Final Impressions

[AnimeHat]

If this thread already exists, I'm sorry that I created a new one. But now that the buzz about Skyward Sword has died down, I think it's time to share my final opinion about the game. I'm going to split this into sections and discuss the individual parts.

Motion Controls

I thought that the controls were very interesting and innovative. The enemies actually responded to the ways that you slashed, forcing you to adopt a strategy. It's a nice alternative to mashing a button over and over. Despite what some people said, the motion controls worked well for me. It was rare for it to not work the way I wanted it to. On some occasions, though, the sword would drift really far to the right and wouldn't return to the left. Most of the time it worked properly.

Gameplay
My biggest issue with the gameplay was the overworld. It annoyed me how you had to travel back to the sky every time you wanted to go to a different province. It was an unnecessary measure that just made for headaches. I also thought the harp was a weak element. There was no challenge to playing it at all other than strumming back and forth. And I'm not even going to mention that Fi has a penchant for stating the obvious (you would think that you would know your hearts are low by the beeping and flashing)...

It seemed to me like there was a lot of hand-holding in Skyward Sword. They take out a lot of valuable playing time to teach you something that you would have figured out on your own. And no rant would be complete without complaining how you had to return to the same areas three different times.

But not everything about the gameplay was bad. I enjoyed the side-quests (most of them). They reminded me of Majora's Mask, but not close to the same difficulty level as MM's. I thoroughly enjoyed the temples and boss-fights. Ghirahim was one of those innovations I was speaking about. I didn't particularly like the fact that you fight him three times, but I did find him to be a challenging and satisfying boss each time.

Story
The story! Such things to discuss about the story... The story was interesting, but I didn't like the story nearly as much as its characters! Skyward Sword contains some of the quirkiest characters in the franchise so far, competing with Majora's Mask.

Ghirahim is my new favorite villain, but my favorite character in the game is Groose. Groose goes through so much characterization in the game, going from the hometown bully to the helpful companion. Going to the surface world opens his eyes in some ways, that the world is not all about him. I'll remember the Skyward Sword characters for a long time.

Overall Rating
I give Skyward Sword a Nine out out of Ten for being an excellent game all around, despite its flaws. Feel free to share your thoughts as well!

 

[BR!4N]

Kiddy game

I loved the game. The characters are very interesting, the story compelling... but, it's far too easy. The hand holding, as you mentioned before is unbelievable. Fi has to state everything, the clues are too obvious, a lot of puzzle elements are recycled, all of this making the game easier. There were a lot of additions I liked, such as the Goddess Cubes. But, like many other things in the games, they're flawed. =\ The fact that you have to go back to the sky, take the long trip on the Loftwing, and then open it, and go back. But I still love it, for the great art style, nice story line (with a few twists), and my favorite, the motion controls. I hope all future Zelda games are this innovative.

 

[Koosholts]

I'll just commentate on the categories that were mentioned in the OP.

Motion Controls: They were cool. I wouldn't go as far as saying they were perfect though.

Gameplay: I agree that much of Skyward Sword was hand-holding, especially in the beginning. The constant interruptions by Fi throughout the game got annoying, but I didn't find it too bad like some other people. Hey, she just wanted to inform you that your batteries were low, what's wrong with that?

The combat itself was interesting. I enjoyed the freshness of the swordplay due to a flawless execution of the motion controls. I would have loved to see more variety in enemies, along with an increase in difficulty, but most of Zelda fails to achieve this so I will not harp on Skyward Sword too harshly for it.

Story: Oh lawd, where do I begin? This story is what I have been begging for ever since I played The Wind Waker. No Zelda game has competed with The Wind Waker's deep and powerful story up until Skyward Sword. Everything about Skyward Sword's story was impeccable. The storytelling, the characters, the character development, the emotion, the dialogue, oh gawd I could go on. I place great emphasis on the story being told in a video game, and Skyward Sword delivered way past my expectations. Please Nintendo, surpise me again in Zelda Wii U.

Overall Rating: I'm not going to give you a number. All I will say is that Skyward Sword is my third favorite Zelda game, behind The Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time.

 

[JuicieJ]

I disagree with the hand-holding thing. One, only two tutorials in the entire game are required, and they both involve flying, something that was completely new and difficult to master at first. They should have been optional, as well, but I don't really think it matters in the grand scheme of things. Every other tutorial and source of help (save Fi's stating the obvious, but obvious statement is obvious, so like it matters) had to be called upon at will. If you wanted to chop the logs up at the beginning of the game, that was your choice. If you wanted to ask Fi for her in-depth information, that was your choice. If you wanted to use the Shiekah Stone, that was your choice. It was all about letting us do things at our own pace, not telling us every last detail imaginable like TP did.

Everything else, though (save the score, see my review on the main site if you want), I agree wholeheartedly with. Fantastic game, Skyward Sword is. Really took the series in the direction it needed to already be heading 8 years ago with The Wind Waker. Better late than never, I guess, eh? Zelda's back on track and in full swing more than ever. Glad you enjoyed the game.

 

[Ventus]

What scale are we rating SS by? I'll use the video game scale as well as your (AnimeHat) areas of critique to keep the hate away.

Motion Controls
The Motion Controls of Skyward Sword are very easily the best the Wii has seen perhaps out of its entire library (true story). They're masterfully woven with the sword itself to keep the player in the fray, with good enemies to fight against to boot. They test your limits of insanity at times (swordplay), and other times they're just there for the hell of it (swimming). It's all amazing, overall. 10/10

Gameplay
The gameplay, which I assume to mean the items + overworld and what not, was top notch. I mean, come on, how else do you describe the usage of the items in SS? All put to good use, there is no complaining. Hyrule I admit did not need the sectioning (it was just a tool to make people think the Sky was worthwhile, imo), but it still functioned just fine with it. The Sky also did what it needed to do, although I would like for it to be more populated. 9/10

Story
[I cannot bring myself to comment on SS' story beyond the following: it's good.] 9/10

Overall Rating
SS was an amazing video game, easily tops out most of the giants out there. 10/10 (not an average)

 

[surferguy7]

Eh, I wrote a 1500+ word review a long time ago, but I can't seem to find it so I'll just write a small summary of my thoughts.

Motion Controls

Nearly perfect. Of course, we may never reach the technology that allows for perfect motion controls, but this is as far as I believe we can go now. Every time I made a mistake I felt as if it was my fault. Sword Swinging is incredibly fun and the remote was used in many, many, great ways. My only complaint is that the motion controls might have been a tad overused. Not everything needs motion controls, but who am I to complain if I had fun with them and they worked.

Gameplay and Dungeons

Fantastic puzzles coupled with brilliantly designed regions and dungeons. Nothing more to say here.

Story

Easily the best story in a Zelda game to date.

Overall

Skyward Sword was a fantastic, incredible, and amazing game. I would play it again. (In fact, I already have.)

 

[KawiNinjaZX]

My final thoughts: amazing game. Not the the revolutionary feeling I got when I first played OoT, but I thoroughly enjoyed the entire game. I can't wait to play it again.

 

[PokaLink]

Stroy was inspiring, charecters were unique and compeling, motion controls work most of the time and were new and creative, dungeons, they were neat, perfect blend of puzzles and enemys, hard an easy, i would rate it a 8 1/2 the gameplay was all to linear and the sky was to boring and empty, otherwise a great game.

 

[A Link In Time]

It's very hard to critique this game for it is still fairly new but I will nevertheless do my best to come to a fair conclusion.

Motion Controls

The motion controls certainly weren't perfect but they are the best on the market and fully legitimize 1:1 sword fighting over the traditional controller as well as purchasing a Wii over a PS Move or Kinect with their respective consoles.

Gameplay

The gameplay was very tight and certainly more realistic than in previous installments. The developers over at Nintendo found intriguing and creative uses for all of the items throughout Link's entire adventure. Perks such as the adventure pouch and upgrade system also created a more believable and fluid experience.

Story

The story is unarguably the greatest in franchise history. Not only does it go full circle and explain the origin of the Master Sword and Triforce, it does so through an emotionally charged story. Doesn't every adventure include elements of romance and isn't every great romance an adventure? Skyward Sword answers Yes to both questions and proves once again why The Legend of Zelda is king of the Action-Adventure genre.

Overall Rating

A masterpiece that transcends the limits of its hardware. Skyward Sword will probably be as revered as Ocarina of Time somewhere down the line. 10/10

 

[SpiritGerudo]

Motion Controls: The controls were done very well, in my opinion. The little things like stabbing you sword into the ground , or pulling it up, etc. were really good, and they came in at the perfect times. They didn't muck up epic cut scenes by forcing the player to constantly be doing stuff with the wii-mote. 3 things: the harp (obviously the biggest issue, I only had issues with it in hero mode for some reason), did anyone else have trouble Skyward Striking in the final battle? and for some reason the pointing for the moving around of rooms in the Sky Keep was all messed up for me, as I would move it right and it would move in a curve to the top right corner.

Gameplay: I thought it was fairly good, but the fighting was kinda . . . what's a good word . . . cheesy, as in, I want to FIGHT an enemy, not PLAY a GAME with it. The Sky was too big, and they should've had more inhabited islands in it. My biggest complaint was that it was too easy. On the other hand, everything else was great! Well designed dungeons and puzzles, and the individual areas like Faron Woods were well designed.

Story:Absolutely amazing in almost every aspect, in my opinion. The one thing that really stood out to me that I think Nintendo should do in future Zelda games is have another character that is more involved in the plot, like Groose. Someone that they can develop past just a computer. The one thing I didn't like is that it had too many short parts, like, "Ok, do this. Oh, you're done with that, do this! Ok, now this!! Next is this!"

Overall Rating: 7/10. It held little replay value for me; I tried to play it again one day when I was really bored, couldn't do it. I ended up buying A Link to the Past later in the week (so glad I did).

 

[Skywaker]

Motion Controls: The Motion Controls were a perfect feature to the game. I actually felt as if I were Link, actually engaging within the game.

Gameplay: The similar-to-impressionist art made the game seem very realistic, yet fictional at the same time because of all of the creatures inhabiting the lands, etc. I was also very pleased with the music, as it set the mood as you progressed through the game. There were also some very creative inputs in the game as well—different gadgets used and some classic ones such as the slingshot.

Story: The storyline had me hooked as soon as I started. It's a quite unique one, different than the others, but still making it seem like a true Zelda game. It is packed with action, as well as emotional cutscenes, which are personal favorites of mine. I loved the story of SS. Simply stated.

Overall Rating: Skyward Sword is an incredible game, simply stated, a perfect 10/10!

 

[Spirit]

*Takes a breath*


Motion Control
Finally a game on the Wii that capitalizes on what we were promised back in the beginning. I didn't have a problem with Skyward Sword's motion control. It took me a little while to get used to it in the training hall, only because i asked myself 'is this it?' countless times before realising it was... As a whole the motion control works just fine, i never had to re-calibrate but i did have to use the D-pad to realign almost every time i tried to find a target and in the end i was using it as a quick reset to change targets and as a force of habit every time i equipped a first person item The swimming i also found to suffer from needing reset but it didn't hamper the game any. If this was a subheading about the controls as a whole then I'd have something to say about the flying; that we would have used the nunchuck to steer the bird and used the motion plus for aerial sword combat or using other items but... I'll be fair to SS, this was Zelda's FIRST (TP is a Gamecube game, nya) attempt at motion controls from its very beginning and so we can only expect it to be limited in some cases. Nintendo essentially put themselves in square one with this game as far as controls are concerned and they can only go forwards with it, since it'd be almost impossible to limit it further and not upset a lot of people.
In closing for this subsection; my favourite motion controlled item were the bombs, in particular the bomb rolling, i enjoyed the rolling a fair amount and being able to twist the trajectory of the bomb to curve it as it rolled was a nice touch, it was a level of immersion that more items need later on.
My least favourite would be the bow; when firing numerous arrows at enemies i did find the positioning of the nunchuck to reset the bow and draw another arrow to be a bit finicky at times and had to be very careful, but the arrows was used as a borderline sniper with the charge mechanic and so i never needed to send a flurry of arrows one after the other. 9/10


Gameplay
Gameplay, i also had no problems with, everything responded for the most part as it should. I liked Link's dash mechanic, it was like having on-demand Pegasus Boots, which was enjoyable. While traveling on foot (one of the few things that wasn't motion controlled) it felt as good as any other Zelda before it and if i made a mistake, then it was my fault and no fault of the games. The puzzles were typical Zelda affair and didn't challenge me on any level but that may be because i'm a Zelda veteran and despite how much SS attempted to shake up the mechanics it still couldn't fool me. TP foxed me more in terms of puzzles. As for using items in and around the overworld, it was nice that some items had more than one use, the whip for example was the best implemented in my opinion; being used to swing, pull levers (though i much preferred running up walls to reach if i could), and stealing items from enemies a la Wind Waker's grappling hook. The level designs were wonderful and for a first time overworld-gone-dungeon attempt, the result is incredibly mind blowing. however, merging dungeons and overworld for me personally detracted from both, and made the game feel a little bit like an assault course, which in turn robbed the game of its down time and opportunities to appreciate the world around you and robbed the dungeons of their appeal since a lot of the same puzzles could also be found in the overworld.
fighting enemies wasn't too great either and most of the time i just made them dance by locking on, strafing and moving my arm in different directions, i'll get the macarena out of them one day. as a whole though the fights were uninspiring and boring and early on i made the decision to only fight what needed to be cut down. And in my opinion, the Deku Babas were the only enemy (boss or otherwise) to come out of SS with any dignity. 7/10 <-- a little harsh just because i felt bored through most of the game


Story
Please don't make me talk about the story, please. You'll make me bring TP into this and WW and how they're both better stories in my eyes when compared to SS... *tries to focus solely on SS...* SS's story is MY main reason why Ss is only good once. the first time i played through SS form beginning to end i came away mostly satisfied; a lot of my satisfaction came from Groose and only because he was such a surprise. I've never played a Zelda game that had such an arc for a character. But on subsequent play-throughs i began to see his arc as a blunt and garish move; ultimately his change of heart turns him into a gameplay mechanic for the battles with the Imprisoned, his role in the final closing scenes were small fragments of comic relief. Fi's goodbye was something that felt awfully tacked on. A better goodbye would be for Fi to return to the master sword and have Link place it back into the pedestal, then, instead of her coming back and suddenly feeling emotion (feel the face palm of many a sci-fi fan) have Link just stare at the Sword, now-inanimate and use the emotive art style to show Link getting emotional... changes in his expression and his body language as he remembers their time together and thus let the gamer feel it within the silence and emptiness that Fi has abruptly left, make us realise we will miss her, then the scene continues....
Other elements of the story such as Link 'sensing' his bird smacked of Fanfiction, Link never needed to sense Epona. As for the game's plot... i'll kind of leave that out and just say that it also felt tacked on; Ben 'yahtzee' Croshaw is right, prove yourself for the tablets, prove yourself for the sacred flames, prove yourself fr the song of the hero... 'do you want this guy (demise) dead or not?'. Other games like TP and WW handled their narratives and plot better and in my eyes were void of such juddering plot development.
I've also never been a fan of a Zelda/Link relationship, they were cute together but it just felt too Mary Sue across the board. Impa; the all-knowing-but-not-going-to-tell-you-character, Groose the stereotypical bully gone bad, which only worked because we have never seen it in a zelda before, and Zelda was actually a damsel in distress this time, or rather she wasn't, but was, but not really, but really... as a whole the pot and story was just uninspiring and while it was different and yes, full of emotional scenes, it lacked the elements that i define Zelda for. 4/10 - if i want a visual media fanfiction, i'll watch Tekken Blood Vengeance..



Overall Rating

6/10- being very fair. What SS is works wonderfully but there is no reason to go back to it, subsequent play-throughs harmed the magic of the story for me, the overworld locations are seen so much through the game that you don't miss them when the game is done. Sidequests are lacking too and i had all but 5 Gratitude crystals left to find by game's end and i knew where they were, i just couldn't do the bug hunt, nor did i want to.


*and breath*

 

[nareky]

Going to be a very short post and totally inferior to the post above(all of them )

Motion control

Its great, its what the Wii should have been for games that use it =] I hope its an option in future zelda games and any other game it could work in. There could be slight improvements but 9/10 easily!

Game play

The game is fun to play, enjoyable, has a nice amount of styles and items (tho largely focused on motion control which is great). That being said so far there has only been one bit of the game that has caused me to get my gamer thrill where am excited about what am seeing, terrified that am going to fail and well just loving it. Though less and less games seem to do that these days =[ but its still rather enjoyable game to play so 8/10

Story

4/10 am sorry but there just isnt much to the story...at all. Goddess gives up her power, gets reborn as a mortal, needs her hero to help her, bad guy working against them, couple of things to challenge the hero (we need them tho more for their to actually be a game) but even a game like League of legends has more lore to it than SS (and most zelda games ) however SS story is still enjoyable for what it is

Personal over all rating!

8/10 its a great fun game

 

[ZeldaGeek]

I love the game, storyline, and the characters, with the consul i felt like link and I was really fighting the monsters.
The music was beautiful with the art, too.

 

[Terminus]

Motion Controls

I personally loved the Motion controls, especially for the Swordplay. The swordplay is the one feature I'd want in another game. I liked the rest of them but they were overshadowed by the sword contols. Not a fan of button-mashing (Wiimote is an ambidextrous controller, why not have lefty mode?). 10/10

Gameplay

On the whole I liked the gameplay, but there were a few issues, namely the Sky and Fi. The Sky was empty but for a few important-ish islands and most of the rest had nothing but a Goddess Chest on them. I liked Fi as a character but she will occasionally pop out of your sword to tell you something simple or constraining that really annoys you in Hero Mode. Don't even get me started on the treasure text boxes or the merchant spiels. I also liked the overworld bosses, even though they have yet to give you even a piece of heart...7.5/10

Story

I liked the story but it has too many inconsistencies and paradoxes (I won't get into it, and there has been many a thread devoted to nothing else) and the story is impeded by the woman at the sealed grounds. Great job of slowing down the action. I get the necessity of having to fight the Imprisoned twice (even though I didn't like it) but not three times. 7.7/10

Overall Rating 8.3/10. This isn't an average, but the game works well together. The rating would be higher but some elements get stale by playthrough #6...