Reviews VideoGame / The Legend Of Zelda Skyward Sword

Not perfect, but not nearly as polarizing as they'd have you believe.

This game is all about adaptability on the player's part. That's something I learned about as early as fighting Ghirahim, and mastered about as quickly, so my frustrations with the mechanics were mostly non-existent.

The campaign starts modestly by Zelda standards, but ups the ante eventually when it comes to things such as dungeon length and depth. The most I had to get used to was lack of a map on the HUD, but most of the dungeons start out small enough that it becomes a nitpick. The best part of the dungeons are the boss fights which I found all solid, and on a consistent level. It's been said before, but Koloktos is one of the best bosses in the series in terms of challenge, length, scale, intensity, and its place in the game (and the Ancient Cistern one of the game's best dungeons, especially visually).

The world design is something that just needed more scale. The sky is designed in a way that WW's SHOULD have been, but also lacked its size or ambition. I admired the way they executed the surface areas, but more than understand that the pacing can be frustratingly linear on its own. Ultimately, it's hit-or-miss depending on the point in the story. I prefer larger worlds, but this didn't kill me. Silent Realms are love or hate, but they blow the Twilight Realms and the To K out of the water.

My biggest problems with this game are thankfully only in the narrative: The sidekick and villain. Fi acts less as a character or game play function and more a GPS with even LESS personality, and a half-assed "robots can feel" moment thrown in as a goodbye. I still tolerate her, as she's just bland in that sense. Ghirahim on the other hand is the absolute worst character in the series, and one of my all time most hated villains. He's an unfunny, unlikable, COMPLETELY incompetent fruitcake who only becomes increasingly whiny and petty the more he's proven to be less and less a threat, and his only interesting contribution to the plot is the reveal of his true nature late game, which still just proves even more what a goddamn (and pretty non-vital) tool he is; all he was for the entire game.

While I hold it doesn't match its predecessors Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, I hold that the vocal hatred for the game is as overblown. If you can tolerate a bigger learning curve than most Zeldas, it's worth judging for yourself.