The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword originally released on the Nintendo Wii back in 2011. The game was a success, but also attracted its fair share of criticism for its extensive use of motion controls. Now a decade later, it’s been remastered and has made its way to Nintendo Switch, in the form of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, along with some tweaked controls to work on both the full-sized Nintendo Switch and the smaller handheld Nintendo Switch Lite.
Players who picked up the original The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will already know what to expect here. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is set at the beginning of the The Legend of Zelda chronological timeline. There’s a lot that goes on in the game and it will take you roughly around 40 hours or so to complete.
Wing Ceremony
The story of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword tells a great tale involving Demise and Ghirahim. Ghirahim is a demon that seeks to return his master, Demise, back to his former glory. Link, along with his friends and allies, is drawn into a battle to save the world from Ghirahim and Demise.
Players will start off their adventure in Skyloft with Link preparing to take part in the Wing Ceremony with his Loftwing. This is a test which will advance Link’s standing with the Knight Academy and is a big spectacle of an event. His Loftwing, however, is captured by Groose, his rival and all-round pompous trashbag of a classmate.
Upon getting his Loftwing back, Link passes his exam and Zelda later asks to go on a flight with him. This is where things escalate exponentially since on this flight, both Link and Zelda get attacked by a black tornado. Link gets hurtled back towards Skyloft and is knocked unconscious while Zelda goes missing after falling through the clouds.
Link wakes up back at the Knight Academy after having a vision and is led by this same vision to the Statue of Hylia. Here Link discovers Fi, a spirit that inhabits the Goddess Sword and reveals that Link is the one who will stop the apocalypse and forge a new path back to the surface world for everyone. In order to do this, he must venture forth down to the surface and reunite with Zelda.
The story might seem cliche and formulaic and truth be told, it is. We have our hero who sets forth to save the world from an unspeakable evil and there’s a lot of drama and other problems along the way.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has no qualms about this and players will be entertained from start to finish with plenty of linear main story quests and a number of side quests to boot. Where the game does drag, however, is in its overall level design. The three surface world areas are quite large and differ greatly from each other. These areas become more intense over time and the platforming and combat starts to grate you as you try to progress further. This is made worse by the fact that your stamina meter depletes itself so quickly and feels overly restrictive. There’s a definite feel of dated game design in this title.
Motion Controlled
The control scheme of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is where it falters the most. The original The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword made use of the Nintendo Wii’s Nunchuk and Wiimote featuring extensive motion controls. The HD remaster has been changed up to allow the right analog stick to be used in a flicking motion to perform sword slashes. This works on both the normal Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch Lite.
This, however, forces you into pressing and holding the L shoulder button to move the camera around with the right analog stick. Why this isn’t a toggle is anybody’s guess but it’s absolutely infuriating at times trying to play the game in this way. Gamers who lack patience will instantly be put off by the camera control and will opt to play the game with the JoyCons detached and with motion controls enabled.
If you have a Nintendo Switch Lite, you’d have to purchase a separate set of JoyCons and then pair them up with the console to do this. It makes a world of difference with this game and players will definitely enjoy it a lot more playing in a manner similar to the original 2011 release.
In fact, playing this game without motion controls is a travesty seeing as how technology has now progressed so far that we’re finally able to enjoy sword slashes and other precision movements in a way that’s significantly better. If you played the original 2011 release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, you’d understand how painful it was to try to slice up some things (or how imprecise it was to aim with the bow or clawshot) based on how finicky the Wiimote and sensor could be.
With that said though, the original game was still a tonne of fun and quite a workout for your arm since you’d be slashing away for quite some time. This is replicated here albeit with far less annoyance and hindrance.
Additional changes to the game include 60 frames per second gameplay, autosave and three save slots. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD also features a controversial new change to the game in that a separately purchased Zelda and Loftwing Amiibo can be used with the game to enable fast travel anywhere between the sky and the surface world. This effectively locks a quality of life improvement behind a secondary physical product paywall and it’s disappointing to see this happen.
Graphically, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD looks fine for a 2021 re-release but given the game’s artistic, impressionist painting-esque look, there are some aspects of it that are notably lacklustre. Some environmental designs and objects look blocky and visually unappealing but playing the game in handheld mode does alleviate some of this. The soundtrack of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is great with the main theme and the orchestral OST being as great as it was back in the day too.
Final Verdict
Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD does what it set out to do. It’s a plain and straight out remaster, with tweaked controls and brings this classic up to modern standards with some disappointing caveats.
If you pick this game up, be sure to play it with motion controls to avoid any frustration caused by the abysmal camera control option. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a solid remaster of a Zelda game that did things differently to its predecessors.
This ain’t no Breath of the Wild though so if you’re a newcomer to the franchise coming in from only playing that, don’t expect this game to be mind-blowing. It’s rather different but still worth playing through.
