The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Deeper Hands On

In our previous coverage of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, we gave you a brief overview of some of Link's encounters during the first few hours of the game, specifically his time in Skyloft. After riding your loftwing to victory and spending time with the lovely Zelda, some crazy stuff happens. Obvious spoiler: Zelda disappears and Link must travel to the land below the sky to find her.

Link travels to the Sealed Grounds and the Farron Woods where he encounters a number of enemies and characters. On the hunt for Zelda, Link bumps into creatures called kikwis that initially think of him as a threat. Upon realizing that Link isn't hostile, they give him clues as to the whereabouts of Zelda. Here, you'll search around the area for other kikwis that have been hiding, and upon finding all three, the elder kikwi, Bucha, gives Link a boomerang and information as to where it saw Zelda go.

This leads Link to the first main dungeon in the game. The dungeon itself is fairly large and divided into two sections. The first part has you solving puzzles that open floodgates, which fill up the area with water and grant you access to a door leading to the next area. The puzzles themselves aren't too difficult and the enemy types will be instantly familiar to longtime fans of the series, but it still may take a bit of time to figure out how to proceed.

Upon opening all of the doors in the first area, Link moves onto a new section and more puzzles to solve. Here, his newly acquired beetle weapon, which flies in the sky and can reach impossible-to-get-to switches and items, aids Link in reaching higher ground. He then receives a vital piece that opens the final door. The key required to open the door is a puzzle itself where you have to manipulate it with the Wii Remote to fit into the door. Opening the door greets you with the game's first boss fight and probably the first area that may cause some visible frustration. This boss battle can be extremely easy or difficult, depending on if Link is smart enough to keep his shield in good standing. This enemy absolutely loves to throw darts, and its quick striking abilities can be extremely devastating and can kill Link without the aid of his shield or proper dodging. With the right timing and countering, Link should be able to dispose of this foe with only some minor scratches, and thankfully, the motion controls work well here. Link's ability to strike both vertically and horizontally is extremely important because his foes will position their swords in such a way as to protect themselves from one kind of strike but not another.

For a series like The Legend of Zelda, it can be quite a challenge to inform players without spoiling story elements. There is a lot of content that you will experience in the early parts of the game, and what we've mentioned here, as well as in our last preview, is just a fraction of what you can expect to encounter early on in the game. We've held back on a lot because there are certain elements that are better experienced firsthand rather than told about ahead of time.

While our adventure with Link went beyond this opening dungeon and even included some sidetracking, this is where we stop telling you of our direct experience. We'll still have more coverage in other forms, but for those anxiously awaiting Link's next adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword hits the Nintendo Wii on November 20.