An amazing game if you can forgive it's flaws
The problem with the flying is not the gameplay, but rather that they couldn't deliver the sense of freedom that I wanted from it. The sky is very empty, with a few floating islands and underneath you only clouds. This just can't match flying over mountains and different landscape which is what I had been hoping for. Most of the side-quests are rather uninteresting. The most fun I had flying was to fly around a giant whale in the skies. That is another way it could have been better – if the sky was inhabited by various creatures, but the only non-enemy animals you will encounter in the sky are the mounts of the NPCs and that one large whale.
The sword fight would be amazing if it was perfectly accurate, but it isn't quite good enough. There are two problems I had with the controls. The first is that when you stab it is occasionally interpreted as a swing from above, but that was just me not holding the nunchuck still, so I learned how to avoid that. The second occurs when you have to rapidly change direction before you swing. For instance if you hold your wii remote upwards, but need to change it and swing from right to left. If you move too fast it will be interpreted as a swing from above. The sad thing is that several enemies can block in all directions but one and then punish you if you don't swing properly.
While the control flaws are small annoyances that will come up several times throughout a playthrough, the game counters it with several small changes that are convenient. The economy and various collectibles work better than in previous Zelda games because you can upgrade both weapons, items and potions if you got enough treasures, rupees and/or bugs. Another improvement is that the game doesn't pause when you access the items and weapons menus, you can even walk while selecting your weapon. You can also walk while you are aiming with your ranged weapons, which is nice.
It is sad that the swordplay isn't perfect, because there are so many things I love about Skyward Sword. Zelda and Link have a bit more character development than usual and the story is well paced with how Link gradually rises to the task by both proving himself and improving his sword until it finally turns into the Master Sword. The art direction is beautiful and easily my favorite in the series and the music is amazing, but the best part is the dungeons.
If I based my review just on the dungeons, Skyward Sword would be a perfect 10 and the best Zelda game yet. The paths leading to the dungeons are more complex than usual and almost feels like a small dungeon on its own. The dungeons themselves are puzzle-heavy and really well made and the boss fights at the end of the dungeons range from great to mind-blowing.
Sadly, the same can't be said about the boss fight that is not part of a dungeon but happens three times in three slightly different ways. That boss fight is just annoying, but sadly it isn't the only annoying part. The game has five different stealth sections. Four of them are trials where you go into the spirit realm and those are pretty short and quite decent, but the last one is really long and the worst stealth sections in the series yet.
On the topic of flaws, one day I really want to ask a game developer if he have ever heard someone say "you know what the bet part of that game was? That one escort mission was fantastic." I don't know what bothers me more, that I had to babysit a robot all the way from the bottom to the top of the mountain or that the reason to do so in context is really, really stupid. Lastly, at one point you need to swim around in a flooded area and collect musical notes, which I thought was quite boring.
Still, I will forgive most of those flaws, because I feel Skyward Sword is a breath of fresh air and mostly a step in the right direction. I played the game for 45 hours and 90 precent of the time I was really enjoying it. If the remaining 10 percent had been as good as the rest it, it would be my favorite in the franchise. At the end it isn't the incredible game I was hoping for, but it is still great and I strongly recommend playing it.
PS: Just one more thing. I think it is time to forgive Navi for being so irritable in Ocarina of Time, because at least she isn't as bad as Fi. Fi talks to you about three times as often as Navi and at least Navi told you straight up not to touch the lava, while Fi would have said "Master, my sensors detect an 85 percent probability that you will take damage if you get in contact with the lava." Also, Navi didn't tell you the batteries in your wii remote were running low when they still had half the battery power left.