The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Nintendo reinvents its most legendary franchise, but is it the best Zelda yet?


Ocarina of Time is safe for now. While The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is an outstanding game, and worthy of mention among the best Zelda experiences, it rarely reaches the level of sustained brilliance and innovation that made Ocarina of Time such a masterpiece. That being said, it is probably the freshest, most contemporary, most important Zelda game produced in the past 13 years.

Skyward Sword finally lays out the origin story of Hyrule, of Zelda and Link, and of the dozens of traditions that have defined The Legend of Zelda since its inception 25 years ago. Make no mistake: this is the first Zelda game, from a mythological point of view. The game begins in Skyloft, an island community floating high above the clouds. It was torn from the earth ages ago by a benevolent goddess to protect humanity from dark forces deep underground. Those dark forces are slowly returning to the world, and their agents have set their sights on a young girl from Skyloft, Zelda. When she goes missing, a young knight-in-training, Link, is tasked with travelling to the lands beneath the clouds to rescue her. This is only a sliver of a deep, engaging, and surprising story of heroism and sacrifice that ranks among the best video games have to offer. It’s certainly the best story (and storytelling) in any Zelda game so far. It’s so good, in fact, that it sometimes outshines Skyward Sword’s dungeons, which are traditionally the bedrock of a Zelda game. That is not to say that dungeons and boss fights were an afterthought – they are as complex and brilliant as ever – but Skyward Sword takes its storytelling very seriously, especially when it comes to the relationship between Link and Zelda.



There are some fairly significant departures from the traditional Zelda formula in Skyward Sword. The most noticeable and important change is the lack of any real overworld. It might sound like a trivial change – there are still dungeons, side-quests, and mini-games, after all – but the entire flow of the game is drastically altered by the absence of an open-world environment through which players access the rest of the game. So how does Zelda function without a proper overworld? Quite ingeniously, actually. Players descend from Skyloft, the central hub of Skyward Sword, down to terra firma. In each geographic region – forest, volcano, and desert – there is a large and complex subsection that acts like something of a mini-overworld. Once players conquer the subsection, they enter the region’s dungeon(s). Thus, overworld and dungeon are integrated in never-before-seen ways.


The result is a very large and very long game. Each subsection takes 90-120 minutes to traverse, and then it’s another two hours for each dungeon. With side-quests, mini-games, and general exploration accounted for, Skyward Sword will last an average player between 50 and 60 hours, easily among the longest Zelda experiences. However, because there is no overworld, players must visit and revisit the same territories over and over again. How, then, does Zelda keep from getting stale? Again, quite ingeniously. Series producer Eiji Aonuma and the development team behind Skyward Sword have crafted a Zelda experience quite unlike any other, one that travels forward and backward through time, space, and dimension. Each region of the game world is used, reused, and reused again, but each time reinvented in some small or large way. It could be a version of the region thousands of years in the past, or a version that has endured some cataclysmic event since last visited, or a version that exists on a parallel plane of existence. In this way, Aonuma and company have created a tremendous utility and efficiency of space. It’s really a huge accomplishment, but not quite as impressive as Skyward Sword’s motion control scheme, which is nothing short of revolutionary.


The controls in Skyward Sword are a revelation. If anyone has ever doubted the necessity of motion controls in video games – and thousands upon thousands have – they never should again. Skyward Sword is the experience promised five years ago when Nintendo released the Wii with its unorthodox motion control remotes. It has the best controls of any Wii game. It has the best controls of any Zelda game. It has the best motion controls of any game, ever.

Through the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which is either attached to the base of older Wii remotes or built into newer models, Skyward Sword features full 1:1 motion control. This means that there is a direct and immediate correlation between a player’s movement while holding the remote and the action onscreen. Furthermore, because of the gyroscopic sensors built into the MotionPlus, players can perform more sophisticated and nuanced maneuvers, either with Link’s sword or with other accessories. Sword controls, however, are the main attraction in Skyward Sword. Link is capable of thrusting his sword forward or swinging it vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. There is also complete freedom of direction: Link can slash diagonally from top right to bottom left, or bottom right to top left; he can lower his sword and swing upward, or raise his sword and swing downward; he can pierce a pumpkin with a forward thrust, raise it above his head, and throw it away from him with a flick of the wrist. And all of this is done without buttons. I can say safely that it will be extraordinarily difficult to go back to button presses after using the Wii MotionPlus in Skyward Sword; it is a joy to use, and makes an already immersive experience that much more absorbing. What is even more remarkable, though, is that these superior motion controls are in no way a gimmick; they must be mastered to finish the game. Boss fights, puzzles, and common enemy encounters rely on the player’s mastery of motion controls.


Skyward Sword is the first Zelda game to feature an orchestral soundtrack (instead of midi and all-sampled instrument tracks), and it sounds wonderful. The music in Skyward Sword is among the best of the series, and that is heavy praise. There is just something more alive, more vibrant, and more soulful about orchestral music than even the most perfectly-crafted synthesized electronic music. Standout tracks include the bombastic “Goddess’ Theme,” the melancholic “Fi’s Theme,” and the devastatingly pretty “Romance Theme.” Try to listen to the latter and not smile. I dare you.

The graphics in Skyward Sword are interesting indeed, and most closely resemble living, breathing impressionist art. There is a noticeable lack of detail in dungeon, character, and level models; rather the graphics provide an overall visual effect. Players can tell what is onscreen, but cannot make out many details. In the distance, landmarks appear as blurry, interrupted brush strokes. The result is a graphical style, imprinted on everything from Link to the foliage through which he walks, that is heavy on emotion and feeling but light on intricate design. Overall, the graphics represent a bold and original choice by the development team behind Skyward Sword, but ultimately I think it was a poor decision. The problem is not the graphics per se, but the synthesis of graphics and level design. Many subsections and dungeons fall flat because of incongruities created by the combination of imprecise and unfocused graphics with intricate puzzles and complicated swordplay. Skyward Sword would have done better to take a completely minimalist route, like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, or embrace fully the complexity of its gameplay.


And in the end, that is what keeps Skyward Sword from being the best Zelda game: it wants to eat its cake and have it too. Playing it, one gets the sense that the development team was unsure which Zelda traditions to uphold and which to discard, which fan favorites to abandon and which to resurrect, which audience to honor and which to disavow. As a result, it stands, somewhat uncomfortably, in a no-man’s land, one foot rooted firmly in the past, one stepping boldly into an unknown future.

Score: 9.0