What is the consensus on Skyward Sword?

[MAX PAYMENT]

Skyward sword, 25th anniversary zelda, the last game before the radical departure that was breath of the wild.

The game had some interesting motion controls that will probably never be revisited. What did you all think of it?

 

[ILikeFeet]

it's great

 

[BDS]

A game with cool characters, a cool story, and a cool setting but a very bland overworld and dungeons and janky motion controls that largely sour the experience and render it forgettable.

 

[Linde]

a very good game
if the consensus is the most popular opinion, that's probably it

 

[Richietto]

The motion controls are actually fine. Its all the handholdy, backtracky, unnecessarily bloaty bullshit I can't stand. It suffers from that Nintendo Wii era mentality we all hated. And it really sucks because I really like all the other stuff in the game. I just can't reaplay it to enjoy the good parts becausae well, then I would have to get through the really bad stuff.

 

[Huey]

I really enjoyed it and think the hate is waaaaay overblown. Absolutely beautiful too.

 

[Forerunner]

The worst 3D Zelda, but a decent game still.

 

[Deleted member 48434]

I like it a lot, and I feel alone in thinking that.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

As a one-off Zelda experience, I appreciate it.

I'm glad the series didn't stick with this format though.

 

[TheCongressman]

I love the gameplay and the controls, I strongly dislike the world structure and pacing.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Excellent game that was a radical departure from the formula. Easily the best Zelda character in the franchise.

 

[banter]

It's absolutely incredible once you get used to the motion controls. (except Fi, she never stops being annoying)

 

[Civilstrife]

There is none.

 

[DarkSora]

As a big Zelda fan, it pains me to say it but it's such a forgettable game.

 

[goddamnimglam]

It feels like they got too in their heads a lot of the time. My personal favorite parts were the stealth parts, loved the story but the world itself feels ass backwards. And it suffers from the post Wind Waker spell of 3D Zeldas having an epic looking but ass easy final boss. I do love many parts of it, especially the Ancient Cistern temple, but it feels like the game gets in its own way more often than not.

 

[Glass Arrows]

The overall reception to Skyward Sword is somewhat mixed.

My take is that the game is fun enough on a first playthrough, with some nice puzzles and a few good dungeons, but it's got a lot of problems. It's not a bad game but it's the worst 3D Zelda.

I will say though that the motion controls are not nearly as bad as some people have said. Like 95% of the time I had no issue with them, the game's problems lie more with an atrocious overworld, poor enemy variety, excessive handholding, and other things.

 

[Weebos]

Good game that is (unfortunately) built around a much maligned control scheme.

It is quite fun, and I'd like to see it ported some day, but I doubt we will ever see a version without motion controls.

 

[Viceratops]

It is the worst prominent AAA game ever made.

 

[Oddish1]

The impression I've always had is that the consensus is that Skyward Sword is a very good game. The disagreements are mainly how good it is relative to other Zelda games (The correct answer being that it's one of the best ones).

 

[Sub Boss]

Fun combat, main town, everything else 👎

 

[Deleted member 1413]

It's still a good game but not what people wanted out of the franchise.
Sequelitis did a number on it, but I think people would be fond of it with a remaster that fixes some of its issues

 

[Dice]

It's good enough, but too long and too gimmicky.

 

[steviestar3]

It's a bad game.

 

[Burning Justice]

It definitely has some haters, but I think the majority liked it. For me personally, while it wasn't my favorite Zelda game I liked what it did a lot. It didn't take me long to get used to the controls.

 

[oatmeal]

Easily the worst overall design of a Zelda game.

But also has some of the best dungeon designs.

It's a mixed game with high highs but far too many low lows.

 

[jack_package_200]

Motion controls were incredibly obnoxious

 

[LewieP]

The bump in the road that fortunately triggered the much needed reinvention.

 

[Castor Archer]

Fantastic game. The tutorial and items messages are annoying but far from making it a bad game.

 

[Powerofthecloud]

My least liked Zelda on a console. The controls were gimmicky and the graphics were dated at the time of release with made it worse coming from windwaker.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

I absolutely fucking hated it. The waggle gimmick wore thin before you even got out of the eternally long tutorial zone at the beginning. The graphics were great though. Nintendo really found some interesting ways to work around the weaknesses of the Wii. I would play it again with normal controls.

 

[WestEgg]

It's a very good game in a series where greatness is the expectation. It has some more obvious and agreed upon flaws than probably any other game in the series, which is why it probably has the worst reputation of the 3D games, but I personally think it has some of the best highs as well that go underrated. I'm not saying it's perfect by any means, but it's far from my last favorite in the series, even among the 3D games.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

It was okay. I recall feeling like it was too long more than anything.

 

[Deleted member 2474]

The dungeons sucked. The controls sucked. There were only like three dungeon aesthetics repeated across seven dungeons. The music wasn't even that great. The overworld sucked. The story was barely there. The Imprisoned sucked. The mandatory stealth fetch-quest bullshit sucked. Tadtones nearly made me rage-quit the game out of sheer boredom. No one would forgive this game if it didn't have the Zelda branding. It's a 6/10 at best. The Metacritic score is an insult. It's not "bad for a Zelda game", it's just bad, period.

 

[StallionDan]

Terrible use of motion controls and poor tech. Desync, desync, desync.

No wonder they added a resync button as a main button for the game. It needed it.

Replacing IR aiming like TP used with the crappy guiding system using motion was stupid.

 

[base_two]

It's an outstanding game, but not without its flaws. The critics largely got it right with the GOTY and 10/10s it received in its release year as the core of the game, the dungeons, were really generation leading content. Easily some of the best puzzles and theming the Zelda series has to offer.

It's weird, for the most part, Breath of the Wild's weaknesses are Skyward Sword's strengths. Except for combat.

 

[ZeroX]

Incredible game. The controls were great and worked well for me. Loved how dungeons evolved over time.

A little on the long side but at least it wasn't nearly as repetitive as BotW was and had proper progression and dungeons.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Fi is grating when it comes to staring the obvious.
The game pads itself.
The game is very handholdy.
No nightime on the ground sucks.

Story is good.
A few of the best dungeons of the series.
Motion controls are fine.

Good game, good amount to still criticize.

 

[Deleted member 19218]

Great game. Just a shame we got such good motion controls at the end of the Wii.

Imagine if we had stuff like that from the start in Twilight Princess rather than just waggling the wiimote.

 

[Deleted member 4260]

Great game with some noticeable flaws that could be addressed with a re-release.

 

[mute]

The motion controls were fine outside of a couple bosses.
Some of the repetition in story/plot was bad.
I wish there was more connectivity between the different surface areas

But mostly, at the time, I was feeling it more than TP. That water/urn dungeon was the shit.

 

[KtSlime]

Should get a Switch port.

 

[Laurel_McFang]

It was weirdly the must inventive of the Zeldas I felt, hope it gets a joy-con re-issue with a full cardboard master sword, but felt boxed in and set piece like and less like the open world of the other Zeldas. Loved everything else about it and would gladly replay it. Motion Controls were janky for me and took a lot of getting used to, but felt the creativity of the dungeon design and the small enclosed set pieces propped it along. Sad that this will not get a remaster with some like the lighthouse system that comes with the Vive.

 

[JershJopstin]

If you couldn't tell from all the personal opinions being given, there isn't a real consensus.

 

[banter]

While I feel like a lot of the criticisms are hyperbolic (especially the ones about the motion controls), I will add to my previous post that the intro section of the game was entirely too long, tutorials are annoying, and Fi is obnoxious af (I said that already but it needed repeating). The puzzles and dungeons were fantastic.

Spoiler

Especially in the desert when you have the time travel stone things, I absolutely loved that whole section

 

[Ramsay]

It's good, bordering on great, but it's easily the weakest 3D Zelda game.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

One of the worst AAA releases of the last decade of gaming.

 

[ShadowFox08]

There is none. It's probably the most polarizing 3d Zelda game on a console. Like half the people hate it mostly because they never got used to the controls and probably haven't played any motion control games on Wii outside Wii sports, and the other half like it

 

[NookSports]

I want to see post-BOTW Nintendo's re-release of Skyward Sword. If they tone down Fi it would be much better.

I'd also love additional content in the sky.

 

[Oddish1]

I remember the Joystiq (RIP) review of the game summed up Skyward Sword best when they described it as the best in the series buried underneath a bunch of annoying problems. It has some of the highest highs of the franchise with some of the lowest lows. I think it's the Zelda game that could benefit the most from a remaster to smooth out its problems but its motion controls make it difficult for it to do so.

 

[NathanS]

I Really REALLY like, but the for those that hate it a lot it creates such vitriol that I just don't feel its worth the trouble to talk about it much. I don't feel any real conversation will ever get beyond having to justify liking it to those that hate it.