If you were to say that 2021 was a good year, then most people would probably burst out laughing. It was a good year for The Legend of Zelda, though, where there were many similarities to the year 2016, which is where the 30th Anniversary of the series took place. Back then we got the release of Twilight Princess HD, the release of Hyrule Warriors: Legends and all of its DLCs, as well as some small goodies for said anniversary, like new amiibo or the Arts & Artifacts book. It was also the year before Breath of the Wild came out, where Nintendo had a lot to show about the upcoming new Zelda game during E3.
Well, in 2021 things weren't as extensive, but still similar. In the early year we didn't really know what would await us, but the ice was quickly broken in February's Nintendo Direct, which is where the Expansion Pass for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch. The rest of the year was then laid out at E3 2021, which announced the new Game & Watch system for Zelda, but also gave us another trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, which is supposed to come out next year.
Now, Age of Calamity already came out last year, but a game like this always lends itself as a platform for some DLC, where the Expansion Pass came in two waves – one in June and one at the very end of October, called Pulse of the Ancients and Guardian of Remembrance respectively. All combined the DLC added three new playable characters, new weapon types for Link and Zelda, eight new story scenarios, five new stages, ten new enemies, 36 new Challenges, and plenty of new Quests. It's not something that can keep you as busy as all the DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Legends in 2016, but it had more quality to it and expanded the game on all fronts.
Between all of this Nintendo has also released Skyward Sword HD, where Skyward Sword was the last 3D Zelda game from before the Nintendo Switch era to yet to be remade or remastered. The original Wii title was released ten years ago, during the 25th Anniversary, where it now basically was the next in line.Its upscaled graphics look beautiful in HD and the new button-only controls made the game a lot more accessible. All the control options still aren't fully ideal, however, and the remaster was completely devoid of any new content.
The game also came with some merchandise in the form of Special Edition Joy-Cons and an amiibo of Zelda and her Loftwing. The latter looks lovely, but sparked also some controversy with its ingame functionality, where the amiibo is used as a key for a new fast travel system, which lets you return to the sky and back to where you were at any time.
Speaking of merchandise, for the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Nintendo has released a Game & Watch system for the classic NES title, which also includes its younger sibling, Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, as well as the original GameBoy version of Link's Awakening. In addition it comes with a playable clock and timer based on the NES games, and a the Game & Watch title Vernim, which now stars Link as the playable character.
It's a neat, little system, but this was it for the 35th Anniversary. For some reason Nintendo has decided to not do any major celebrations this time, no 35th Anniversary logo, campaign, books, or anything else. (Keep in mind that the release of Skyward Sword HD officially didn't have anything to do with the anniversary, much like Twilight Princess HD in 2016.) And to be fair, 35 years isn't as special as a quarter century or another decade. Still, Super Mario Bros. also got such a Game & Watch device and many more things in 2020 and early 2021, including a whole theme park in Japan, where as a Zelda fan you can't help but feel a bit left out.
But of course this is nothing what fans of the Metroid series had to endure for the last decade... And here it's good to see that 2021 finally gave the franchise a real treat.
Enter Metroid Dread. After almost 20 years we finally got the long awaited sequel to Metroid Fusion and this game was certainly worth the wait. The E.M.M.I. can be a bit of turn-off initially and the controls take some getting used to, but overall MercurySteam has done an excellent job of crafting what's easily one of the best Metroid games in existence, which shines with its fast-paced, smooth gameplay, as well as lots of replayability.
The game also came with a Special Edition, which included a steelbook, an artbook, and some holographic art cards. And two amiibo, one for the new Fusion Suit Samus and one for the E.M.M.I., were also released this year.
As with Zelda, Nintendo didn't celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Metroid in any major form, but Metroid Dread in itself already did a good job with that. Both the art items in the Special Edition and the unlockable endings pay tribute to the main games of the series, while many of the story elements from the Metroid series also come together in Metroid Dread.
So, both for Zelda and Metroid this was overall a good year and we can be looking forward to more from these franchises.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Original Soundtrack.
This has arrived today after I had ordered it from Playasia.com (I'm not affiliated in any way, this is just a link), which worked very well. It was actually the first time that I have ordered something for Zelda or Nintendo in general from Japan. Usually, I only go for the European stuff, but this looked too good to give it a pass.
It's the Limited Edition release, which comes with a small music box in addition to the five CDs and a booklet, which guides you through this musical journey – if you can read Japanese, which I can't, where this is one of the downsides of such a purchase. It also has Gold Points for MyNintendo, but sadly you can only redeem them with a Japanese account. Anyway, all of it is very nicely designed and wrapped up, where it's a beautiful collectible item:
But it's also mostly just that, a collectible item, because I don't really use CDs anymore, which makes me feel a little bit bad, because I usually also try to make use of my Zelda colletibles in some form. I even used those Skyward Sword HD Joy-Cons to play the game a bit with motion controls. But here I mostly got it because it looked very nice.
The music box is pretty neat, though, because you can wind it up and then it plays the Ballad of the Goddess for a while. So, it's not one of those thingies where you have to crank all the time.
Overall this feels like what a potential Limited Edition release of Skyward Sword HD in Europe and North America should have looked like, where it could have come with an artbook and the music box. I probably would have preferred something like that over importing a soundtrack from Japan, but this makes my collection around Skyward Sword HD feel more complete overall.
For the first time ever I ordered some (free) items from the My Nintendo Store: a Skyward Sword HD XL postcard set, a Dodo Airlines tote bag and a Nintendo Switch card case... So, what's up with all that?
The My Nintendo Store can be used as a good representation for how Nintendo fares today in terms of user friendliness, where at least the one for Europe / Germany leaves a lot to be desired. You can get some free items, like all of the above, similar to the good old Club Nintendo days with its amazing rewards. However, you still have to pay for shipping and they only accept Master Card or Visa.
Depending on where you're from, this might not strike you as an issue, but at least in Germany it's quite uncommon to actually own and use a credit card. We pay with EC cards (or just cash) and we love our PayPal for online shopping, or bank transfer, but not credit cards, which are still widely regarded as unsafe, even though that has changed quite a bit. Luckily, my bank has upgraded my EC card to a Master Card debit card, so now I could finally shop at the My Nintendo Store without getting an actual credit card and the extra costs that come with one.
However, the bright side is that all these items were still available. If we were able to easily purchase them with a variety of payment methods, then they would probably be sold out within hours, even though you can only get one of these per customer. Nintendo could make some good money here if they simply sold these things normally, but I suppose they either don't want to or they simply couldn't meet the demand.
And of course the problems don't stop there. If you want to purchase multiple of the free My Nintendo reward items, then you can't, because you can only redeem one My Nintendo code at a time. So, for three free items you have spent the full shipping costs for each single item and Nintendo will send them to you in three separate packages all at once. That's 2021 Nintendo economics for you.
Well, I also needed a replacement for my Wii U GamePad charger cable, so at least I could order this with one of the free items. I also want to purchase the Super Nintendo controller for Nintendo Switch, but it wasn't available right now, where I will do this later, maybe with one of the other Legend of Zelda thingies I haven't gotten yet.
You might be wondering about that, where I've only got the Skyward Sword postcards right now. And even those were basically just a test order, where I wanted to make sure that everything works with my new Master Card. The My Nintendo codes only last for 48 hours and you can only get one, so if something had gone wrong, then it wouldn't have been the biggest loss.
Still, these postcards are actually very nice. They are quite big and of high quality. I doubt that anyone would ever really use them as postcards, especially since you only get the one pack, but they are some perfect small art pieces to be framed and used as decoration.
The Dodo Airlines bag is for an inside joke that I have with someone, where this is just perfect. I've only recently got into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but there is a reason why my island is called "Dodolint" and why I also had to get this bag. Sadly, it's slightly damaged on the logo, but I suppose that's what you can expect from something free these days.
Moving on to the main attraction and the actual reason why I finally got into this whole My Nintendo Store thing: the "Nintendo Switch Card Case 8". If you're dumbfounded by this, then I won't blame you and I know that there are many third party accessories like this available. But I wanted a card case that has the same shape and look as the normal Nintendo Switch game cases, where to my knowledge this is the only one.
This case fits perfectly into your normal Nintendo Switch collection, while being highly practical for swapping between games that you keep playing more regularly, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I keep my Nintendo Switch boxes right next to my Nintendo Switch, so switching games was already quick and easy enough, but it's still somewhat inconvenient if you want to keep the cartridges in the right cases all the time, because you always have to take out two of them. Can't have that Skyward Sword HD inside my Super Smash Bros. Ultimate case, even if it's just temporary.
But with this baby you can keep all the games that you might play currently much more organized and accessible. And since this is made by Nintendo, it has the same regular card slots inside, only eight of them at once. To my experience, the third party stuff tends to be much tighter, which makes removing the cards harder, potentially even damaging them. And I don't want that.
It also comes with two changeable covers, where both the inside and outside is different. Ideally, they would have send you two boxes as well, but it's not like I'm ever playing more than eight games at once. And the games I don't play can go back into their normal boxes for the time being.
But I'm really happy with this item overall. It was a must-have for my Nintendo Switch collection and the reason why I initiated this haul.
Well, it's happening again. Japan is getting an amazing soundtrack collection for the latest Zelda release, in this case The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. But the 187 tracks also include the Wii title screen music, so everything is there.
There are two editions of the soundtrack, where the Limited Edition (as shown above) comes with a small music box. You can find all the info and more pictures on NintendoEverything and Nintendo of Japan.
This looks to be on par with the beautiful soundtrack collection for Breath of the Wild, which got released in 2018. It's a similar box and the same number of discs, while the Limited Edition also comes with a musical extra. I like the little music box more, though.
If I still had anything that played music CDs, other than my 16 year old Xbox, then I would probably try to get my hands on this. But since this only gets released in Japan, it's quite some effort for just a pretty box. Let's see...
Well, this isn't exactly the Skyward Sword Picross that I was hoping for, but at least this is how you get me to play Tetris 99 a bit more. I actually own the retail version of the game with box and cartridge, because it came with one year Nintendo Switch Online, which seemed like a good deal, but I haven't played it as much yet.
In fact, I haven't really played it until today, with the goal to unlock the new Skyward Sword HD theme, which is really nice. The game is really busy with all sorts of things going on, where I don't like it as much as the traditional Tetris, but the Zelda sound effects of the skin are charming.
It also didn't take me all that long to unlock, maybe half an hour. You need 100 points and you get plenty of points just for playing, even if you don't make it into the top 10. If you've missed any of the special themes, you can still unlock them by collecting tickets, which can be obtained by doing daily challenges. Typical free-to-play stuff, but it's fine in this case. And you can unlock the current Skyward Sword HD theme via the current special event until Tuesday morning.
Ten years ago, during the 25th Anniversary of the The Legend of Zelda franchise, we saw the release of two major titles. One was Skyward Sword, the newest 3D Zelda game on the Nintendo Wii, the other was Ocarina of Time 3D, a remake of the Nintendo 64 classic for the Nintendo 3DS, which was the first 3D Zelda title to get updated with a new release. Now, ten years later, we have gone gone full circle and arrived at remastering the new Zelda game from that time in HD.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD got released for Nintendo Switch on July 16th and now it's time to evaluate this remaster. Keep in mind that this won't be a review of Skyward Sword, where instead this review will focus on the qualities of the remaster alone. How does the game look and play like on Nintendo Switch? What has been improved? What hasn't? Let's get to it...
Visuals
When looking at all the 3D Zelda remakes and remasters, there is a clear trend where the age of the game correlates with the number of visual updates. With Ocarina of Time 3D almost everything got remodeled and retextured and they've added a variety of new details, like to the interior of houses. Now, with Skyward Sword HD they've upscaled the graphics to HD... and that's basically it.
Sure, there are some small improvements, like to Link's model, but for the most part you get the same old game with everything blown up to HD. The textures simply got resized to higher resolutions, but it's not like they are full of new details. So, it doesn't really compare to Twilight Princess HD, where all the textures got redone by Tantalus, even though the Australian studio has been working on what's literally just Skyward Sword in HD as well. Most of that work seemed to go into remaking the interface elements in HD, however.
a timeshift for the graphics
Yet... it still looks amazing, where this is one of the most beautiful Zelda games. The visuals of the original game did a good job of hiding the age of the Wii with its painted art style, where at the time other consoles already had games in HD and the Wii U would even come out one year later. But it just so happens that this art style works perfectly in HD as well, similar to The Wind Waker, but without the need of any extra effects. It just looks great by default.
Though, there are some things that probably should have been improved, but weren't. In some cases, like around the island of Skyloft, you can clearly spot the repeated textures. And some of the fences, like around Faron Woods, are still fully in 2D, which already wasn't contemporary back in 2011.
The depth of field painting effect is also still there, but it gets used with a much higher resolution, so you have a lot more details to look at from a distance. And sometimes you just want to view around, because the colors are so vibrant, where the game is just very pretty overall and pleasant to look at. It's especially pleasant because the game runs in 60FPS now, which is huge, makes everything so much smoother and also improves the game's motion controls. Speaking of...
Controls
During the era of the Nintendo DS and Wii, the Zelda series was subject to quite some experimentation around the controls, where Skyward Sword was one of the biggest titles to make use of the Wii MotionPlus gyroscope technology, which became a standard in Nintendo's hardware by now. The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller has one and both Joy-Cons have them as well.
Naturally, Skyward Sword was already at home on the Nintendo Switch with its sophisticated motion controls to swing your sword and bash with your shield, but not everyone wanted or could play with them. So, it was a really good idea of Nintendo to provide alternative button-only controls, so that you can play the game any way you want, including handheld mode.
If you want to play with motion controls, you have to use the detached Joy-Cons, but you can turn them off in the options at any time, in case you want to switch between both control methods. If you're playing in handheld mode or with a Pro Controller, you're stuck with the new controls, but you at least have the options to use motion controls for aiming and/or moving the camera.
The new button-only controls take some getting used to, but once you did get used to them, they work considerably well. Steering your Loftwing, your Beetle, Link in the air or Link underwater is now performed via the left control stick, the same with balancing yourself on tightropes or inside mine carts. Pressing that stick's button now performs any actions that were originally triggered by shaking the Nunchuk (or the left Joy-Con), like rolling or raising your shield.
The right stick then gets used for swinging your sword and using your active item, like the Whip. You get a whole other level of accuracy with this, which can save you from some frustrations that sometimes came with the motion controls. You press the right stick's button and you stab. You flick the right stick to the left and you do a horizontal swing to the left. You hold the right stick up and Link holds the sword up to charge a Skyward Strike. If you ever had any problems with these actions, then the button controls will make you happy.
However, they are not free from frustrations themselves. Because Link holds the sword when you fully press the stick, it means you really have to flick the stick to properly swing your sword. But sometimes the game registers a hold, where Link then stops attacking, even though you just wanted to mash wildly at a downed boss. And that's just bad.
Using the Bug Net is also quite awkward, because you don't have the ability to fully move and turn the net in three dimensions with the stick, where instead it realigns the opening of the net when you fully press the stick in the opposite direction. And then you have to hope that it stays that way when you're going in for a swing.
Items that require aiming basically work like in every other modernized 3D Zelda, where you can aim with the right stick or optionally use motion controls, which works much faster. Sadly, the quick draw of the bow is seemingly not supported if you play with button controls, but it works normally with motion controls. And for some reason Nintendo decided to apply the 3rd person camera control options for inversion to your aiming as well, like in Twilight Princess HD, which is just a mess and really should be separated.
Speaking of camera controls, you can now freely turn the camera via the right control stick as well. If you're using the button-only controls, however, you need to hold the L button for this, which is slightly inconvenient. But this is still better than nothing, considering that you couldn't freely move the camera on the Wii at all.
As for the motion controls, they work for the most part as they did on the Wii. Since the left Joy-Con also has a gyroscope, unlike the Nunchuk, any actions done with it are now more responsive. The Joy-Cons also don't need to be calibrated at the start, only to be recentered. But here lies the main issue...
With the Nintendo Switch there is no sensor bar to automatically recenter your aim toward the TV any longer. Well, this technique was prone to errors in itself, because other light sources could interfere with your Wii Remote, so this isn't necessarily a bad change. But the way it was implemented, you have to manually recenter your aim by pressing the Y button all the time... And that's just annoying.
Curiously, this isn't a problem with the button-only controls and motion aiming enabled. Whenever you activate an item there, like the Slingshot or the Beetle, it automatically recenters at that moment and you just have to hold still to not move in any direction. But for whatever reason Nintendo decided to not do the same for the motion controls, where you aim can be heavily off whenever use an item. As a result, you have to press the ZR button for the item and immediately the Y button right afterwards, which feels just so unnecessary, because this should be done automatically.
So, both control methods are somewhat flawed and don't really feel ideal. Some people might also want to change between motion controls and button-only controls depending on the situation... And here it would have been good to have some sort of hybrid options, where you can decide whether you want to utilize only the left or the right stick instead of motion controls. This way you could swing the sword with the Joy-Cons, but normally steer your Loftwing with the left stick.
Pacing
The game's graphics look great in HD and the new control options will enable many new players to fully enjoy Skyward Sword for the first time, but the third pillar of this remaster really have been all the small improvements to the game's pacing. There were no major changes here, so you still have to go through all the quests like you did on the Wii and there are no shortcuts this time. The focus was really on smoothing out the edges.
The loading times are much shorter, where it lets you go from
one area rather quickly, which is especially nice when switching between
Skyloft and the sky. On the Wii you could only skip cutscenes once you already saw them, but now you can do so right away. You can also skip through text much faster by pressing B, which really is a standard in modern Zelda games, but for some reason wasn't in Skyward Sword ten years ago. And during the tutorial phase a variety of the dialogues were made optional now.
But most importantly, you get less interruptions from Fi. The sword spirit has been notorious for being the most annoying sidekick in the Zelda series, informing you about the most trivial things with some probabilities attached. While the mechanical Captain Obvious still pops up from time to time unnecessarily in Skyward Sword HD, it has been toned down significantly and you can really feel this – mostly because your sword blinks now whenever there is one of the once mandatory hints available. And this is by far the best improvement they could have done to the game, next to the new controls.
Otherwise they've also fixed the issue with the reoccurring treasure and insect explanations, which happened whenever your turned your Wii off and started the game again. Now you really only ever get informed about your collection items once and then you just pick them up normally, which is great and also a huge time saver.
Sadly, some of the switches still trigger a short "cutscene" each time you activate and deactivate them, which is really annoying. This isn't the case for all of them, where sometimes it only shows you the change directly the first time, but ideally this would apply to all the switches in the game and not just some.
Still, with all of this is fine tuning it makes playing through the game a much better experience than it used to be. However, you still spend a significant amount of time just flying around, which leads us to the next topic...
amiibo
Skyward Sword HD supports amiibo, but only the one that was released together with the game: Zelda and her Loftwing. And the functionality behind this amiibo certainly has sparked controversy like no other. Scanning it on the surface will make you return to the sky immediately from anywhere. And scanning it a second time in the sky will make you return to the exact spot where you've first scanned it, even back inside dungeons.
It's essentially a new quick travel feature that can be quite useful, for example when your shield just broke and you want to quickly buy a new one. It's not needed or essential, since there are plenty of Bird Statues around, but that's not the point. It's a quality of life feature and shouldn't be locked behind a figurine, especially when these figurines get more and more expensive and hard to come by.
There also haven't been any efforts to improve the traveling otherwise. If you want to switch between Bird Statues in the same area, you still have to go back to the sky, dive down to the surface again and select the destination of your choice. A quick travel feature that lets you go to any Bird Statue on the current map would have been much appreciated...
Also, in the very least the game should have supported all other Zelda amiibo in a simple way, e.g. by providing you with treasures, insects and Adventure Pouch items on a daily basis. That's a non-intrusive method of utilizing amiibo, which already worked well in Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors. So, why not do the same here?
Other Improvements
The remaster employs the same saving system as the remake of Link's Awakening, where you have an autosave feature, which gets activated quite frequently, often when you change between areas and even when you go next to a Bird Statue. You can still save manually there, where it now lets you choose between all three quest log slots. This can be useful for experimentation, but once you start doing a second playthrough (like in Hero Mode), you have to be careful not to overwrite the save data of your previous adventure.
And that's really it... There are sadly no other improvements or additions to the game. Hero Mode still has to be unlocked by beating the game once. There are no new areas and there is nothing new to find. The Adventure Pouch items would have been the perfect hook to add some additional rewards, like more of the useful Medals. Even another Empty Bottle, like in Majora's Mask 3D, would have been nice to have...
Ideally, they also would have added something exciting, like a Savage Labyrinth / Cave of Ordeals, which could have been a welcomed challenge with the new controls. But there is nothing, nada, niente, nichts. And that just feels like a huge missed opportunity.
Conclusion
Skyward Sword HD is by all means the definitive edition of the game. It looks very beautiful in HD, runs in 60FPS, has new button-only control options and shines with much better pacing and less interruptions, where it will be tough to go back to the Wii version once you've played the title on Nintendo Switch.
However, both control methods still have their flaws and could use a middle ground. The remaster also lacks any additions to the content and instead features the most shameless use of amiibo in Nintendo's history, where overall this isn't fully satisfying, especially with the full price tag attached to it.
The Good
Game looks amazing in HD
New button-only controls
Lots of fine tuning to the pacing
Less Fi
Autosave feature
The Bad
Motion controls need to be recentered too often
Button-only controls can be finicky
No hybrid controls
Only traveling improvement locked behind new amiibo
We got a new Zelda release in the digital age of downloadable content and you know what this means: it's time to assess what Nintendo should do via a free update in order to improve the title. And there's always something to improve. Of course we all know that Nintendo is probably done with Skyward Sword HD and won't fix anything, because it's Nintendo (as we all know), but this shouldn't stop us from giving them ideas. So, let's go over some suggestions...
Improved Control Options
With Skyward Sword HD Nintendo and Tantalus already have done a good job of making the original game a lot more accessible via the new button-only controls. However, there are a couple of shortcomings and not everyone is happy with how everything works. So, here is what needs to be added to make more people truly enjoy the game:
There should be separate camera control options for aiming. If you invert the camera, it does this for both the 3rd person camera controls and when you're aiming with items, where this is no way of having the same camera behavior as on the Nintendo GameCube with The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Sadly, Twilight Princess HD also had the same issue and this never got fixed.
When using motion controls, it still should be possible to steer via the left stick. This should work when you're underwater, flying with your Loftwing, controlling your Beetle, balancing things and so on. There are players who actually switch between motion controls for combat and the button-only controls for everything else, where it would be nice to have a hybrid-mode option that has this covered for the sake of convenience and comfort.
Some people really don't like that you have to hold the L-button to use the camera controls with the button-only setup. It's just not what they are used to from other (Zelda) games and that's understandable. A possibility would be that it activates the R-stick sword and item controls only when you hold ZL, either to target an enemy or just to center the camera, where this also could be a separate toggle in the options.
And here are some general changes to the interface and controls that the update should implement:
Let us use the D-pad to navigate menus.
Enable quick draw for the bow with the button-only controls.
When using motion controls, it should automatically re-center your aiming when you switch to an item, like the Slingshot or the Beetle.
Hero Mode from the Start
If you are hoping to go into Hero Mode right from the get-go, then Skyward Sword HD will disappoint you. While Skyward Sword was the Zelda game to invent the mode (unless you count Ocarina of Time 3D with its Master Quest implementation), its remaster keeps things exactly like they were in 2011. This means you first have to beat the game normally before you can go into the higher difficulty mode. And some people really don't want that.
Of course the Hero Mode in Skyward Sword has a New Game+ functionality to it, where you keep all your treasures and insects from the previous playthrough to make your life much easier. But this can already be skipped by starting a new quest log in Hero Mode, so that's not really a deciding factor.
What might be a problem is that you're supposed to have all the boss fights available in the Lightning Round in Hero Mode right away. That's even part of the challenge here, because you might have to overcome more difficult battles on your way to get the Hylian Shield. But if this is also available right from the start, it might be a huge spoiler for some people, who have never played Skyward Sword before, but also want to play in Hero Mode right away...
A compromise would be that the Lightning Round simply works like in normal mode on your first Hero Mode playthrough and then adds all the options after beating the game once. In any case, Nintendo should let the players have what they want.
Additional amiibo Support
Skyward Sword HD supports amiibo – but only the one that was made for the game and nothing else... Which is a joke, much like the fact that this hides a new quick travel feature. There is no excuse for this and Nintendo certainly won't change this, but in the least they could offer some simple support for all other Zelda amiibo figurines out there.
This would work similarly to Breath of the Wild or the Hyrule Warriors games, where you can scan an amiibo once per day to receive items. These items can be Rupees, hearts, bombs, arrows, slingshot pellets, treasures and insects, but also basic Gear Shop goods, like the Wooden Shield or a Small Seed Satchel. Of course you can only get items that are already available to you in the game, so no early Sacred Shield or something like that. And the likelihood for the latter, as well as rare treasures is naturally lower than some of the other stuff.
What items you may get also depends on the amiibo / character. Revali for example may give you arrows or Bird Feathers on a regular basis, but also rarely a Small Quiver or a Blue Bird Feather. And that's it. This would be very simple and completely optional, but still nice to have, especially in the early game.
Travel Between Surface Bird Statues
If you want to travel around in Skyward Sword HD any faster, then you need the new Zelda & Loftwing amiibo, which is a shame. In the very least, the game should let you quickly switch between Bird Statues within the same area on the surface without having to go back to the sky.
Lightning Round: Chamber Challenge
Last but certainly not least, the update should add this game's equivalent to the Savage Labyrinth / the Cave of Ordeals, where you have to go through a number of chambers full of enemies, which need to be defeated. It's a staple in the Zelda series by now and a simple concept, which could be very interesting to have in Skyward Sword with its more challenging foes. The different rooms could be themed after the different dungeons and areas of the game, similar to the chambers inside the Sky Keep.
To keep things simple, this would become another option at the Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round and work similarly to the Treacherous Tower in A Link Between Worlds, where you can choose between three different challenges, each becoming increasingly longer and more difficult. Unlike during the Boss Battles, however, you're allowed to bring all
your Adventure Pouch items into this and make good use of them.
There could be a total of 50 chambers and you
can choose to tackle either 10, 30 or all of them, but the order of the
chambers will always be random, much like the boss battles in the
Lightning Round. So, you will never know what comes next and this will make things different from similar dungeons in other Zelda games. This would also work well here, because you don't get access to the Lightning Round until near the end of the game anyway, where you're already familiar with all the enemies.
This is what the rewards could be for the different levels:
Another Empty Bottle
A second Treasure Medal
A completely new Medal
With the latter there are many possibilities, but it's hard to settle for something that only will become available in the late game and therefore won't be of much use any longer. For example, there could be a Bird Medal that adds more stamina to your Loftwing, but this would come way too late.
An idea could be the "Steadfast Medal", where enemies can't knock you over any longer and this also lets you keep stable on tightropes. This is something that somewhat breaks the game, but it's okay, because you're getting it very late and only through lots of effort, similar to the Hylian Shield, which also trivializes a lot of the fights, because you can just block normally without damaging your shield. There could also be a new Medal that protects you from electricity, which would be a fitting reward from the Thunder Dragon and even be helpful in the late game.
In the Treacherous Tower you actually had to fight Moldorm as a boss, where they could do something similar here with Moldarach. They could even bring back the Moldarach battle from the E3 2010 demo with this, where you fought the scorpion boss inside the Great Tree. This would be a nice throwback and at the same time also change the fight somewhat, because it can't hide beneath the sand any longer.
My first journey through Skyward Sword HD has been finished. And when I had started this blog series, I didn't expect it to last this many posts. Of course it's still less than the other 3D remaster or remakes, like the Twilight Princess HD Diaries from 2016, but it's still a good amount, considering that the only novelty were the new controls.
And I kept using the new controls for most of the time, where I wouldn't want to miss them from this point on. The third Ghirahim battle worked significantly better with the stick controls, where for example it's much more reliable to reflect his sword beams and to stab his chest. And fighting Demise was great as well, simply because you don't have to worry about Link not holding his word up properly.
But first things first. Before going into the Sky Keep, I actually spent some more time at the Statue of the Goddess to farm Skyloft Mantises and Sky Stag Beetles, just because I can. I'm not sure I will go to the same extremes as on the Wii, where I had 99 of almost everything, but I'm having fun with this and I want to spend more time on making the most out of this savegame, before I go in to a New Game+.
This includes minigame records as well, where I'm spending some more time getting good times against the individual bosses and in all the Silent Realms. For the latter I wanted to score at least a rare treasure with each one, where Lanayru has specific time requirements for every single Silent Realm.
With some of the other minigames I want to have some good scores as well, where I've managed to get below 63 seconds in the Heart Stopping Rickety Coaster for example. This particular minigame seems to give people some troubles, where you normally need to go under 65 seconds for a Piece of Heart. I also want to achieve those 43 cuts in the Clean Cut, but I couldn't do it yet with either controls...
Anyway, after all these distractions it was finally time to go into the final dungeon, the Sky Keep. And this is still one of the most unique final dungeons in the series thanks to the idea with the slide puzzle. The rooms themselves are simply based on the six main dungeons, where this is similar to the final dungeon in Ocarina of Time and some other Zelda games, so nothing too special. But the fact that you can rearrange the entire dungeon via terminals always makes this interesting to play.
Still, the different themes, as well as the combat sections give you a good idea how a Savage Labyrinth / Cave of Ordeals could have looked like in Skyward Sword, where it's a shame that they didn't consider to add such a dungeon for the remaster. With the new confidence that I've found in the button-only controls, I would have liked such a challenge.
It also could give you some additional rewards, like more Medals or another empty bottle. The five bottles in the game are enough for all five different potions, but I like to keep one fully upgraded potion of each time around for my "collection". And with that it would be nice to have a sixth bottle for some other stuff, like fairies.
Well, one enemy where I would have to practice a lot more is Dreadfuse, where I find this battle in the Sky Keep to be quite frustrating, because this mechanical monster just behaves so erratically different from everything else in its third phase that I'm having quite some troubles with it. And since this fight has you completely cornered, there is no way to catch some breath. You have to figure it out somehow quickly or it kills you.
Now, I want to play the game again in Hero Mode soon, maybe even once I'm done farming treasures and insects, as well as competing in minigames and the Lightning Round. I'm not sure when this will happen, probably around September, where this might keep me busy until Metroid Dread comes out.
About Hero Mode, I completely forgot that you can start a new quest log in Hero Mode as well, where this lacks the New Game+ aspect of it. This would have been more interesting when I was replaying the Wii version four and a half years ago, before Breath of the Wild came out, because without the need of collecting treasures and insects the game wasn't really that enjoyable to revisit.
This might sound contradictory right now, as I'm in the middle of preparing such a Hero Mode playthrough yet again, but I think this is okay for playing the game in Hero Mode again right away. But should I decide to play Skyward Sword HD a third time in a couple of years, then a fresh Hero Mode quest log will certainly be the way to go. It's effectively a third way of playing through the game.
About a week before Skyward Sword HD was released, I had been revisiting Skyward Sword on the Wii U a bit, where I had played the Song of the Hero Quest. And now I was back to this part yet again already, which many consider to be the worst part of the game...
But before this, it was time to have some actual fun and return to one of my favorite mini-games: the Bug Heaven. I don't know, there's just something that appeals to me with these types of mini-games, where you have to scavenge an area as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's the same with the Rupee Rush mini-games in A Link Between Worlds and even the Silent Realms in this game, though I don't enjoy the latter that much because of the "stealth" aspect.
There are no guardians on the Bug Rock, though, so it's just you, some beautiful ruins and lots of insects. It's always the same two sets of insects, which gets boring after a while, but at least you can think about creating an optimal route for the best possible time.
Anyway, another detour led me back to Skipper's Retreat, one of the best farming spots in the game, where you can get lots of Sand Cidadas and Amber Relics very quickly, as well as a fair amount of Jelly Blobs and Goddess Plumes, all by simply going in and out of the hut.
However, I faced a weird phenomenon here, where either I was just really, really unlucky or something was off with my game at the point, because I couldn't get any Goddess Plumes. This used to be the best farming spot for them, where there are five spawning locations for Amber Relics under the sand inside the hut and you would occasionally find a Goddess Plume there instead.
Except that I didn't. I even maxed out my Amber Relic count before I could find a single Goddess Plume, which was really weird. This led me to believe that either the HD remaster nerfed this or that something at this point in the game – during the Song of the Hero quest – prevents you from finding Goddess Plumes altogether. But I went back there after finishing the quest and got some right away, so this doesn't seem to be a change of the remaster...
What the remaster should have changed is the accessibility of the whole place, though. That you have to climb up there the first time is of course part of the experience and the "challenge", but once you've gotten the sea chart, the game should simply flip the position of the zip line handles on your next visit, so that you can quickly go back up again... There is no good reason to make you climb everything again.
Now, after I was done procrastinating, I finally moved on to the Song of the Hero quest, where for the first time I went for Lanayru first. I've always avoided doing this, because the Wii version had this bug, where you couldn't progress by talking to Golo a second time, after obtaining Lanayru's part of the song, because this triggered a lock for the other two sequences to take place. In fact, once you have the Life Tree Seedling, you can go to the other areas normally. The Faron Woods will be flooded, but the Imprisoned won't appear and you can just plant the tree.
And this state could be caused a second time on the Wii, where the only way of getting out of it once you've saved was the savegame repair tool provided by Nintendo. Now, I've tried to replicate this glitch on the Nintendo Switch version, but this seemingly got fixed. And it would have been very worrisome, if this wasn't the case, considering how much awareness this glitch had back in the day.
As for the tasks themselves, I had an even easier time than three / two weeks ago on the Wii U. Collecting the Tadtones is so easy and carefree with the button-only controls that I was able to do it with a single Air Potion+, so under six minutes, while previously I needed two of them. It was just super simple and there is no reason to complain about this part left at all.
Also. I was able to get the Hylian Shield in the Lightning Round without any major problems, where in this case I had to defeat all eight available bosses at the time and things actually ended with the shield. But I did it on first try, where this simply shows how much I've grown accustomed to the new controls – once you've gotten truly used to them, they do their job remarkably well. Both Ghirahim and Scaldera, which gave me quite some trouble early on, I could defeat quite easily now.
The only boss that still gave me troubles was Tentalus, but this was mostly because I kept missing the eye for some reason. And the hair at the end is still not easy... Sometimes when I mash the right control stick, the game thinks I want to hold the sword, which renders you defenseless. Then I'm just stuck with Link who prefers to use his sword as an antenna, instead of actually swinging it. And with Tentalus' hair that's just a guaranteed hit, because it attacks so quickly... So, this is still frustrating and will require some more practice to not mess up in Hero Mode, where every heart counts.
There is one more thing I noticed for presumably the first time and that is that the Sealed Grounds actually have the wall art from the intro of the game. I don't think I ever really paid any attention to this on the Wii, but it was always there and it's just that the HD helps.
I also might have simply forgotten this, where it's the same with some other things, like the updated dowsing descriptions. Once you've found all Goddess Cubes or all Gratitude Crystals, the description in the menu actually changes to "There are none left for your sword to react to". That's handy and I think I knew this already, but it's been almost ten years, so I'm not sure. But it's certainly nice to have an easy indicator for when you've found all Goddess Cubes, since there is nothing on the maps.
Another thing is that the Spiral Charge of your Loftwing can actually dissolve those tornadoes, so you can just go right through them, which is also super useful. But in this case this really was news to me, because this is something that I would have remembered for sure. Well, in any case, it certainly was good to spend some more time with this game to really get to know it again and refresh some of my memories.
And with those beautiful looks in HD, as well as the new control options, it's certainly a joy to revisit Skyward Sword, which is a big compliment to the remaster, despite some of its shortcomings. What's now left is the final dungeon, which always has been one of my favorites, so I'm looking forward to this.
After getting the Double Clawshots, it was finally time to revisit my favorite part of the game in HD: the Lanayru Sand Sea. I just love almost everything about it. The idea with the time traveling boat is awesome, the visuals are great, the different islands are all very unique, the music has a beautiful atmosphere to it and the Sandship is certainly one of the best dungeons in the game.
It was often noted how Skyward Sword took some inspiration from every Zelda game, where this meant quite a big deal for the 25th Anniversary of the series. The dungeon entrances that make you go down into the earth are clearly reminiscent of the first The Legend of Zelda, the Statues of the Goddess were inspired by the Trophy item in Zelda II - The Adventure of Link and so on... And Phantom Hourglass basically got so lucky to have an entire section of the game devoted to itself, where the Sand Sea kind of plays like what the Nintendo DS title would be like in 3D, just with a desert theme to it.
But this part of the game also feels poorly optimized, compared to some others, especially around the Pirate Stronghold and the Sandship. Fi appears here unnecessarily to give you hints multiple times, where they should have gone with the sword blink instead. And there are also some puzzles with pressure plates that remove the grates from a door, where the game feels the need to show you this in a short cutscene every single time, both for removing the grates and for when you let go of the switch. It's not the case for all of these puzzles, but it's highly annoying for those where this persists, because it just needless interrupts the gameplay, much like Fi.
Besides this, the Sandship is really the only dungeon in the game that makes you think, other than the Sky Keep. Okay, the Ancient Cistern has also a slightly clever puzzle to it at the end, but it's nothing too complicated and the dungeon is about as linear as the rest of them. The Sandship, however, gives you a lot of freedom, where you often have to figure out what's the way forward. It's a smart dungeon and I enjoy replaying those a lot more than the linear obstacle courses that you often get.
The Bow still made me feel disappointed, however, because it doesn't seem to support the quick draw feature in the button-only controls. With motion control you press the L-button and then whirl the left Joy-Con, which is identical to how it was done on the Wii (with the C-button and the Nunchuk). But with a Pro Controller there doesn't seem to be a way...
Overall the aiming works better with button-only controls, because here it actually re-centers your reticle whenever you activate an item, which is also how it should work with the motion controls. But the lack of quick draw is a disadvantage. It's not required for anything, where the only part in the game where it can be crucial is probably the battle against Tentalus, but only if you miss your first shot and want to do a quick follow-up. Still, it's not okay that there is no way of replicating this with the button controls.
And the Tentalus battle is actually a mixed bag with the new controls. On the Wii I usually had issues with holding the sword up and getting those Skyward Strikes for the tentacles in the first phase, which is not problem at all with the R-stick. But the R-stick doesn't work too well against the tentacle hair attacks in the second phase, where you want to keep swinging diagonally in both directions.
Anyway, with both control methods I managed to get over 600 points in Fledge's Pumpkin Pull on first try, so it works will enough. You don't need to quick draw in this mini-game and neither is it required to snipe those Bokoblins during the Scrapper escort mission at Eldin Volcano.
Speaking of Bokoblins, for some reason I rarely ever get their Ornamental Skulls, even though I always keep the Treasure Medal in my Adventure Pouch. I have actually more Golden Skulls right now, which is a joke. And overall I didn't have any troubles with getting enough treasures for all the upgrades, except for these (and to a lesser degree the Monster Claws from Keese), where I've just finished upgrading my two Seed Satchels only after the Fire Sanctuary.
Each time a Bokoblin now drops a Ornamental Skull, I rejoice, but it doesn't really help that the game only keeps dropped items for about six seconds, before they vanish. It's quite the short time window, which should have been prolonged. Yes, it's enough time for when the enemies die in front of you, but if you shoot them with a bow and want to collect the loot afterwards, you often don't make it in time. Earlier 3D Zelda games had similar issues, but if you're only missing some Rupees, it's usually not a big deal.
That's really all on my mind for now and there isn't much left to say, because it's business as usual, where I'm effectively just replaying the game. I've defeated the Imprisoned for the second time and finally got the good sword beams, which will be an achievement that lasts for future Hero Mode playthroughs. And now it's time for the final part of the game yet again, the Song of the Hero quest. Joy.
Last post I left off at the Lanayru Mining Facility and this is where I've learned to appreciate the new button-only controls a lot more. Well, in the original game this used to be one of the most frustrating parts of the game with using motion controls, mainly because I often had issues with landing those stabs in the eyes of the Beamos and Moldarach. But with the press of a button, or a stick in this case, it's easier than ever.
After the first two boss battles were really annoying, everything went quite well with fighting Moldarach, where I've stuck to the button-only controls ever since. I still accidentally swing diagonally instead of horizontally from time to time, but that's mainly because I'm not always holding the controller completely straight, where this also happens to be an issue in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. So, it's not the fault of the game, it's just me and those completely round control sticks.
Nintendo GameCubes in HD
I'm still not fighting those Technoblins in the rest of the desert normally, however. Either I use shield bashes, which are easier now, or I rush them when they have yet to pay attention. The Beamos, however, seem ridiculously fast with their lasers, where they often tend to hit me before I can even reach the pole. But all those electric enemies in Skyward Sword never have been any fun to begin with, because those stuns are just too punishing... In the least I'm usually getting clean cuts on those Beamos now, unless I'm swinging diagonally by accident again.
Speaking of clean cuts, the Clean Cut mini-game can also be cheesed heavily with these new controls, because you can do those flicks super fast. But you have to be careful not to trigger a Spin Attach by accident, where with motion controls this is probably still easier to do, because you can just quickly swing back and forth. In any case it can score you an early Evil Crystal to upgrade the Bug Net, before going into the Ancient Cistern, even though I hadn't bothered with that myself up until right before that dungeon.
Also, the Goddess's Harp works wonderfully with the button-only controls as well. This was another thing where I struggled with the motion controls on the Wii quite a bit, but following the "waves" with the analog stick works effortlessly. Kina was even very happy with my performance on first try, which is something. And the duets with Fi no problem at all.
However, it's weird how the Goddess's Harp is permanently assigned to the X-button now, because it feels like this should have been used for something else. But the game is really focused on using both of the analog sticks all the time, where the shoulder buttons are more important.
At this point in the game you also get to make a couple of choices with the side-quests, where now I did the opposite of last time: it's full love mode, where Pipit and Karane are a happy couple and Peatrice is all over Link. It's disgusting, but at least I have now all combinations at least once, together with all my save files on the Wii. And in Hero Mode I will probably do the opposite again, so I have all outcomes on the Nintendo Switch available.
But I've never been a fan of these choices in Hidemaro Fujibayashi's earlier Zelda games, even if they add to the replay value, but you'll never have a "definitive" save file thanks to them. So, it's probably a good thing that this got dropped with later Zelda games.
On a site note, when Pipit discovers the conversation between Cawlin and Karane, it plays the sound that they've later used in Breath of the Wild for when you are finished with cooking a meal. That was kind of funny.
Again, I can only repeat how beautiful Skyward Sword looks in HD, where there was even a visual update to one of the areas: the Thunderhead. There is now this heavy rain effect all over the place, where this was probably always supposed to be there, but couldn't be realized on the Wii. Maybe. It looks a little bit off, though.
Now, I like the second major part of the game somewhat more than the first, because it's more focused on exploring and finding your way forward in the familiar environments, as opposed to working your way through a mostly linear set of obstacles, like during your first visit to Eldin Volcano and Lanayru Desert. So, it's more on par with Faron Woods in the early game.
There is also a rich variety of different activities. Well, you always have to do one of the Silent Realms first, where even after ten years and practicing these trials quite extensively in the past in order to write Silent Realm guides, I still feel a little bit uneasy going into them. But for the most part they are not that difficult and I like the spooky atmosphere inside them.
Then you get a new item, which opens up a path somewhere else in the environment. In case of the Water Dragon's Scale this always used to be quite underwhelming, but at least the button-only underwater controls are now much more enjoyable and reliable. Still, the whole Lake Floria is quite disappointing by how small and linear it is, even after nearly ten years and despite looking really pretty in HD.
At the same time, I still think that revisting Skyview Temple in an altered state was an excellent idea, where it's a shame that this concept never has been explored again after all those years, unless you count the Drabland Challenges in Tri Force Heroes. But there is a lot of potential here, where I even hope that the sequel to Breath of the Wild might go more into such territories. After all, you will be re-exploring the same world again.
Anyway, while the Lanayru Desert was a slog on your first visit, now it's really the highlight of this part of the game. It already starts with getting the Double Clawshots, which is easily the most exciting item obtainment in the entire game. Already in the main area of the desert around the Lanayru Mining Facility there are a variety of targets, where you can get to treasure chests or Goddess Cubes. And there are multiple interesting points to use the Clawshots around Skyloft and Faron Woods as well. It's backtracking at its finest.
And as much as I love Breath of the Wild, this is something you don't get from a game of this giant scale. The focus there was solely on becoming stronger, where there was no real item-based progression, like in traditional Zelda and Metroid titles, since you get all major items on the Great Plateau.
To be fair, there isn't all that much item-based progression in Skyward Sword either, at least not in the traditional sense with the main items. The Double Clawshot might even be the exception here, where most of the other items in the game suffer the fates of their counterparts in Twilight Princess. The whip for example feels like an amazing addition during the Ancient Cistern, but after the dungeon its main use seems to be stealing the horns from Bokoblins. It's so important that Fi even still tells you about it.
Progression in Skyward Sword is overall a lot more scripted, where it relies on the Tablets in the early game and on your sword upgrades later on, which then lead to a new song at the Isle of Songs, which opens a Silent Realm, which gives you a new item, which lets you enter the next area with the dungeon, which lets you upgrade your sword again, until you finally have the Master Sword. It's quite repetitive, where the variety mainly stems from the new areas and the tasks there.
With that said, I'm off to what used to be my favorite of these additional areas: the Lanayru Sand Sea. Let's see how this holds up in HD... In the meantime, here are some sky kittens for your enjoyment:
