LoZ: Skyward Sword

The Wii Motion Plus.

This accessory that was first introduced for Wii Sports Resort made the game more engaging and added a fun challenge of actually having to swing your remote in the direction you wanted to attack. However it has a flaw. Once you start the game it does some kind of calibration which more accurately matches your sword strikes to your motion but that calibration would slip every now and then which would throw off the accuracy of the strikes, which could prove costly if happened at the wrong time. To correct this you would have to go into the map screen or draw a weapon such as the slingshot or bow and press the down button on the direction pad. If you tried doing this correction without being in the map or drawing slingshot/bow you would just summon Fi (the Navi of Skyward Sword).

The Harp

This instrument is by far the worse one to date. I mean no offense to those that actual play the Harp or like the music but in this game it is very difficult to play. The main reason is you have to strum your instrument by making wide left to right gestures with the remote. The attached picture is an example of where you have to play the harp during a side quest in order to acquire a Piece of Heart and your playing is judged by the people in the seats. In that particular case you had to match your gesture in the direction they moved their arms if they don't like you, you fail & have to try again. This particular side quest almost had me give up on a Heart Piece. The pace done in this side quests takes around 2-3 minutes and my first attempt at it took over an hour with no success, mind you thats an average 25-30 trys. I didn't even succeed until near the end of the game at my fourth attempt and that was roughly over the course of 2 1/2 hours. To succeed I learned from other local gamers is that you don't want to try and predict their moves but move in the direction after they do.

During other times you have to use it to enter the Silent Realm which are moderate in difficulty. All you have to do is keep it at a somewhat even pace so that all the petals in the magic circle hit the ground. If you take to long or stumble in strumming the petals fade away so this causes it to be tiring and tedious.

The Loftwing

The Loftwing is a bird & the rideable animal used for travel during gameplay. In order to ride the Loftwing you have to pay attention to that bar that appears on the left hand side of your screen. This is because as you travel on the Loftwing the image of the Loftwing gradually moves down symbolizing you losing altitude & when it hits the bottom you stall. To prevent this you have to occasionally move the Wii Remote up & down several times to gain altitude which can be tiring. The Wii Motion Plus also causes problems when flying with the Loftwing. While its not a major thing its just when trying to fly straight Loftwings are overly sensitive so any slight twitch of the wrist and it would veer in that direction which caused problems later during move training.

Another problem with the Loftwing is that it is slow unlike Epona from past Legend of Zelda games. In order to pick up speed you have 3 feather boost you can use while traveling which is half the amount as compared to the 6 carrot boost you got from Epona in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or the 6 whip boost from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. The Loftwing just barely beats traveling by boat in games like Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass but at least in Phantom Hourglass you could attack enemies with a cannon. The Loftwing can't attack until close to the end of the game when it learns the Spiral Charge move.

The Spiral Charge Move

In order to met Levias in the Thunderhead and advance in the game you would have to learn this move from Instructor Owlan. To learn it he has you play a minigame of sorts on your Loftwing where you have to smash 10 targets under 2 minutes. Sounds easy right? Wrong and this is because of 2 main reasons. The first is the 10 targets you have to smash to move on. Normal this would be cake but you pretty much have to be dead on with the target and claim a bullseye, if you hit close to the outer white/red area you just bump into it without breaking it and then stall for a second. That then poses a problem since some of the targets are being carried by monsters that can make sudden sharp turns. The second is that its on the Loftwing. For reasons as mentioned above its not exactly the best creature for this type of exact accuracy thing. Overall it doesn't even add an extra option to the controls it just uses up a speed up feather by changing the speed up move to a speed & twirl move.

Traveling

While I understand that traveling distances between locations is somewhat of a tradition in Legend of Zelda games in Skyward Sword there is a bit too much distance to travel. The ground areas in the game are divided into 3 main areas; 1) Faron Woods 2) Eldin Volcano 3) Lanayru Gorge. In the beginning after clearing the first area of Faron Woods you have to go back to Skyloft with the stone tablet which is received after clearing the dungeon boss in order to unlock Eldin Volcano & again after Eldin Volcano boss to unlock Lanayru Gorge, all of which is necessary for gameplay. However once they are unlocked you would still have to travel back into the sky to travel between the areas because there is no access to them via ground travel. Which brings in some tediousness when doing things like side quests or item/bug hunting especially considering that they are quite a distance from one another.

Demon Lord Ghirahim

This guy is the first Dungeon Boss in the Faron Woods. The thing that makes him difficult is he is overpowered. I know this may sound like whiner talk but he is seriously not easy, I had an easier time beating his Final Boss form at the end of the game then during his first appearance. The reasons he is hard is during the first phase of the battle he catches your sword attacks. He does it by matching his arm where your sword is pointing and the only way to get around that is to quickly change directions in where you plan to attack. Its hard to explain but in simply terms he need to use a switch type technique that wouldn't think to know for beginning gameplay.

During the next phase he draws his own sword and shoots 3-4 beam dots at you and you either have to dodge or swipe at them in the direction they come at you from. For example they could be lined up in a horizontal manner then attack them with a horizontal slash. If you try to rush him during these attacks he will just teleport to a different location if you get to close and he will then continue his attack. He also has a thrust attack he does with his sword in which you have to use the move shield bash at the right moment or dodge. Which means during his thrust attack is the best time to try and attack. Instead of simply dodging the Shield Bash is the best way to defend against his thrust attack because it will allow you to stun him and then move in to damage him.

Dodoh's High Dive Minigame

This minigame is by far the hardest in this game and probably the entire franchise. In this minigame you get shot out of a cannon and straight up into the air. While free falling you have to successfully move through all 5 rings which are prize amplifiers while avoiding purple balls with his face on them. If you can fall through all the rings you then have to land on the 50 rupee square which is the square with the image of 2 red & 2 blue rupees on it that is in between the 2 grey rupee squares. When you can do that you will be reward with 500 rupees and a Piece of Heart. This game costs 20 rupees per try expect during the first try which is a reward for getting his wheel back during another side quest. There is also a 10 additional rupee pental should you land on either of the grey rupee squares. I personally gave up on this minigame because I went into it with over 600 rupees and left with under 30.

Search for The Tadtones

When you head for Faron Woods in search of the Dragon to learn its part of the Song of the Hero you will find that it is flooded completely. When you first get there you have to met the dragon by swimming up through the big tree in the middle and when you get to her she will say that she will teach you her portion of the song if you can find all the tadtones she has hidden in the flooded Faron Woods.

You should keep in mind that is around 80 tadtones you have to search for all of which are under water. The worst part is that if you look at the picture provided you will see that some are connected to be a group. This means they will all be in generally close proximity to one another but if you don't get them fast enough they will leave the music sheet and you will have to try again. The silver lining in this is that after you find around half or so you be able to use the dowsing option to search for them but it has to be while you are out of the water either on the tree or one of the floating lily pads.

007 Sequences

Finally there are areas in the game where you will have to sneak around like 007 in order to accomplish certain tasks. The most common areas for this are the Silent Realms. At the beginning of each Silent Realm you will be given a Spirit Vessel in which with 15 empty slots so that you have to seek 15 Sacred Tears whose locations are hidden until you find them at least once. However as soon as you leave the circle you will be hunted down by guardians of the Silent Realm and if they hit you, you will lose all the Sacred Tears you have collected thus far and begin all over. While hunting the Sacred Tears if you can collect 1 the guardians will be frozen for 90 seconds allowing you to collect the tears without fear of suddenly being attacked but should you step in water or be spotted by one of the ghosts in the Realm the Sacred Tears freezing effect will wear off and you will be hunted until you can get another Sacred Tear. In order to make the hunt easier there will be many beacon items which have the tears give off a beacon of light that will last for 30 seconds. During the course of the game there are 4 Silent Realms in which you have to complete.

The other 007 sequence outside of the Silent Realms is when you go to Elding Volcano in search of that area's Dragon for the Song of the Hero. While in the midst of landing the volcano will erupt and you will be flung to the ground and land unconscious and end up being caught by Bokoblins. They strip you off all you battle items & adventure pouch. You get back the Mogma Mitts from a friend in order to advance put you are on your own for the rest of your gear. This continues until you get into the temple at the top while reclaiming your gust bellows, claw shots, whip, slingshot, & bomb bag

To wrap things up I will say that this game has many unique challenges, parts of which made it both fun and frustrating. However I will considering all this I do believe that the LoZ team made the game far to heavy Wii Motion Plus oriented but the graphics, cutscenes, and battles made it memorable. Overall I would give the game a B and recommend that if you aren't the most patient of gamers this probably isn't a game for you.