| The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with Music CD Posted: The Legend of Zelda series is one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, if not arguably *thee* greatest. With each release, Nintendo has showed us the magic of journeying through Hyrule's beautiful kingdom. Now, they have done it again, greatly injecting innovation into the tried-and-true formula of past titles. This is a Zelda game unlike any other, and feels all at once both an incredible nostalgic celebration of 25 years of history, and a wholly new adventure full of wild, awesome new directions. Get ready for a fairly long review, but please know that this is written from the heart of a young man who loves the series above most others in his favorite pastime.
The story and characters present in Skyward Sword are very different among the other Zelda titles, despite the obvious recurring ones. I don't just mean the amazing setting of Link's home, Skyloft, a fantastical city floating above the clouds where everone is bonded to their own guardian birdlike creature, a loftwing. No, from the start, Nintendo truly changes almost everything of what you'd come to expect from a Zelda game. This is the earliest tale in the series chronologically, acting as a prequel, making way for Ocarina of Time's tale to come. Zelda is not a princess here, just another common schoolgirl. She and Link have been best friends since childhood, and may even have feelings for each other (it's pretty obvious, and incredibly touching. My wife and I were both pretty moved by it). In Skyloft, the local school is essentially a knights academy, the uniform being a tunic that is easily recognizable to fans of the series. After completing a ceremony to become a senior in his class (the senior tunic is, you guessed it, dark green), Zelda and Link ride together through the sky to celebrate. Out of nowhere, a malevolent tornado knocks Zelda to "the surface," a vast, unexplored land below the cloud cover and once again, Link takes up the mantle of being a fated hero, destined to save the day. I'll stop here, because this is virtually spoiler free and if I say more it won't be. Just know that Nintendo has really changed up the formula of story and characters we've come to expect from the Zelda franchise, and as a result, Skyward Sword feels incredibly refreshing.
Another immediately noticeable change is in presentation. The story is much, much more cinematic than Zelda has ever been. Cinematic shot angles are much more dynamic than ever before, character expression is stunning, animation is smooth and realistic, and the writing is just fantastic. If anything, this feels like a very intimate entry in the Zelda series, not just epic or grand like past titles. It's a lovely direction for the Zelda series, if you ask me. The characters all come to life thanks to this presentation, of course, but the writing present certainly helps too. Each character has so much personality, and talking to each of them is a joy. Link is a somewhat distracted dreamer with his head in the clouds, loves to sleep, but has tons of courage and kindness, a true hero. Accompanying him in his journey is Fi, a new kind of companion to the series. Fi looks like a ceramic doll, her "speech" sounds like GLaDOS, and is purely logic driven. She is amazing. Zelda is a strong-willed, tough tomboy of sorts, and very lovable. Lord Ghirahim, the new villain, is *extremely* compelling and creepy (Ganandorf makes no direct appearance). All of these characters, as well as the plethora of side characters, are written and presented beautifully.
The art design and graphical implementation is awesome here. The game has married the art design of two past masterpiece Zelda title styles into one wholly unique direction. You have more realistic people and settings, like in the dark, mature Twilight Princess, but you also have the vibrant color and imagination of The Wind Waker, and it is a joy to behold. Nintendo EAD designed the game to look like a water color painting, and I must say, they did a fantastic job doing so. Draw distances are fairly short, and anything beyond is purposely blurred to look exactly like a water-color painting of the impressionist style, full of brushstrokes of beautiful color. I am deeply impressed here. The Wii is a painfully underpowered system in comparison to its two competitors, but it is genius art design like this that shows why the Wii has had some of the most beautiful titles of this generation (Metroid Prime 3, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Okami, now this game, the list goes on and on). To put it succinctly, Skyward Sword is one of the most beautiful games in recent memory, and that is totally thanks to the absolutely brilliant (and well implemented) art design.
Koji Kondo and Hajime Wakai; any fan of Nintendo will instantly recognize these names as two of the greatest musical composers of video gaming. They are almost unrivaled as composers, writing some of the most iconic music in the entire medium. Koji worked as musical supervisor in this title (as well as composed the main theme and some other songs). Hajime was in charge of music composition. This may be, and I *do not* say this lightly, some of their very best work yet. The music here ranges from the entire spectrum of musical emotion: epic, intimate, touching, sad, meditative, dark, joyous, achingly beautiful, uplifting, goofy/doofy (for a certain character), anything you can imagine. Each theme, whether for an event, a character, a place, whatever, is absolutely perfect for its place and can greatly change depending on the situation. It takes something special for music to not only define the experience for any gamer playing the game, but also convey the emotion and thought its supposed to, and the soundtrack here does so perfectly. Like most Zelda games, Link acquires a musical instrument that helps progress the story (Ocarina of time had... well... duh. Wind Waker had a baton), here it is a harp. You can play it at any time, and when you do, you can actually accompany the beautiful background music of wherever you happen to be on the harp. That's very, very cool. Great job Koji and Hajime! You're amazing.
The gameplay is what you're probably the most curious about. Does the Wii-Motion Plus work? Yes, it does very well, for the most part. You'll have to deal with calibration from time to time, sometimes actions won't register the way you hoped, but it's not too big a deal and doesn't happen nearly enough to mar the experience. The 1:1 swordplay works pretty flawlessly once you become acquainted with it. Link will seamlessly swing his sword however you do. Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, it all works quite well. Pretty much every enemy you will encounter will require a different strategy to defeat, and I have found that the swordplay grows more enthralling with each hour I play (Boss fights are outstanding). It took me quite a while to get used to it, but I must say that this is truly the game the Wii was made nearly six years ago for. It's about time. The quest items you'll find are also a blast to use. They give you some new ones right off the bat, and they're all awesome, feeling completely new yet appropriate for the franchise. Also, Link now has stamina that runs out as he climbs and dashes throughout the world (yes, Link can now sprint around if you'd like). Link's stamina actually adds a small layer of strategic depth to the game, and the concept comes into play in many scenarios throughout the game. This gameplay concept worried me at first, but it's actually really enjoyable, and implemented excellently.
So far, I have been through three temples in about 20 hours (I bought my copy at a midnight release "party" and have been playing ever since). Gone is the field-dungeon-field formula of past titles. Instead, here you have a hub world, the realm above the clouds, with Skyloft as your main town to visit. Here you can restock supplies, buy or upgrade your shield and other equipment using items you've scavenged in your questing rpg-style, and go on very personal side quests that feel very much like Majora's Mask did, making for a character-driven experience. A great change of formula, one I was *very* skeptical about beforehand.
You can ride your loftwing and drop to the surface world below at key rifts in the clouds. Here, you have more concentrated lands you can adventure through until you get to a dungeon/temple that will advance the story. The world below, and its temples, feel quite a lot like the Metroid series. The land is more condensed and concentrated, feeling like dungeon of sorts by themselves, but as you acquire newer items, more and more dimensions will open up in those places as you revisit them. It's a huge change-up to the Zelda formula, but one that feels surprisingly good. As I've said, I've played through three temples so far and I am amazed at the ingenuity of them. Yes, you'll be pushing blocks and shooting targets to open doors, but you'll also encounter brilliant new puzzles. I mean, the puzzles are challenging and downright laugh-inducing in their ingenuity, and feel very satisfying when you figure them out. Combine this with the totally awesome new items, stellar swordplay, and ease of use and you get the feeling that every area feels like an innovation, in much the same way playing through Super Mario Galaxy 2 felt like standing before a firing squad of brilliant new ideas. I am downright astonished. I did not think it could be done, honestly, but this game really has reinvigorated the series through great change to the formula rather than refining it further like Twilight Princess did, and trust me when I say no one is more surprised than me.
This is a brilliant game, even among the other entries in what has been for 25 years a brilliant series. It takes Zelda in a plethora of new directions, while miraculously feeling *exactly* like a true-to-form Zelda game. Color me surprised. If you're a fan of Zelda, then you don't need me to tell you to go get this right now. This series has some of the most diehard fans of any gaming franchise out there, but just for emphasis' sake, I proudly, and loudly proclaim that this game is incredible! Buy it, soar through the realms above, and dive to the vast, mysterious lands below and fulfill your destiny to save the world once again!
* I know this review is quite long, but honestly, this game has so much that merits attention, the review could be much, much longer and still be appropriate. I will edit my review as I play through the game more if I feel there is something worth mentioning that I come across. However, I feel that this is a pretty good summary that hopefully gives you a good picture of the game. Seriously, go get it, like, right now. You won't regret it.
Final Update, 11/27/11:
Ok, after playing the game for roughly 50 hours I have finally beaten Skyward Sword. In short, this game is an absolute masterpiece. Each and every hour spent in this game was filled to the brim with brilliance and excellence, and not one single minute felt like boring filler that artificially extended the game. This feels like the Super Mario Galaxy 2 of Zelda titles, where there seems to be an exciting new gameplay/puzzle element at every turn. The story is incredible, with a lot of twists that genuinely thrilled and surprised me. This game essentially acts as an origin story for the entire Zelda series. Pretty much every element that you're familiar with from Zelda games see their true origin here, and it is spectacular (I won't give any spoilers though, you'll be blown away when you experience it for yourself). I have to say that I have not been this entranced and enthralled by a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time or The Wind Waker, and I am a HUGE fan of pretty much every entry in the entire Zelda series, so I don't say that lightly. The music is among the series' very best, which by itself is a massive accomplishment. The visuals the art design are incredibly beautiful, some of the most gorgeous and brilliantly inspired of the past decade, despite the underpowered system it is on. Because of all of this, I was compelled to play this constantly until beating it, AND there's a new game plus mode that adds substantially to the game as well! For fans of the series, this game is an immediate must-own. I give it the highest recommendation possible. I absolutely love this game, and I'm fairly certain most of you out there will too.
*That's my final statement. This is meant to finalize the points I made from my original review, which I think will be as detailed and informative as anyone would want or need. Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Good day. :) |
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