Nintendo Highlights "Smoother Play Experience" In The Opening Hours Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

This is promising. I really enjoyed this game, but there were many frustrating moments when interruptions were repetitive and unnecessary. I do remember a couple times in the later game where everything would stop to explain a solution before you had time to contemplate there was a problem — that ticked me off. And all the times it would re-explain item pickups. There were many times the flow went full-stop.

I really enjoyed the motion controls and the story and the game over all, anyway, so even if only half of this stuff is smoothed over, I'll be happy. This example suggests we might get a thorough series of adjustments.

Is this just showing the skipping dialog qol change?

My only remaining concern is that while I enjoyed the style most of the time, the Wii version had a painterly look as you looked into the distance and it helped cover the lack of resolution and create a sort gestalt in the backgrounds. The clarity of the HD, now, has made it seem less artistic and at times sparse in the backgrounds.

@Pirate1 I think there was a multistep conversation there before... I only vaguely remember something annoying happening in those moments, I'm just not sure what it was.

This is all good. Just wondering how some of this stuff was able to get into the original version to begin with. Really looking forward to revisiting this again. I love how each game in the series brings something unique.

I for one am glad Skyward Sword was such a mess of hang-holding and training wheels back in the day. It made Aonuma realise they had strayed too far from what Zelda was supposed to be so for the sequel they took the training wheels off and just let people play and explore.
BOTW is a great game partly because SS was so tedious in so many ways...

Im really really undecided on this. Played & finished on wii, cant really remember it….. and the more I see the less I want it again. Help 😩

I see how it runs on Day One Pickup and if I get my Amiibos. One NA, and one JPN version and another game from EU. Would love to see actual game review or trailer for the game release so we can see how it runs.

So, they altered the tutorial. Even though I haven't played, it sounds like this remaster is all about refinement of the original like every other Zelda enhanced port, remaster, and remake.

It would be great if they actually added something like a "future connected" or a bowsers fury or if they were more consistent like Metroid and Pokemon remakes were up to Sinnoh. Which do all that stuff all the time. Update the look, sound, clean up the pacing, add a new mode or section. Zelda only did all of that with Links Awakening.

@aaronsullivan i remember playing this back in the day and my mom would occasionally walk by just to see the game cause it just looked so pretty

Good. Lots of improvements. I am happy for new buyers who have never experienced this underrated game.

It's still one of only two Zelda games I've ever completed--I honestly really enjoyed it--and all these little tweaks will only make it even better.

I'm quite interested in seeing how this game is recieved/reviewed in 2021. . . .

@impurekind yup.. review first / buy later

I've never played as had long sold my Wii by the time it came out in the gaming death of my 20s.. Very excited to be playing the refined version for my first play through. I loved BOTW but missed dungeons and shrines didn't cut it.

This does help encourage me to play it again, but I can't stomach paying full price for a game I have fully completed many times over. If it was on sale, (which is rare for a Zelda game), then I would consider it because lately I have been yearning for just classic Zelda gameplay, versus the open world BOTW style.

I adore this game and am absolutely grabbing it on Friday. Can't wait!

@hbkay I think there are so many great new games you could play that it doesn't really make sense to buy an old game you have already finished unless you are 100% sure you want to play it again.

Enjoyed this when it came out on Wii and now I've got it on the way. Found a preorder for $50 at Gamestop, I think. Not sure if I'll play all the way through again, but I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl, especially since they doubled the frame rate.

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this already, but that gameplay looks like it features R control stick camera controls. Does this mean we get to move the camera if we choose to use motion controls?

Should there be a video showing us what the original was like?

Can you freely rotate the camera while you are moving?

@ModdedInkling that’s what I want to know!

LOVE this game and can't wait to play it again on Switch...it just won't be day 1. I have a few other games to play first.

I will try it for the first time, lucky for me it seems to be this improved version

It wasn't as bad as Twilight Princess' dreadfully slow start, but I'm still happy they're streamlining this. Between this and Fi's unwanted advice they're doing a pretty good job convincing me to pick it up again.

I still love it on Wii warts and all. If these changes and updates will get more people to play it I'm all for it. Too many passed on it first time around and it's a crying shame. You all who did don't know the fun you missed out on. This is a fantastic entry in the series!

Please play it if you didn't before. I don't think you'll regret it. You may even love it.

Maybe when it drops in pricea severly enough. Like a tenner or so.

Such an abomination in the art department.
Going back to this gameplay after Breath of the Wild will also be tough.

As much as I enjoyed BOTW I do miss the traditional style of Zelda game. I don't want the series to stay forever locked in this wannabe assassin's Creed open world thing. You can have both. A more focused narrative and better plot is more enjoyable if you ask me. As for the art I thought people liked a more colorful Zelda. Everybody moaned about Twilight princess being too dark and ugly because of the realistic approach. I personally loved the look of TP!

Anyway is it July 16th yet?

Still doesn't justify paying three times more.

Imagine if they took the time to do an overhaul of OOT and Mario 64! Those games are both in desperate need of QOL changes. OOT should come with a “mute Navi” option!

For those that are curious what it originally was, the beginning of this explanation is identical to the Wii version. However, once you vaulted up to the ledge, you got an explanation of the stamina gauge and the autojump mechanic.

In total, this simplification removed 5 boxes of dialogue. A minor change, but still a good change nonetheless.

So you no are no longer asked to rescue his cat from the roof once you've climbed up the crates? Interesting, but the more small moments like that which you cut from a game, the less memorable and nostalgic it becomes I think.

On another note, why does it sound like they've stitched two different parts of the Skyloft theme together in the video? The part it jumps to when climbing the crates isn't supposed to play yet...

@Yoshi thank you! I was expecting this explanation in the actual article.

@GinMiguel Youre forgetting ALttP + Fours Swords for the GBA

@BloodNinja
Ocarina of Time 3D should've been ninja approved.

I did not enjoy this game very much. The over-tutorializing was only the tip of the iceberg of problems I had with it. The motion controls didn't work that well for me, for starters.

But there's a deeper problem I have with it that's baked into the core of the game's structure and so can't be fixed with simple QoL improvements, and that's the excessive puzzling and linearity. Zelda games usually have a nice mix between a) free-roaming exploration of towns and outdoor areas and b) dungeons, which makes for very nice pacing. When I finish a dungeon, my reward is that I get to explore a new area.

In SS, this is basically gone. There is almost no (a) as ALL the towns and outdoor areas other than those in the sky are a series of puzzles that must be completed in a particular order like a dungeon. For me this makes everything a slog. I really like the freedom of just wandering around for a while exploring and talking to the locals, soaking in the unique worlds Zelda games always present. This game completely took that away and is the poorer for it.

@Zeldafan79
And here comes me, telling people that Skyward Sword's story was far better than Breath of the Wild's. The only other Zelda game that had such an impact on me was Age of Calamity.

@presenttense
I hope they aren't lazy and just incorporate both motion controls and button controls at the same time.

But how do you rotate the camera if you're using the right analog for sword-swinging controls?

These improvements seem small, but are still probably good to have.

@ModdedInkling In it’s current state, it needs some improvements to get vetted for the approval process. Nintendo’s kinda dragging their feet with it, but corporates lookin’ into it.

@YoungLink64 Exactly. And Nintendo had the opportunity to really overhaul Mario 64. Imagine if they had given it some effort! Hopefully, if they ever do OOT, they offer some QOL.

Game looks terrible. The jumping looks laughable at best.

@aaronsullivan I would not worry about it still look painterly. As well as playing it on Wii, I played it a 2nd time in 4k via te Dolphin emulator and the painterly effect was even more gorgeous.

@presenttense I doubt it since the second stick will be used for the swird mouvement, the question is if you just use motion control can you control the camera 😁?

@BloodNinja Skip Kaepora Gaebora button while we’re at it.

I see you coming, owl. Just keep flying and mind your business.

I'm glad those fixes are there, and they're great for newcomers. But honestly, with my Wii still working, I can't see myself spending all that money on another version. I'd rather spend it on some other game.

My golden Wii-mote & soundtrack edition is pretty good for me, so I'll probably play it on the Wii again soon, granted, I didn't finish it the first time around.

@Deady Never heard of it, thanks though!

@hbkay Probably the worst console Zelda game except for Zelda 2. Definitely a pass for me.

Pre-ordered, should be getting at the end of the week.

Never played the Wii original, and the QOL improvements make me think I (and my 11yo, who is quite Zelda-mad too, having gone from BOTW on to the remastered Link's Awakening, then then from there played through both ALttP and the original NES game on NSO) will be very happy with it.

@GinMiguel
You say you haven’t played it so why do you care if no content is added. For you it will be all new content

@impurekind I've played this game like 5 times, i don't know if im just weird or what but i love this game.

@SuperSpreader
I prefer this style of Zelda over botw. If Nintendo put ocarina or twighlight princess on I’m sure more would

@Zeldafan79
I think the realistic style of twighlight princess hurt it in the long run. Even the he version looks rough in some textures and some characters look off

@rushiosan
Except you are paying less when adjusting for inflation. If this was ocarina people would praise Nintendo and call 60 a bargain

@wollywoo
I agree with all your points except for the different areas one. Lake floria and the sand sea are all different then Faron woods and lanyard dessert. And the quest for the thunder dragon has a new area

@Not_Soos
Og game had a fixed camera

@YoungLink64
Have you played the 3ds version of ocarina

I loved it, I hated it. I’m buying again to love and hate it all over again. And portably!

@blindsquarrel You get to go to a new area, but you don't get to really explore it the way you could in older games. There's always pre-set paths with puzzles you have to solve. That is what I meant. (At least in my memory. I haven't played it since it came out.)

@blindsquarel Yeah, but do we know that's how it's gonna work in the remake? Would be very disappointing, but I can't think of an easy workaround.

Skippable tutorials? Every game needs this. What was that coop shooter from People Can Fly that came out a couple months ago? I started it up and actually put it down right away because of the forced tutorial on moving the camera and how to shoot. Almost every game tries to behave like it’s the first game a person has ever played and has no mental model for video gaming. Please let us skip all tutorials if we want.

@SortingHat
I am assuming you are talking about twighlight princess and I agree

@wollywoo
I mean that is how it worked in ocarina and twighlight princess. Botw has created a false illusion of what Zelda is

Sure, all this is worth repaying it on Switch. But not for full price. Not to me anyway.

What now? The opening hours were the only good thing about that game.

Where is it mentioned the camera is now freely controlled? Also, why the hell would anybody want quality of life features in a video game? I can understand it in something like Ring Fit Adventures, but how is it necessary to check players' BMI in a Zelda game? Keep quality of life features out of video games, unless the game was designed as quality of life software.

@SuperToadie "Quality of Life features" - you keep using that phrase, but I do not think it means what you think it means 🤣

@BloodNinja
I would argue that Ocarina of Time 3D already has enough QoL improvements for it to warrant a simple, upscaled port to the Switch with controls adjusted for the Switch. I don't want them wasting time on a remake if they could be doing a remake for lesser-known Zelda games.

@ModdedInkling Muting Navi alone would be a huge improvement, and there is no version that does that, minus rom hacking.

@SortingHat I’m not aware of a missing Wind Temple, which game is it missing from?

@blindsquarel @BloodNinja
What @SortingHat was referring to was the cut Wind Temple (there was also a cut Temple of Light dungeon) from Ocarina of Time. It was also planned to be featured in the cancelled N64DD expansion of OoT, "Ura Zelda."

@ModdedInkling neat! The more you know

@fafonio Yeah that too.

@blindsquarel I'm thinking about it from a veteran standpoint. They look out for both newcomers and returners for this game when they do what they can or go all out given the circumstances when rereleasing stuff.

They might as well call this "Skyward Sword: Definitive Edition"

@Not_Soos it doesn’t need to work in the remake, because the game was designed around not having it.

(Though if they're adding them, perhaps it's a button combination? or the stick just defaults to camera duty when you're not using it for something else)

@YoungLink64
They did remove the blood but it isn’t anything that hurts the experience. Some think the lighting in the original is better but often I couldn’t see the original. But it improved most problems people had with the game and I am pretty sure they made Navi like fi is in skyward sword hd but I might be wrong. But it is by most accounts the definitive version. I know the 3ds is getting pricy so if you want to try it just emulate it

@GinMiguel
I’m confused, your point about the veteran standpoint doesn’t make sense because you have not played it from what you said. But your second point makes it seem like you thing it is a good port.

@YoungLink64 You too!!

Each the unreal engine one would be cool. And yes I hope they do port it to switch but knowing Nintendo they will port a collection with ocarina on the N64, wind Walker on the GameCube and twighlight princess on the Wii with motion controls

Such a weird Zelda. Twilight Princess is still my favorite, since it had the huge overworld, tons of unique dungeons, great bosses, and fun special items like the spinner. Having hero mode finally helped the way too easy difficulty. Skyward recycles too many environments and bosses, and just seemed off to me. Still better than most games, but my least favorite Zelda.

@Andy_Witmyer
Yup, exactly! 😆

@blindsquarel I'm saying I like it when they accommodate both new and old time players. Adding in a bunch of improvements to an old game while keeping the spirit of the old game in tact. That if I were a veteran I'd want improvements and maybe something like future connected and bowsers fury. Though I don't really sense I don't know this game but here stuff about it.

@GinMiguel
I mean this is the same type of stuff they did for twighlight princess and wind water on the Wii U. Seems like you are cherry picking here

@blindsquarel I know they did. It's an observation

@GinMiguel
And those ports are praised and many say they would pay sixty a piece for them on switch. People just want skyward sword to fail

@SortingHat
I don’t go looking for botw threads but don’t see why me mistaking the game annoyed you so much.