races. Overall, I just really found the NPC's enjoyable, and I think the bright color pallet really helped that.
Even with that bright color scheme though, I actually found the hero, Link, to look much more realistic than he did in Twilight Princess, which was supposed to be the more 'realistic' title. His face contorts when angered, he smiles and frowns when the situation elicits it, and he even laughs for once (outside of the Toon Link games). I think that really helped with the personable feel I mentioned early. Unlike most of the non-toon games, Link really seems to display a wide range of emotions in this title.
Finally, as far as characters go, I think the final boss looked a LOT different than I was expecting. I won't spoil it, but it's amazing how his design clashed with the wide color range of the game. Not to mention how...violent...he looked. He looked much more like a villain out of Street Fighter or Dragonball Z than The Legend of Zelda.
Worlds: Because of the color range I mentioned earlier, the worlds looked very vibrant to me. I didn't really like the overall gloomy feel of Twilight Princess, so the colorful forest, volcano, and desert areas were really enjoyable to me. I think it really helped clash with the Silent Realm areas.
On top of that, I'd say just the overall world map was more enjoyable to me as well. It wasn't so huge that it felt impersonal, but it was big enough to encompass a vast amount of areas, in both the sky and surface maps.
Bosses: Anyone who's played a Zelda game will probably remember the bosses. There are total of 12 bosses in Skyward Sword, including the final bosses and a few exploration bosses, and the only ones I didn't care for were some of the repeating ones. Most of them were fairly challenging, and a few of them just felt amazingly epic. In particular, one boss you have to fight using a sword even bigger than Link, and I found it to be amazing fun chopping his limbs off.
Personal Gripes: Believe it or not, there were a few small things I didn't care for in this game. Obviously, none of them were important enough to make me consider knocking a fraction of a point off my score, but I think they're still worth noting.
Fi: Fi is the Companion Character in this game, similar to Navi, Tatl, Midna, and the King of Red Lions from previous titles. Her character is pretty funny, since she's basically the manifested spirit of Link's
zanpakutou sword, and she kind of acts like a computer program or something, giving analyses on bosses and situations using numerical probablities (ex. "Master, I predict a 70% that Zelda in this building."). I didn't mind that, but I did get a little tired of having her beep at me whenever my hearts were low, or whenever the batteries in the Wiimote needed to be replaced. On top of that, her auto-tuned nonsensical voice just got grating after awhile.
Challenge: This is probably because I've been playing Zelda games for a while (I've actually completed every canon game, and have gotten 100% on all but a few of them), but I didn't find the actual puzzle-solving element of the game to be terribly difficult. Some of the dungeons were moderately challenging, but I felt like half the time when I was on the world map, Fi would basically just tell me how to solve something before I had a chance to figure it out. The actual gameplay was decently challenging, but the puzzles weren't quite as tricky as some of the handheld titles.
Recalibration: This is probably more of a personal problem, since I tend to sit at an oblique angle to my T.V., but I found myself re-calibrating my remote more often than I'd like. Fortunately, the game makes it as easy as pressing one button to re-calibrate the remote (and it only takes half a nanosecond to do it), but it got on my nerves having to think about it while fighting a boss, since I would usually forget to recalibrate while I was walking around, and would randomly have my sword pointed at the ceiling.
I guess this isn't a huge deal, but after all that fluff in the first few hours, I guess I was hoping for something a little more in the end for Zelink shippers. Zelda had an unfinished sentence at the beginning of the game, and based on the romantic feel of that scene, I thought it was implied that she was going to confess her feelings to Link, or something along those lines. Well, unfortunately that never gets brought up again. There are some awesome Zelink scenes before the final boss, but really all we see in the conclusion is a heavy implication that Link will stay with Zelda in the end. So the obvious conclusion is that they get together, but, like usual, nothing is really confirmed.
However, I did enjoy the final boss's last words. He basically gives a speech on how he will be reincarnated and destroy those who
share the blood of the hero and the spirit of the goddess (i.e. Zelda and Link's descendants). So, though it might be a localization thing, it looks like he's implying that next generation will be the procreation of Zelda and Link. So while we don't get a kiss, we do get an implication of some heavy baby-making on Zelda and Link's part. I guess fanfiction can fill in the blanks there.
Overall: Despite some minor gripes, this was an absolutely incredible game. I found myself drawn into the story and gameplay from start to finish, and everything about it appealed to me perfectly. I mentioned it on another thread, but I stopped played Elder Scrolls V mid-game when I got Skyward Sword, and I really don't foresee myself turning the Xbox on anytime soon, with a Hero's Mode now available to play.
This game will seriously go down as not only my favorite Zelda title, but also one the greatest video games I've played in my lifetime. Games this great don't come along too often.
Woo! That was long. I don't usually find a game good enough to have to log my thoughts on it, but I thought I'd make an exception here. Congratulations to anyone with patience enough to read the whole thing.
I was gonna post last night, so your last one wouldn't have to be a bump, but I was too sleepy. Stupid jetlag...
