I'm a huge Zelda fan, and the other night I finally had the time to finish Skyward Sword. Now, that game was critically well received, but if I ever listen to podcasts or here about other peoples experience with it, there seems to be so much hate.

As a big Zelda fan, this confuses me and I would love to know a decent opinion as to why?

I loved the game. Yes, there are issues regarding motion controls and Fi being a pain. But the game also has a lot of pros such as the music, the best take on Zelda and Link's relationship, funny characters and even though they are not the most challenging dungeons they are still great fun and very well designed.

So is there anyone else out there who appreciates the game as much as me?

I thought it was great. Beautiful, with a great story. Best one since Wind Waker.

I thought it was pretty good. Decent dungeons, some fun combat, and a neat story. My only real gripe with it was how poorly designed some of the usage and interface stuff was, almost insultingly so. Nintendo games need to have some pep to them, or it can be easy to lose interest.

@liquidprince: FINALLY!!!! It is the best one since Wind Waker. I thought I was the only one haha :)

@wemibelec90: That's fair. What was it exactly that annoyed you with the interface?

@fordroog said:

A number of things, really: not being able to skip through dialogue very quickly, the game needlessly reminding you what an item is every time you pick it up, some sluggish menus, etc. It all felt too damn slow, especially for a modern game.

It's one of my favourite Zelda games. I can't tell if the hate/indifference is a vocal minority or if it's the people who actually liked it who're in the minority. It could have done without the divining rod fetch quests and the silent realm stuff (though I probably enjoyed the latter more than the similar stuff in Twilight Princess), but outside of that I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Currently playing through it again and loving it.

@wemibelec90: 100% agree with the speed of the dialogue issue.

@meatball: As much as I didn't really love the silent realm stuff, it was quite a unique and intense addition for the game. I wouldn't like to see it in future games in the series however, simply because of how frustrating it was when you got caught ha.

Well it's a Zelda game..

no it was good game.

Fi could have been handled a lot better, I still feel Nintendo has some amazing Localizing Talent but fi is so poorly written even if they want some sort of robot like character. The whole "readjusting the wii motion plus" is annoying and the motions seemed delayed just for a second.

Overall I still thought it was good, I like the Zelda is actually a character and also Wind Fish from the gameboy game make an appearance.

@meatball: As much as I didn't really love the silent realm stuff, it was quite a unique and intense addition for the game. I wouldn't like to see it in future games in the series however, simply because of how frustrating it was when you got caught ha.

I don't think it is overwhelmingly hated, though I guess it can seem that way depending on who you listen to. I always thought it was considered a decent game that had enough little wrinkles to keep it from being considered "great". I agree with most of the critiques (the opening 'tutorial' sequence is too long and there is way too much hand holding, Fi manages to be more annoying than Navi, etc), but I still think it's far from being horrible.

I think it's a pretty good game all around, if you don't mind motion controls and a slow start.

Also, I really love the art style. I actually prefer it to Wind Waker in terms of art, if we're going to rank the art styles of the series. It's mostly because of the character models, I just couldn't ever get into the super out of proportion kids (like Link) in Wind Waker.

My problems with it were the slow opening tutorial, which kind of continued through the whole game by reminding you of basic items every time you started. That one escort mission with the big bowl of water kind of marked the point when I started having less fun with the game. The dungeons were still cool, I got stumped a few times on them. But I felt like it had just a little too much back-tracking through areas I'd already been to.

I didn't really care for that big water level, it didn't feel too necessary since you weren't there for too long if I remember correctly, it just kind of felt like padding.

Fighting that two-footed monster for what felt like the 4th and 5th time also got old. By the final dungeon I just wanted to finish the game, but it felt like new objectives were popping up to make the game last longer. I also felt like the side content wasn't that interesting, and the overworld in the sky didn't give me a good reason to keep exploring for more secrets as I unlocked new weapons. Maybe if I had found a way to fly around at night I would've investigated more.

That said, I enjoyed the earlier parts of the game, it just outstayed it's welcome in my books. If there was one thing I'd like to see continued in the Wii U Zelda it would be the weapon upgrading. That was an interesting system.

Boring dungeons and it moves at a snails pace. Doesn't help that Fi spoils most puzzles while also making you stop in your tracks every 5 seconds. And the area you have to fly around in is dull as hell.

Though I have been thinking about giving it another chance, the visuals, music and feel of movement are pretty great. I'd like to like it.

It's about as good or as bad as you personally think it is

I'm playing through it now since some other thread here was talking about it and I remembered how I've had it sitting around for years but couldn't be arsed to hook the Wii back up.

I have to say: it's my least favorite Zelda game.

The first two hours are a long, unskippable cutscene. The second boss killed me (largely thanks to non-existent camera controls and z-targeting with terrible range), and I was dropped outside the boss room with all the potions I went into the boss fight with still gone, only six hearts full, and a bunch of unskippable babble from Ganondorf's (let's not kid ourselves, they haven't said his name or shown him yet, but...) flunky that I had to plow through again.

Motion Plus certainly helps make the motion controls more precise, but in the heat of battle, I'm still just thrashing my right arm around hoping Link does the right thing. Rolling a bomb is a tedious chore of awkwardly pointing the Wiimote straight down and whipping it up. Slashing the sword at specific angles that some enemies require of you is an exercise in futility. Controlling the beetle and flying around are both a pain in my wrist.

Not that there's much point in flying around very much. I've just entered the third temple, and there's still very little to explore on the world map. This is probably the most damning aspect to me. I loved exploring every little nook and cranny in previous Zelda titles. In this one, there's just nothing there.

Now, after all that, I'm still enjoying it somewhat. It's still got some of that Zelda charm, and the game is quite nice to look at despite some really bad aliasing on a 52" TV. I'll probably finish it, but for the first time with a Zelda game, I can't see myself going out of my way to find every little thing the game has to offer.

I have not played Skyward Sword other than the demo at the store but it was the. greatest. thing.

also, the ppl who bash the game are ppl who actually enjoy zelda games. That tells me everything I need to know.

It's my favorite Zelda game (I've played and beaten all except the Oracles and Spirit Tracks). I think the controls work ingeniously well and it's a joy to play through. I have heard complaints about the controls not being accurate but I have never had that happen to me. It worked 100% of the time and I never found myself at the mercy of the game due to controls.

I'm also very glad they're sticking with this art style for the next Zelda.

None of which matter when you have to get through inaccurate, sluggish controls and ludicrously copious amounts of Wiimote re-syncs every five minutes to see any of it.

"Oh, but Mr. Panda-san! I didn't have the same controller problems as you and the other 90% of people so they're obviously irrelevant." Good for you, but you're irrelevant; it was a mess.

It's more mind-numbingly boring. I did find the motion controls pretty bad but maybe I'm just bad at motion controls.

Wasn't there only one other mainline Zelda game between the two, or do you, like me, also count The Wind Waker as the best Zelda game and are counting the series as a whole?

I loved it. Objectively, it definitely had some major issues (overly-long tutorial; too much hand-holding in general; excessively linear at times; some redundant exploration/items), but it was probably still my favourite game of 2011.

(Potential spoilers ahead!)

The whole experience felt like a celebration of the entire Zelda franchise up until that point. I loved the way it set up the overall timeline (yes, I'm one of those people; sorry), especially through its ending. Narratively, Groose had almost Midna-levels of actual character growth, and Link and Zelda displayed a stronger relationship dynamic than in most entries in the series. Ghirahim was also an interesting antagonist (the parallels between him and Fi, with him being a "dark" Master Sword for Demise, were a neat touch), and I particularly liked how his voice samples reminded me of Ryusei Nakao (the Japanese voice for Dragonball's Freeza). The music and art-style were just majestic throughout, though the latter could have really used an HD coat of paint - it looks gorgeous in Dolphin!

On the gameplay side of things, the inclusion of a stamina meter for running added some cool new twists to dungeons. And though the dungeons themselves were a little easier, the approach to each temple was practically a dungeon in itself. It was unfortunate to see so much recycled content in the last third of the main quest (before the true end-game), though I did enjoy the smart re-use of Elden Volcano. Unlike most of the Internet (apparently?), I had next to no problems with the motion controls, but it should be mentioned that I also thought that about Trauma Center: Second Opinion on the Wii. I might just be crazy.

Curiously, much like Twilight Princess, I think the main problems in Skyward Sword can be "fixed" fairly easily, too; just remove the bazillion tutorials/hints in Hero Mode (which should be available from the beginning for Zelda veterans), and re-balance the use of certain items. I do wonder what the game would have been like with another couple of months of development (mostly to tweak dungeons/add more overworld content).

All that said, it's probably still in my top five(ish) Zelda games. Now, where in that ranking I'd put it is under great debate. ;) If the next Zelda can take the best aspects of Skyward Sword and fuse them with the forward-thinking revisions in A Link Between Worlds, I reckon we're in for something pretty special with the Wii U's "Zelda meets Skyrim".

No, it's a wonderful game.

Skyward Sword is just "off" which results in a let down. This was supposed to be the great hope of a "next gen Zelda" and it never came together where it seemed to have systems added that were never really that integrated and mechanics that seemed glued together instead of designed.

Or another way to put it: Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a better and more modern Zelda game than Skyward Sword. So in the end, it isn't about hating it or that it is bad but Skyward Sword just isn't that good.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about Skyward Sword is the slow start, and the fact that they constantly remind you of items and pop up tutorial things... but I've watched my Niece try to play through that game, and trust me, that stuff is in there for a reason. I'd like the option to disable it when I play, sure, but I wonder how many people actually think about kids trying to learn how to play the game when they bitch about that kind of thing.

Skyward Sword would be a great game if you could play it with a normal controller and some kind of Blade Mode mechanic with the right stick.

I remember liking the crap out of it.

It's... eh. I like the world, characters, and how it has a lot more story than any other Zelda. I hated how you start with like six hearts, the huge emphasis on motion controls is annoying, and while I love the artstlye the game looks like shit. Painful reminder that the Wii wasn't an HD console.

Skyward Sword was fantastic. What a roller-coaster.

It's certainly not among the best Zelda games, but the series has set such an astoundingly high quality bar that even the weaker entries are still very good games.

It's a great game, but it takes sooooo long to get going. It's Nintendo at its worst in terms of not trusting the player, with the slowest damn opening of a game. Teaching you the same shit five times and all that. But when it gets going, it's still a great Zelda game. The last dungeon is my favourite dungeon of any Zelda game.

I thought it looked great. I know a few people were denouncing the aesthetic leading up to the game's release, but impressionism isn't a style you often see in big polygonal games so I was happy to see it in use.

Everything else, though, geez... It was a thoroughly mediocre game. I think it had some great hooks--Skyloft was a beautiful environment I loved exploring, and it's one of the few games in the franchise to really flesh out Link and Zelda's relationship, and on paper 1-to-1 swordfighting is a great concept. But it almost completely fumbles in practice.

The motion controls were wonky, turning Link's sword arm into this floppy, occasionally lethal mass that was difficult to get a fix on. It made me realize the format's limitations, and how I'm quite happy just to hit a button to slash. Neither was it good at conveying useful info. Rather, it conveyed it at the wrong times: the opening couple hours of the game were a drudge to get through because you had to wade through so much tutorial dialogue that the average Zelda player already knows. And then when you're finally out in the world, there are these counter-intuitive puzzles and challenges that Fi will give you barely any help with. Make fun of Navi all you want, but at least she could lend a hand when needed.

And it just wasn't fun to play. It made me miss rolling around. Now the only way to effectively get around fast for a lengthy period is to time your sprinting or at least aim at the right targets mid-run.

Lastly, Nintendo went so out of their way to write the ultimate origin story for the Zelda universe that they totally ignored the simplicity of Ocarina's story. I mean, at least we know what the red bird on the Hylian shield means, as if that ever needed explaining.

I appreciate that Nintendo tried to switch things up and overhaul the gameplay. It's just that the changes weren't really good. A Link Between Worlds was much more successful in this regard, and the 2015 game seems to be heading in the right direction. To date, it's the only Zelda game I ended up selling off because it just wasn't good, and furthermore I wasted more money by getting the required Motion Plus Wiimote. At least I burned the excellent soundtrack CD it came bundled with before I sold it.

I'm playing through it right now, at first I couldn't stand the needless tutorials and contstant reminders, but once it gets going I think it has some of the best Zelda gameplay there is.

If you have a modded Wii I highly recommend looking into using Ocarina/Wiird codes, I have a set that makes all text instantaneous, removes all of Fi's nagging, and gets rid of dialog boxes when picking up crafting items/bugs.

"Really that bad?"

You make it sound like it's some universal opinion. People just had their panties in a twist because Skyrim was all the rage at the time. And Dark Souls. And this was neither. So people were mad. The game is awesome. Not flawless but what game is.

There is not a single bad Zelda game. Simple as that. Some might not be as liked as much as others but none of them are bad. Problem solved.

Are you sure it isn't the other way around? It feels like Skyward Sword was built by a team that looked at games like Skyrim and tried to add that those elements to Zelda. Quests with a ridge log structure that were meaningless. Trying to do an open world that wasn't really an open. Crafting that was worthless. Zelda doesn't necessarily need these things and yet they were in the game and didn't really work out.

Wait, were people actually disappointed that it wasn't Dark Souls or Skyrim? Because if I remember the Internet chatter at the time of its release, it just wasn't up to the standards of the Zelda series.

I really really enjoyed it. I either didn't notice, or was not bothered by most of the issues people have with this game. It definitely wasn't perfect but the high points definitely made up for the low in my opinion. That time desert area was amazing.

It reviewed really well, but I'm not sure what the general consensus among everyone is. Ive never heard anyone say they hate it, maybe that it's just another zelda game that follows too closely to the core formula of that series.

Nope, it's actually very good. Believe it or not, it's the very first Zelda game I ever finished. Since then I've gone backed and played through A link to the Past and Ocarina of time and I still feel the same. In my opinion, it's fairly comparable in quality to both of those games. Other than the painfully slow beginning, I'm not really sure why people disliked it. If memory serves the motion controls worked pretty well too, although at some point I can understand just wanting to press a button instead of flicking your wrist. That kind of got old, but that's what breaks between game sessions are for.

Most peoples beef with Skyward Sword is that it over tutorializes every little action in the game and it goes a little nuts with the collectibles. Not Donkey Kong 64 nuts but definitely in the Banjo Tooie range.

I really liked the Hyrule of Skyward Swords and Groose was a fun character who had a neat little redeeming story arc. The real star of this game is just how well the game uses Wii Motion Plus and makes you feel like a sword wielding bad ass. This is literally that sword/lightsaber everyone dreamed of when they first saw the Wii.

I really liked it. If you are a believer in the Zelda timeline concept this game does a TON to set up that theory. For that reason its a must play in my book, especially if you played and enjoyed Ocarina of Time.

It had motion controls, a really long intro/tutorial section and way, way too much dialog and story stuff. They need to keep it simple, emphasize exploration and discovery and stop long-windedly explaining every little thing as if the people who play Zelda games are dumb. @def mentioned that people want Zelda to be Skyrim or Dark Souls as if that's a preposterous thing to want. But The Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls have taken up the mantle that Zelda games cast aside because they embody the qualities that many people associate with the Zelda games of the 80s and 90s. The Legend of Zelda games of today are just some sorta OK games that are attached to a great brand. People will play them forever because it's Zelda, but they've wandered far afield of where they started off. They've forgotten that this series used to be about discovery and wonder. It was once about YOU--yes you, the player, going on an adventure in a video game fantasy land. Now, you join Link™ on his adventure in this carefully constructed story that is being told.

@extomar: This is not how they make games over there. So yes, I am very sure.

I liked it.

The art style was great. It would have been fine if it wasn't for the motion controls, but even without the wii controller it still wouldn't be more than a 3 star game for me.

Wind Waker was the last great Zelda game they have yet to top it.

There is no such thing as a bad Zelda game made by Nintendo.

Hence why I said "like" multiple times. And I'm sure you are correct that on Nintendo's moon base where they sequester their teams of developers that they will never get a chance to look at or know what the hot games people are playing or get inspiration from other places.