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Skyward Sword Review Thread

Your rating for Skyward Sword?

  • 10

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  • 9.75

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  • 9.5

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  • 9.25

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  • 9

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  • 8.75

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  • 8.5

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  • 8.25

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  • 8

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  • Below 8 (AKA you have opinions)

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  • Total voters
    0

Majora's Cat

How about that
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Location
NJ
Since JuicieJ has already gotten to work on a review for Skyward Sword, I’ve decided to take the liberty of creating an official review thread for the newly released game. Being that this will not be an official review, I’m going to talk in first person and toss in my own flavor. I’ve wanted to do this since I got my hands on the game, so here goes nothing:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword sets a new high bar for Zelda games. That’s quite the statement, given that the franchise has such titles as Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past in its repertoire. The game fixes most of the flaws that plagued its Wii predecessor, Twilight Princess. The action is never halted - throughout the entire experience the player is kept busy with not-at-all tedious tasks. Additionally, none of these errands and quests that Link must complete makes the player lose interest. Sections of the game outside of dungeons are just as excellent as the dungeons themselves. In the pirate ship part of the game, I literally had no idea that I had even entered a dungeon until noticing the boss door located on the bottom floor.

Whatever qualms I have had before with the spaciousness of Zelda games have been eliminated. Skyward Sword manages to cram tons of content and puzzle-solving action into a single floor of a dungeon that the amount of time spent in said dungeons equal that of previous Zelda installments. Some say that it’s sorcery. I say that it’s great level design. These more compact areas result in less time searching for some unnoticeable clue and instead focusing on the meat of the game.

Enemies

Skyward Sword leaps and bounds forward with its enemy design. Not only do the motion controls force the player to use their brains (which means no more mindless hack-and-slashing), but also signals a new era of combat for the series. This actually makes certain enemies more difficult to kill... but that’s a good thing. I found myself on the brink of death quite a number of times near the exposition of the game. Even the standard six hearts aren’t enough to keep Link safe from dying at the hands of simple enemies. The sense of urgency is certainly elevated, as players no longer have the freedom to pause the game while selecting items. I rather like this urgency, since it helps the gameplay flow more naturally. 10/10

Bosses

The biggest step up for the franchise lies within the boss battles. The previous four 3D Zeldas have all had laughably easy boss battles. Neither Ganon nor Majora are a match for Link. All it really took a dash of strategy and a lot of mashing the B button on your GameCube controller or wiggling the Wii Remote around feverishly. Skyward Sword addresses these distressing errors with more powerful, unpredictable and strategic bosses. I found myself dying once before bosses such as Ghirahim before completely figuring out the bosses’ attack patterns. Sometimes the controls don’t cooperate with the player, but that’s the player’s fault for not correctly swinging the Wii Remote. The motion controls can be picky, but that’s ultimately what makes them so precise.

Although Zelda bosses are still not quite as epic as those from God of War, they are immensely more enjoyable than in prevous Zelda games. Once again, Nintendo has tackled one of the franchise’s biggest issues and emerges with shining colors. 9.5/10

Controls

While some may question my integrity for saying this, I think Skyward Sword’s controls are as good as it gets. Perfect, basically. One may feel frustrated at some point, but this is not the fault of the controls. Wielding the Master Sword (AKA the Hero Sword) is as close to actual swordplay as you’ll ever get in the world of gaming. Much like fencing, the player will have his/her own problems with dealing with the motion controls, but they are still the most technically advanced this generation. Step aside, Kinect and Move - Skyward Sword is in a league of its own.

The new item wheels are very easy to manage. I did find fault in them during action sequences. When hordes of enemies come rushing after the player, it’s pretty unnerving, and more than likely the player will have some trouble with selecting the right item. I have struggled with this, and I found that it’s just easier to run to a safe spot to give me more time to select the correct item. At times I would confuse the “-“ button and the B button, due to a lack of experience with the new controls at the start of the game. However, I ditched my old Zelda habits and quickly grew attached to the new and improved controls. They feel new, innovative, and give the player the impression that Skyward Sword is a nonstop thrill ride. 10/10

Graphics

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is hands-down the most gorgeous Zelda game to date. Twilight Princess had its technical flaws, and the Wind Waker’s style didn’t suit everyone’s tastes. SS takes the best of both worlds and masterfully blends the colorful visuals of the Wind Waker with Twilight Princess’ realistic style. Not to mention that the graphics are crisp and clean. Having played Skyward Sword on a large HD television, I can safely say that the game still looks great close-up. Although SS doesn’t feature the most detailed visuals, the overall style is largely appealing and almost ideal for a Zelda game. 9/10

Music

The orchestrated score is simply unbelievable. I still believe that Wind Waker was the high point of Zelda music (even though it was MIDI). Skyward Sword does impress with the final boss' theme as well as the overworld and Silent Realm background music. 10/10

Overall

The new Zelda game learns from the best, and it truly shows in the way the game works. It’s much more straightforward, and areas are compact. Skyward Sword takes a page out of Metroid’s book here, and it really does enhance the experience. The underwater sequences are very much like those in the Super Mario Galaxy games. Air bubbles give Link relief from drowning, and his spiral move is quite similar to Mario’s. It seems like Nintendo is taking winning elements from its other two most beloved franchises and weaseling them into the Zelda formula - not that that’s a problem.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is everything I look for in a game. While it may not be particularly lengthy, I must say that I enjoyed it more as a whole than Ocarina of Time and the other 3D Zelda games. Nintendo has shown that they pay attention to the little details, and they have addressed all of the little issues that have emerged in previous titles. A job well done, Nintendo. Well done indeed. 9.75/10



Hope to see more reviews here. ^.^
 
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Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
I suppose I'll use the same categories as you used, MC, and get to work. This'll be edited with my review in due time.

Expect this review to be terribly written. Informal, breaking all laws of cleanliness and structure and especially tenses. Expect a hard read.

Characters
Skyward Sword presents a presentable story with it's quality cutscenes and superb explanations, not to mention the dialogue. From the start of the game, we get a different feel on the Zelda series – rather than being urgent about saving someone of higher status, it feels more like we're saving a dear friend. From the vast amount of characters present in the game, we get a few that a relatively important to the plot, and they pull off their roles particularly well. The classic hero of Zelda fame, Link, is still as clueless as ever on the story elements, needing to be revealed everything by other cast members. Eventually, he obtains his true courage, power and wisdom as he becomes a full-fledged hero. Zelda, though not a princess in this game (thankfully), still has the same proneness to capture as she did being a princess. That is slightly overshadowed by the important decisions she makes throughout the game, and players will definitely forget that there even is an evil below the world of Skyloft when viewing her personality in the beginning of the game.

Wuzzat, I moved from gracing Link's ability to attacking Zelda's idiocy? Yes, I did. Despite what fans may think, the characters of Skyward Sword are not at all what they're made out to be. They aren't the least bit memorable, save a few who go by the names Link, Groose, Zelda and Impa. Everyone else featured in SS is completely forgettable, whether you like it or not.
As I said previously, there are a few good characters who are relatively important to the plot. Without spoiling too much, those characters are Link, Groose, Zelda and Impa. Counting it up, that is four characters out of the (40, 50?) that make an appearance who are even remotely close to the plot, and we technically could give the axe to Impa. Let's do that anyway, Impa is useless. So we have Link, Groose and Zelda who are the only characters who even matter in the entire game. How's about I analyze their roles and how well they were pulled off?

-Link- The Silent Hero. The Hero in Green. The Hero of Time, some say. Well, rest easy as Link in Skyward Sword has no detriments at all. Given that he is our avatar in the game world, we cannot expect any critical screw ups as he is completely silent and we have options for some scenes as well. In the times where we don't choose Link's response, he turns out to be very emotional and with reason! From being bullied by Groose and his lackeys to being ridiculed by Impa for "being late", Link has been hurt for a good portion of his life. Akira Sasanuma and the game developers/animators did an excellent job portraying Link in Skyward Sword. Every little detail about him, from his anger to his happiness was given the green light, so he is no longer a boy without feel and without heart (not that he ever was, heh). Link, in my opinion, was pulled off exceptionally well.​

-Groose- Without spoiling too much, Groose gets a huge personality change. In the beginning, surely everyone knows him to be the big jerk who just wants Zelda's love and Link to be completely out of the way. Well, all of that turns upside down when he has a certain incident with Link in the middle of the Sky. From the beginning of the game to the very end, Groose literally evolves from a stereotypical bully to a hero in his own right. Nintendo did not make any mistake with this character, and would love to see more development in this sort of form. He wasn't as heroic as Link, but he definitely was a hero. Groose, too, was pulled off exceptionally well.
-Zelda- This is where the controversy starts. We all know Zelda, Princess Zelda, Her Highness...whatever she is known by in the games to be a woman of beauty and intelligence. But, there's that side to her that gets expressed in every game she appears: damsel in distress. I'll explore that in a bit. In the beginning of Skyward Sword, Zelda seems like your every day happy go lucky girl who is in love of adventure and scares. She even goes so far as to tell Groose off when he starts to ridicule and make a fool out of Link even after it being known that Groose had captured and whisked away Link's Loftwing. Alike Groose's crude personality, Zelda's personality takes a complete turn upside down. After the events of the beginning of the game, Zelda ends up on the Surface, better known as Hyrule, and is absolutely defenseless as well as clueless to her whereabouts. For the remainder of the game up until the very end, Zelda undertakes the role she had of the ceremony: the goddess. I don't mean that literally, that's just another way to mean she is all important in theory but entirely useless in practice. Link is chasing after Zelda for the entirety of the game, just like a certain villain is, but she can't do anything! She has no combat abilities to speak of despite her character existing for 25 years, yes TWENTY FIVE YEARS. And...enough of the rants, this is where I talk about her damsel side. Near the end of the game, Zelda gets captured yet again in a bittersweet moment (oh boo hoo, it happens like that all the time). The problem I have with her being captured is the fact that she has been being captured for twenty five years. Nintendo promised us another side to her character, but I've yet to see it. Sure, she's made sacrifices, but she's also done THAT for twenty five years. We know Zelda in Skyward Sword to be a student of the Knight Academy, so why is it that she cannot defend herself? Why is she so weak, so helpless, so utterly needy of her hero? I don't ever want Nintendo to force Zelda to be her usual self ever again, especially with the role she plays in THIS story. Huge disappointment.​

After that...rant, I think it's safe to say that the meaningful protagonists of this game are pulled off well enough to force a player to completely ignore the several useless NPCs riddled throughout the game. Yes, that includes Fi. Discussing NPCs, including Fi, the villains and the like...I'd say that they [Nintendo] were trying to aim for Majora's Mask quality, but it wasn't allowed because the characters are only seen for so long and in only one area. Fi and Ghirahim are intriguing characters and you really do grow on them, but the fact that Fi is too dull and boring and Ghirahim is...well, Fabulous some'd say, just drives them apart from being included in the important cast (trying to avoid story spoilers). All of the other NPCs have great one timer dialogue and it's fitting for them, if you think about it.

The Characters, despite my complaints, rants and fanboyism get a solid 9.5/10.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Skyward Sword utilizes the WiiMotion Plus and the Nunchuck attachments, alongside the Wii Remote. Without exaggerating anything, the gameplay is the best ever seen in the series thus far. Link isn't entirely 1:1 with your movements, but he definitely feels that way as every single puzzle, every single boss battle...every single encounter you have to use the environment almost in real life just as you do on screen. Swinging the sword is as natural as natural can be – you take a swing to the left and Link will most definitely swing in that same motion you did. Swing both the nunchuck and the Wiimote to the left, right, up or down and expect to see Link do a horizontal or vertical spin attack in earnest! The great gameplay doesn't stop with the sword, however. Nintendo really pulled off great items even if they were not many – from the Slingshot to the Gust Bellows and beyond, take aim with the Wiimote as you traverse gruesome dungeons and deal with the most intuitive puzzles the series has ever seen! Aiming is relatively simple as is using the item in question, and they're used in several situations which, despite being classic to the Zelda formula, seem to give off a fresh, new vibe. Items get a solid 10/10.

Difficulty
Sad to say, Skyward Sword doesn't boast the difficulty that it would ideally have. While gameplay at first is a hard learning experience, once you get the hangs of things you will notice that with every standing moment there is the ability to strike clean and true...but this isn't true of the enemies. The enemies of Skyward Sword are almost sitting ducks except for the fact that they will block nearly every single swing of your blade. Yes, you have to make precise swings, but once you do that, you enter Hack and Slash mode. Bokoblins may look intimidating with their...scrawnchy laugh and devilish looks, and the fact that they carry what appear to be machetes around...but they do very little with them. They can block and will take the OCCASIONAL chance to attack, but that's it. All one needs to do is shield bash, then proceed with a counterattack, sadly it doesn't work this way with common enemies...and only a few bosses seem to posess the ability. If your shield breaks, no matter! Dodging is too easy to pull off with the speed of every enemy of the game. Yes, you will take bruises, but bruises are it! Game overs come from petty mistakes with the environment, not from the enemies actually hurting you. Difficulty suffers quite a lot, though it doesn't seem to initially. 7/10.

Graphics
Skyward Sword's graphics are the most beautiful and vivid that Zelda has ever seen...ever. Not quite like the painting feel that Nintendo was amazing for, SS pulled off more realism than Twilight Princess could ever hope for. In fact, the graphics lent themselves so well to the game that one could argue that Skyward Sword's graphics are the best the series have ever seen and the defining style of Zelda.

While I have been using the term Graphics incorrectly, as far as graphics go...Skyward Sword is quite weak due to being on the Nintendo Wii. The Wii is not at all an HD console, but SS has problems with simple anti-aliasing (i.e there are jagged edges present everywhere). This isn't something you have to pierce to see, it's everywhere. In the sword you angle, in the character animations, in the moving environment...it's everywhere. Still, despite the shortcomings, the game is absolutely beautiful so 10/10

Overall
Skyward Sword was meant to please everyone, but it sadly doesn't. It is certainly a great game, but as with every great game come flaws. SS is one that has more noticeable flaws, and as such I have to give a due score. Final verdict: 9.3/10

Sorry members, mods, guests etc for my poor writing. I'm in a hurry to get this in.
 
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Link8150

The 8150th Link
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Location
Skyloft
Gameplay - 10/10 I think this one speaks for itself, Wii Motion Plus in my experience rarely fails, for this game at least.
Story - 9.8/10 The story isn't exactly go save the princess (Until the end), as Zelda is also on a quest like Link, plus it explains the origin behind a lot of things from Ocarina of Time.
Characters - 10/10 I have never seen this much character development in Zelda, which is why Groose is my favorite character, and Ghirahim is an awesome and unique villain; I love his laugh during the cutscene in the Earth Temple when he is about to summon Scaldera.
Creativity - 10/10 The enemies are all designed very well, most of the dungeons are unique interesting and fun, and the bosses are very fun to fight (except for the Imprisoned II)
Content - 10/10 There is a lot of content, the game takes about 30 hours to complete if you only do a few sidequests, and there are many sidequests, treasures, and bugs to find.
Overall - 10/10 My favorite game of all time, that is all
 

everettkagan

Major SS and Oot fan!
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Location
New York
Skyward Sword rewiew

I love skyward sword but still rated it a 9.75 because of some small things i dont like, like the shield meter.:)
 

MW7

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Location
Ohio
My criteria will be gameplay (general), graphics, sound, dungeons, sidequests, story, exploration, and lasting appeal

Gameplay: seriously, this only gets a 10 because I can't give an 11. 10

Graphics: very effective, but I did notice minor things like Link's hat drifting through his body during cutscenes that just bothered me. I mean they had 5 years to make the game and things like that shouldn't happen. 9.5

Sound: beautiful. 10

Dungeons: Very well done and some of the dungeon concepts were incredibly innovative. Some low points though like the Skyview Temple. 9.5

Sidequests: I love the Item Check Girl. Very engaging sidequests. 10

Story: One of the best of the series. 10

Exploration: Flying was a good idea akin to sailing in Wind Waker. The sky was fairly empty though and the main quest was very linear. 9

Lasting Appeal: Hero mode is so long overdue for this series. The only thing that would be better is if they remixed the dungeons. 9.75

I think overall that comes to around 9.5
 
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Location
Zora Hall
It's not a perfect game, but no game really is. I like some of its "flaws"

The apparent thing I dislike is every time i load my file:

"You found an amber relic" :P

I love it, (other than that. It's "You found a Blue Rupee" all over again :S)

9.5
 
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
My complaints about the game are minor, but enough to keep it from perfect score (I gave 9.25).

The only signifficant complaint I have relates to the overall structure of the game. The game is laid out as several successive "missions" throughout the three overworld regions. This is not bad, but the thing that troubles me is that many of these missions are quite similar in many ways. This, combined with the phasing and continous hand-holding, makes the game feel sort of "on rails" and at times repetitative. The progression therefore feels very constant throughout most of the game (allthough this does not nessecarely make the game completely linear), and this is what really cuts of half a point from the perfect 10/10.

The remainding 0.25 of the cut is basically other misc. things I wasn't too pleased with, mostly related to personal opinion on various gameplay mechanics, and slightly on momentary leveldesign.

Other than that, the game is mostly perfect in my eyes. The overall leveldesign is gorgeous, the graphics are gorgeous (allthough it at times suffer from the infamous vertical "dithering" lines), the audio is very good, the story is good, and the ending is very good (allthough not as great as Wind Waker).
 
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Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Location
'Murica
Eh, ./copy & paste

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT!

Five years...

Five years is quite a long time to wait for the next Zelda outing on a home console, and let me tell you now, Skyward Sword is worth the five year wait.

Before we get the review started, here's the grading scale: (In order of importance, no percentages)

Gameplay
Music
Story
Controls
Replayability
Graphics

Now that that's covered, let's get started shall we?

Story (Minimal Spoilers)

I'll try to keep the story section as vague as possible so that I don't accidentally spoil anything for people who haven't played the game yet.

Skyward Sword starts off high in the sky on an island known as Skyloft. You spend the beginning of the game just enjoying the peace and quiet of Skyloft until things suddenly turn to hell and Link is thrown into the land below the clouds to conquer the evil that inhabits the earth beneath the clouds. The story in Skyward Sword manages to start off nicely and the game gets the ball rolling fairly quickly after the typical introduction. Throughout Link's quest, he is confronted by many characters, one of the most notable being the main villain of the game, Ghirahim. Without spoiling much, let me just tell you this, Ghirahim is a fantastic villain. His personality is interesting and he manages to be a constant threat throughout the game from beginning to end. You'll encounter multiple plot twists throughout your adventure, (Some of which you'll never see coming.) and you will learn to care for the colorful cast of characters that the game presents. The only problem with the story is the pacing. After the initial first half of the game, the narrative seems to drop off from time to time, but right when you think you've stopped caring about the story, the game sucks you right back in with the next jaw-droppingly amazing cutscene. Overall, the story is great. An interesting premise, a devious villain, and amazing plot twists make sure this will be a Zelda story you'll never forget.

Overall - 9.5/10

Graphics

There are many graphically astounding places you'll come across in Skyward Sword. From hot and steamy volcanoes and deserts to lush and beautiful lakes and forests, you'll be amazed at the variety of locales Skyward Sword has to offer. All of the characters come to life with all actions and emotions being nicely illustrated and complemented by the impressionistic art style. Character design and atmosphere are all amazing and, personally, I wouldn't mind if the Zelda series decided to remain with this art style for the remainder of its life.

Skyward Sword is a beautiful game graphically and artistically, there's no doubting that, but the graphics can still be a mixed bag at times. 95% of the time you'll be amazed at the wonderful colors and effects that are being thrown your way, but every so often you'll come across a jarring pixelated or blurry background/texture that just isn't very good looking. Although, this is a rare occurrence and doesn't take away from the overall splendor that the graphics create.

Overall - 9.5/10

Music

Zelda music has always been iconic. From the Main Theme to Zelda's Lullaby, the series has always been known for great music, and Skyward Sword is no different. The orchestrated soundtrack really adds depth to the already amazing music, and intelligent sound design allows for clever instrument build-up that makes the soundtrack even better. All the compositions set the mood for every encounter. Boss music is heroic and exciting, town music is relaxed and calm, and dungeon music is ambient and atmospheric. After you've played through Skyward Sword, I guarantee that you'll have at least ten tracks stuck in your head for a while.

On the sound effects side of the equation, they're basically what you would expect. Sword slashes, enemy screeches, and character grunts are all here and sound appropriately silly. While there still isn't any voice acting this time around, the character gibberish allows the characters to convey the emotions needed to move the story along and keep the conversations alive and interesting.

Overall - 9.7/10

Gameplay

To make a long story short, the gameplay is phenomenal. The other factors of the game almost seem like afterthoughts compared to the gameplay.

At first, Skyward Sword is your typical Zelda game. You'll be sword slashing your way through fields, dungeons, and bosses to get to the end of the game, but, Skyward Sword manages to mix up the Zelda formula. Probably the most obvious gameplay change is the implementation of Wii Motion+. Now with Wii Motion+, all of your sword swings are recognized by the controller and each enemy encounter becomes a small puzzle-like battle where you can't get away with just a few waggles, you have to be prepared and precise for every encounter that comes your way. Oh, but the new mechanics don't stop there, many other items make great use of the 1:1 Motion Control and this allows for the creation of some of the most devious and rewarding puzzles the series has seen in a long time.

As for other changes, the overworld is now more dungeon-esque than ever before. What I mean by this is that traveling between dungeons is no longer a snooze fest, no, the developers have managed to make the pre-dungeon quests as challenging and interesting as the actual dungeon quests themselves. Sure some may classify some of the pre-dungeon tasks as "fetch quests" but I found them fun and rewarding. Also, the game starts out rather closed and linear, but as you move along, you'll be free to explore wherever whenever you want and you'll be able to look for all the collectibles and goodies that will aid you throughout the main quest.

The difficulty has also been greatly improved. One of the major complaints with past 3D Console Zelda adventures was that the games were too easy, but Skyward Sword fixes this problem. Puzzles are well designed and enemy encounters are no longer button mashers/waggle fests, you have to stay engaged and be on your toes throughout the game to stay alive. No, Skyward Sword is not QQomgdisbesohard difficult, but it manages to strike the perfect balance between easy and hard so that the game puts up a fight, but doesn't leave you frustrated.

And in the end, balance just seems to be what Skyward Sword has perfected the most. Sidequests, overworlds, bosses, puzzles, and dungeons are all incredibly clever and are among the best in the series.

Overall - 10/10

Controls

With the implementation of Wii Motion+, it is imperative that the controls work, and luckily, they do. I am happy to say that all the controls work well, (Even if you have to recalibrate a few times.) but some methods of using them are not the best design choices.

Example: Swimming

Now, I actually enjoy the swimming mechanic, but I can see why some people would rather a different type of control method. It's not that the controls don't work, but swimming would just be much better if it was simply mapped to the analog stick. Wii Motion+ feels just a tad overused at times, but overall the controls are nearly perfect.

Overall - 9.5/10

Replayability

My first playthrough clocked in at about 40 hours which is quite lengthy considering the fact that I didn't do every sidequest possible. After that there's still more to do. You can take on bosses in a Boss Rush mode, take the Hero's Mode challenge and play through the game again on a higher difficulty setting, or just simply collect all of the Treasures, Heart Pieces, Rupees, etc. there are to obtain in the game. There's roughly 75-100 hours of content in the game and you'll eventually want to give it another playthrough so the replayability is perfect.

Overall - 9.7/10

Conclusion

In the end, Skyward Sword is a masterpiece of gaming. From catchy music, an interesting story, to unbelievable gameplay, Skyward Sword has it all. I do have a few minor gripes with it, but none of those complaints compare to the masterful design of the game. Do yourself a favor, go buy this game, and if you already have it, play through it again because Skyward Sword is one of the best Zelda games.
 

Ballad of Gales

The wind is mine!
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Mexico
Skyward sword isnt a 10/10 game...
At first i thought "blasphemy!" when a reviewer gave it a 7.0, but now that i've player it i say it is between an 8/10 to an 8.5, i feel its kinda overrated like OoT...
Story:Awesome, though did not like that Its a Link-Zelda love story, just makes Link MUCH more unrelatable, i relate more with Groose and Cawlin than with Link(wich kind of ruins The original point of The game where you related with Link), and side characters are more memorable than main ones, i like Groose, Cawlin and Stritch more than Link in this game! We laso had The promise that Groose was going to be an obstacle-ish character, but he doesn't do anything until after The third dungeon. The monster we saw in The trailer(the imprisoned) gobling up Zelda looks like a Spore creature that its creator spent roughly 2 1/2 minutes making.Though demise does look positivley AWESOME! I could ramble on, but i wont, finally 8/10

Gameplay: The overworld sucks, i love riding a Loftwing, but there are little islands, even less islands that are worth exploring... Now, you may say that the overworld are Faron, Lanayru and Eldin, but i see Them like cities(since there is just one actual city) because they hold other races like The mogmas or Kikwis, and that isnt part of The overworld... I Also hated The spirit trial, it was like a stupid 3d clone of PH temple of The ocean king. And The battles v.s The imprisoned are repetitive, stupid, and hard. The dungeons were beatuifull and awesome, i loved Them, too bad they were too easy, though you did have the ocassional hard puzzle or thrilling moment. Fi is by far the most useful helper in Zelda. 7/10

Replay value: Silent Realm makes it decrease, it is irritating 8.5/10.

Controls: Love Them! Though the bow does glitch sometimes. 9.5/10

Music: just the principal themes are memorable, almost every other tune isnt that cool, though they arent memorable, they give a good feeling to moments, i wouldnt get all this soundtrack like WW or TP, but i would get some like The ballad of The godess of groose's theme... 8.5/10 I forgot that i Love Lanayru Music(desert and mining facility, past and present)

As a whole(not an overall score) SS would have an 8/10

Now, i know with a low score i might get complaints, but this is just my opinion, i still respect what other people might want to say About it.
EDIT: Even though i give it a low rating, I LOVE THIS game, but i tell what i feel, i like Spore, that doesnt mean i give it a 10/10, i give it a 6/10... This may sound stupid, but i try not to rate Games with The amount of enjoyment they give me, rather with what they offer, if you tell a little kid to rate barney he is probably going to give it a 10/10, if you make an objetive review, it might get a 2/10... I ho
 
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Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Location
'Murica
We laso had a promise of rivals and all we got was 1(awesome nontheless) fight with Girahim and Then he just kinda follows you through The game without doing anything important.

This sentence makes me question whether you've even played the game. Anybody who completed the game knows that we got 3 fights with Ghirahim, quite different from 1 fight don't you think? Oh, and saying Ghirahim didn't do anything important is basically ignorance on your part.
 

Ballad of Gales

The wind is mine!
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Mexico
This sentence makes me question whether you've even played the game. Anybody who completed the game knows that we got 3 fights with Ghirahim, quite different from 1 fight don't you think? Oh, and saying Ghirahim didn't do anything important is basically ignorance on your part.

When did i say he didnt do anything important? He is a VERY important character plotwise, i meant that i wish he had a more prominent role.
Ballad of Gales said:
And i dont think Girahim fought you three times.
I stand corrected, even though i would have liked Girahim to do some meaningless distractions, he could have sent enemies to attack you when you were in a certain part of a temple(if he was following you he could have at least appeared and send enemies and mini-bosess), i would have liked to see a bit more rivalry between him and Link during the game, not at The end.
 
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When did i say he didnt do anything important? He is a VERY important character plotwise, i meant that i wish he had a more prominent role. I stand corrected, even though i would have liked Girahim to do some meaningless distractions, he could have sent enemies to attack you when you were in a certain part of a temple(if he was following you he could have at least appeared and send enemies and mini-bosess), i would have liked to see a bit more rivalry between him and Link during the game, not at The end.

The way you worded it before you edited your post, you made it sound like Ghirahim didn't do anything important, also, I'm not sure what you mean by wanting Ghirahim to have a more prominent role. How much more prominent can you get than the main villain? Also, Ghirahim did send Scaldera and Koloktos after you so it's not like he didn't pay attention to stopping Link, but even then, Link wasn't his goal in the first place. Ghirahim wanted Zelda from beginning to end, Link just happened to get in the way.
 

Red Baron

Lucius Junius Brutus
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PROBABLE SPOILERS

Story & Characters: 9/10

The anticipation for SS's story was big. You can't say you're writing an origin story and not expect anything less. I tried to steer clear of most spoilers beyond basic premise, and I'm glad that I did. The story is moving and engaging, at the beginning you have a very clear goal and you really want to achieve it: find Zelda. After the first three dungeons (the common turning point of a Zelda plot) motivations become a little more muddled, but I was still eager to move from dungeon to dungeon and achieve the Master Sword. I think this process could have been spread out more over the entire game, I really liked the Goddess Longsword but you only have it for one dungeon (or two I guess, as the next upgrade was much less exciting). Until I got both the Master Sword and the Hylian shield this Zelda felt very foreign, and alien - I knew this land was Hyrule but it was not the Hyrule I knew; once you get both the MS and the Hylian shield, I felt firmly rooted in the Zelda mythos (and the late game entry of both was perfect, though I wish the inclusion of the Hylian shield were more central to plot elements - though still just as hard to get). When Zelda first put herself to sleep my mind instantly flashed to the ending of AoL, and I really wondered if Nintendo was going to go in that direction (in hindsight I know that was unlikely, but at the time that's what I was thinking). I'm not necessarily as disturbed by Zelda's lack of fighting prowess in this game as others might be. While I loved Tetra, I'm still okay with a Zelda who need's Link to rescue her. And Zelda did have significant importance in the plot - much more than Link in the beginning, and her decision to stay in the past and go to sleep was heart-wrenching. I think the character of Demise could have been explained more, in contrast with Ghirahim he had little personality - "I am evil." I'll hold out that Nintendo left Skyward Sword open for prequels where Demise's character could be explored deeper. The curse he speaks of is great, and adds a central timeless aspect to the Zelda mythos that before was fairly ambiguous. There are also some subtle touches to the story I loved, the Sealed Temple and its hints of being a proto-Temple of Time, the Triforce (mysterious, but obtainable!), Sheikah Stones.
I was greatly impressed by the main characters. I feel less so about the other NPCs. While they still hold firm against those of TP or OoT, they pale against those of WW or MM. Nintendo put in a few good sidequests on Skyloft but missed a very crucial detail that would have made it near perfect: interconnection. One of the reasons MM had such great NPCs wasn't that they were just great individually, but that everyone was interwoven in a more realistic way. I think if there were more interactions between NPCs, and less static sidequests then Skyloft would have been amazing. The love triangle incident was the only real interconnected event, it was great (though the first time I gave the letter to the toilet).


Gameplay & Controls: 9/10

This game was hard in the beginning. It took me a while to adjust to the controls, and I died a lot in the process. I did feel that the difficulty lessened over time, where it should have grown. By the time you get the Master Sword, defeating hordes of Bokoblins was no sweat because their blocking was rendered useless. Koloktos was possibly my favourite boss of all time though, amazing design and awesome fight, satisfying. Loved the new dynamic of the bow and arrows, not enough chances to really use it though - a good shoot out ala TP's hidden village would have been a welcome addition. Dashing was great, as was the stamina meter in general - rarely found myself getting low except for the quicksand moments, but still cool. I did find stabbing slightly difficult, but only because I had a tendency to slightly shake the nunchuck when stabbing (resulting in many unwanted vertical spins), so I wish the controls were calibrated against that happening, but it's still half my fault. These controls represent an amazing starting point, and I can't wait for them to mature into the next game. I also had wished that travel between the different regions could've been unlocked (discovered) as the game progressed, slowly fleshing out the land below.


Music & Sound: 9.5/10

A dream come true. While some of the melodies are less memorable than other games, the sound is amazing and the ambiance is nailed. The Sealed Grounds theme is mysterious, and the boss themes don't just feel like standard "combat music". The cutscene music is where the soundtrack really excels, from the romance theme, to fi's, and my favourite moment - during Demise's pre-fight speech there is a moment where the organ(?) sounds like slightly out of tune whiny horns (a sound I attribute usually to old analogue recordings of brass instruments, but is probably more electronic here), perfect evil music. The musical cues that accompany your sword slashes are just amazing. I'm not overly for voice-acting, but I think more sounds coming from the characters, particularly during long speeches would be welcome. My one problem in this category is the harp songs, there was much potential here that I thought was lost. I'm sure the songs were great, but I usually lost the melody from Link's random strumming and Fi's robotic singing and the end result was a cacophony of noise.


Art Direction & Graphics 10/10

Art direction, stunning. I feel like this style is a perfect fit for Zelda, and I hope to see variations in the future. The use of a distance fader that rendered the environment into painterly blur was genius and gorgeous. Not sold on the trees, with their criss-crossing flat textures, but it was never a huge sore spot while playing. Naturally, a game this well designed would only looked better in a higher resolution, but given that I'm only playing the game on a 16" CRT screen I'm not going to factor this very much at all. And they also worked wonderfully within the power of the Wii, and the game is beautiful. The lighting during the final boss scene, when Demise's sword is electrified, is a high point of the game. I've always been of the opinion that lower powered graphics and resolution (in both games and movies) are lesser to lighting - even a badly rendered scene can look amazing if lit realistically, but a well rendered scene can still look horrible if lit badly.


Final score and thoughts: 9.5/10

I played Ocarina of Time first, I am biased; however, this game sets a new precedent in Zelda. A back to basics, if you will. It distills Zelda to it's core elements and cuts the fat, but still attaches an engrossing story along with it. I loved Twilight Princess but it suffered from trying to be too many things at once, Skyward Sword excels at being simple at heart. All I can say is that I hope the next game continues to distill Zelda to it's core, but also surprises me with new and un-gimmicky twists.
 

Ballad of Gales

The wind is mine!
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Mexico
The way you worded it before you edited your post, you made it sound like Ghirahim didn't do anything important, also, I'm not sure what you mean by wanting Ghirahim to have a more prominent role. How much more prominent can you get than the main villain? Also, Ghirahim did send Scaldera and Koloktos after you so it's not like he didn't pay attention to stopping Link, but even then, Link wasn't his goal in the first place. Ghirahim wanted Zelda from beginning to end, Link just happened to get in the way.

Sorry for wording, anyways, i mean he could use little obstacles, i know Link was interfering, thats why i wanted him to place obstacles, it could be something as meaningless as a rockslide causes by him, and Demise is the main villain, since apparently Girahim World for him...
 

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