Minor spoilers ahead! (Location and enemy names)
After a month and a half and about 55 hours sunk into the game, I finished Skyward Sword on the Wii tonight.
Early on in the game, I had the impression that it stood a fair chance at being the best Zelda game ever made. That didn’t quite pan out, but that’s not to say the game wasn’t excellent.
In fact, aside from a few nagging parts along the way, seemingly there for no reason other than to rack up more game time, the game was nearly flawless.
Things I loved:
- The orchestrated music was wonderfully composed. I even found myself stopping outside the temple at Lake Floria just to listen for a while.
- The ability to upgrade items and potions was great.
- The adventure pouch system provided for a small amount of character customization, which is worlds beyond what we’ve had in previous Zelda games.
- Link is so mobile in this game.. finally no more rolling and rolling and rolling. Not even climbing ever felt like a chore.
- Loved seeing the origins of the entire Zelda timeline.
- Level design is as good as ever, probably better. The play mechanics in the final temple were outstanding. I could write pages on how good the level design in Zelda titles is.. I can’t stress this enough.
- The art design. This is right up there with Okami as one of the best looking and most stylistic games I’ve played.
- Fast travel and being able to start where you saved. These are modern gaming concepts that took way too long to make it to Zelda.
Not so much:
- I dreaded the Spirit Realm portions of the game. I’m not sure what they could have been replaced with, but they broke the pacing of the game and were really just more aggravating and stressful than they were fun.
- The treasure and bug reminders pull you out of the game far too often. This could/should have been optional.
- The Demise events felt repetitive by the end. This is another thing that felt like time padding.
Also This:
Overall, the game was spectacular but still doesn’t top A Link To The Past, in my opinion.
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