The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review

Credit to: Nintendo

Is Skyward Sword Finally Worth It?

Welcome back! We’ve got another brand new video game to review for you all! Well, not new, it’s actually just a remaster, but there’s actually a couple of other things that actually fix or expand upon the game, so I think I’ll count it as a new game. Now I won’t be doing any story discussions here, because if you’ve played this game, then you know what happens, but if you’re new to this game and/or series, you absolutely have to try this game out. If you just want to hear someone else’s opinion, then you’ll be glad this article’s going to be available and spoiler-free for you. There’s quite a few things to point out in this review, so there won’t be a pro and con section. Instead, we’re looking at visuals, gameplay, story, and then of course my final thoughts. Pros and cons will be scattered into any section they correspond with. With all of that out of the way, let’s jump straight into it.

Visuals

If you’ve seen or played the original Skyward Sword on the Nintendo Wii, you’ll know or remember just how bad it looked. The game was super pixelated and rough around the edges, and it almost made you want to go back and play a Nintendo 64 game instead. I understand that it wasn’t designed on a system that wasn’t really meant for beautiful or groundbreaking visuals, because it really was a whole different system for an entirely different audience than the usual Xbox or PlayStation audience. For what it was worth, it wasn’t unplayable, but it sure was ugly. This time around with its HD remaster, this game is absolutely beautiful. Of course, this is a totally different ball game from something like Breath of the Wild, but regardless, this game holds its own. When looking at the original and the remaster side by side, there’s absolutely no comparison. Booting this game up, I really wasn’t too sure what to expect. I love the Zelda series no matter what, so visuals really don’t affect me too much, but when I laid my eyes on the opening cutscene, I was absolutely stunned. The improvements are just so breathtaking, and I really couldn’t find anything visually that took me out of the game. The old edges have been smoothed out, and the terrible pixelation has been improved upon much better than expected.

The environment itself, is absolutely gorgeous. The lighting and shading during the day is so much better now, it’s honestly crazy. The higher resolution and beautiful artwork has honestly done this game justice. The leaves look like leaves, the trees look like trees, the clouds are thick and puffy, and it really put a smile on my face by just exploring. I really took my time with this game the moment it released just to admire these visual improvements, and I can say, my initial opinion is totally different from my current opinion. I was one of those people who thought this would just be a lazy port with a slightly improved design, but no, this is honestly so much more. It’s so much more enjoyable to explore when you can actually identify what you’re looking at. Flying around Skyloft on Link’s Crimson Loftwing is a treat, and I found myself actually ignoring the quest for a while just to admire the bird and the distant islands. It really is charming. With these visual improvements, it’s honestly easier to play this game, now that you can reeeally see what you’re doing. Amazing.

The character models. Man. These characters are absolutely being done justice. This remaster makes these characters so much more enjoyable now that their expressions and movements are so much smoother. Link and Zelda look so much better, with their smooth faces, brighter colors, detailed hair, and cleaned up clothing. Groose and his underlings are honestly much more enjoyable now that they’ve been polished up so much. Their funny expressions and movements are nice and smooth now, so the humor in this game is actually better, now that you can identify what they’re actually doing. The enemies also benefited, and I’ve gotta say, the enemies that I disliked back then, I’m actually starting to enjoy now. The Bokoblins are still super ugly, but at least you get to see just how ugly, so that’s actually a good thing, if that makes any sense. The boss fights are a little easier too, now that you can see what you’re aiming at. It’s also easier to identify what attacks an enemy is about to do, so the timing can be more precise. This game really is that much more beautiful.

Gameplay

Hear me out. I know this might sound weird, but just listen. Motion controls are better than the button controls. Don’t get me wrong, the addition of button controls are fantastic, and it’s honestly fantastic that they’re here, but let me explain what I mean. So, as far as the motion controls go, they are so much better now. Even if they do start to mess up a little bit, all you need to do is press the Y button, and it’ll immediately recalibrate and center the reticle. These refined motion controls make the combat so much easier. Every time I need to slash right, I slash right. Need to slash left? Boom, easy. Maybe you need to raise your sword in the air to charge up your Skyward Strike? You can do that, easily. Back on the Wii version, it was such a pain to do these things. Aiming your bow and arrows, slingshot, bombs, etc? So. Much. Better. Overall man, these motion controls really are great, and I’m not sure if this is confirmed, but I think the Skyward Sword Joy-Cons perform better than the standard Joy-Cons. With the new Joy-Cons, I couldn’t notice a single bit of drift. I remember the Joy-Cons that came with my Switch immediately started drifting, so this is a big improvement. Also, with motion controls, it frees up the right thumbstick to actually control your camera freely. I am so happy this was implemented. I love having control over my camera, so using the thumbsticks while moving my Joy-Cons around to explore or to battle makes it so much more comfortable than the original Wii version of the game. Like I said, the motion controls are superior to button controls for this game, so let me just explain how.

First of all, let me explain button controls. For those of you who haven’t picked this game up or you’re new to this game in general, the Wii version of Skyward Sword only let you move using the Wii remote and the nunchuck. You couldn’t control your camera, and the motion controls were garbage. When this remaster was revealed, it was confirmed that there would be button controls. Button controls basically replace the motion aspect of the game entirely. The sword swings can now be controlled using the right thumbstick, and the shield bash ability is done by pressing into the left thumbstick. You control your Loftwing with the left thumbstick, moving him up, down, left, right, etc etc. The buttons let you flap your wings to gain height, and all that good stuff. Don’t get me wrong, all of this is wonderful, and it’s great for when you just want to play in handheld mode, but unfortunately, that means you have to sacrifice your camera controls. This is a bummer, but of course I don’t fault them too much for this, since it allows you to relax and play. My personal opinion, is that if you want the best experience with this game, you’re probably gonna want to use the standard Switch’s Joy-Cons. It’s still totally okay if you have the Lite, since that’s basically what the button controls are pandered towards, but yeah, motion controls all the way, just for the simple fact that camera controls make it way easier to play.

Besides the controls, I noticed something else here. The beginning of the game is so much shorter. Of course they show you the ropes, and you need to win the Loftwing tournament, but it doesn’t take you a whole lot of time to get to the action, now that you can actually skip through cutscenes. That’s right. Skippable cutscenes. Thank the heavens above. The Wii version caught a whole lot of flak for the super long cutscenes, but thankfully, cutscenes can be skipped, and dialogue can also be sped up. That wasn’t the only improvement. The companion that tags along with you for the entire adventure, Fi, now only pops up when absolutely necessary. She was an absolutely hated character back then, as she would constantly stop the natural flow of the game by spewing constant hints and other bits of dialogue, and players were livid. She even stopped gameplay just to tell you your remote’s battery was low. These constant notifications were awful. Now, she is essentially an optional companion, as you can now call on her yourself if you ever need a hint in a dungeon or if you need a reminder for what the objective is. She wasn't the only thing that gave you constant unnecessary notifications. In the original, literally every item you pick up gives you a long notification telling you about what the item was, even if you found it already. Now, you only get these notifications for actually new items, so you can continue your flow of gameplay. The only thing they did mess up on, was making you purchase the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo just to freely transport yourself from the sky to the surface and vice versa. Besides this one issue, they really did fix basically all of the problems of the game, so much so, that this feels like an entirely new game.

Story

This section is going to be pretty short, because I don’t want to spoil anything or make people who’ve already played the game sit through yet another rundown of the story. I’ll go over the overall plot. So in this game as you may or may not know, you play as Link, a knight in training at the Skyloft Knight Academy. You train your efficiency as a Loftwing rider and a swordsman, earning the closeness of Zelda herself (she’s totally into you). You meet many funny, cool, and cute characters along the way including Fi, a spirit that resides in the Goddess Sword, a sword created by the Goddess, Hylia, for her chosen hero, a character only known as Chosen Hero. As Link, it’s your eventual duty to protect Zelda and Skyloft, and basically save the land from an evil entity known as Demise. Now, there’s nothing new in this story, sorry to say, but I’ll talk about it as if this game is brand new. Honestly, the story really is amazing. I find that there’s a few missteps in terms of the pacing, but overall, it’s actually a very good story. I love the dynamic of Link and Zelda, who very clearly like each other. The characters you meet on your adventure are all unique and interesting, and I found myself reliving my childhood seeing them again. There’s funny characters, serious characters, caring characters, and a couple of rude ones, and I love them all. They’re all so charming, that I just wish I could see even more of them for just a little longer. The villains are great, and I really enjoyed fighting them all over again. Definitely in my top 5 favorite Zelda games, standing alongside Breath of the Wild, Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess and Link’s Awakening. Really hoping we see Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess remade or at least remastered, but we’ll have to wait and see about that. All in all, I love this game.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy we got this game remastered. With the motion controls fixed, notifications majorly silenced, and the graphics greatly improved upon, it really goes to show you how good this game always has been. The story has always been great, it’s honestly just been a matter of fixing the controls and the notifications mostly. It’s a bonus to have the cutscenes be skippable, and also have the option to speed up dialogue. Button controls are also a great addition, so there’s almost nothing but positive additions to this game, Like I said before, this feels like a brand new Zelda game, and that makes me so happy. The only bad thing that I mentioned before, was the sneaky Amiibo decision. That was really a greedy move on their part, as having such a great feature be locked behind a $20+ paywall is honestly pretty gross. Other than that one stupid decision, Skyward Sword HD is a wonderful remaster, and I’m so glad it’s reached its full potential. That’s all from me, but what did you all think? Let me know on my Instagram and Twitter! This has been The Wolf Den!

4.75 Out Of 5.