Skyward Sword HD Developed By Tantalus

Ever since Skyward Sword HD was on the table, it made sense that the port-happy, Australian studio Tantalus would take the job again, after their work on Twilight Princess HD for the Wii U, where this blog even kept reminding you of their existence for that very reason. And as confirmed by vooks.net, Tantalus is indeed still part of the Zelda family and had taken over the job of tomorrow's release.

Still... this comes of a slight surprise at this point, because Skyward Sword HD looks much closer to The Wind Waker HD in terms of development efforts, where only a small part of the Zelda team had been working on the remaster. Upscaled graphics, new controls, a small number of quality of life improvements, done is the new Switch release.

It's likely that they had to polish all the textures again to make them truly HD (with The Wind Waker they already had high resolution textures available), because otherwise there is nothing that really explains their involvement here. And overall it's a shame that they had an external studio working on this, but they didn't bother to add any new content...

Twilight Princess HD had the new Miiverse stamps to collect, which was really great, and the Cave of Shadows. The latter was essentially just a modified Cave of Ordeals, but it was better than nothing and they could have added a similar dungeon to this remaster for a good challenge.

In the very least there should have been more Medals to collect, but my dream for this remaster always has been late-game nighttime exploration of the surface world for some additional side quests. Of course this would have involved some larger efforts, because you would need the nighttime visuals for most of the surface world, but it also would gone perfectly hand-in-hand with the theme of re-exploring the major environments in different conditions. And if you hire an entire studio for such a remaster, you can think a little bigger...

Skyward Sword HD: Camera Controls

Well, there is one more actual change in Skyward Sword HD, which gets advertised on social media with a tweet from ZeldaOfficialJP: you can now control the camera with the R-stick. Neat! In case of button controls, you have to hold the L button in addition to not interfere with the new sword controls, which also are utilizing the R-stick.

That's a good change and will certainly offer some new perspective on things. It will be especially useful in the Silent Realms, where you can now check the environment more easily without accidentally triggering the guardians somehow.

Now, the only 3D Zelda game that doesn't have free camera controls yet is Ocarina of Time. But we will probably get this with Ocarina of Time UHD on the Nintendo Switch 2 in five years.

Skyward Sword HD Unimprovements

There is a weird phenomenon currently going on with the marketing of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD: they are praising the remaster for improvements that aren't there, because these issues didn't exist in the original Wii version.

Here are two examples of such social media tweets:

• Of course you know what a heart is!
• Already familiar with how to wield your sword?

In the first tweet they make it sound like the original game told you what a heart is every time you picked one up, which isn't true. And the second one highlights the possibility to skip over the sword tutorial, which was already possible on the Wii as well. Just talk to the guy once and leave. To be fair, the latter doesn't exactly say that this is a change, but it gets received like one.

Now, what happened here? It looks like they've went over the known list of improvements, then played Skyward Sword HD and picked some parts of the game where they thought that these were affected by the changes, but actually weren't. And it's not like nothing has changed or improved here, they just picked the wrong examples.

What used to be a problem were the treasures and insects, where each time after you turned the Wii off an on again, it would reset the information about them, so you would get it all over again. This was especially annoying, because it went into the collection menu every time to show you the supposedly new items. With 16 treasures and 12 insects to find, this was actually a reason to let the game run without ever turning your Wii off between sessions.

Now, this has been fixed, luckily. What hasn't been fixed were the hearts or Stamina Fruits, however, because those never had this issue to begin with. You only ever got an explanation for them once in the beginning of the game and then it would remember that, even after turning the Nintendo Wii off. So, Nintendo is highlighting something that didn't need fixing for some reason, acting like it used to be broken.

As for the tutorials, they've already shown us some other parts where things have been streamlined, like for example in this tweet about Horwell. But skipping the sword tutorial isn't something new and even got praised by this blog back in 2011. Maybe the mentioned tweet only wants to emphasis this possibility, where this isn't really a mistake, but people view this as a change nonetheless.

And this is what makes this such a weird phenomenon, the reactions. "Oh, this was so annoying, what a great change!" Well, it's been over nine years, so memory can be a little bit shaded, but now people actually believe that the hearts were a problem like that and even doubt you when you state otherwise... It's funny how your memories can be tricked.

Revisiting Skyward Sword

As already mentioned, I'm currently revisiting Skyward Sword on the Wii (U) again to get a better appreciation for the upcoming HD remaster. For this I've picked up a Hero Mode savegame from four years ago, where I was replaying the game as a preparation for Breath of the Wild, but I didn't finish the run, because the new Zelda game arrived and was naturally more interesting.

For now this was ideal, however, because I could dive right back into action without taking away too much away from playing Skyward Sword HD on the Switch. And you can take the "diving" part quite literally, because four years ago I left off at the start of the Song of the Hero quest, which is what many consider to be the worst part of the game. If I can get through that again with the old Wii experience, then the Nintendo Switch version should feel like a blessing...

It's actually not that bad, however. The third Imprisoned fight is the easiest and can be done rather quickly. I also already had two Air Potions+ in my Adventure Pouch, which make hunting for the Tadtones in the flooded Faron Woods somewhat fun. Only problem was that I was unable to go straight, Link was always drifting slightly to the left or right while swimming. The same can happen with the Beetle, where this probably just was a calibration issue.

When I was playing through the game originally, I never had too many issues with the controls other than that it failing to register when you're holding your sword upwards, which can be extremely frustrating whenever you need Skyward Strikes in a battle. My biggest issue this time, however, was using items, especially if you need to use them quickly. I'm already pre-selecting whatever I may need, but to use the item you have to briefly press "B" again, but often the game then thinks that I want to switch items and then I stand there with bombs in my hand instead of the bow. It then also doesn't help that the gameplay keeps going while you switch items.

So, I seriously hope that the button controls of Skyward Sword HD will make switching and using items less prone to mistakes. But at the same time I'm also worried that the sword controls with an analogue stick will simply not do it for me, where I will have to try...

I also hope that they will improve the information about the Goddess Cubes by maybe adding counters on the map and the locations of the ones you've already found. On the Wii all you have is the dowsing feature, but that's slightly inconvenient. They could even add one more cube per area to make it a full 30, while they are at it.

Anyway, the whole "Tokayblin" part at Eldin Volcano is also quite relaxed, but the part of the Song of the Hero quest that I hated the most is Lanayru. Overall I like the desert the best in this game, but that last bit is just not fun, where my troubles with quickly using items even made me fail a couple of times, because I kept getting shocked by Technoblins, while trying to kill them with the bow.

And I'm not a fan of the whole Lightning Round. I wanted to complete all side-quests, while I'm at it, but the majority of boss battles in this game are just not fun anymore in my opinion. And to make things worse, you can only choose the first boss and then the dragon keeps throwing them at you at random, so you can't just go for the easier bosses, where in Hero Mode you might also have to already face the final Ghirahim, who can be tough. Luckily, it always saves Demise for last.

Well, I used to be quite skilled at fighting all the bosses nine years ago, but that's long in the past and now I was struggling with some of them, especially with the timings of the shield bashes during the Ghirahim battles and all that. Here I can totally see how people could get frustrated with the controls and you really need to practice all the bosses first, before you can attempt to get the Hylian Shield.

So, for me this was probably not the best start into "Skyward Sword month", but it can only get better from here on out. I'm really curious how the HD remaster will play now.

Skyward Sword Month

It's Skyward Sword month! Skyward Sword HD for the Nintendo Switch will be available next week, where this is Nintendo's "big" release for July 2021. As a perfect fit, the Pyramid calendar actually has the key artwork from Skyward Sword picked for this month, which probably was just lucky, but it is great nonetheless.

At the moment I'm currently revisiting Skyward Sword on the Wii (U) to refresh my memories of how the game used to play and look, so I will be able to make better comparisons to the HD remaster next week. But there will be a separate post about this coming up in the next days.

On July 16th Skyward Sword HD gets officially released, together with the themed Joy-Cons and the Zelda & Loftwing amiibo, and should entertain Zelda fans for a little while. For some it might only take the weekend, others might be busy for the rest of the month or even longer, where it really depends on how familiar you're already with the game and how much time you have.

If Nintendo were amazing, which they rarely ever are these days, they would repeat what was essentially the "Twilight Princess month" from 2016 and finish things with a free Skyward Sword Picross game for the Nintendo Switch. This could be part of MyNintendo or the Nintendo Switch Online service, it doesn't really matter, as long as it's a free gift of pixelated entertainment later this month. Do it, Nintendo!

Come to think of it, when Majora's Mask 3D was released in early 2015, there also was the "Majora's Mask Pack" as a DLC for Hyrule Warriors a couple of weeks before, which could get people in the mood to try the new remaster or vice versa. But this was always spanning two different Nintendo systems with the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS, where here you only have the Nintendo Switch (which is good). Still, a free game based on Skyward Sword could get people interested in buying the remaster nonetheless.

Nintendo Switch: OLED Model Announced

There it is, the upgraded New Super Nintendo Switch Pro that everyone has been waiting for at E3... Well, except it's not really what everyone was expecting. At least the name is very clear about what it does this time, it's the "Nintendo Switch (OLED model)" and that's exactly what you're getting here: a Nintendo Switch with a slightly bigger OLED screen and better sound. Oh, it also has an adjustable stand and 64GB of internal storage now. So, this mainly seems to be an upgrade for those who like to play in handheld or tabletop mode.

The new dock looks very nice, though, and it's even fully compatible with older Nintendo Switch models and vice versa, meaning that you can put the "Nintendo Switch (OLED model)" into an old dock, at least according to the UK website. The only new thing about it are the integrated LAN port and its sexy curves, however. Still, if this gets sold separately, it might be something to consider for owners of a Nintendo Switch.

The Joy-Cons are the exact old ones, just in white, so this probably won't fix the ever-lasting drift issues. And there is nothing about 4K. Not even 4K upscaling, where this feels like a very underwhelming hardware revision.

Well, maybe we're getting all that in two years? It currently seems like Nintendo is releasing a new Switch every two years, with the Nintendo Switch in 2017, the Nintendo Switch Lite in 2019, as well as the 2019 version of the Nintendo Switch and now this.

The OLED model gets released the same day as Metroid Dread on October 8th, but there only seem to be the white and the classic neon color models available. This also reminiscent of two years ago, where Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch Lite the same day as Link's Awakening, but didn't make a Zelda edition for it. It seems that 2D Action Adventure games are simply not worthy, but at least the white set looks a little bit like an E.M.M.I. unit.

But if I were to upgrade to an OLED model, it would only be via a nice Special Edition. Maybe something will be coming with the sequel to Breath of the Wild? Or maybe this will continue to be a running gag on this blog? In the least I don't regret getting a Nintendo Switch last year, I only regret not getting one sooner.

Skyward Sword HD: Quality of Life Improvements

It's Skyward Sword month! And Nintendo starts this month by sharing some more details about the various improvements made in Skyward Sword HD via their new Quality of Life Trailer and a press release. Let's take a look at what has changed, in addition to what already has been known:

• Less Fi: That's with all certainty the best improvement next to the new button controls. Fi doesn't pop into your face now all the time to give you hints. Instead your sword simply blinks and you can ask Fi for hints, if you really need them. If you don't, then you won't be annoyed by this sidekick so easily. Very good change.
  
  
• Skippable Cutscenes: Now you can skip cutscenes right from the start, which previously you could only do in Hero Mode. Ideal for everyone who has already played through the game.
  
  
  
• Skippable Tutorial Dialogues: We haven't seen this in action yet, but apparently the tutorials are now "less intrusive".
  
  
• Improved Dialogues: You can skip through texts much faster and it also shows the name of the character at the top of the dialogue box.
  
  
• Autosaves: Savegames seem to work similarly to the Link's Awakening remake now, where you can freely use three different slots and there's one automatic save file.
  
  
• Streamlined Item Information: This was to be expected, where there used to be a similar problem with the Rupees in Twilight Princess, which then got fixed in Twilight Princess HD. Originally it kept explaining the insects and treasures to you in Skyward Sword on the Wii, whenever you loaded the game again. This could be very annoying, because there are many different items here and it also went into the collection menu each time to show you how the number increments. Luckily, this is now a thing of the past.
  
  
  Curiously, the trailer showed this for Stamina Fruits, which didn't have this issue. (At least not in the European version.) The press release elaborates that this is about the treasures and insects, however.
  
  

With these improvements, Nintendo has actually covered almost all the refinements mentioned by this blog's suggestions for Skyward Sword HD from three years ago. Good job, Ninty! The only thing that's missing is a seamless transition between the sky and Skyloft, where we will have to wait and see how this turns out.

It's just a shame that the new fast travel functionality was locked behind an amiibo and that there are seemingly no additions to the game's content. No new Medals, no Trial Cave or alike. It's really just the bare minimum of what you would expect from this remaster and that's quite disappointing, where this feels like a missed opportunity.