A slightly different review this week. Over the last 2 weeks I have barely read anything as I was celebrating both mine and my boyfriend’s birthdays. I was so busy I couldn’t pick up a book which meant I have no book to review for today. But last night I did complete my play through of Skyward Sword HD and I thought I would give my thoughts about this game and my thoughts on all the changes.

Plot: Skyward Sword is the first game in the Zelda timeline detailing the origins of the Master Sword, a recurring weapon within the series. Link, resident of a floating town called Skyloft, heads on a quest to rescue his childhood friend Zelda after she is kidnapped and brought to the Surface, an abandoned land below the clouds.

I wanted to start off by talking about the story/plot of the game first. It is one of my all time favourite storylines of ANY Legend of Zelda game to this day!

I love how this story is the beginning of everything. We learn how important items like the Master Sword are created and how the Kingdom of Hyrule began! I love any prequel kind of focus, I like seeing what happened to bring our characters to where we are when we first meet them. And I love how this game does this but on such a grand scale, they are setting up and giving backstory to elements that will impact thousands of years into the future. I love the magnitude and importance of this game and it’s story.

This game not only has a really interesting plot of good vs evil, which I can’t really get into due to spoilers, but it also is paired alongside some amazing characters. Link and Zelda are statement characters in the franchise, I always know I am going to love them, but what makes this game so good is it’s brand new characters like Groose and Ghirahim. Groose has the most perfect character arc ever, at the beginning of the game I couldn’t stand him and by the end that man had me tearing up and I wanted to give him a great big hug. Then you have Ghirahim, the antagonist of the game, who was super fun and exciting and went against loads of stereotypical tropes when it comes to villains in these games. I loved his energy and his flamboyance!

One character that actually improved for me was the character Fi, she plays your companion in this game. Working alongside you on this journey to save Zelda and in the original game she could get quite annoying with constantly popping up and giving you information you already knew. They made some changes which meant she only popped up when it was super necessary and that meant you connected more with her as you no longer found her bugging you every 5 mins and would appreciate the moments you had together. I personally loved her in both versions but I loved the changes they made in terms of anti-frustration features.

The colour palette of this game was beautiful. One of the things that stuck out to me this time round was how much I loved the varying settings and could just spend hours exploring both Skyloft and the Surface. It was incredibly beautiful and colourful and I really enjoyed finding hidden chests and little easter eggs.

Next I want to focus on the gameplay. So, I was in the minority with this original game in the fact that I liked the original motion controls. I never had an issue with them so I was shocked when I realised how many people didn’t like the motion controls and therefore didn’t like the game as a whole. When they announced the option to do either motion controls or button controls for the HD version I knew instantly that I was going to continue with the motion controls but this time round I really struggled. My right hand control would never do exactly what I wanted which made fighting the monsters really hard. I don’t think the sensors were great with these controllers and while it didn’t make me dislike the game in anyway it did make it more frustrating in terms of progression and battles.

Certain battles were actually easier though once I got round to understanding how the controls functioned with this new system. The Imprisoned which is a monster you fight numerous times was a lot more enjoyable this time around. I hated fighting it originally but I actually enjoyed it this time round especially after seeing new tricks that I can use to defeat it. Fighting bosses like Moldarach was easier this time round. Even fighting the big boss at the end took me THREE times in my first play through but in the HD version I defeated it first go!

I also felt that the dungeons were more fun and exciting to traverse and explore than when I originally played it. Maybe it was because I knew what was coming or the fact I have gone through loads of dungeons since first playing Skyward Sword but I enjoyed the dungeons a lot more this time round!

Overall, I don’t think the game did anything out of the box with this version. I still enjoyed playing it because I love the story and characters but the controls I don’t think were improved and I preferred the original ones. But I am super happy to have a copy of this game for my Nintendo Switch.

I will be reviewing a book next week and that book will be, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I have heard loads of great things about this series so I can’t wait to start it.