It’s nearly been 5 years since Breath of the Wild changed the Zelda series, and almost
10 since the game that ensured it had to.
Yep, Skyward Sword on the Wii has always been a bit divisive among the Zelda community,
with some people loving its intricate motion-based combat, unique temple designs, story implications
as the first game in the timeline, and, most importantly, Groose.
While others bemoan it for mandatory swingy-swing, linear-to-a-fault gameplay, and Groose.
Just kidding, everybody loves Groose.
But there's an 85% chance that isn’t the case for Fi, Link’s computer-like companion
who accompanies him on his journey, like Cortana to Master Chief...if she had a lobotomy, and
Fi is infamous for just not shutting up.
Which in hindsight, might explain why Link chose to forever be a silent protagonist...
And now Skyward Sword is back in HD on Nintendo Switch, but now with some big improvements
like a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per groose--err, second.
Sorry, I just have Groose and his amazing pompadour on the mind.
In addition, motion controls can now be turned off entirely so you can use buttons instead,
the camera can be freely controlled at nearly any time which is awesome, the game now automatically
saves your progress as a failsafe, among other quality of life tweaks have been made that
streamline the experience, like having less mandatory interruptions from Fi--though don’t
worry, because she’s still annoying.
These are all fantastic changes and additions.
But is the Switch version truly the definitive one to play?
And even if so, does the decade-old gameplay hold up in a post Breath of the Wild world?
We’re going to answer all these questions--and more--in GameXplain’s in-depth review based
on a full replay of the entire 40 hour campaign.
(Andre speech bubble above head...or sleep Link).
Now you probably don’t need us to point out the most obvious upgrade...though if you
do, might I suggest an eye exam?
Skyward Sword is crystal clear on Switch, running at 1080p and a rock solid 60 frames,
which is a first for a 3D Zelda game.
And it is glorious.
It’s not just rock solid, but it even addresses slowdown from the original game--like the
stuttering when activating time crystals, which is fittingly a thing of the past.
The sharper, smoother visuals help bring new life to the fantastic animation and facial
detail.
Environments are now razor sharp, which makes navigating areas like the sky even better
since you can more easily recognize distant locations.
Text and icons have also been updated and resized, looking much sharper while being
less intrusive.
Although the lock-on arrow seems to have been sadly neglected--aww, poor lock-on arrow,
I appreciate you, even if no one else does.
Skyward Sword truly has never looked better, but the increased sharpness does come at a
price: it really shows its age.
Characters and environments are distractingly low-poly at times like Zelda’s 2x4 arms,
and or the cardboard trees that litter the forest’s backdrop.
And unlike some of the other Zelda HD ports, the texture quality sadly hasn’t been touched
up at all, lending the entire game a softer, blurry look.
The sky hasn’t aged especially well in particular, with clouds that lack dimension and obviously
repeated textures on the sky islands.
Or skylands.
Oddly, an effect in the Wii version that gave the backgrounds a painterly, water-color-like
appearance has been removed entirely, which I kinda miss.
For those new to the game, It’s something you would never know was missing unless you
some jerk pointing it out to you I’m sorry everyone!
Despite showing its age, Skyward Sword is still a pleasant game to look at, and even
includes a handful of gorgeous show-stopping moments, but the overall appearance is undeniably
dated, and it most certainly won’t be ever mistaken for a modern game, unlike the other
Zelda HD ports almost could be at times.
At the end of the day, this is still hands-down the best Skyward Sword has ever looked, and
the buttery smooth framerate is praise worthy.
But how well does it handle?
Well the motion controls have overall been faithfully translated to the Joy-Cons, behaving
almost exactly as they did on Wii.
With the right joy-con taking over for the Wii Remote, with a swing or thrust of the
arm controlling your sword, whereas tilting it controls pointer based items, as well as
steering Link when flying, skydiving, or swimming underwater.
85% of the time, give or take, they work great--but the times they fall short can be infuriating--such
as how it constantly misread whether I was aiming a bomb or trying to throw it--which
is a pretty annoying problem.
There were a lot of Links harmed in the making of this video.
Occasional issues like that aside, the motion controls generally do what you need them to,
but ultimately fall a little short of the Wii version for a few reasons, including one
change that completely baffles me.
So one often misunderstood and underappreciated element of the original Skyward Sword was
how it ingeniously used the sensor bar to automatically and invisibly recalibrate the
controls.
Now since the Switch obviously doesn’t have a sensor bar, recalibrating is now left entirely
to the player whenever the controls feel off with a tap of the “Y” button--which is
annoyingly often.
While the sword itself is relatively resilient to gyroscopic drift, the tilt-based controls
along with the pointer that’s used for the Slingshot, bow and arrow, among several other
things are almost always immediately off-center, requiring me to recalibrate it almost every.
single.
time.
And this is a new problem introduced in the Switch version, where the cursor appears where
the game thinks you’re pointing rather than the default to dead center of the screen,
as it did on Wii.
And it’s terrible, as the cursor never appeared where I expected it to, often spawning at
the edge of the screen which then causes the camera to rotate in that direction, instantly
throwing off your aim.
It baffles me why this was changed because it worked just fine before and would have
helped remedy the calibration issue, giving you a chance to easily recenter the controller.
I eventually learned to just recalibrate the controls every time I used a pointer-based
item, such as between hookshot targets.
I shouldn’t have to, but hey, at least it works.
Finally, the tiny Joy-Cons just don’t feel as good as the Wii Remote did, which had a
studier, heftier feel, closer to the hilt of a blade than the Joy-Con could ever be.
It’s a small, almost inconsequential thing, but I was surprised by how much more comfortable
I felt going back to the original hardware.
Oh what can I say, I kind of love its dumb little speaker too.
Despite my gripes, the motion-based swordplay itself still impresses 10 years later, even
if there are now plenty of VR experiences that translate your movements far more accurately
than Skyward Sword’s 8-way directional combat can.
And that’s partly because nearly every encounter in Skyward Sword was designed to take advantage
of the intricate swordplay, and it makes for a supremely satisfying combat experience when
you land a precise blow..
It feels great, especially when combined with the musical notes that sound off.
Oh, and I just really love slicing up these trees.
Bwahah that’ll teach you for being a forest
By and large, the motion controls work well enough.
But the amount of times I had to recalibrate, especially when using the pointer, chips away
at the immersion that the controls strive to provide.
Of course, one of the big new selling points is that you can now disable motion controls
entirely if you want to and opt for button controls instead!
Which is not just a great option, but it’s an excellent accessibility feature too.
The right stick takes on sword detail--just snap it in any direction to make Link swing
that same way, or click it in for a stab.
It’s simple and it works well--as long as you learn that you don’t have to do a full
sweep side to side--snapping it from the center to the edge works just fine!
While it can feel a little cramped on the tiny Joy-Cons, it felt great on the Pro Controller.
Though one drawback is that it does make using the new free-camera slightly inconvenient,
now requiring you to first hold L since they share the right stick.
It’s also not quite as satisfying as actually performing the swings yourself, so it’s
for those reasons I generally stuck with the motion controls.
Plus I’m a bit of a purist and wanted the full motion control experience..
Ehh mostly.
Because even I’ll admit the button controls for Flying and Swimming are about a million
times using the control stick instead of the imprecise and uncomfortable tilts of the Joy-Con--my
wrist can only down so far, Skyward Sword!
Regrettably, the game doesn’t let you mix and match control styles, so I usually found
myself enduring the motion controls for even those segments because toggling them on and
off constantly is annoying, though I would switch over if I knew I’d be using them
for a while--helloooo Tadtones.
Now beyond all of this, Skyward Sword HD has seen a few subtle tweaks throughout the game
to streamline and improve the overall experience.
Several of Fi’s once mandatory interruptions have been reduced to optional engagements,
all text can be sped up or skipped entirely, cutscenes can now be skipped too--though annoyingly,
not all of them--the game automatically auto saves at every Bird Statue which is rad and
effectively functions as a 4th save slot, and there are now checkpoints during some
aggravating missions, like escorting this damn robot up the mountain.
These are all fantastic changes and definitely makes for a smoother play experience on the
whole.
Although I do think they could have gone a bit farther at points: the game’s opening
is still a slog, even with the improvements, and segments like the tedious Tadtones quest
weren’t adjusted at all...which is a tad tonedeaf...see what I did there?
As a remaster, Skyward Sword HD is pretty great.
The changes are almost universally for the better, aside from the baffling pointer adjustment,
and it truly has never looked better.
While I would have loved had the developers gone a bit further, such as by upgrading textures,
the game is still pleasant to look at.
....but well does it hold up as a game, especially after Breath of the Wild?
Well....
There are elements of Skyward Sword that I love.
The characterization of Link and Zelda might be the best yet in the series, humanizing
them to a far greater degree than most of the games--which is ironic given some of the
lore implications Skyward Sword reveals.
The temples are consistently solid, if not great, with a focus on fewer, larger rooms.
They’re less labyrinthian in nature, and more focused on interconnectedness, which
I quite enjoyed as a directionally-challenged being.
The boss fights make good use of the unique sword-based mechanics.
And though the puzzles are your classic Zelda fare, there are some brilliant ones in there,
like how the time shift stones let you experience two different time periods at once.
WHOA.
The final dungeon might just be one of the most brilliant in the entire series.
I also surprisingly really enjoyed the Silent Realm challenge, which adds a thrilling pressure
as you evade enemies to grab the things you need.
Oh, and the final hour or two might just the best of the entire Zelda series.
But, yeah you knew there was a but coming, the truly great parts are connected by an
endless slog of fetch quests.
Whether it’s looking for song fragments, forest-penguins, holy water, or any number
of knick knacks, someone is always begging you to find something for them.
I’m pretty sure there are even fetch quests within fetch quests, and it quickly becomes
tiresome.
Especially because many of them revolve around using the Master Sword’s Dowsing ability,
which has you pointing your sword around randomly until it starts beeping, indicating the direction
you need to go in.
It’s not fun, it’s annoying, and feels like complete filler.
It doesn’t help that the sky world is a complete waste of time and space.
It offers the illusion of a open-world but doesn’t have anything interesting to find.
Look, a rock...oh wait, what’s that?
Oh, another rock.
You begin the game in arguably the only interesting sky location and it’s all downhill from
there.
One of the few locations of note is fun fun island, and I’m pretty sure that name’s
sarcastic.
And It’s run by a literal clown.
The sky is little more than a glorified world map, with the annoying step, or should I say
flap, of having to fly between locations.
And then there’s the elephant in the room: Skyward Sword is linear to a fault.
Every puzzle has a single pre-designated solution, every locked route just the one key through.
If you get hung up on a particular puzzle, boss, or what have you--that’s it.
Figure it out or go home.
Now there's nothing inherently wrong with linearity, but Skyward Sword pushed a tired
formula to an extreme, which now feels even more restrictive and claustrophobic after
Breath of the Wild.
I was hoping that revisiting it would be like coming home after a long vacation, feeling
comfortable and familiar.
But it felt more like returning to your childhood town after living much of your adult life
elsewhere.
It’s recognizable, sure, but strange at the same time.
There are still things to appreciate about it, but you’ve also moved on and it can
be hard looking back.
Ultimately, playing through SS:HD gave me a newfound appreciation...for Breath of the
Wild.
But to Skyward Sword’s credit, it was a necessary stepping stone in getting there--even
birthing a surprising amount of ideas that would later find its way into that game, like
stamina, flying, material collecting, and even floating islands--if we include the sequel.
Skyward Sword is filled with a lot of great ideas, but its archaic linear structure buckles
under the weight of the series’ grander ambitions.
I’m still glad I replayed it, especially in what is otherwise a pretty great HD remaster,
and is almost certainly worth picking up for huge fans of the original or the rest of the
classic Zelda formula.
But as a gameplay experience, it can be tough to revisit after experiencing everything that
Skyward Sword isn’t , and yet, I still liked it overall, even if I was tempted to drop
it completely at points.
Its motion-based gameplay, unique overworld puzzles, and intricate temple design are all
elements that can’t quite be found anywhere else.
Plus that final hour or so really is super great.
It’s just important to know what you’re getting yourself into if you’ve only played
Breath of the Wild as Skyward Sword HD offers a very different experience, one that I’m
sure some people will prefer.
And there you have it--our review of Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch.
Thank you so much for watching and of course stay tuned to GameXplain