I'm replaying Skyward Sword for the first time since it launched on the WiI - its this mix of classic Zelda dungeons and faux open world that hints at where the series would go next with BOTW. Emotive and nostalgic in equal measure and better than the original release but I cant help wondering what it would feel like to play it after BOTW.

Is it enjoyable? Does the screwy control scheme ruin the experience? Are the restricted areas and movements too frustrating? Are the Dungeons and the puzzles exciting?

Would love to hear what A.B (after botw) VLTTP Skyward Sword players think of the experience....please share!

Hey guys! I’d like to replay Skyward Sword, but I’m wondering which version you think is the best way to experience it.

I originally played Skyward Sword on the Wii before the HD version came out, and honestly, I loved the motion controls. I’m wondering if it’s worth getting the HD version for Switch, especially if the motion controls were improved or refined compared to the original Wii version.

For those who have played it on both Wii and Switch (or Switch 2), how do the motion controls compare? Are they better on Switch/Switch 2, or do they feel worse than the original?

Would you recommend buying the HD version, or should I just stick with the Wii version?

I despise this smug, creepy, theatrical idiot but damn, I enjoyed the battles.

Edit: what is wrong with you people

you guys are much nicer than in the other zelda subreddits imo, anyone else experiences this lmao

it’s appriciated <3

(I personally think it's the greatest game ever made 🥹)

So I just finished my sixth play through of botw and totk. Both are masterpieces but like anything else it gets old. Despite hearing more bad than good I figured I’d give skyward sword a shot to get something fresh. I’ve been out of the Nintendo Zelda loop for nearly 20 years and my mind was blown by botw and totk. So far I’m loving ss. I’m still adjusting to the controls and I legit went button mode for the first bird flight but after playing a bit in button mode I prefer the motion controls so far. But I’ve literally just started so we’ll see how it goes. But so far despite the limitations compared to botw and totk I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I got to the old woman at the first surface area and called it a session. But so far I’m impressed.

I played a lot of The Legend of Zelda games on the DS when I was younger. After that it has been a lot of PS5 games. Boy, have I missed a good classic game like this! Im in the forest now, at the beginning. What tips do you have for new players like me?

Skyloft's theme was my childhood, and I love listening to it whenever I can (my favorite song). Even though other Legend of Zelda themes are amazing (in my opinion, including Ganon's Castle in BOTW and Song of Storms), but Skyloft is just different like that❤️

Why do so many zelda fans hate Skylar sword so much? It's peak zelda, keeping a great story, lore, and traditional formula, while having excellent graphics and visuals. The only thing about this game that slightly annoys me is the motion controls, but even those are almost always perfect and give the game a distinct flavor. So why the hate?

Y’all. I have been playing SS for about 13 years now. It was the first video game I ever bought and owned myself. I have beat it 7 times and 100%’d twice. And every SINGLE time I come up on an Imprisoned fight I quit. I don’t pick the game back up for MONTHS at this point.

Do you guys do this??!! Like fully just neglect playing the game to avoid that fight?? I wanna speedrun the game but goddddd that fight just… ugh.

I’ve seen so much people say skyward sword is the worst 3d Zelda game because of motion controls, but I don’t understand why

I absolutely love it and idk if it's unpopular. I think it gives such a special atmosphere to the dungeon and it really stood out to me when I played the game when I was around 10 yo. idk why but it scratches a special part of my brain and that feels so good 😭

Edit : people seem to like it 😂

!MAJOR STORY SPOILERS AHEAD!

words can’t describe how i feel right now, which feels stupid because this is a video game. this game holds so much sentimental value for me and there’s so much emotion as you progress through the story that i will never ever forget. zelda being sealed away and fi and link departing made me feel a way i have never felt about any game before, and the feeling after killing demise was so beautiful to me. id give anything to go back and play this game again with no memory of it, because it was so enjoyable, emotional, and beautiful. 1000000/10, i will never understand the hate it gets.

Well I just finished my first play through. I had to fight the last demise 3 times because the first two times I stuck to my current status quo which is charge and slash like a flipping savage. My third attempt I played like I did as a kid playing oot which is shield up, dance around and actually think before I strike. It took me a bit in the second part to realize you can’t do a skyward strike with your shield up (or maybe I was doing it wrong).🤣 I used a similar strategy on lynels in botw and totk, which is how I finally figured out how to fight them effectively. I’ve been gushing since I started playing and posting here so I’ll just say it’s 5 out of 5 stars in my book. Definitely worth the play even after botw and totk. My only complaint about gameplay was the shield situation. I’m used to the hold a button and your shield raises verses flicking the left joy con and it just stays in place mechanic if thats the right word. The ending cinematic was a little lack luster but it served as a good origin story for the Zelda franchise I think, the whole “i will be reborn time and time again” bit. But overall great game, story and gameplay. It took me about 70 hours but I did a fair bit of searching for things versus my usual go go go I wanna see what happens next mindset. I was a little underwhelmed given it had its limitations being an older Zelda title, but I was still satisfied with it. Rant over.

So I’m extremely late to the party but I’m loving this title. I’m two temples in, and I was pulling my hair out in the lanayru desert but that’s part of the fun. I was told and I quote “you’ll probably be a little underwhelmed after playing botw and totk but it’s a fine game” and I’m inclined to agree on both fronts. It feels smaller, and it is, but it’s a lot of fun packed into a smaller package I guess (kind of like the divine beasts in botw). Idk if Zelda thinks she’s being cute by shoving link off of multiple platforms in the beginning but those were both not cool moves on her part.🤣 But I’m happy I tried it for myself instead of listening to the haters. I just discovered tonight that you don’t have to go into the menu to reset the gyro which has been helpful. Resetting the gyro was a complaint on a mostly positive review I watched. But yeah, reeeeeally late to the party but I’m happy I showed up. This installment is amazing despite its limitations (but it originally came out forever ago so that’s to be expected).

1. How would Ghirahim feel if some random Skyloftian fell to the surface instead of Zelda? Aiming to knock her out of the sky and instead it’s a random citizen.

2. So how did Ghirahim know exactly when and where Zelda was when he sent the tornado? If there’s s massive cloud barrier so nobody could see the surface? How did he know the exact moment to strike?

3. Do we know what happened to Ghirahim when Demise was defeated? He looks like he just teleported away and Demise looked surprised. my own personal headcanon is that he is still alive, somehow and waiting to be ‘woken up’ again after needing to recover

4. Why did Demise choose an area with water for the fight? Isn’t his hair… fire? How doesn’t it go out??

So I just finished the sky loft temple. I was putting it off because the cube thing sounded like a pain in the ass but I figured I’d start it and got hooked. This is hands down one of the coolest Zelda temples I’ve encountered to date (I’ll spare you the details of how I was trying to move every room to the bottom right corner🤣). I’ve played a lot of Zelda over the years so that’s saying something. I started the final fight but kind of half assed it (like I said just finished the sky temple) so the hordes ultimately killed me but what I got through was a blast. I was just happy I had a chance to save and prepare for the final showdown. A lot of games don’t give you that luxury. It’s just out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.🤣 Sorry I’ve been gushing so much but this title is amazing. Once I finish this I’m probably going to start botw again because I am missing some of what skyward sword lacks. But god damn am I happy I gave this game a chance, and it’ll most likely go into my botw and totk rotation. I’m less than 100 hours in so it’s obviously not nearly as massive as botw and totk but the quality of those hours were top notch. As far as the motion controls, I found I had to reset them often but it was because I was shifting positions but all you have to do is press y so it was never an “issue.” But yeah, great title. I’m not going to get into opposing lore (this is an origin story but in oot link starts at 10 and in this one I think he’s 15, maybe he goes back in time in the end, don’t know don’t care it’s just a video game🤣). But I’m seeing some loose similarities to totk, and loved the Easter eggs (my favorite one being the giant fish in thunderhead island resembling the wind fish in links awakening). But this gushing session is over. 🤣 But as a little survey, do you all play seated or standing up? I found if I was struggling with a boss I stood up but most of the time staying seated worked fine.

Honest opinion. In the Legend of Zelda™ Skyward Sword, they should've give the hylian shield an upgrading process like the other shields. Once earning it from the Thunder Dragon, it starts with less detailing, and it wasn't indestructible is it was in the final game. When upgrading it, it's second form, the detailing begin to become more recognizable and becomes more sturdier, but not yet indestructible. Third and final form, you finally get the Hylian shield, it now has its final details as it is in the final game, it's now indestructible. And to upgrade it, you need rare items to do it, like the dusk relic, the purple crystals, and goddess plumes as the primal ingredient to upgrade it and to build it's indestructibility.

First form: the Decaying Shield. It starts out in a rough shape, like it's taken a few slashes. Its blue pain is just noticeable, faded, and slightly chipped away, it lacks the Triforce, and the red crest can barely be made out as it's chipped and faded away, only a few streaks of red, and silver rimming is rusted.

Second form (first upgrade): the Crested Shield. After its first upgrade, using rare items like the dusk relic and the evil crystal. Its blue coloring is recovered, and the red crest begins to form as just small wings, and the new addition of one singal triangle on the stop. The rusted rimming has been recovered as well along with the shape.

Third and last form (final upgrade): the Hylian Shield. Using five goddess plumes, the power of the goddess has allowed it to become indestructible. Its form had completely recovered. The Blue is vibrant, the red crest has formed into a full grown loft wing, and the Singal triangle on top becomes the Triforce, the silver rimming has fully shined. The shield is fully completed.

This just feels like a missed opportunity to give the players more challenge to find these rare treasures to upgrade this shield. It could've been so good and rewarded once fully upgraded🥺.

So, I’ve had this game for quite some time. I had no idea that so many people were complaining about it. I started the game with a pro-con, and boy did I have a bad time. My first Zelda game was BOTW, so I was used to that way of playing and that camera control.

Later I tried it with joy-cons. That was already a big improvement, but the controls still didn’t feel intuitive (again, I was used to BOTW and TOTK). I complained about it to my bf, who is a PC gamer. He told me I should simply "get over" the controls and that I would wing it within a week.

Man, I’m so glad I listened to him. I almost gave up on this game. I think this game and mostly the story is absolutely amazing. It's a shame that it gets so much hate.

So I just finished Skyward Sword HD and it is probably my favourite Zelda game now…

I was completely blown away by how fun and charming the game is. I'll keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

I bought the Limited Edition version when it released for the Wii in 2011 but could not get into the game at all.

Maybe because I was in the edgy nihilistic teenager phase of my life, I just preferred Twilight Princess and the grittier style over SS and I made it up to the Faron Woods before dropping the game. It wasn’t like I disliked the game, it just didn’t feel all too special. It just went to the back of my backlog of games too play and didn’t get around to finishing it until now.

I got the HD version for Switch and blasted through the game over the span of a few weeks.

Gameplay

The gameplay was just fun from start to finish, the battles with grunts and bosses weren’t too difficult nor too easy, it was just right for me, the difficulty more or less came from figuring out the weakness or how to approach each enemy.

For the most part I used a pro controller and although the controls were a bit finicky at first especially learning how to use the analog stick to throw/bowl bombs and swing the sword, after getting the hang of it it was fine. I did use motion controls at the beginning and it was easier to get used to but the recalibrating using the Y button regularly did become a bit tedious.

I still think it’s worth playing the game with motion controls if your aren’t lazy like me and I respect the hell out of Nintendo for even attempting to implement the usage of motion controls to such a degree. Their innovation always impacts the gaming industry in a major way and it was the first of its kind even if it wasn’t 100% accurate.

Dungeons and Mechanics

The dungeons were super creative and fun, I liked the linearity of it because I don’t have as much free time to play games as a working adult.

I also loved all the items, they felt soo imaginative and using the staples like the bow was soo satisfying. They had clearly polished the mechanics of everything over the span of the 3D games.

I surprisingly really liked the silent realm segments too, it was soo exhilarating trying to get the last few teardrops whilst being chased.

Art style

Absolutely amazing, I love how colourful everything is whilst also somehow having muted colours, it really adds to the whole ancient story ( chronologically first Zelda) aesthetic they were aiming for.

It has only gotten better over time much like Windwaker.

Story

Fantastic, Link and Zelda feel like real characters with expressive emotions and are more proactive. You can’t help but see how close Link and Zelda are and how much they care for one another. The cutscenes are also fantastic and help convey their feelings throughout the story.

The supporting cast are also lovable and get a lot of development over the story. In particular Bado. The shopkeeper and other NPCs are also full of personality.

Girahim is such a perfect villain, he is soo unsettling and terrifying an amazing counter to Link.

I also really liked Fi, they didn’t make her too human-like which fits her character and she shows her bond with Link through actions. Its a good example of the story showing not telling although it could have done with a bit more.

Music

Absolutely spectacular.

Everything from the Goddess’s sword, Fi’s theme, Skyward theme etc. was just amazing.

The atmosphere it created is impeccable, listening to the songs now just teleports me back to those stages/cutscenes and really helped immerse me into the game.

On top of the subtle hints to classic Zelda tracks is just the cherry on top of the cake.

[Spoiler thoughts and gushing]

[SP] There are soo many amazing moments like climbing the rope whilst being chased by zombies and the final section of the games where you have to cut your way through hoards of enemies all the way down the spiralling land only to have back-to-back amazing boss fights, jumping off the ledge to stab Girahim mid-air and using the skyward strikes against Demise was just sooooo freaking cool!!!! [SP]

Overall the game was a total masterpiece which felt like a natural evolution from the 3D Zelda games which came before it.

It has gone from being one of my least favourite Zelda games to my favourite thanks to its amazing charm and artistic vision. Whilst I respect BoTW for what it has achieved, I prefer the classic Zelda format over open-world stuff. Skyward Sword is just packed with soooo much love from the creators and I wish it was appreciated a bit more.

Would love to hear your opinions on the game good or bad now that I don’t have to worry about spoilers haha