#14: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

Skyward Sword always gets alot of hate that I mostly can not comprehend. I played it for the first time in 2012. Before that I watched my brother play it. In some sections he got extremely frustrated with the game because of the motion controls. Turns out it was all on him not paying attention to the tutorial, for example how to steer the bug, and always made the wrong movement. Apart from Fi (in the German version Phai, always funny seing other people not know how to pronounce it) offering her advice a few times to often and the description popping up for every small thing you pick up for the first time that play session, I never had any complaints. All of these issues were removed in the HD version. Now the intro isn't so painfully long anymore on replays either. The motion controls were only rarely an issue for me and in the Switch version even less so.

Now to the actual content of the game. The story is a standout for the Zelda series. One of the best Zelda stories with the second best iteration of Zelda herself to date. Ghirahim is the best secondary Zelda boss in the series and the best Zelda villain in general. His entire character is just so crazy and over the top. Groose (Bado in the German version) is also one of the best characters in the series and goes through a remarkable development throughout the game and really grows as a person. After he leaves his two henchmen finally start pursuing their own interests and especially the short one offers a very funny side quest. About the side quests. There are alot, some are basically fetch quests but a surprising amount a very distinct.

The sky is a bit empty, could gave done with a few more islands with treasure chests and other stuff, but there's already alot of stuff and it's fun to fly around. The three areas on the ground are very distinct and are a bit more compact than in previous Zelda games, which gives it a bit of a dungron crawler feeling. But they aren't 100% linear and there's alot of stuff to find. The second time you go there, it's always a bit different. My favorite section is where Link gets captured by bokoblins and has to find all his gear again. The flooded Faron forest is pretty fun to explore.

The actual dungeons themselves are fantastic, some of them among the best in the series. The sand ship and the ancient cistern are the best by far with the cistern being my favorite dungeon in the series. The over- and underworld themes and the part where you climb up a rope with undead bokoblin following you are the best parts. It's a metaphor for something, but I forgot for what exactly. Watched a video about it a few years back, it's really fascinating. More effort and thought than I could have ever imagined went into that dungeon. This masterpiece of a dungeon is then topped of with the imo second best boss fight in the series. The Ancient Automaton Koloktos is a remarkable boss, a guardian brought to life by Ghirahim.

When he dies in the end he emits a creepy and deeply unsettling childlike laughter. As if a kids soul was captured inside this huge metallic body. Also beating him up with his own blades is extremely satisfying.

The sand ship offers some genius level puzzles that are realy difficult to solve and the section before the boss with the tentacles destroying everything and the ship sinking is fantastic. The itself looks goofy but I never disliked it nearly as much as some other people do. Fighting a huge kraken is still exhilarating. Navigating the ocean before boarding the ship is also fun and there even is a mini dungeon with a second giant scorpion after the one in the mines. All three areas are better later on in the second half of the game. The items you get in the dungeons are great, some being among the best in the series like the bug.

Skyward Sword's enemies are well designed with some incredible variety and all of their movements snd attacks are centered around the motion controlled combat, with is incredibly fun, but I'm also a bit lazy, so I won't do that for to long at a time. This is where the button controls of the Switch version come into play. They're pretty good. My only issue is that you need to press a shoulder button before being able to move the camera manualy with the stick. It should be the other way around, you should press the shoulder button to use the sword. But I got used to it. The motion controls open up many options for great puzzles and I must say, the developers really gave it their all. Skyward Sword features some of the most creative puzzles in the series.

The Imprisoned is one of the worst bosses in the series. Fighting him is just pure stress. But it's also kinda the point of it. He is like an unstoppable force who wants revenge and to be freed and you're supposed to shit yourself. That said the second fight is just no fun at all. The third fight mixes it up a bit and is also meant to showcase how far Groose has come that he's even willing actively take part in the fight. So it's not all bad. More like a mediocre boss. Though I like the concept of cutting of his toes to make him fall over.

Freed by Ghirahim after an absolutely amazing fight against a literal army of bokoblins and moblins, out of the portal instead of the Imprisoned rises up in an epic shot Demise, the demon king, king of evil. And his hair turn flaming red. It's an entrance like none other in the series as he turns Ghirahim back into a sword, his zrue form, revealing that Fi and Ghirahim are opposites of each other, good and evil. One belongs to the leader of the under world Demise, the other one belonged to the leader of the over world Godess Hylia. After an epic fight that is only rivaled by the fights against Ganondorf in Twilight Princess, Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time, Demise before he dies lays a curse upon Link and Zelda that explains why Ganon always keeps returning.

A masterful game that I see as one of the best in the series now freed of it's minor inconveniences in the HD rerelease through which it reaches true greatness.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the sixth Zelda game on my list so far.

Kudos to anyone who reads that essay above, because I probably wouldn't. I just couldn't stop writing.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Really takes time to write some of them.

This game was the groundwork for a lot of similar titles. Strategic base building and research in real time, but turn-based tactical missions if UFOs turned up. That was a very enticing and addicting mix.

This game led to my first all-nighter. I had the mindset: I only do this, just one more UFO mission, I need to get to the end of the month funds to build just one more building. And then it started to get bright outside and birds started singing. I just hadn't noticed how the time was gone.

I still remember the horror of the terror missions. Because these civilians just ran randomly into the aliens and were killed. And I got punished in the rating. That was unfair, they just had to hide behind my soldiers!

But it was so satisfying to shoot down the UFOs, explore them and finally even storm their bases.

The game was called UFO: Enemy Unknown here in europe, but X-COM: UFO Defense in the US. There were quite a few direct sequels in the 90s, starting with terror from the deep. Then in a phase the focus of the industry shifted and the series was forgotten, until Firaxis remade this original game as XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which probably a lot of you know.

The original game is still available on platforms like GOG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttggec6eJFY

Don't expect either to be right, but they sort of fit the clues I guess

9 - Hotel Dusk

6 - Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

Hmm. Dark Forces?

"Skyward Sword always gets alot of hate that I mostly can not comprehend."

What's not to comprehend? It's a game that hinges like 99% of its combat and gameplay upon a motion control gimmick that is unreliable as hell. (I personally spent 20+ hours on this game, and like 2-3 hours of that was JUSt recalibrating the controller when it didn't work.) Oh, and on top of that fi is just the worst thing ever, making like 80% of the game's puzzle solving useless or so earmarked a 4 year old could figure it out. "LINK! THERE'S A 90% CHANCE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THAT BUILDING!" okay, so I guess I go to that building? Linear is fine - most of my favourite games are linear - but this is Zelda on rails. 

I'm giving the game another shot on Switch, as I hear these two issues (Fi and motion controls/combat) are almost entirely fixed or alleviated, but I don't understand how some people can look at this game and be baffled by the negativity surrounding it. 

If Fi didn't bother you and the motion controls worked fine for you, that's great! I'd LOVE to play the game in a position where the combat actually worked and I didn't have to deal with one of the most annoying game characters/mechanics in the history of gaming! If you're into that, I'd genuinely be happy for you! But come on man, don't act like it's so strange for people to be critical of it. I GET why you like it, even if I disagree, but the criticism is there for a very good reason. 

Indeed, Star Wars: Dark Forces.

No, both guesses are wrong unfortunately. Haven't played either game actually. Soul Reaver is the only Legacy of Kain game I've played.

In my post I explained that I almost never had issues with the motion controls. I played the game for the first time when I was 10 years old and thoroughly enjoyed it. I played it 6 or 7 times on the Wii and I don't remember Fi ever being anywhere near as annoying as you're describing. I tend to remember the good things, not the bad or whatever. 

You seem to have gotten yourself a bit to much worked up about me not hating something you hate. You're weird.

You know people say that Navi from OoT is annoying, but I also disagree with that. I am able to enjoy a game without getting pissed by every minor inconvenience.

Edit: Also, I said "mostly".

11 Etrian Odyssey Untold