The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Nintendo Switch
Release Date	Wii EU November 18, 2011 US November 20, 2011 JP November 23, 2011 AU November 24, 2011 Wii U September 1, 2016 Switch (Skyward Sword HD) July 16, 2021
Genre	Adventure
Rating	ESRB: E10+

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a fantasy adventure game that acts as the sixteenth installment in the The Legend of Zelda series. It is the second Zelda game to be released for the Wii (counting the port of Twilight Princess) and the first one to be made specifically for the Wii.

Story

Long ago, a goddess protected an ultimate power from an attack of by monsters lead by the ultimate evil. To protect her people, the goddess gathered the humans onto a piece of ground and sent it to the sky. She then sealed the evil away. In the sky, the humans formed a new civilization known as Skyloft and traveled using special birds called Loftwings. The surface world became alien to them over the years.

The story begins at Skyloft, where Link and Zelda are both youths. Link is a student at the Knight's Academy who manages to be promoted to the advanced class upon completion of the Wing Ceremony, in which the headmaster's daughter Zelda played the role of the goddess. Their peaceful lives came to a sudden halt when Zelda was whisked away by a sudden tornado. Link is called to action by Fi the mysterious spirit of the hidden Goddess Sword. Fi guides him to the sword, and together they find their way to the surface world. There, Link begins a journey to find Zelda, strengthen the Goddess Sword to its true power and prevent the sealed evil from breaking free. Throughout this quest, he is hounded by the eccentric demon lord Ghirahim.

Gameplay

This game has a stronger focus on the Wii's motion controls and is enhanced by the Wii MotionPlus. The Wiimote and Nunchuck Controller are used to simulate the sword and shield, and motion controls are similarly applied to a vast area of items. The basic gameplay has been altered, as Link has been given a stamina meter which limits how much he can accomplish at a time and inspires more tactical player choices. Link's primary non-weapon movement is a dash move, which allows him to sprint and also perform some limited jumping moves at the cost of stamina. Link can still perform the classic rolling move while dashing, but it will cost extra stamina. Shields also have their own meters which determine how much damage they can take before breaking down, and there are different kinds of shields that can be bought. Each of them have different levels of durability and their own advantages and disadvantages. It is also to collect treasures for use in upgrading shields, item pouches and certain other weapons. Other new features include an Adventure Pouch which can only hold a limited amount of non-weapon items such as bottles, medals and extra replenishable item containers. Skyward Sword also implements a type of sword beam into the gameplay for the first time in a 3-D Zelda (excluding a brief example from Majora's Mask). Raising Link's sword skyward while charge the sword with sacred energy, and slashing the sword will then release the sacred light as a vertical energy beam.

The player initially starts off in the sky, but portals to the surface are unlocked as the player progresses through the game. In the sky world, the player can travel by riding Link's Loftwing and discover various floating islands in a manner similar to the sailing mechanic of The Wind Waker. Hitting Goddess Cubes on the surface will cause treasure chests to appear on the islands. Skyloft and some of the other inhabited islands also contain a variety of sidequests and minigames that Link can participate in over the course of the game. The surface world consists of three provinces with heavily dense environments. Each province turns out to be larger than it seems on return visits, as entirely new areas could be unlocked with items and abilities gained later on. The player can use special bird statues to save, and bird statues located outside are used to return Link to the sky. The Zelda formula has been tweaked somewhat, as the dense overworld often has dungeon-like features, and many of the dungeons are more experimental than those in previous games. Fi is similar to companions from previous games in that she often gives Link advice on how to solve problems, and she also has the feature of analyzing Link's selection of items as well as his performance against individual enemies. Fi also has a dowsing feature which can be used to track a variety of targets such as items and even other characters.

At several points in the game, Link must complete trials in a spiritual plane called the Silent Realm, which is like a combination of the Phantom areas from Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks with the Twilight Realm segments of Twilight Princess. These areas require that Link leave behind all his items in this area and use stealth to avoid powerful enemies while collecting golden tears in. The game's graphics also has a notable cel-shaded style which partially is a callback to The Wind Waker. At the same time, the graphics also have enough realism to be considered a blend between The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, and the developers have stated that the graphical intent is to give the idea of a "living painting".

Legacy

Ports/Remakes

• In 2016, it was released as for download through the Wii U's eShop.
• In 2021, a remastered version was released for the Nintendo Switch as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. This version featured HD graphics and ran at 60 frames per second, while also making some adjustments to account for common complaints from players, such as making Fi's advice optional and only showing item descriptions the first time an item was gained. There were some other quality-of-life changes such as adding an autosave option. The biggest change was the option to choose from multiple control schemes. One option was to use the Switch's Joy-Con as a replication of the Wii's motion controls, while the other option was to use normal button controls, with the sword being controlled by the Switch's right control stick. It also featured compatibility with a special amiibo of Link with a Loftwing, which enabled fast travel.

Sequels

The next game to be released was A Link Between Worlds for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. The next console game was Breath of the Wild, which was released for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch in 2017.

In terms of the official timeline, the next game in chronological order is The Minish Cap.