The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

 This is a review I wrote when Skyward Sword had just been released and Super Podcast Bros. was just an idea. I'm posting this now just as a general review and not an article for our "Games to Play Before the World Ends" feature, but you can bet that it'll show up on our list soon.

-Spencer

The new Zelda game, Skyward Sword, opens with an artistic telling of how many years ago, an evil demon named Demise assembled an army and tried to steal the legendary Triforce. The Goddess Hylia, rescued the human race by gathering them on a piece of land and sending it into the sky above the clouds, after which, sealed Demise and his hoard away, protecting the Triforce and the people of the kingdom. Fast forward to present day. Link is a young man attending the Knight Academy on the island sent by the goddess to the sky called Skyloft. The people of Skyloft hold the legend of the Goddess Hylia dear, although knowledge of the surface world (the world below the clouds) is gone from memory. Attending the academy with Link is Zelda, daughter of the academy’s headmaster

There are a number of long cut scenes to start the game, but they have much more of a cinematic brilliance then previous Zelda games. The story is deep, and the characters are loveable, endearing, especially Zelda. After a graduation ceremony for the academy, Link and Zelda are riding their Loftwings (giant birds, which become your Epona) when a freak storm knocks Zelda off and she falls down below to the surface world. Link now would set out to the surface world to try and find Zelda, but find himself in the middle of something that would in the end alter their lives, the world and even time. 

 

You really are not even sure what’s going on in the story as it is much deeper than previous Zelda games. In other games, you know what is going on, the story is mostly laid out for you. In this game however, the story unfolds as you move through it, which makes for an even better ending as everything becomes clear. It starts off great and ends even better. I’ll admit, I was a little emotional during the final cut scenes. 

The world is immense. You travel to each part of the world by way of the sky. To access a different part of the surface world, you have to get back to the sky, ride your loftwing to another portal to another part of the world, and then descend. So your map of the surface world has large blank spots between the main areas. It is an interesting way of doing things, but works well with the premise of the game. There are three main areas, Faron Woods, a hybrid forest/water area, Eldin Volcano, a hybrid fire/earth area, and Lanaryu Desert, a hybrid desert/electric area. Each has its own unique challenges and mixes things up well to provide a constantly entertaining experience. 

The temples are insane. As Cody put it, they are “diabolical.” They are admittedly shorter than temples have been in other games, but they really are something special. What is interesting though is basically everything you do is like a temple. It takes just as long or longer to get to a temple as it does to beat a temple. So a temple never feels like the main event, just the grand finale to a particular area. Like I said, there are only three areas so what is cool is as you get more items and get farther in the story, you have to return to the areas and with the newer items you access different parts of the areas, and sometimes you actually have to go back into temples that had things you couldn’t do before and explore them. 

The boss fights are also very creative. In past Zelda games, typically you have a large flat area that you stay on to fight. In this game, that’s not always the case. One that comes to mind is the boss of the first fire temple. The arena is linear and sloped and the boss is a huge rocky ball of lava. Also, the main-ish bad guy (think Zant from twilight princess), named Ghirahim, is the boss of two temples, then you fight him again right before the final boss. Dare I say the final boss battle is the most spectacular of any Zelda game? It is a visual splendor as well as very difficult. I remember as the battle started I was literally scared of fighting Demise. The arena is like fighting shadow link in ocarina, on a reflective pond then extends forever. What is cool though is whoever has control of the battle; the sky either clears or becomes overcast, giving a stark contrast of good vs evil. It also gives an incredible feeling of accomplishment once you win. 

The side quests are pretty cool as well. All of them involve characters in Skyloft, and seeing how there really aren’t that many residents of Skyloft, there aren’t that many side quests.  That being said, they are pretty intricate and take a bit of time. There is a Skulltula type thing but this time you help a demon who lives on the bottom of Skyloft become a human by giving him Gratitude Crystals, which are given to you by people when you complete their quest. 

Some things that I didn’t like were your guide girl, Fi, was pretty annoying. She is this weird spirit thing that lives in your sword and pops out to talk to you. She is supposed to be like a computer I guess because she is always telling you percentages and things. I don’t know, its just a little weird. Also, the harp bugged me. It was not engaging to play at all and the songs you learn aren’t very good. They are not catchy like songs from Ocarina, Majora’s Mask or Wind Waker, but at least there was an instrument, cough cough Twilight Princess. The only other thing was there really wasn’t much to explore. There are just a handful of islands floating in the sky and even then there are tiny. Then anything on the surface world was designed to be apart of the main quest, so there isn’t many areas to go back and explore after. 

Here are a list of things that it borrows from previous Zelda games:

Ocarina of Time: Epicness, the musical score is just as good, and the stories tie together beautifully because Skyward Sword is the prequel to Ocarina.

Majora’s Mask: Skyward Sword has basically the same thing as the owl statue system where you have to save and return to the sky. 

Wind Waker: The ocean and the sky are pretty similar in how it is wide open for you to explore, also, Windfall island and Skyloft are very similar in design and the characters are just as kooky. 

Twilight Princess: In Skyward Sword, there is a version of the twilight realm called the Silent Realm in which link travels to in order to pass tests of courage. It is almost identical to the twilight realm though. Also, Ghirahim and Zant are similar because you don’t really know who is the main bad guy is until later, and they turn out to be minions or puppets. 

Also, the art in Skyward Sword is a perfect blend of the more real looking Twilight Princess and the cartoon look of Wind Waker, which is the perfect representation of a Zelda game I think. It also has almost all the same tones and sounds as Wind Waker.  Overall the game has a more serious feel than Wind Waker, but more lighthearted feel than Ocarina or Twilight Princess. 

So what do I think of it? Quite simply, it is perfect 10. It is a masterpiece. It is near flawless. The story is rich, the characters as well. You really care about Zelda and you really want to save her. Link and Zelda’s relationship is so much more real than before. So is it better than Ocarina? I’ll put it this way, after talking with Cody; we decided that Skyward Sword is the better game, but it will be another year or so before I could beat it again. Ocarina I could play today, tomorrow, whenever and still love it, which is why it is still my favorite Zelda game.