Free Fallin'!! (A Skyward Sword Review)

Okay.  I just beat Skyward Sword. Just... let me get myself gathered up in order to write this.


HOLYCRAPTHATWASSOGOOD I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE ALL THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED...GAAAAHHHHH


Okay now that that's over.  When I brought the game home and played it, I wrote down some of my reactions to some of the moments in the opening part of the game, and I'll be peppering them through this review as the become appropriate.


Before that, though, I'm going to cut right to the chase. A lot of people have been throwing things around along the lines of Skyward Sword being the single greatest Zelda game ever.  Now look, this might change in the coming years as the newness of the emotions presented by this game fades, but I might call this the single best Zelda game ever made.  The ONLY game that makes me question that title is Wind Waker, which up until now, was by far my favorite in the series.  Now the two are very, very much on the same platform with each other, and at the moment, I think Skyward Sword edges it out because of the system it was made for.

Quote from First Day #1: "Okay, I just did the obligatory practice training for the game.  Combat feels great.  I can’t wait to try it on some monsters."

No you cannot wait, past-Freddie, because fighting monsters feels great.The motion controls are spectacular.  Fighting with the Motion-Plus is unbelievably satisfying, because you are doing so much more than just hitting A to swing your sword.  YOU are swinging your sword.  You have full control over the direction that you swing it, and this is important because your enemies know how to block your swings.  Not only that, but they can counter if you don't strike them properly, and that prospect is terrifying for someone just learning how to fight.

Quote from First Day #2: "Oh my God I am way too impressed by looking around.  This is my first Wii Motion-Plus game, but I feel so in control of my every movement that it’s hard not to get ridiculously excited."

Maybe that needs a little explanation...  When the game first starts, you wake up in Link's room at Skyloft's Knight Academy.  As i got out of bed, I acquainted myself with the speed of Link and tested some of the basics out.  I entered the first person looking-around mode that we have seen in many third-person adventure games since Super Mario 64, where you stand and look at your surroundings with a 360-degree camera..  Using the Wiimote to look around the room, I found myself subconsciously wanting to use the Nunchuck to look.  I tried it out, and Link started moving while still in the first-person mode.  I was floored.  So much so, that I wrote this down.


Quote from First Day #3: "WHAT I AM MOVING AND LOOKING AND MOVING AND LOOKING."


Note that I also said that out loud.  I was discovering this incredible game little by little, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that I was learning a completely different playing style than I was accustomed to.  See, many of the Wii games I have played, even the greats like Super Mario Galaxy, could have been Gamecube games.  They had some new features, like Galaxy's way of collecting the star bits, but the core of the game was running and jumping the same way that we have been doing since 1985.  Even Wind Waker, the game I previously held as my favorite Zelda game, played very much like Ocarina of Time before it.  In short, if we took graphics and processing power out of the equation, I could have played those games on any system which came before this generation.  Skyward Sword changed that for me.

And not just because of this BITCHIN controller.

The combat was the core of this game.  Remember in just about every Zelda game ever where you used the item you got in that dungeon to kill the boss of that dungeon?  I think that happened once, maybe twice in Skyward Sword.  You seriously have to brush up on your combat skills, because the focus has shifted away from Link's gadgets and made its way to Link's constant companion: his sword.  You better hope that all the fighting you're doing makes you better, because even the bosses can and will block most of your strikes.  Flailing isn't an option; you need to make precision strikes.


Quote from First Day #4: "Link, I believe you will be friendzoned for eternity. But D’aaaaaawwwww Link and Zelda are adorable.  Seriously, the characters are so full of expression, it’s great."


The entire world of Skyward Sword is one of the most compelling game settings I have played in.  Skyloft, the main hub of the game, is a lovely little community, and each of the characters has a lot of personality.  There is so much detail that it really reminds me of Majora's Mask, a game which was almost 90% side-quests for the people of Termina.  Even the shopkeepers had prominent roles in side-quests, and Skyward Sword continues that in a slightly less overemphasized fashion.

Skyloft is no Clock Town, but they are similar in all the best ways.

Every character is visually unique, too.  I noted in my E3 Blog that Zelda took me aback a little: 

But the art style gives these characters a great array of emotions.  Link carries a lot of expression in his face, which really carries his role as a silent protagonist.  One character that seems like a throw-away bully in the opening keeps a larger role than you would think, and eventually becomes a welcome sight.  Fi, your new companion, carries zero emotion, but is visually striking compared to the dots that normally represent your companions.

She's also like, a robot spirit thing, so the emotionless thing is excusable.

Quote from First Day #5: "Okay I have to stop talking because I want to stand and play this game.

[2 minutes later]… Okay minimize talking.  I love the music."

This should be no surprise for Zelda, a series with such a beloved soundtrack that my special edition came with a 25th Anniversary Symphony CD.  The music still carries the high standard set by Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess.  

Quote from First Day #5.5: "…and the phrase 'slickest pompadour in town.'"

Comedy and ridiculousness are in full effect, and there are a couple of moments in the introduction of the game that almost break the fourth wall.

If your first response isn't "OH NO THE OWL'S BACK!" you need to replay Ocarina of Time.

Thank you for reminding us again, Nintendo.

I could keep going about how great an experience this game is for much, much longer, but I'll try to hit all my other points quickly for the sake of article length.  The flying feels very nice, especially when you figure the damn system out (I missed an important line of instruction, but found what i was missing anyways).  Jumping from your bird and going into a free-fall to the world below is exhilarating.  The set-pieces of the game are amazing, too.  When you stand back and reflect what you have just done, it's hard to not be amazed.  The final battle blows away any other final battles I have been a part of, in terms of what I did and in terms of the set-ups leading to them.  The story is incredibly well-paced and moving.  At one point, I welled up about as bad as I did to the opening sequence of Up.  Well maybe not that bad, but pretty damn close.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword might be my favorite entry in the series.  It has so many moments that had me floored that it's hard not to compare it to a game like God of War or Bayonetta in terms of amazing moments.  The difference, I found, was the way that I connected with Link because of the Motion-Plus.  I fought the monsters.  I found the Triforce.  I braved diabolical dungeons.  I saved Zelda.  If Skyward Sword had come out at the beginning of the Wii's cycle to show developers how it's done, I feel like we may be looking at a very different world of gaming for this generation.