Is Skyward Sword worthy enough to be compared to Ocarina Of Time? Check it out in this review...
I have been playing most of the predecessors of the Zelda series so I am definatly not a noob in this franchise. The reason I wanted to write a review is because I believe I can point out some important aspects of the game that makes you understand why it is not comparable to what people consider the best Zelda game yet "Ocarina Of Time", although it is in my opinion still a good and worthy Zelda game to pursuit…
So let's begin shall we?
When I played the beginning of the game I was pretty much satisfied. I had peace with the "not as outstanding visuals" but it looked ok to me. I liked the fact that Link was now a member of people who lived on a floating island above the clouds, named "Skyloft". Yes, I liked the beginning. It was new to see Link as a skyloft student (soon to be knight) and making his way through the beautiful hall where all the other students were staying was a pretty impressive to me. In the beginning Link had to prepare himself for some bird race, and during this preparation (like always..) things happen that makes him do other things first before participating the actual race. Understand that this is just the beginning! It is maybe the longest intro ever of the Zelda fanchise but I didn't mind because it's a good way to get to know the controls, your hometown(skyloft) and it's people living in. yes I loved skyloft from the first moment I saw it. It was colorful, had lots of different people, nice cosy houses, gardens, some waterfalls…just the place you wanted to visit when you really had the chance to.
That was the intro so far, then the first plot point begins where Zelda is taking away by some giant twister and falls below the clouds (oh dear…not again). Now Link 's again set for a great adventure above and beneath the clouds.
For so far, the controls and visuals were ok. The story itself was again the typical "you are the chosen one" type of story, but I bought that too because this was just what every Zelda game was all about. Face it, every Zelda game was about Link who had to save Princess Zelda out of the hands of an evil being and bringing peace to everyone jada jada (but still loving it, don't get me wrong..:)).
Allright, now I can begin with telling what went wrong from here. From the moment Link jumped on his bird and flew to the first land below the clouds I felt a little awkward. Anyone familiar with the Zelda franchise already knew what will follow the next 3-5 hours; you had to chase after exactly "three" dungeons, make it through the puzzles, beat the crap out of the boss and receive "something" so you can make progress in the game…
I know this is in every Zelda game but this time I really felt a bit tired the way they tried to hide the typical Zelda formula for the first hours of the game. But ok, once started your journey you are as excited as you were in the previous Zelda games… But then comes the part that might cost the most points to this Zelda game. The lands you travel to (Forest, Volcano and Mountain) throughout the entirely game are , sorry to say it, too dull…
This is my biggest disappointment of the entire game. I don't understand why most of the people don't have comments about these places. Not that they were completely dull and of course every Zelda game has a version of these areas but in SS it just didn't impress me anymore as much as it did in OOT or even TP (twilight princess). We have seen these areas so many times before and they just aren't as appealing as in the previous versions. Why? Well, it's because of the lack of structure I think. The forest was well…just a big forest, the desert was…just a big bunch of sand, and the volcano was…well…a big mountain area. Of course people will say "well duuhh", but that's exactly what I want to point out. Within those areas There were no real big varieties unlike OOt (ocarina Of Time).
A big difference between OOT and SS is that unlike in SS the areas where more "structured". This means that for example the forest itself had different areas. For what I remember the forest in OOt was divided into the Big three area, the forest itself, your home town with all your friends and such, a way out to hyrule field etc…the forest itself had a lot of variation. The areas in SS don't really tell much more about the story than they did in the previous Zelda games. In Oot the forest was where Link lived, grew up in and where all his friends lived, it had a big talking tree who was the guardian of the forest and he told Link about an upcoming evil force that was killing him from inside…
now that's what I call a living area and you could feel it was all part of the great adventure. The place had an emotional bond with link AND the story.
What does the forest of SS have to offer or did it had a special bond with Link or other characters? It had the sacred place with the sealed ground, then you had the forest itself and you had a big lake behind the forest…that's about it.
Not that it was that bad… it was colorful and had a wide range…but it felt more like you were walking in a big park…it was like nothing seemed to be aware of a great danger that was coming, know what I mean?
A second reason why the landscapes didn't appeal as much as previous versions is because of the CHARACTERS living in those areas. Like I told, Oot had its charm because every area/landscape contained people/creatures who were part of this area. It weren't just characters, most of the time you came in contact with a complete culture (remember the Gorons, Zohras, desert folk in Oot?). Every culture contained lots of people and you could see a whole hierarchy within the tribe. That's what made Oot a more than average game.
Face it…in SS the characters were just plain stupid. In the forest you had small penguin looking creatures named as KIKWIS. They are pretty cute and funny by times but they don't have much more to offer to the story itself or didn't had any strong emotional bond with Link, Zelda or any of the other characters know what I mean?
The same with the MOGMA's, the dog looking molls living in the mountain area. Sorry but to me they seemed like they were characters out of a bad sequel…Agree, they offer you tools you need for making it through the game and it was nice to see some of them pop up in the dungeons but that's about as useful they were In the game. That's what I wanted to point out In this review. Skyward Sword, although it wasn't a bad game, is not comparable to Oot because of what I wrote down. There were too much aspects of the game that didn't feel like it was part of the circle/story. Although I can say the same things about the desert area, I must say that this place has its charm and was maybe the most interesting area of the game. This is exactly because of what I said: The desert was the only area that had characters who acted as a group or culture/society. There was some mysterious Inca/Aztec look about it that made it pretty interesting . At the one hand, I have no idea why they came up with small robots who worked in mines and made use of time shifting stones (esp. in a Zelda universe…), but it made them at least more interesting than the Kikwi's and especially the MOGMA's. It was the only "race" in SS you could get to know better.
Also because of the use of time shifting stones you could have some cool inventive puzzles inside the dungeons…so yeah the desert had its charm I have to admit that…
I won't repeat all the bad points of the game (check out other user reviews) but I too had problems with the side character Fi. She was very irritating because she always popped out and explained the most obvious things to you. Unlike previous versions there was no way you could skip the text so you had to read her lines over and over again. It was not just Fi who was annoying. In general there was too much repetitive text. For example if you found a bug in an area for the first time, there is that "da da da daaaa" tune, text appears telling you what the bug is, then it opens your item screen and places it into the right place. That's no problem if it's the first time you catch that type of bug. But in SS, every time you go to a new area and catch a bug, it tells you all over again what the type bug is…opens your item screen etc…so it's pretty frustrating once you start paying attention to this…because it seems like it's taking forever just to catch a damn bug.
To say some positive things about Skyward Sword, I think the island in the clouds was a nice touch to the series. There were some good character developments within Skyloft itself (Groose is a good example) and the Zelda formula does change further into the game so it's definatly not using the typical Zelda formula from start to finish.
To me the controls were good enough and I didn't had much problems with using the sword swinging the Wii remote. I also did like the ending. Although I won't spoil that much, it was at the end of the game that I saw how good the story fitted in the Zelda time line. It was one of the best Zelda endings I have seen and could even be the best one ever. So after watching the last parts of the game it makes you want to play the game all over again…it's weird but that's how I felt at the end.
Also the music was very top noch. Every zelda game has delivered us a susplendid soundtrack that's definetly worth listen to
So there you have it. To conclude this review: Is Skyward Sword comparable to Ocarina Of Time? I would say no…
but is it worth playing and is it a worthy Zelda title? Definetly yes…
- Dries Van Gijsel -
Game reporter