The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Impressions, 10 hours in Hot

I'm here to bring you thoughts on everything I'm allowed to talk about so far -- minus the spoilers!

Greetings, fellow gamers. Here I sit to do the impossible: pry myself away from Skyward Sword to provide you with some preliminary impressions of the game. Thus far, I’ve reached the end of the second temple, which is as much as I’m allowed to talk about anyway at this point. This article will be haphazard and perhaps a bit disorganized, but its sole purpose is to provide you with a source of honest reactions to the game as I begin to get into the real meat of the adventure.

With regard to spoilers, I’ll be keeping them at an extreme minimum. That means very few specifics at all—so don’t worry yourself too much about ruining anything for yourself by reading this. Even the video clips I’ll be posting won’t contain anything critical beyond environments and music. I’m doing this on purpose.

Anyway—so, without further delay, my initial thoughts on the game are that, first off, it’s huge. Even the starting town where Link lives, Skyloft, features quite a bit more to do than in previous Zelda games. It’s a fairly large and intricate place, with plenty of hidden secrets and mystery. Right off the bat, you’ll be confronted with treasure chests you either can’t reach or can’t open (think the Sealed Chests in Chrono Trigger), which immediately communicates the scope and complexity of the adventure ahead of you. I’ve also already encountered numerous hookshot targets and other elements of the environment of which I’ve not yet been able to take advantage.

The game has a unique sort of beginning to it, and it does a great job of teaching you the basics without getting boring in the process. This brings up another point: Twilight Princess was widely known to have sort of “dragged” out of the gate; while it was cool that it took so long to reach the first few dungeons, the fetch quests surrounding them (remember all that stuff as Wolf Link where you had to locate those emblems?) weren’t exactly riveting.

Just like every morning.

It’s funny, because in Skyward Sword, you’re once again scavenging for, say, three little Kikwi creatures to open the first temple, or five pieces of a key to open the second one. But it isn’t nearly as much of a nuisance, and instead feels like genuine exploration. Perhaps it’s the fact that you’re nearly always making forward progress through the environment that staves off any sort of tedium affiliated with the hunt, or maybe it’s the fact that you’re able to dowse with your sword to point yourself in the general direction of the next target at any point in time. Who knows, but it’s not a bad thing in this game.

Plus, the environments are also huge. Even the first area, Faron Woods, is mazelike and somewhat daunting in scope. The next one’s even larger, and the pacing is just about right. I regret to admit that I’ve already been stumped a few times, and I went trekking through the environment in search of an answer only to find it was right in front of me the entire time. Again, the game really doesn’t shove any backtracking down your throat like I guess I had expected it to.

Skyloft is huge.

And then there are the puzzles. Thus far, I haven’t seen anything terribly complex. But then again, it’s only been two temples in, and they each took me at least an hour to complete if I’m estimating properly. But don’t take that to mean that the dungeons are easy—quite the contrary, in fact, is what I’ve discovered. Tricky situations such as hunting for cracked walls to bomb or trying an unorthodox solution to a seemingly straightforward problem seem to be sprinkled carefully throughout the various rooms. The first couple dungeon maps initially appear rather small, but you’ll quickly learn that every single room is multifaceted and holds multiple puzzles or hidden elements. The paths you take through these dungeons are anything but straightforward, even in the very first one.

I’m really liking the controls thus far, even if my motion-control-hating side resents those moments where I’ve had some occasional difficulty thanks to them. These situations are few and far between; sword control isn’t always perfect, but it works, and it feels right nonetheless. The resulting puzzles and depth of gameplay/combat are well worth any minor struggles in angling your strikes and whatnot. Rolling items you’ve picked up (which can be performed by inverting the Wii remote and performing a bowling gesture) can be problematic at times while sitting down, but again, it works well given the puzzles which are paired to the mechanic.

The adventure begins.

I am also loving the soundtrack. Probably around half of the music I’ve heard so far is fully orchestrated, and those songs which aren’t either include a live instrument or sound like they do. When it matters, it’s orchestrated. Each of the bosses features an orchestral theme, and the vast majority of the songs in the game are layered recording tracks, which provides for environmental changes to the song as you roam the areas. For instance, entering a dungeon introduces you to its bass line and percussion, but as you approach the central part of it, the music builds and becomes eerier. It’s a really cool effect, and overall, this is easily the best quality Zelda soundtrack I’ve heard yet. Many of you already know how much quality music in games means to me, so that’s saying a lot.

The cinematics are nice as well. Granted, they’re nearly all in-game rendered cut scenes, but they work perfectly well with the action, and they’re nicely constructed. The story itself is pretty interesting thus far, and it’s nice to see a fresh take on the series as is provided here.

Stay tuned for more impressions from the game as I continue playing! Also, video will be posted on a regular basis sporadically, so check back often (you can simply refresh our videos page to see the newest additions). Meanwhile, be sure to leave me questions in the comments below. I’d be happy to try and answer as many of you as I can!