The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword pits hero Link on an adventure through air and land to unravel the mysteries of an ancient war in which he and Zelda were destined to fulfill important roles. With the aid of the sky-dwellers and earth-bound allies, Link sets forth through the skies, a huge forest, a volcanic mountain, and a vast desert to pursue the missing Zelda and to understand the role he was destined to play in preventing the rise of an ancient evil.
Zelda isn’t known as a princess…
Positives:
- Large map/play area – There are lots of areas to go to, new secrets to unravel. Traveling form sky to land is made easier with the aid of the bird statues discovered while previously on land.
- New challenging minigames – They are ideal for testing and improving your proficiency of specific aspects (i.e. shooting with a bow, flying with your loftwing, skydiving, boss rush, etc.).
- Upgradable items /weapons – Gathering certain raw materials, you can improve items and weapons that will increase performance, durability, power, or other special benefits.
- Great storyline – Playthrough gives big insight as to how the destinies of Zelda and Link unfold.
- Helpful sidekick – Like most sidekicks you ever meet (Midna – Twilight Princess, Navi – Ocarina of Time), Fi is pretty helpful despite her tendencies to calculate outcomes and to state the obvious.
- Great music – What Zelda game doesn’t have it?
Among the likes of Agahnim and Zant, Girahim takes the role of the final boss's apprentice.
Negatives:
- Very extensive content – Compared to Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword requires having to perform several more preparatory missions before entering a big dungeon, so the storyline is slow to advance. Expect to beat the game at around 35-50 total hours on your first playthrough.
- Difficult management of item and weapons configuration – Unlike all other Zelda games, you switch out your items on the go instead of pausing to switch them out. This is especially not ideal while fighting bosses or other tough enemies as they can attack you while you’re scrambling to queue up your desired item or weapon.
- Slight lag on player action – You may experience a slight lag in your actions while controlling Link. Timing the shield-bashing technique may require a bit more finesse as a result.
- Shield Durability – All shields, except the Hylian Shield, are breakable and can be very expensive to replace depending on the type of shield and the level of upgrade at the time it broke. Time those shield bashes well…
- Music aspect not as involved – Compared to Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword doesn’t have as much musical involvement with the use of the Goddess’s Harp.
Skydiving is quite an interesting feature, but the minigame takes a bit of skill.
Overall:
Zelda Skyward sword has lots of gameplay and a great story to boot. Playing the game requires a bit of patience with the slow storyline, and practice with the controls as they are not as easy to grasp during the first several hours, but once acclimated, the game can be very enjoyable. Familiar names and new faces alike are reminiscent of the type of characters you may be familiar with in previous games of the Zelda series. This game is definitely for all you Zelda fans out there!
