Topic: The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Reviews (Spoiler Alerts?)

The game was given a staggering 98% by Official Nintendo Magazine. This was printed by GoNintendo website who managed to get details of the review:

You've been warned, there are indeed spoilers in this summary from ONM's review of Skyward Sword. If you want to spoil some new things for yourself, feel free to hit the jump and read up.

• most refined telling of the classic Legend of Zelda story
  • "Skyward Sword is the best Zelda Game ever made"
  • Sealed Grounds are home to The Imprisoned
  • this is the black beast boss that haunts Link's nightmares and is after Zelda
  • basic enemies change and get harder as you progress
  • later in the game you'll happen upon the Technoblin enemies that use electrically-charged swords
  • flail the Wiimote around you will scare away the bugs
  • side quests for NPCs include odd jobs, fetch quests, and rescue missions
  • high level upgrades require rarer treasures to use as materials
  • there's a Rito-like person named Horwell
  • he is a plant collector as well as an instructor at the Knight Academy
  • temples place less of an emphasis on moving from room to room
  • locations are weird and fascinating
  • dungeons are more linear and shorter
  • still find the typical "find item, use against boss" formula in this game
  • intense pace
  • takes new and old toys, mixes them with puzzles you thought you knew, to make them fresh all over again
  • by the end of the game your inventory will be made up mostly of new gadgets
  • Mogma Mitts take you to a grid-like underground area where you'll crawl around to find secret routes and shortcuts
  • tons of Goddess Cubes scattered across the surface
  • traveling Goron archaeologist's name is Gorko
  • he's studying the history of the land
  • "Skyward Sword is not only one of the best-looking games on the Wii, but one of the best-looking games out this Christmas on any platform you care to mention."
  • Fi is generally "non-intrusive"
• if you want her to, she'll tell you information about an enemy and lay down a few basic tactics
  • she'll also evaluate how you fared against the same enemy type earlier in the game
  • Dowsing ability is upgradeable to help you find hearts and other useful stuff
  • diving from your bird is a new "definitive moment" for the series
  • classic "hero saves the world with a magic sword" story
  • pinnacle of the series, of motion gaming, and possibly even Nintendo's entire history
  • hasn’t fallen short on its promises
  • constantly surprising adventure
  • breathtaking, inspiring vistas
  • charming, funny, and memorable characters
  • “an absolute masterpiece from start to finish, entirely deserving of our gushing praise and unbridled hyperbole, and a contender for the crown of best game on Wii.”
  • Most enemies require a degree of forethought before attacking
  • Catching bugs is more difficult than you think
  • wildly flailing the net will scare the bugs away
  • “Some old items make a reappearance, such as your slingshot and bow, though by the game’s close your inventory will be largely made up of strange and funky new gadgets.”
  • Game races from new location to new location
  • You’ll get showered with new toys that use MotionPlus in interesting ways before throwing you into situations in which they’re mixed up with old mechanics you thought you’d mastered in previous areas in the game, creating new puzzles and challenges
  • Some locations “are utterly un-Zelda like”
  • the game “tirelessly works to surprise you, and it never fails to do just that”
  • game looks the most impressive while you’re riding your Loftwing, “with the full brunt of the game’s painterly, impressionist art style stretching out from the warm, pinkish, bubbling clouds below to the daubed, dark green hues of distant sky islands. It’s an animated, flowing watercolor, the effect both cleverly masking the limitations of the Wii’s draw distance while simultaneously and effortlessly pleasing the eyeballs.”
  • Fi is “a charming character”, “vastly intelligent, calculating, verbose and incongruosly ‘digital’ sounding.”
  • The game’s inhabitants “give Skyward Sword’s world real flavor and texture.”
  • “Skyward Sword stands as an ode to a series that has endured all of recent gaming history. It marks the dizzying pinnacle of both the Zelda series and motion-controlled gaming itself. It’s a huge accomplishment that, even by Nintendo’s own record, stands out as one of their finest.”
  • Second opinion: “You can tell Nintendo have spent many years honing this to near-perfection. More than worth the wait”

Dungeons are more Linear and shorter? Not sure I like the sound of that.
Isn't using your brain to figure out Dungeons kinda the whole idea in this series?
Now they are gonna easy it up for casuals? Just when people thought TP was too easy.

lol

You have to go to dungeons Mutiple times.

Oh great lots of backtracking BS.
Yep sounds like game of the year to me.

this looks great
but please use the already made forum for skyward sword, thanks
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wii/zeldaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This game looks fantastic but I doubt its a better wii game than the likes of SMG, SMG2 and XBC.

how is backtacking BS and do you even know what linear means.

I mean they've already said the overworld would be more dungeon like blending the lines of the two. One would aruge that backtracking is far less linear then the usual zelda format.

Also by backtracking the area's will be different. Like I think its been said a part of the wood's would get flooded and you swim to a part of the map that was previously unavailable.

You complain about linearity and backtracking. I would like to know the other option. You have always had to revisit areas in Zelda.

where's the link? I expect a source before I believe anything said here

The article is from GoNintendo, which got their info from ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK).

@ Shingi_70
Yeah I know what Linear means.
It means the dungeons are going to have simple straightforward paths through them. Hardly any thinking involved which to me doesn't sound very Zelda. Also you said dungeons would have to be revisited. Once I've finished a dungeon I don't wanna be backtracking for things in them later. Sounds like a boring way of extending playtime. Take for example the Skulltula tokens in Ocarina of time. It would be so much easier to get the ones in dungeons in one go.
Rather than returning later.
Remember the fetch quests in Wind waker? Yeah everybody hated that.

Omigosh. I cannot wait for this game. Totally going to be the best game this year, and GOTY. Seriously, this game sounds fantastic. n__n

_{nintendo fanboy? what's that?}

Ugh, that's not how it works. There are some areas in the dungeon that you won't be able to visit the first time you play them, but later on, when Links gets more equipment, you'll go back to them. So they'll be like new dungeons.

They are treating dungeons and overworld as interchangeable. This isn't news. Imagine a bridge you cannot cross in the overworld till you have the hookshot. It will be like that, supposedly.

so does this confirm it's Metroidvania? Because Metroidvania Zelda is too awesome an idea to not happen.

Yes, but the series has always been like this, with areas you can't reach until you find an appropriate item.

Zelda predates both Metroid and Castlevania. Calling it a Metroidvania is an injustice. (Well, calling anything a Metroidvania is an injustice because it's such an awful, lazy name for a genre.) The term seems to be restricted to platformers, anyhow.

Judging by avatars, perhaps Ocarina Young Link is threatened by Skyward Sword hype?

I jest.

I am very interested in this game, should be fascinating. Having said that, I would trade it sight unseen for a Pikmin on Wii. But that is not to be, and this should be a fine 'consolation' prize.

10/10 baby

**** just got real.

• basic enemies change and get harder as you progress
• Most enemies require a degree of forethought before attacking

I hope that means enemies aren't stupid this time.

• locations are weird and fascinating
• breathtaking, inspiring vistas

Good to hear, especially if that means more exploration.

• dungeons are more linear and shorter

YES.

• Fi is generally "non-intrusive"
• if you want her to, she'll tell you information about an enemy and lay down a few basic tactics

Good. Few things are more annoying than a fairy blurting out the answer to a puzzle before you even try to solve it.

Sounds like the best 3D Zelda ever. Maybe even better than A Link to the Past.