I recently beat the newest “Zelda” game, “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword”. It took about 52 and a half hours, and it took me exactly from New Year’s Day to Valentine’s Day. The game came with an orchestra CD to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary, plus I paid extra for the special Wii motion plus remote. It’s gold and has that bird, Triforce thingy on it. It is made with 100% pure awesome. The game itself, though, manages to be even more awesome.
I absolutely love this game. So much. One of the best “Zelda” games ever, if not the best. It has a more colorful, less realistic style of graphics than “Twilight Princess”, which I think fits the “Zelda” games a lot better. It also has some great music, which I’ve heard is apparently completely orchestrated (I’m going to put up a post on my top 10 songs fairly soon). I’m listening to the music as I type this.
I love the gameplay in this game. The motion is used really well. It’s used for aiming, throwing objects, and of course, your sword and shield. The controls for the sword are so accurate. Link’s arm actually follows mine even when I’m not fighting, and you pretty much have full control over the sword. And the game takes advantage of the improved controls, often requiring you to hit an object or an enemy at a certain angle, which I doubt was possible in the past. (I’m now playing the Wii version of “Twilight Princess”, and it is so hard going back to the old controls.) This game is one of the most fun games ever in terms of gameplay.
I also like the story in this one. I thought it was better than many other “Zelda” games, where the story mainly seems to be only at the beginning and the end (“Majora’s Mask”…). I also like the characters very much in this game. And I love that Link and Zelda are friends this time. Often, they’re pretty much strangers, so it’s fun to see them like this. Fi is the character that helps Link in this game. She lives in Link’s sword, or more accurately, is the personification of Link’s sword, the Goddess/Master Sword. She apparently likes percentages, is a good dancer, and looks frightening when she sings. And I think that Ghirahim (Demon Lord Ghirahim, actually), who is pretty much the main villain in the game (I mean, the main dude never really shows up until the very end), is the most interesting villain in any “Zelda” game ever. (I always found Ganondorf to be pretty boring. Pretty much just the usual evil guy that we’ve all seen a thousand times.) One minute, Ghirahim is saying he needs someone to vent to or other corny things you wouldn’t expect from a villain, and then he’s threatening to torture Link. He also thinks he’s pretty good looking and has “stunning features”. This makes him seem more realistic than typical bad characters. He’s my favorite “Zelda” villain so far (even though, at the same time, he creeps me out).
Anyway, getting more into what actually happens in the game, long before the game even starts, the Demon King Demise tried to take the Triforce, a powerful object that can grant the wish of whoever has it, so the goddess Hylia had to create Skyloft, a group of islands in the sky, to keep her people, the Hylians, and the Triforce safe. As you’d expect, the game starts out in Skyloft, but when a mysterious tornado suddenly appears and knocks Zelda off her Loftwing (it’s a big bird), she falls to the land below the clouds, and Link sets out to find her. But, this isn’t just a quest to save Zelda. She’s on a quest herself, but I can’t get into too much detail without spoiling things. Aren’t I nice?
There are three areas you can explore beneath the clouds, which are separate instead of one big thing like in previous games, but it cuts down on any boring traveling (“Wind Waker”…). There are also several areas called Silent Realms which are quite terrifying…. Oh, the amount of screaming I did during these levels. And like any “Zelda” game, the game involves exploring places and solving puzzles in dungeons (always the best part). There are some of the same items as earlier games (of course, every good “Zelda” game has bombs and a bow), but there are also new items. But, I’ll let you find out what they are on your own. Also, later on, you get a harp to play, but you don’t really have much control over it like you do instruments in previous games. You just strum left and right in time with a circle that gets bigger and smaller.
Now maybe it’s just me, but I thought this game wasn’t that hard. I had very little trouble with most of the dungeons or boss battles and stuff. I’m glad it wasn’t crazy hard, but I wish it was a bit more of a challenge. I only got game over twice. The first time during the first boss battle (don’t judge me!) and the second time during the final boss (plus, I sustained an injury during this battle when I punched myself in the face putting up my shield). I just started “Twilight Princess”, and I already got game over three or four times.
Anyway, I have few problems with this game, besides it being a bit easy. Maybe I got a little bored when I had to fly (due to my short attention span). Maybe I wish there were more heart pieces to collect (they start you out with a very generous 6 hearts rather than 3, but this gives you less to find). Maybe I wish my shield wouldn’t break (but due to my awesome skills, I got the “absurdly sturdy shield” anyway). But, there’s nothing wrong in this game that really matters all that much. My main problem with this game is that, due to the game having motion controls, Link is now right-handed when he used to be left-handed. I know, terrible. As upsetting as this is, though, I think I can overlook this distressing fact, since it is such a good game, after all. (It still bothers me more than it should, though, that Link is even right-handed on the cover art. What have they done? This is not the Link I remember!) This makes me “sick with anger”, though not really. I just wanted to quote Ghirahim.
And to keep with my usual pointless discussion of things I think are cute, I love those kitty things (remlits, I think) in Skyloft. They’re like cats, but have big round ears and a raccoon tail. I’ve gotten quite attached to them. It even beats the cuteness of the mini sheep in “Final Fantasy XIII”. The first time I played the game, I saw one sleeping somewhere. It woke up and started following me everywhere and meowing. It seemed quite happy to see me, and sometimes I’d pick it up and carry it. (Link does not know how to hold an animal, though. Don’t hold it out in front of you like that, Link! At least, he doesn’t hold it over his head anymore.) But, then I found that they get mean at night. I used to feel bad attacking them, but now I show no mercy to those little beasts. Poor Link’s gotten mauled by them a dozen times. But, fear not, people of Skyloft! Your town is now safe! Until I enter a building, and all the remlits return.
Now, I must mention that I rather enjoy messing with the bokoblins, which are enemies that appear often in the game (not to be confused with the goblin that got in my house that one time, which wasn’t armed, was shorter, and was not wearing the “exotic undergarments” Fi often refers to). So now, the duck’s list of ways to terrorize bokoblins. By the duck.
1. Knock them off tightropes. When the only thing separating me from a bokoblin is a tightrope, I like to lure it into coming over. It bravely starts to cross the tightrope, slowly, carefully. It’s doing good, until I shoot it with my slingshot. It loses its balance and falls screaming to its death. Good times.
2. Push them down mountainsides. These dumb things like to throw boulders at me when I’m trying to get up steep slopes of mountains, which means they then deserve a visit from my sword. So once I reach them, I attack them until they fall down onto the slope, and they roll down the hill and scream the whole way. While I laugh. Ha.
3. Drop beehives on them. Pretty straightforward. I tried this the same day I typed this (which was weeks ago). I found that the beetle item can grab beehives, which gave me an idea. So I had it grab a beehive and carry it until I found an unsuspecting bokoblin and dropped it right nearby. The bees broke out and started attacking, and needless to say, the bokoblin was rather upset. Shouldn’t have thrown boulders at me that time, then, huh? The duck holds grudges.
4. Chase them with the beetle. The beetle is apparently frightening to bokoblins. When they see it coming, they scream and run. Wimps.
So now if you ever meet a bokoblin (it might work on goblins, too, but I’ve never tried), you know what to do.
Anyway, this is a really good game. The biggest problem with it is that after playing it, it makes a lot of my games look disappointing now. I can’t wait to see what they make next. I probably have a long wait, though.
I love this game so much and miss it now that it’s done. To quote Ghirahim, this game “fills my heart with rainbows”. Okay. I’ll stop with the Ghirahim quotes now. Really. But, only because I don’t remember more right now.
The Duck Who Predicts a 95% Chance That Anyone Who Plays the Game Will Enjoy It (that was kind of a Fi quote; I told you she likes percentages)
