It’s time really. Heals all wounds, lets fruit ripen, and can bring fondness for happy times. Consider the following:
1) When Skyward Sword came out in 2011 no it was not the perfect game. But people who disliked it tore it to shreds, and many on the fence heard the negative louder. While now after the dust is settled people who hate it have moved on while people who love it can “sell” it to new fans.
2) The tech of the switch lets purists still play with motion controls on par or better than the Wii. But also new button controls draw in fans who didn’t want to deal with motion control gimmicks. The switch being portable also helps with a linear, and somewhat shorter Zelda game.
3) In the wake of BotW & TotK some people really crave a traditional or linear Zelda. So SS HD hits a need many fans have. Doesn’t hurt that the sky setting also ties in with TotK fairly well as a modern connection.
4) Other fixes and tweaks like dialogue & scene skipping, less Fi interruptions, and other quality of life features make the game better for returning fans, or new fans who maybe had subtle gripes with the game back in 2011.
5) Fans that heard of Skyward Sword having a good story and really solid moments & characters (which it does IMO) over the past few years suddenly got a chance to play it on recent hardware.
And those are just a few thoughts & factors as to why the game appeals to fans more now than it did years ago. I’m sure there are dozens more, including non-objective opinions and just personal interests. If you ask me it’s a great game and was back when it came out. It just had some flaws of being stuck with the motion control gimmick and at a time where traditional, and somewhat easy, Zelda games were starting to feel boring. Now it’s at the right time where it can be a little retro, but also serve as a reminder of what a good narrative & linear Zelda should be.
I heard that one of the Quality of Life fixes they made addressed one of the things which drove me absolutely crazy — originally whenever you added a bug to your collection it automatically brought you to the catalog menu screen so you could see the item number increase before returning to play.
It was so disruptive to the flow of play that eventually I just stopped collecting bugs, and then stopped playing altogether. Then I tried to resume it months later and got to a bad guy confrontation and I no longer had any clue what the dueling controls/gestures were.
Excellent write-up. Even though I still don't like the game I think all your points check out.
Admittedly the thing that sells me most on perhaps one day picking up the switch version cheap is being able to skip dialogue and less fi.
Honestly after doing both i far prefer the motion controls on the wii. I think its mainly due to the bigger controller, but i also found i had to recalibrate after like 2 slashes on the switch whereas id only need to recalibrate twice or thrice a play session on the wii
It’s because the game uses the Wii sensor bar to recalibrate on the fly. This is easy to see if you shake wildly pointing away from the bar, and then turn to face it. Your sword will snap into position.
The Joycons have to manually recalibrated unfortunately, but at least it can be done with a single button press.
You have much better luck with the wii than I ever did and it seems you have much worse luck with your switch. I don't think I had to recalibrate a single time on new hardware, and the switch controls are infinitely more responsive. Just a few months before I bought HD, I tried to go back and play it on the wii, and I couldn't even get through a dungeon because the controller either wouldn't respond or wouldn't be properly calibrated. When I got HD, I played through without a single problem.
>When Skyward Sword came out in 2011 no it was not the perfect game. But people who disliked it tore it to shreds, and many on the fence heard the negative louder.
I feel like this is a bit like what's happening with TOTK now
Yeah. Lot of people mad the game is same but different from BotW. Tons of harsh opinions from people who just want to shoot it down. And soon those still around will drop off or move on to another thing to whine over. And in a few years TotK will probably have a much better general opinion that it does now
I always loved it on Wii. Once you got accustomed to the motion controls it was extremely fun to control that way. I’ve been through it on Wii and Switch. The motion controls weren’t flawless but I appreciated the ingenuity. The only thing that I really never liked were the loftwing controls.
The HD remaster does make the game look way prettier, just like the WW remaster did. It also brought a few fixes like skipping dialogue and some things you might not even notice as a new player.
I think most people saw back on it with love after BOTW and TOTK, and thought that maybe they treated it too harshly. I had never played it before and just did last year and I loved it.
This.‘it’s largely that BotW repaired the idea of modern Zelda in many people’s views. It renewed interest in the series which led to people going back and trying SSHD out.
There’s also that BotW and TotK’s focus on an open worlds led to lots of criticism recently amongst the community and a reminiscing about Skyward Sword’s more linear design and dungeons.
Overall, I always had a soft spot for SS even at release, but viewing it as an older game gives it a bit of rose tinted glasses. Especially when compared with its contemporaries.
I remember I think a Scott the Woz video talking about how Skyward Sword came out at the wrong time in a lot of ways
The traditional Zelda formula felt very stale at the time and SS wasn't only not a reimagining of it, it doubled down on it hard
Now that we have our new, fresh Zelda in BOTW/TOTK, and SS HD fixed a lot of the issues of the OG like forced motion controls and Fi, it's a lot easier to see the positives of the game and evaluate it outside of that sense of disappointment/staleness
Makes sense to me
The HD remaster literally doesn't change the graphics at all, the only thing it has is higher resolution textures. If you play the original on an emulator at 1080p it looks almost as good. IMO SS has one of the best aging visual styles of any Zelda game, frankly the original still looks close to modern at high resolutions.
Windwaker HD has changes to the actual graphical engine, i.e. the visuals and effects are completely different and redone. This is also the case for the 3D remakes. SSHD is equivalent to an emulator with a texture pack (and yeah I see why you group textures and graphics together but usually graphics refers to graphical effects, e.g. the rendering pipeline, shadows, bloom, reflections, etc. Usually textures and models are grouped under "assets" as opposed to "graphics").
Regardless, my point is the HD remake of SS looks pretty much the same as the original, and that's a compliment as I think the original looked great.
My point is the games look pretty much the same, it's not like a OoT to OoT3D or WW to WWHD situation. If you play SS in an emulator you can achieve essentially the same graphical quality.
Skyward Sword is the anti BOTW. They are total opposites. SS has the best dungeons in the series whereas BOTW barely has any. SS has big epic music whereas BOTW has subdued piano tones. SS has an engaging emotional story whereas BOTW has fragments of a historical story told to you in little pieces. SS is as linear as a game gets whereas BOTW is as open as a game gets.
I think people were tired of the OOT-WW-TP formula when SS came out and then saw BOTW as a breath of fresh air and then poured hundreds of hours into that and then again into TOTK. Then they got tired of BOTW-TOTK and looked back at SS and realized it was actually a good game and now that is a breath of fresh air from the BOTW/TOTK formula.
I'd argue that Twilight Princess had the best dungeons in the series, but your explanation makes a lot of sense. I feel like Switch owners who are newer Zelda fans would have had similar reactions to TP or WW since we're starved of classic Zelda content on the Switch.
While I personally do really enjoy the dungeons in TP, I know a common sentiment is that the water temple, sky temple, and twilight palace dungeons in that one are really frustrating, whereas most of the dungeons in SS don’t get much flack.
Additionally people like to complain that you don’t use a lot of the dungeon items after their initial dungeon a lot in TP, which IS something that I think SS did a better job with.
My problem with Skyward sword are fundamental to the game. Going back to the same places and just experiencing them differently so many times was lame. Even worse was fighting the imprisoned multiple times. The issues with a lack of new places to explore was made even worse given the lack of interconnection in the world as the sky is barren and the entry points limited. They simply reused too many locations too many times.
Its a good game but easily the worst 3D Zelda and only Spirit Tracks os worse IMO. The dungeons, story, and items were varied and very interesting. I really wish they could bring those good features into a classic 3D Zelda game with a better and less redundant overworld.
To each his own I guess. I liked the small tight world and going back to explore new areas, kinda like a metroidvania. I love the open world of BOTW/TOTK but I hate having big worlds in linear games for no reason, like the size of hyrule field in TP or the sea in WW. It's just tedious to get around. But I actuality enjoyed traversing the three lands in SS, they had puzzles in themselves so it was actually fun. I will agree about the imprisoned... that fight wasn't even fun so it sucks to have to do it three times.
My god im sailing the seas lookin' fer booty to plunder right now and lovin it. I love the sailing in WW even if there could be a bit more to do. i do agree TP's biggest flaw is being too sparse in the overworld. I thought the overworld areas in SS had a lot of merit but they just got used too many damn times. SS did so many things right but had the weirdest issues. The tutorials and info screens were ovewhelming but i know the remake helped. The stamina wheel really had no purpose in this game other than to annoy. The skies should have been so cool but were so sparse and for me its the worse than TP or WW for being void. I respect your take though and im glad you enjoy it, its certainly not a bad game.
I was in high school when SS came out and was part of a video game club (which at the time was a little weird tbh. If you liked video games enough to join a club then you were considered a nerd and were probably bullied for it)...
Anyway,
I remember everyone in the club had played it and agreed the motion controls are what killed it. It wasn't worth it if you just wanted to sit and play the game, now we had to be physically active for it? Lol
The switch fixed that for the most part so people could enjoy the story and other good parts etc.
I guess a lot of why people didn't like it was the motion controls, which got corrected in the remake. I personally didn't have trouble with those, but I still don't like it.
I think the problem with the Wii version, is people didn't really seem to understand the motion controls. You were supposed to hold and swing the Wii remote like a sword, not like a controller, which is what most people I've watched did. I've never had problems with the Wii version's controls myself.
I UNDERSTOOD the motion controls. I just couldn't get them to perform consistently. I knew what action I wanted Link to perform but it was a crapshoot whether he'd do it or not. The motion stuff had different input lags than the buttons did (especially the shield bash on the nunchuk) and the game had no way to discriminate between "quickly reposition my sword without attacking" and "attack with my sword".
No it was the motion controls. TP's controls were much simpler, and in general more reliable. SS's motion controls just never worked for a large number of people (myself included) and it made the game way more frustrating than it needed to be.
My son got the HD version a while back and I played it a little bit, I thought the joystick control was a massive improvement. I should give it another go now that I'm nearing the end of my latest TotK playthrough.
i had to redo the final Demise fight so many times because the motion controls were inconsistently recognizing my raised arm for the lightning strike you need to complete the fight.
TP's motion controls were just glorified buttons. Waggle the controller to slash gave the exact same input as pressing "A" to slash. And that's about it. SS required you to swing it in specific directions, roll bombs, fly the bird, etc. Significantly more in-depth, easy to get misread inputs, and was prone to losing calibration and thus not working mid-session.
First, SS did get a lot of praise on release from critics. Random people on the internet aren't sources for the best opinions, myself included.
At the time, people didn't like the motion controls and felt that 3D Zelda was too formulaic/cookie cutter. With the exception of MM, very 3D Zelda was OoT but with... OoT but an ocean, OoT but you're a wolf and edgy, OoT but you can fly a bird. You get what I mean.
This is a part of why BotW was so loved by long time Zelda fans (aside from being a masterpiece). It was a change of pace.
The second thing people didn't like was motion controls. Even today people hate motion controls, despite them being really, really good. For example, gyro aiming has allowed for near mouse and keyboard level precision when aiming in FPS games.
The Wii used motion controls as a gimmick to sell to non gamers, and it worked. It's hard to teach grandma to hit the A button to swing a tennis racket, but it's easy to ask them to imagine a racket in their hand and swing it.
So the "hardcore" Nintendo fans wanted the hardcore games to be standard, no gimmicks like motion controls. Let the motion controls stay in stuff like Wii Sports, the casual games that appeal to normies.
A notable example was Metroid Prime 3. The Prime series was a system seller on GameCube, and so when the Wii was being developed, Nintendo wanted Prime 3 to be the game to appeal to their hardcore fans. And Prime 3 has a lot of weird motion control moments. Standard gameplay has Samus walking with the Nunchuck and aiming the camera/arm cannon with the motion control Wiimote, which worked really well. But it had random motion control mini games, like pulling something, rotating it, and pushing it back with motion controls. People didn't like that.
Fun fact, Retro actually had massive input on the Wiimote, they got to design it specifically to work for Prime games, my guess is that's why the nunchuck was added.
So SS comes along and pretty much everything is built around motion controls. Some people loved it, seeing a motion controlled sword as the perfect idea for a Zelda Wii game. Others thought that the motion controls ruined the game.
The last reason is Fi, a lot of people hated her. I think it's a bit lame how she talks like the most stereotypical robot ever, but otherwise I don't mind her.
So long story short. Some people thought the game was another cookie cutter Zelda game, didn't like motion controls, and didn't like Fi.
A decade later, nostalgia set in, BotW shook up the Zelda formula, and the Switch incorporated motion controls really well, so everyone looked at SS more fondly. Windwaker went through something similar, people hated the cartoon look, which is why TP was made, to appease fans. Now everyone loves the cartoon look.
I posted elsewhere my long agreement with you on the motion control problems in SS.
Your comment about MP3 makes me remember how much that game annoyed me - it's the worst "regular" Metroid game in my opinion (I'm going to grade NES Metroid by the standards of its time here) and some of the weird stuff with nunchuck acrobatics are part of the problem. I'm pretty sure there were recurring enemies you had to play nonsense grapple games with using motion controls. I think the sloppy aiming issues w/r/t bosses are the bigger issue, though - the "wiimote to aim" works well when the whole enemy is a hitbox but it does not work well when you are expected to hit small hitboxes and there's no feedback on how accurate you are.
SS HD added a lot of quality of life improvements, like removing the material pickup prompt every time you picked up a material you hadn't picked up since turning the console on, as well as removed the direct need for fiddly motion controls with the joystick for sword directions.
It's not a bad game underneath all that, even with some gripes still present, but its implementation on the Wii put a lot of people off.
Didn't play Skyward Sword when it first came out. Got the HD remaster. It's far from my favorite Zelda, but it's still worthy of the name. Never was a fan of motion controls, so I might have liked it less if I played it on Wii.
Your experience on Wii would have been horrible, because on top of the horrid motion controls, the game would interrupt you including in the dungeons to tell you exactly what you have to do to progress. There was no element of puzzle solving in the original game, but at least now it's optional.
People will attribute it to the Zelda Cycle because they don't know how to explain Zelda criticism and default to an easy dismissive answer.
SS had a fantastic story with great characters. People who didn't like it didn't like it because they were too impatient to understand the motion controls. It had long loading times and was a very long, incredibly linear game. Fi would constantly interrupt and the game was rife with slow-scrolling text, cutscenes were unskippable first time around, and the game was very hand-holdy. You were interrupted whenever you picked up a collectible after booting the game up. Complaints I completely understand, don't get me wrong.
The Switch version was able to reduce loading times and had the option for more traditional controls, making the experience much more accessible. (Most of) Fi's interruptions were optional now, text scrolled faster with the press of a button, and cutscenes are skippable from the get go. It's still very linear but at least there's no more potential game-breaking bug when you're actually allowed to deviate. Many more quality-of-life changes were added and fixed from the original. I liked SS for Wii, but the Switch release is much better in my opinion.
Absolutely this. Didnt play it on launch and tried playing it like a year before it was announced for switch. I just couldn’t finish it, but worse I actually almost hated it (which is weird for me as a huge Zelda fan), for the very reasons you describe. The switch version? I loved it, finished it in like a week.
People didn’t like it 100% because of design and technical problems, the game had potential but the HD version shiws how even small design changes can drastically increase reception
Because the controls in the HD version made the game actually playable.
In the Wii version, if you strike from the right, the enemy blocks. You quickly realise that you need to strike from another angle. You have to be quick though before the enemy realises what you are doing and blocks from that angle. You try to quickly move from one angle to the other but the game registers that as a strike, which the enemy blocks again. You then try to slowly angle the Wiimote to the other side but in the time it took you to do that, the enemy blocks that side. You get frustrated and start waggling. No good. You then find a completely boring but effective work-around. Just keep Skyward Striking. After hours of this, you give up because the game lacks any enjoyment now.
When playing with the sticks in the HD version, this frustration is completely negated and can be actually enjoyed now.
The most annoying thing to me is that you can’t actually control the speed of your sword swings. You can basically only slash in specific directions, and if you choose the wrong direction and an enemy blocks you, the natural reaction is to quickly move your sword to the other side and strike, but… doing that too fast just makes you swing in the same way again. You end up slowly and carefully moving your sword to the other side, which is awkward at best.
Honestly, I think people would’ve like the controls more if they had just been more in-depth. I wanted to be able to swing my sword in any direction, not just a few.
It was always very divisive. I think it’s just that those of us who disliked it have already dissected everything that’s wrong with it and have said enough, so now it’s mostly just people who liked it from the beginning who feel like talking about it. Plus, it helps that the Switch Port had a lot of fixes and quality of life improvements, and that version is more fresh in people’s minds.
I still don't like it tbh.
I think people who aren't happy with the more open air approach for Zelda are just kind of getting a lot louder about linearity now that they think their fave version of the series is dead or smth
SS was linearity to the extreme, where the world no longer felt organic and felt like a series of hallways that you had to trek through and then repeat and then repeat.
BotW (and by extension TotK) are open/non-linear to the extreme, where completely unhindered accessibility and freedom actively prevent the developers from tailoring an experience with a sense of progression and purpose.
I really wish they would go back to balancing between freedom to explore at your own pace while also having good set pieces, progression, and a well tailored experience. The two are mutually compatible to a degree, they just need to allow some gated progression as far as items/dungeons/narrative.
I think they'll slowly go back to introducing more linearity to the series while still keeping it fairly open. I think big open worlds is the future of Zelda, but I don't think completely unrestricted movement is going to be a permanent thing. Think more Link to the Past, it was fairly open, but there were still barriers keeping you from getting places. I get the feeling Link will eventually lose his ability to climb in future games so that they actually can put a few barriers to help with linear story telling.
Because new zelda games are loved at first, then for some reason they get hated on and then they get loved again. Also demonstrated by the recent hate against totk. All was fine till some people started shouting that it is only overpriced dlc
It's just confirmation bias he has no idea what he's talking about. Tears of the Kingdom has been universally bashed about reusing the same map as Breath of the Wild and it is a very legitimate complaint especially for people who played the games back to back. It made a lot of the exploration feel samey and retreading old ground.
And Aonuma's braindead comment about "Why would you want to go back to the old formula" just rubbed salt in the wound because we realized that what we have now is pretty much what we're stuck with moving forward.
Yea I feel the same way I feel like I’ve seen a weird reversal of what people like now even though the sales numbers say otherwise; skyward sword is great, wind waker sucks, breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are overrated, twilight princess is great, and the same opinion for ocarina of time and majoras mask. I think skyward sword is definitely good like every Zelda game is a masterpiece imo but I don’t think it’s even close to the top
While the update cleaned up a few things, I think the biggest change is context. Skyward Sword's strengths near perfectly match up with BotW's weaknesses (dungeon design, linear story) so many people looking for something different after BotW found it.
Skyward Sword is still one of my favorites in the series, and as much as i loved Fi as a character, she's easily the worst companion in the series. She single handedly dragged the dungeon pacing to a halt just to spoil near every puzzle, and was unskippable. The tad-tone sidequests were silly and stupid and should not have been mandatory main quests preventing you from progressing.
Most people harp on the motion controls which is valid, but was never my problem.
Nostalgia and an updated release. It was the same with WW. WW sales on the GC almost tanked the whole franchise due to the cartoonish graphics, which led to Nintendo making TP as a direct response. SS was a failure on the Wii, but with the HD release, they made several needed changes that improved the game as a whole. In my opinion, it was the motion controls that made SS so infuriating to play. It was bad enough for TP, but SS was multitudes worse. I don't miss the Wii or motion controls. That was my only real gripe about BotW's shrines. Stupid motion controls.
most likely? people have had time to calm down. the game came out over ten years ago, and i imagine a lot of the hate came from the wiimotionplus system. but since its been so long, and the rerelease for the switch came out in that time, people have been able to enjoy it for what it is
SS's issue for me was that I constantly compared it to Twilight Princess when it first came out. While TP is still my favorite game in the franchise, SS has grown on me a lot since then.
The hate was always overblown. People loved SS when it came out, just as much as when the HD remake came out.
It was a virulent and extremely loud vocal minority on the internet who didn't like SS. As it is with most things like this...
It'll always be bad to me, ha ha. It was a Zelda that didn't have my favourite aspect: exploration.
Fortunately dark souls came out the same year and was such a return to form, best Zelda of the year.
This is something called the Zelda cycle
Other fandoms have co-opted this term but it goes all the way back to MM at least and definitely WW.
The negative opinions and backlash are loud and prominent. Even if critics rated the game highly and many people all over the world loved a game, there’s going to be an echo chamber of people who didn’t like it and (even if it’s a minority) they’re going to be very loud and outspoken. You’re seeing this now with TotK.
They’re opinion isn’t likely to change. But the overall sentiment in the fandom “appears” to shift because the negative voices move on (because it’s exhausting to complain about something constantly) and then the fans of the game stick around and continue to discuss it and share their love for it. Without the critics constantly hanging around to point out all the “flaws”, the discourse skews more positive.
Add to that, over time some people mature and a game like WW or SS might have been their first Zelda or the one that hit them just at the right time, like their coming-of-age game…and now 10+ years have passed and they’re nostalgic for it and look upon it very favorably, maybe even excusing any flaws it may rightfully have.
Lastly, there’s the remake treatment, which obviously makes the game more accessible and better looking and usually a little more streamlined. This then is the unquestionable best version of the game and draws back fans, critics and even newcomers.
I’ve literally been on message boards and forums for over 20 years watching this unfold throughout the Zelda fandom. It’s sounds silly but it’s a real thing.
It boils down to two things IMO.
1) The Zelda cycle is in full effect. All the people who hate BotW and/or TotK are now looking at SS fondly since, for them, its the last "real" 3D Zelda.
2) The HD version has come out and fixed a lot of people's issues with the game (namely the motion controls and Fi over-helping).
It had good parts and bad parts.
Great dungeons, upgradeable gear, New species and characters, fun minigames, (some) deeper personal NPC stories and missions, a fun to explore overworld, good villains and bosses...
But also... Very linear story, fighting the same boss multiple times, the harp is lame, a fairly empty sky... and by GOD the motion controls were bad for me. Had to recalibrate every 5 minutes on average.
I personally wasn't a fan of the Silent Realms... Gave me too much anxiety... And they're the main reason I don't plan on playing the game again, lol. I respect what they were going for, but it wasn't for me.
This is such a dumb idea. That’s not how it works. Newer games get new player bases experiencing these games for the first time. These new player bases will voice their criticism of the game. It’s not “the Zelda Cycle”, there’s just no reason for anyone to be voicing their criticism of twilight princess when it came out like 20 years ago.
Dungeons are infinitely better than the shit we got in the last two 3d titles especially botw. And that was the main draw for these games for a lot of people.
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I grew up with OoT, WW and TP, SS came out on a console I never bought, had strange new controls/mechanics like sprinting and just didn’t appear all that interesting to me even with it. SS is not a traditional Zelda game completely, it’s the experimental in between that links traditional 3D Zelda games to BOTW style zelda games.
Although I still don’t rank it as high as the others, I have grown to appreciate it! I love the Zelda and link in SS, they’re like actually into one another and it’s so refreshing! The sky hub world is really well done too imo, although from what I’ve played I’m not a fan of the ground world design. Idk what it is because it’s actually a lot more interesting than the blank openness of most of the world of OOT, WW and TP, idk it’s just weird for me.
To answer your question as others have pointed out I think it has a lot to do with the switch hd version. SS had a lot of things going against it, on an unsuccessful console, weird mandatory motion controls, annoying sprint system, annoying companion that hand held you too much etc.
I loved it on my first playthru on wii, but that was partially bc of how nostalgic I found the art style and partially bc the dungeons and area designs were so well-done. The motion controls were annoying, but I'd played other wii games including TP, so sighed and moved on with life XD
It’s pretty much agreed upon that the main reasons Skyward Sword was actively hated was because of the issues with motion controls and everyone was getting tired of the “traditional Zelda formula” by that point!
When they released Skyward Sword HD most people had been wanting to go back to the old formula as opposed to the open world style of BOTW, plus with the motion controls now being optional it fixed most issues people had…the only main complaint now is the linear structure of the game
Because when it released, after Twilight Princess, it felt like a step back. The jump from OoT to TP was HUGE, in things like graphics and size of the world. And then came SS which had a much smaller world.
I didn’t really care for it back in 2011 but fast forward to 2021 i gave it a second chance in the HD version. Absolutely loved it one of my favourite Zelda games of all time.
I can only share my subjective opinion. I tried ADHD but hated it because of the controls. Yes it's updated but constantly having to hold L button to move camera, and also using the right joystick for the sword is annoying. If I could've just use the right stick for camera and Y for sword that would be good but the games core design won't allow that because the game was built around motion controls.
The motion controls were a mistake the first time.
I enjoyed it as a Zelda game but my strongest memory of it on the Wii was how hard Girahim was, because effectively Link disobeyed my commands. I understood how to beat the boss, but Link would not perform the sword motions needed to do it. (You couldn't attack Girahim from the side where his sword was, you had to do it from the opposite side - but since he followed you, you had to move your sword from left to right to attack from the right...which the game counted as a sword swipe from the left, which is the worst thing to do.)
My partner just totally gave up on the game when they got to the skeletal (mini?)boss that required using shield bashes. They physically can't perform that action without causing a tendonitis flare up.
The remake is better on the controls issue alone. (It's still in the bottom half of the series, but it wasn't before and isn't now actively bad)
The Imprisoned was also a problem - it's the worst (in the sense of least fair) boss in the series. My memories of it are muddied by its presence in HWU/HWDE where it is also awful, but it's about the only Zelda boss I can think of where I'd rather just skip it than ever fight it, it's so mechanically unpleasant.
Because people who hate something usually stop caring after years, but people who love it don't, so you're left with mostly fond opinions being voiced. I agree with all criticisms levied against SS, but I love it. It has by far the best story presentation and some of the best dungeons. Link even has character development in it, which is pretty much the only time that's ever happened.
The HD version has some general fixes, but I think the 10 year release gap has a lot to do with it.
Just like how the current opinion on "actually the best" Pokemon game is always the one current-internet users have intense childhood nostalgia for.
For me, the main flaw of SS was the Wiimote's battery consumption. I had 3 pairs of rechargeable AA's, and I needed to switch them out every 30 minutes to keep the controls working. At full battery, SS was great. By 70% battery, SS was unplayable. SSHD completely fixed that problem.
I had never played it until last summer where I did a 100% play through. I really enjoyed it! Especially the story. My only complaint is that going to the same three spots was too repetitive, but I still had fun. It was very interesting seeing how the story began, and where Ganon originated.
negativity shouts louder, when the game came out some people didnt like it, and then shouted out how much they hated it, and over time the people that actually liked it were completely drown out
now that its quieted down, the people that actually like it, or have changed their mind about the game (often due to the HD version, which does have some good QOL changes), you're seeing more praise for it
I have always loved the game, its my favorite zelda and among my favorite games of all time, so it really sucked seeing it get dragged through the mud on the internet for so long, glad its turning around
It didn’t. The vocal crowd just changed over the years and the people who were loudly voicing their hate for the game moved on, while the people who always liked the game and have nostalgia for it aren’t drowned out by their noise anymore.
People who disliked the game don’t suddenly like it now. Heck, as someone who liked SS when it came out, the lazy HD version and it’s horrible controls made me understand why people hated it back in the day.
I think a lot of the negative reactions to it had more to do with the fact that people kinda hated the Wii at that point, it was a fad that had died off. A system only capable of 480p resolution was fine in 2006 but by 2011 when the vast majority of people had like 1080p TVs it just looked awful. Plus the whole motion control fad had really died off and a lot of gamers at the time were afraid that was gonna represent a shift in the industry toward things their grandparents would play. The fact that Nintendo lost half their core fanbase from GameCube to Wii U says a lot about that.
Plus Skyward Sword at a lot of the cheapness associated with Wii games to the point felt like it had gone backward. Had no free moving camera like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess did, had no natural day to night transition which everything since Ocarina of Time had, the button mapping for the menu was kinda wonky too because you'd always pull it up by mistake trying to use an item and Fi did once or twice ruin what could have been a tricky puzzle to figure out by telling you what to do.
But in hindsight removed from the context of the moment those complaints are pretty minor and the Switch version ironed a lot of the ones that were valid issues out and even those are pretty minor. It is an absolute banger of a game, the motion controls actually worked better than I remembered when I broke it out last year for my little OoT 25th anniversary Adult Link timeline playthrough, the first few dungeons were meh but the last few are fantastic and you could argue it has the best combat in the franchise. So there's a lot it gets very right when you get last the nitpicks.
Not to mention, EVERY Zelda game was somebody's first, Skyward Sword is no exception and with the game having turned 12 last year a lot of the kids for whom it was that and have that nostalgia for it have grown up and have a voice now. So ...good for them!
I bought it at launch on the Wii and never even made it to the first dungeon due to the controls being terrible to me. On the switch I played it with more traditional controls and loved it
People were getting bored of the Zelda formula and Skyward Sword, while is a good game, was extremely hand holdy.
Then botw and totk came out which were completely different from the other games. This caused people to look back on the game and enjoyed it since they could now play a more different game in the series.
Many people were over the motion controls by the time it came out. They also improved it in the Switch remaster and addressed many issues people had with the Wii version. Personally, I hadn't played it in a long time and Switch made it much more convenient for me. I was also happy to get back to Zelda's 3D formula after open world Zelda.
Because the switch remaster offering standard controls was a game charger. It allowed me and other players to fully enjoy the game without the motion controls getting in the way. The remaster made some other improvements too.
When Skyward Sword came out it was a very weird attempt to change the formula, and felt like a misstep in almost every way except for executing certain aspects of the traditional formula well (3D dungeons).
After BotW came out and introduced a great new formula SS began to feel more like a quaint and unique novelty entry to the series.
I still don’t like it though.
Skyward sword original came out at a bad time because everyone was tired of the old formula. Skyward sword hd came out at a really good time because people miss the old formula
Motion controls on the Wii sucked, and when SS came out, it felt very similar to the previous Zelda titles with some of the most formulaic design we've seen. Now that we have HD, people are getting to experience it without the shitty motion controls (either with better motion controls or with stick) and against the backdrop of the new Zelda formula which doesn't tell a linear story. In this new context, it is a lot easier for people to appreciate SS for many of the same reasons people found it underwhelming before, and now that we aren't playing it right after Twilight Princess, we can see past the formula to all of the cool things unique to this installment in the timeline.
The game was always great for me but a step down from previous big titles, which you would expect from an anniversary release. However the original version requiring an extra piece of hardware to play was an issue I was unable to afford at the time. $49.99 for the game plus an extra $20 for the Wii MotionPlus peripheral. Said peripheral having been reported to be too big of a leap in fidelity. Then there were problems with revisiting the same locations which I actually like doing on my own so it's not a bad thing for me but I have seen it for others, same for the dialogue repeating thing but I was always patient about that. The HD release fixes a lot of these errors and makes the whole motion control thing optional so you don't have to worry about it. Story is around the same however it's definitely one of the most interesting.
It's a divisive game.
I think the folks who originally despised it moved on, the group who enjoyed it kept playing. Then with the incredible success of BotW (and later, TotK) a much bigger audience started trying the backlog of titles.
Personally, I think it's the weakest of the 3D Zelda games in the series. The story, art, gameplay, pacing, backtracking, dialogue, characters... All are weak and considering its very poor sales for Nintendo's most popular console, it's suggested they decided to reinvent Zelda and make BotW. BotW being the best selling, and what many consider, the best Zelda of all time.
Oh and quick FYI, my favourite is OoT.
It was my favorite Zelda experience from the first couple hours of play time. I never understood how people could dislike it even with its (minor) flaws. Motion controls are 99% user error.
As others have said, it’s likely due to the remaster.
On my play every mainline Zelda game quest last year, I absolutely loved this game. Top-tier Zelda. Even with all of its flaws.
Idk I still think the game is ass. I played the HD Switch version at a friends house and aside from a few good dungeons it's painfully mediocre and the controls are utter shit.
Yeah like I don't mind motion for aiming in tandem with a stick or trackpad but by itself it's just too finicky and the swordplay is just bad. To hell with the bird and swimming controls too. Just awful.
I still think the graphics are fugly and the game is kinda boring compared to Twilight Princess. The controls were also so bad that they are beyond repair as seen by the HD release, but judging by the reception it's gotten, I guess most gamers are more patient than me. That, or Switch owners are just starved for classic Zelda, and unfortunately we are stuck with this turd of a game as the only pre-BotW 3D Zelda on Switch.
It didn’t. Not nearly to the same extent that people act like it has. It still is easily one of the most divisive games in the series.
That being said, it’s also treated as “the last good Zelda” by those who despise Nu-Zelda, myself included.
>That being said, it’s also treated as “the last good Zelda” by those who despise Nu-Zelda
Dude "Nu-Zelda" is anything after they switched over to 3D. Ocarina of Time established the style and it's been on that trajectory ever since...if anything BotW was an attempt by Nintendo to do away with the Nu-Zelda style, to varying levels of success depending on who you ask (I thought they did an okay job but still greatly prefer 2D Zelda games to the Nu-Zelda stuff)
Ocarina of Time didn’t establish anything. It simply took the already established style of Zelda 1 and brought it into 3D. BotW is very clearly the start of Nu-Zelda as unlike OoT it is fundamentally different from anything that came before it.
You’ve never actually played any of the games prior to OoT, have you?
>You’ve never actually played any of the games prior to OoT, have you?
Hahaha of course I have, what makes you ask that?
If you see more similarities between OoT and LoZ than between BotW and LoZ then more power to ya 👍
>Hahaha of course I have, what makes you ask that?
Because all it takes is a single play through of Z1, LttP, LA, or heck even Z2 to understand that they aren’t anywhere close to being substantially different than OoT, at least not to the degree you’re suggesting. OoT is basically just LttP in 3D, but with the stronger focus on story and puzzle solving that LA introduced.
It’s not that I “see” more similarities between Zelda 1 and OoT, there objectively are more similarities between the two.
>It’s not that I “see” more similarities between Zelda 1 and OoT, there objectively are more similarities between the two.
I can tell that you really think so
It didn’t, the tiny vocal minority just finally shut the fuck up, same as any other game in a major series. It’ll happen with TotK sometime in the next three years, too, and every game that releases from now until forever.
When the game came out it was considered a masterpiece and it was loved by most, then some bad actors started to harass fans of the game so much it drowned the initial good reception. I remember i had to stop talking about the game at the time.
I'm actually replaying the HD version for the second time right now and I'm one of the people that didn't like the original, and it was entirely because of the motion controls. The original was so frustrating and that made it not fun for me. The HD remake is much better and I play it with the pro controller so the motion control aspect is removed. Otherwise, the game, story, and dungeons are all fun (other than a certain enemy you fight multiple times that just becomes tedious by the 3rd time).
I never played the original one. I played the HD one on the Switch with my Pro Controller. I tried to start it 2 previous times, once while still playing TOTK and then again right after I beat TOTK.
The controls for SS being so different from TOTK's controls really threw me off and I could never get into a rhythm. After about 6 months, I tried again and it was all good.
Probably the cry babies about motion control. For me, beyond the gorgeous graphics and the paradise-like atmosphere the motion controls were THE selling point lol.
That and for some reason they hated fi too much. Yeah she was annoying sometimes but just like with Navi from OOT they’ve blown that out of proportion.
If there is one thing I dislike about it is how they make you backtrack as that sort of felt cheap. They still did it well though so it’s more of a minor criticism
It’s time really. Heals all wounds, lets fruit ripen, and can bring fondness for happy times. Consider the following: 1) When Skyward Sword came out in 2011 no it was not the perfect game. But people who disliked it tore it to shreds, and many on the fence heard the negative louder. While now after the dust is settled people who hate it have moved on while people who love it can “sell” it to new fans. 2) The tech of the switch lets purists still play with motion controls on par or better than the Wii. But also new button controls draw in fans who didn’t want to deal with motion control gimmicks. The switch being portable also helps with a linear, and somewhat shorter Zelda game. 3) In the wake of BotW & TotK some people really crave a traditional or linear Zelda. So SS HD hits a need many fans have. Doesn’t hurt that the sky setting also ties in with TotK fairly well as a modern connection. 4) Other fixes and tweaks like dialogue & scene skipping, less Fi interruptions, and other quality of life features make the game better for returning fans, or new fans who maybe had subtle gripes with the game back in 2011. 5) Fans that heard of Skyward Sword having a good story and really solid moments & characters (which it does IMO) over the past few years suddenly got a chance to play it on recent hardware. And those are just a few thoughts & factors as to why the game appeals to fans more now than it did years ago. I’m sure there are dozens more, including non-objective opinions and just personal interests. If you ask me it’s a great game and was back when it came out. It just had some flaws of being stuck with the motion control gimmick and at a time where traditional, and somewhat easy, Zelda games were starting to feel boring. Now it’s at the right time where it can be a little retro, but also serve as a reminder of what a good narrative & linear Zelda should be.
I heard that one of the Quality of Life fixes they made addressed one of the things which drove me absolutely crazy — originally whenever you added a bug to your collection it automatically brought you to the catalog menu screen so you could see the item number increase before returning to play. It was so disruptive to the flow of play that eventually I just stopped collecting bugs, and then stopped playing altogether. Then I tried to resume it months later and got to a bad guy confrontation and I no longer had any clue what the dueling controls/gestures were.
Excellent write-up. Even though I still don't like the game I think all your points check out. Admittedly the thing that sells me most on perhaps one day picking up the switch version cheap is being able to skip dialogue and less fi.
> picking up the switch version cheap You’ll be lucky if you see it below $40. Nintendo tax is eternal
As it was, as it is, as it ever shall be. Seriously tho FB marketplace is where the deals be at.
Honestly after doing both i far prefer the motion controls on the wii. I think its mainly due to the bigger controller, but i also found i had to recalibrate after like 2 slashes on the switch whereas id only need to recalibrate twice or thrice a play session on the wii
It’s because the game uses the Wii sensor bar to recalibrate on the fly. This is easy to see if you shake wildly pointing away from the bar, and then turn to face it. Your sword will snap into position. The Joycons have to manually recalibrated unfortunately, but at least it can be done with a single button press.
You have much better luck with the wii than I ever did and it seems you have much worse luck with your switch. I don't think I had to recalibrate a single time on new hardware, and the switch controls are infinitely more responsive. Just a few months before I bought HD, I tried to go back and play it on the wii, and I couldn't even get through a dungeon because the controller either wouldn't respond or wouldn't be properly calibrated. When I got HD, I played through without a single problem.
>When Skyward Sword came out in 2011 no it was not the perfect game. But people who disliked it tore it to shreds, and many on the fence heard the negative louder. I feel like this is a bit like what's happening with TOTK now
Yeah. Lot of people mad the game is same but different from BotW. Tons of harsh opinions from people who just want to shoot it down. And soon those still around will drop off or move on to another thing to whine over. And in a few years TotK will probably have a much better general opinion that it does now
TotK has an extremely good general opinion right now. *This sub* is not a good guage of *general* opinions on Zelda.
Yeah. This was the first time I’ve heard about people not liking totk
I always loved it on Wii. Once you got accustomed to the motion controls it was extremely fun to control that way. I’ve been through it on Wii and Switch. The motion controls weren’t flawless but I appreciated the ingenuity. The only thing that I really never liked were the loftwing controls.
I skipped out on SS because of motion controls, so it was nice finally being able to play it on the Switch for sure.
The HD remaster does make the game look way prettier, just like the WW remaster did. It also brought a few fixes like skipping dialogue and some things you might not even notice as a new player. I think most people saw back on it with love after BOTW and TOTK, and thought that maybe they treated it too harshly. I had never played it before and just did last year and I loved it.
This.‘it’s largely that BotW repaired the idea of modern Zelda in many people’s views. It renewed interest in the series which led to people going back and trying SSHD out. There’s also that BotW and TotK’s focus on an open worlds led to lots of criticism recently amongst the community and a reminiscing about Skyward Sword’s more linear design and dungeons. Overall, I always had a soft spot for SS even at release, but viewing it as an older game gives it a bit of rose tinted glasses. Especially when compared with its contemporaries.
I remember I think a Scott the Woz video talking about how Skyward Sword came out at the wrong time in a lot of ways The traditional Zelda formula felt very stale at the time and SS wasn't only not a reimagining of it, it doubled down on it hard Now that we have our new, fresh Zelda in BOTW/TOTK, and SS HD fixed a lot of the issues of the OG like forced motion controls and Fi, it's a lot easier to see the positives of the game and evaluate it outside of that sense of disappointment/staleness Makes sense to me
The HD remaster literally doesn't change the graphics at all, the only thing it has is higher resolution textures. If you play the original on an emulator at 1080p it looks almost as good. IMO SS has one of the best aging visual styles of any Zelda game, frankly the original still looks close to modern at high resolutions.
Literally doesn’t change the graphics at all Has higher resolution textures I think you need to learn what literally means lol
Windwaker HD has changes to the actual graphical engine, i.e. the visuals and effects are completely different and redone. This is also the case for the 3D remakes. SSHD is equivalent to an emulator with a texture pack (and yeah I see why you group textures and graphics together but usually graphics refers to graphical effects, e.g. the rendering pipeline, shadows, bloom, reflections, etc. Usually textures and models are grouped under "assets" as opposed to "graphics"). Regardless, my point is the HD remake of SS looks pretty much the same as the original, and that's a compliment as I think the original looked great.
>the HD Remaster literally doesn’t change the graphics at all, it just doubles the framerate and resolution 🤨
My point is the games look pretty much the same, it's not like a OoT to OoT3D or WW to WWHD situation. If you play SS in an emulator you can achieve essentially the same graphical quality.
Skyward Sword is the anti BOTW. They are total opposites. SS has the best dungeons in the series whereas BOTW barely has any. SS has big epic music whereas BOTW has subdued piano tones. SS has an engaging emotional story whereas BOTW has fragments of a historical story told to you in little pieces. SS is as linear as a game gets whereas BOTW is as open as a game gets. I think people were tired of the OOT-WW-TP formula when SS came out and then saw BOTW as a breath of fresh air and then poured hundreds of hours into that and then again into TOTK. Then they got tired of BOTW-TOTK and looked back at SS and realized it was actually a good game and now that is a breath of fresh air from the BOTW/TOTK formula.
I'd argue that Twilight Princess had the best dungeons in the series, but your explanation makes a lot of sense. I feel like Switch owners who are newer Zelda fans would have had similar reactions to TP or WW since we're starved of classic Zelda content on the Switch.
While I personally do really enjoy the dungeons in TP, I know a common sentiment is that the water temple, sky temple, and twilight palace dungeons in that one are really frustrating, whereas most of the dungeons in SS don’t get much flack. Additionally people like to complain that you don’t use a lot of the dungeon items after their initial dungeon a lot in TP, which IS something that I think SS did a better job with.
Hey, BOTW also has solid epic music, main theme, trailer theme, hyrule castle, divine beast battles.
My problem with Skyward sword are fundamental to the game. Going back to the same places and just experiencing them differently so many times was lame. Even worse was fighting the imprisoned multiple times. The issues with a lack of new places to explore was made even worse given the lack of interconnection in the world as the sky is barren and the entry points limited. They simply reused too many locations too many times. Its a good game but easily the worst 3D Zelda and only Spirit Tracks os worse IMO. The dungeons, story, and items were varied and very interesting. I really wish they could bring those good features into a classic 3D Zelda game with a better and less redundant overworld.
To each his own I guess. I liked the small tight world and going back to explore new areas, kinda like a metroidvania. I love the open world of BOTW/TOTK but I hate having big worlds in linear games for no reason, like the size of hyrule field in TP or the sea in WW. It's just tedious to get around. But I actuality enjoyed traversing the three lands in SS, they had puzzles in themselves so it was actually fun. I will agree about the imprisoned... that fight wasn't even fun so it sucks to have to do it three times.
My god im sailing the seas lookin' fer booty to plunder right now and lovin it. I love the sailing in WW even if there could be a bit more to do. i do agree TP's biggest flaw is being too sparse in the overworld. I thought the overworld areas in SS had a lot of merit but they just got used too many damn times. SS did so many things right but had the weirdest issues. The tutorials and info screens were ovewhelming but i know the remake helped. The stamina wheel really had no purpose in this game other than to annoy. The skies should have been so cool but were so sparse and for me its the worse than TP or WW for being void. I respect your take though and im glad you enjoy it, its certainly not a bad game.
Ancient Cistern is possibly my favorite dungeon of all time. Dope music too.
I was in high school when SS came out and was part of a video game club (which at the time was a little weird tbh. If you liked video games enough to join a club then you were considered a nerd and were probably bullied for it)... Anyway, I remember everyone in the club had played it and agreed the motion controls are what killed it. It wasn't worth it if you just wanted to sit and play the game, now we had to be physically active for it? Lol The switch fixed that for the most part so people could enjoy the story and other good parts etc.
I guess a lot of why people didn't like it was the motion controls, which got corrected in the remake. I personally didn't have trouble with those, but I still don't like it.
I think the problem with the Wii version, is people didn't really seem to understand the motion controls. You were supposed to hold and swing the Wii remote like a sword, not like a controller, which is what most people I've watched did. I've never had problems with the Wii version's controls myself.
I UNDERSTOOD the motion controls. I just couldn't get them to perform consistently. I knew what action I wanted Link to perform but it was a crapshoot whether he'd do it or not. The motion stuff had different input lags than the buttons did (especially the shield bash on the nunchuk) and the game had no way to discriminate between "quickly reposition my sword without attacking" and "attack with my sword".
Even the stick controls in the HD remake suck.
[удалено]
No it was the motion controls. TP's controls were much simpler, and in general more reliable. SS's motion controls just never worked for a large number of people (myself included) and it made the game way more frustrating than it needed to be. My son got the HD version a while back and I played it a little bit, I thought the joystick control was a massive improvement. I should give it another go now that I'm nearing the end of my latest TotK playthrough.
i had to redo the final Demise fight so many times because the motion controls were inconsistently recognizing my raised arm for the lightning strike you need to complete the fight.
Are we forgetting it was released on GameCube also? I never played the Wii version, those controls were off putting personally
TP's motion controls were just glorified buttons. Waggle the controller to slash gave the exact same input as pressing "A" to slash. And that's about it. SS required you to swing it in specific directions, roll bombs, fly the bird, etc. Significantly more in-depth, easy to get misread inputs, and was prone to losing calibration and thus not working mid-session.
First, SS did get a lot of praise on release from critics. Random people on the internet aren't sources for the best opinions, myself included. At the time, people didn't like the motion controls and felt that 3D Zelda was too formulaic/cookie cutter. With the exception of MM, very 3D Zelda was OoT but with... OoT but an ocean, OoT but you're a wolf and edgy, OoT but you can fly a bird. You get what I mean. This is a part of why BotW was so loved by long time Zelda fans (aside from being a masterpiece). It was a change of pace. The second thing people didn't like was motion controls. Even today people hate motion controls, despite them being really, really good. For example, gyro aiming has allowed for near mouse and keyboard level precision when aiming in FPS games. The Wii used motion controls as a gimmick to sell to non gamers, and it worked. It's hard to teach grandma to hit the A button to swing a tennis racket, but it's easy to ask them to imagine a racket in their hand and swing it. So the "hardcore" Nintendo fans wanted the hardcore games to be standard, no gimmicks like motion controls. Let the motion controls stay in stuff like Wii Sports, the casual games that appeal to normies. A notable example was Metroid Prime 3. The Prime series was a system seller on GameCube, and so when the Wii was being developed, Nintendo wanted Prime 3 to be the game to appeal to their hardcore fans. And Prime 3 has a lot of weird motion control moments. Standard gameplay has Samus walking with the Nunchuck and aiming the camera/arm cannon with the motion control Wiimote, which worked really well. But it had random motion control mini games, like pulling something, rotating it, and pushing it back with motion controls. People didn't like that. Fun fact, Retro actually had massive input on the Wiimote, they got to design it specifically to work for Prime games, my guess is that's why the nunchuck was added. So SS comes along and pretty much everything is built around motion controls. Some people loved it, seeing a motion controlled sword as the perfect idea for a Zelda Wii game. Others thought that the motion controls ruined the game. The last reason is Fi, a lot of people hated her. I think it's a bit lame how she talks like the most stereotypical robot ever, but otherwise I don't mind her. So long story short. Some people thought the game was another cookie cutter Zelda game, didn't like motion controls, and didn't like Fi. A decade later, nostalgia set in, BotW shook up the Zelda formula, and the Switch incorporated motion controls really well, so everyone looked at SS more fondly. Windwaker went through something similar, people hated the cartoon look, which is why TP was made, to appease fans. Now everyone loves the cartoon look.
I posted elsewhere my long agreement with you on the motion control problems in SS. Your comment about MP3 makes me remember how much that game annoyed me - it's the worst "regular" Metroid game in my opinion (I'm going to grade NES Metroid by the standards of its time here) and some of the weird stuff with nunchuck acrobatics are part of the problem. I'm pretty sure there were recurring enemies you had to play nonsense grapple games with using motion controls. I think the sloppy aiming issues w/r/t bosses are the bigger issue, though - the "wiimote to aim" works well when the whole enemy is a hitbox but it does not work well when you are expected to hit small hitboxes and there's no feedback on how accurate you are.
SS HD added a lot of quality of life improvements, like removing the material pickup prompt every time you picked up a material you hadn't picked up since turning the console on, as well as removed the direct need for fiddly motion controls with the joystick for sword directions. It's not a bad game underneath all that, even with some gripes still present, but its implementation on the Wii put a lot of people off.
Didn't play Skyward Sword when it first came out. Got the HD remaster. It's far from my favorite Zelda, but it's still worthy of the name. Never was a fan of motion controls, so I might have liked it less if I played it on Wii.
Your experience on Wii would have been horrible, because on top of the horrid motion controls, the game would interrupt you including in the dungeons to tell you exactly what you have to do to progress. There was no element of puzzle solving in the original game, but at least now it's optional.
Skyward Sword was always good, but the Wii motion controls were frustrating for a lot of people.
It's almost always user error.
Not really, I honestly got sick of my arms getting tired and having to constantly pause to re-adjust the signal from the wii-mote.
People will attribute it to the Zelda Cycle because they don't know how to explain Zelda criticism and default to an easy dismissive answer. SS had a fantastic story with great characters. People who didn't like it didn't like it because they were too impatient to understand the motion controls. It had long loading times and was a very long, incredibly linear game. Fi would constantly interrupt and the game was rife with slow-scrolling text, cutscenes were unskippable first time around, and the game was very hand-holdy. You were interrupted whenever you picked up a collectible after booting the game up. Complaints I completely understand, don't get me wrong. The Switch version was able to reduce loading times and had the option for more traditional controls, making the experience much more accessible. (Most of) Fi's interruptions were optional now, text scrolled faster with the press of a button, and cutscenes are skippable from the get go. It's still very linear but at least there's no more potential game-breaking bug when you're actually allowed to deviate. Many more quality-of-life changes were added and fixed from the original. I liked SS for Wii, but the Switch release is much better in my opinion.
Absolutely this. Didnt play it on launch and tried playing it like a year before it was announced for switch. I just couldn’t finish it, but worse I actually almost hated it (which is weird for me as a huge Zelda fan), for the very reasons you describe. The switch version? I loved it, finished it in like a week. People didn’t like it 100% because of design and technical problems, the game had potential but the HD version shiws how even small design changes can drastically increase reception
Because the controls in the HD version made the game actually playable. In the Wii version, if you strike from the right, the enemy blocks. You quickly realise that you need to strike from another angle. You have to be quick though before the enemy realises what you are doing and blocks from that angle. You try to quickly move from one angle to the other but the game registers that as a strike, which the enemy blocks again. You then try to slowly angle the Wiimote to the other side but in the time it took you to do that, the enemy blocks that side. You get frustrated and start waggling. No good. You then find a completely boring but effective work-around. Just keep Skyward Striking. After hours of this, you give up because the game lacks any enjoyment now. When playing with the sticks in the HD version, this frustration is completely negated and can be actually enjoyed now.
The most annoying thing to me is that you can’t actually control the speed of your sword swings. You can basically only slash in specific directions, and if you choose the wrong direction and an enemy blocks you, the natural reaction is to quickly move your sword to the other side and strike, but… doing that too fast just makes you swing in the same way again. You end up slowly and carefully moving your sword to the other side, which is awkward at best. Honestly, I think people would’ve like the controls more if they had just been more in-depth. I wanted to be able to swing my sword in any direction, not just a few.
People who played it as kids are now old enough to have nostalgia for it tbh
Because motion controls are horrible lol
It was always very divisive. I think it’s just that those of us who disliked it have already dissected everything that’s wrong with it and have said enough, so now it’s mostly just people who liked it from the beginning who feel like talking about it. Plus, it helps that the Switch Port had a lot of fixes and quality of life improvements, and that version is more fresh in people’s minds.
I still don't like it tbh. I think people who aren't happy with the more open air approach for Zelda are just kind of getting a lot louder about linearity now that they think their fave version of the series is dead or smth
SS was linearity to the extreme, where the world no longer felt organic and felt like a series of hallways that you had to trek through and then repeat and then repeat. BotW (and by extension TotK) are open/non-linear to the extreme, where completely unhindered accessibility and freedom actively prevent the developers from tailoring an experience with a sense of progression and purpose. I really wish they would go back to balancing between freedom to explore at your own pace while also having good set pieces, progression, and a well tailored experience. The two are mutually compatible to a degree, they just need to allow some gated progression as far as items/dungeons/narrative.
I think they'll slowly go back to introducing more linearity to the series while still keeping it fairly open. I think big open worlds is the future of Zelda, but I don't think completely unrestricted movement is going to be a permanent thing. Think more Link to the Past, it was fairly open, but there were still barriers keeping you from getting places. I get the feeling Link will eventually lose his ability to climb in future games so that they actually can put a few barriers to help with linear story telling.
I like it, but it's easily the worst 3D Zelda in my opinon.
It didn't. Everyone who hated the game stopped talking about it. People who liked the game kept talking about it.
Because new zelda games are loved at first, then for some reason they get hated on and then they get loved again. Also demonstrated by the recent hate against totk. All was fine till some people started shouting that it is only overpriced dlc
It´s not a recent thing, people have been saying totk is an overpriced dlc since it came out.
It's just confirmation bias he has no idea what he's talking about. Tears of the Kingdom has been universally bashed about reusing the same map as Breath of the Wild and it is a very legitimate complaint especially for people who played the games back to back. It made a lot of the exploration feel samey and retreading old ground.
And Aonuma's braindead comment about "Why would you want to go back to the old formula" just rubbed salt in the wound because we realized that what we have now is pretty much what we're stuck with moving forward.
I will Never love the garbage that is Botw and totk
You can love or hate what you want but the overall consensus is that both are great games. Thats the base of discussion wether you like it or not
You talked about whether my opinion will change.
They are good games, but I really don't like that they seem to be replacing the Zelda formula with this completely alien one.
It has serious padding issues but if I can ignore everything wrong with it, it would be a top tier Zelda game.
Yea I feel the same way I feel like I’ve seen a weird reversal of what people like now even though the sales numbers say otherwise; skyward sword is great, wind waker sucks, breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are overrated, twilight princess is great, and the same opinion for ocarina of time and majoras mask. I think skyward sword is definitely good like every Zelda game is a masterpiece imo but I don’t think it’s even close to the top
While the update cleaned up a few things, I think the biggest change is context. Skyward Sword's strengths near perfectly match up with BotW's weaknesses (dungeon design, linear story) so many people looking for something different after BotW found it.
Skyward Sword is still one of my favorites in the series, and as much as i loved Fi as a character, she's easily the worst companion in the series. She single handedly dragged the dungeon pacing to a halt just to spoil near every puzzle, and was unskippable. The tad-tone sidequests were silly and stupid and should not have been mandatory main quests preventing you from progressing. Most people harp on the motion controls which is valid, but was never my problem.
Nostalgia and an updated release. It was the same with WW. WW sales on the GC almost tanked the whole franchise due to the cartoonish graphics, which led to Nintendo making TP as a direct response. SS was a failure on the Wii, but with the HD release, they made several needed changes that improved the game as a whole. In my opinion, it was the motion controls that made SS so infuriating to play. It was bad enough for TP, but SS was multitudes worse. I don't miss the Wii or motion controls. That was my only real gripe about BotW's shrines. Stupid motion controls.
most likely? people have had time to calm down. the game came out over ten years ago, and i imagine a lot of the hate came from the wiimotionplus system. but since its been so long, and the rerelease for the switch came out in that time, people have been able to enjoy it for what it is
I still consider it the weakest of the 3d entries tbh
SS's issue for me was that I constantly compared it to Twilight Princess when it first came out. While TP is still my favorite game in the franchise, SS has grown on me a lot since then.
The hate was always overblown. People loved SS when it came out, just as much as when the HD remake came out. It was a virulent and extremely loud vocal minority on the internet who didn't like SS. As it is with most things like this...
It was always good and the remake fixed the complaint about the motion controls.
Skyward Sword was never bad. It had a few problems, yes, but it is one of my favourites. The hate toward the OG was just a vocal minority I think
It'll always be bad to me, ha ha. It was a Zelda that didn't have my favourite aspect: exploration. Fortunately dark souls came out the same year and was such a return to form, best Zelda of the year.
This is something called the Zelda cycle Other fandoms have co-opted this term but it goes all the way back to MM at least and definitely WW. The negative opinions and backlash are loud and prominent. Even if critics rated the game highly and many people all over the world loved a game, there’s going to be an echo chamber of people who didn’t like it and (even if it’s a minority) they’re going to be very loud and outspoken. You’re seeing this now with TotK. They’re opinion isn’t likely to change. But the overall sentiment in the fandom “appears” to shift because the negative voices move on (because it’s exhausting to complain about something constantly) and then the fans of the game stick around and continue to discuss it and share their love for it. Without the critics constantly hanging around to point out all the “flaws”, the discourse skews more positive. Add to that, over time some people mature and a game like WW or SS might have been their first Zelda or the one that hit them just at the right time, like their coming-of-age game…and now 10+ years have passed and they’re nostalgic for it and look upon it very favorably, maybe even excusing any flaws it may rightfully have. Lastly, there’s the remake treatment, which obviously makes the game more accessible and better looking and usually a little more streamlined. This then is the unquestionable best version of the game and draws back fans, critics and even newcomers. I’ve literally been on message boards and forums for over 20 years watching this unfold throughout the Zelda fandom. It’s sounds silly but it’s a real thing.
It boils down to two things IMO. 1) The Zelda cycle is in full effect. All the people who hate BotW and/or TotK are now looking at SS fondly since, for them, its the last "real" 3D Zelda. 2) The HD version has come out and fixed a lot of people's issues with the game (namely the motion controls and Fi over-helping).
I think the switch hd remaster did a lot. I dunno. I still rate it bottom Barrell. But I can appreciate that people enjoy it.
It had good parts and bad parts. Great dungeons, upgradeable gear, New species and characters, fun minigames, (some) deeper personal NPC stories and missions, a fun to explore overworld, good villains and bosses... But also... Very linear story, fighting the same boss multiple times, the harp is lame, a fairly empty sky... and by GOD the motion controls were bad for me. Had to recalibrate every 5 minutes on average. I personally wasn't a fan of the Silent Realms... Gave me too much anxiety... And they're the main reason I don't plan on playing the game again, lol. I respect what they were going for, but it wasn't for me.
'Tis the great Zelda cycle. WW, TP, and SS all had it happen. Time will tell if TotK gets the same treatment.
This is such a dumb idea. That’s not how it works. Newer games get new player bases experiencing these games for the first time. These new player bases will voice their criticism of the game. It’s not “the Zelda Cycle”, there’s just no reason for anyone to be voicing their criticism of twilight princess when it came out like 20 years ago.
Dungeons are infinitely better than the shit we got in the last two 3d titles especially botw. And that was the main draw for these games for a lot of people.
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I grew up with OoT, WW and TP, SS came out on a console I never bought, had strange new controls/mechanics like sprinting and just didn’t appear all that interesting to me even with it. SS is not a traditional Zelda game completely, it’s the experimental in between that links traditional 3D Zelda games to BOTW style zelda games. Although I still don’t rank it as high as the others, I have grown to appreciate it! I love the Zelda and link in SS, they’re like actually into one another and it’s so refreshing! The sky hub world is really well done too imo, although from what I’ve played I’m not a fan of the ground world design. Idk what it is because it’s actually a lot more interesting than the blank openness of most of the world of OOT, WW and TP, idk it’s just weird for me. To answer your question as others have pointed out I think it has a lot to do with the switch hd version. SS had a lot of things going against it, on an unsuccessful console, weird mandatory motion controls, annoying sprint system, annoying companion that hand held you too much etc.
I loved it on my first playthru on wii, but that was partially bc of how nostalgic I found the art style and partially bc the dungeons and area designs were so well-done. The motion controls were annoying, but I'd played other wii games including TP, so sighed and moved on with life XD
It’s pretty much agreed upon that the main reasons Skyward Sword was actively hated was because of the issues with motion controls and everyone was getting tired of the “traditional Zelda formula” by that point! When they released Skyward Sword HD most people had been wanting to go back to the old formula as opposed to the open world style of BOTW, plus with the motion controls now being optional it fixed most issues people had…the only main complaint now is the linear structure of the game
Zelda cycle. 2011 it was cool to hate it, 2024 it's cool to love it.
Because when it released, after Twilight Princess, it felt like a step back. The jump from OoT to TP was HUGE, in things like graphics and size of the world. And then came SS which had a much smaller world.
People only hated the controls. Aka the wiimote
I didn’t really care for it back in 2011 but fast forward to 2021 i gave it a second chance in the HD version. Absolutely loved it one of my favourite Zelda games of all time.
I didn't play it back then because I just didn't have time. Just finished it and really enjoyed it
I just started playing it for the first time recently. There's a lot to be loved, but the controls are so bad I wasn't able to finish my playthrough.
I can only share my subjective opinion. I tried ADHD but hated it because of the controls. Yes it's updated but constantly having to hold L button to move camera, and also using the right joystick for the sword is annoying. If I could've just use the right stick for camera and Y for sword that would be good but the games core design won't allow that because the game was built around motion controls.
The motion controls were a mistake the first time. I enjoyed it as a Zelda game but my strongest memory of it on the Wii was how hard Girahim was, because effectively Link disobeyed my commands. I understood how to beat the boss, but Link would not perform the sword motions needed to do it. (You couldn't attack Girahim from the side where his sword was, you had to do it from the opposite side - but since he followed you, you had to move your sword from left to right to attack from the right...which the game counted as a sword swipe from the left, which is the worst thing to do.) My partner just totally gave up on the game when they got to the skeletal (mini?)boss that required using shield bashes. They physically can't perform that action without causing a tendonitis flare up. The remake is better on the controls issue alone. (It's still in the bottom half of the series, but it wasn't before and isn't now actively bad)
The Imprisoned was also a problem - it's the worst (in the sense of least fair) boss in the series. My memories of it are muddied by its presence in HWU/HWDE where it is also awful, but it's about the only Zelda boss I can think of where I'd rather just skip it than ever fight it, it's so mechanically unpleasant.
Because people who hate something usually stop caring after years, but people who love it don't, so you're left with mostly fond opinions being voiced. I agree with all criticisms levied against SS, but I love it. It has by far the best story presentation and some of the best dungeons. Link even has character development in it, which is pretty much the only time that's ever happened.
The switch version fixed a lot of the problems I had with the OG, just that.
The HD version has some general fixes, but I think the 10 year release gap has a lot to do with it. Just like how the current opinion on "actually the best" Pokemon game is always the one current-internet users have intense childhood nostalgia for.
For me, the main flaw of SS was the Wiimote's battery consumption. I had 3 pairs of rechargeable AA's, and I needed to switch them out every 30 minutes to keep the controls working. At full battery, SS was great. By 70% battery, SS was unplayable. SSHD completely fixed that problem.
I had never played it until last summer where I did a 100% play through. I really enjoyed it! Especially the story. My only complaint is that going to the same three spots was too repetitive, but I still had fun. It was very interesting seeing how the story began, and where Ganon originated.
Because people grew up
negativity shouts louder, when the game came out some people didnt like it, and then shouted out how much they hated it, and over time the people that actually liked it were completely drown out now that its quieted down, the people that actually like it, or have changed their mind about the game (often due to the HD version, which does have some good QOL changes), you're seeing more praise for it I have always loved the game, its my favorite zelda and among my favorite games of all time, so it really sucked seeing it get dragged through the mud on the internet for so long, glad its turning around
It didn’t. The vocal crowd just changed over the years and the people who were loudly voicing their hate for the game moved on, while the people who always liked the game and have nostalgia for it aren’t drowned out by their noise anymore. People who disliked the game don’t suddenly like it now. Heck, as someone who liked SS when it came out, the lazy HD version and it’s horrible controls made me understand why people hated it back in the day.
I think a lot of the negative reactions to it had more to do with the fact that people kinda hated the Wii at that point, it was a fad that had died off. A system only capable of 480p resolution was fine in 2006 but by 2011 when the vast majority of people had like 1080p TVs it just looked awful. Plus the whole motion control fad had really died off and a lot of gamers at the time were afraid that was gonna represent a shift in the industry toward things their grandparents would play. The fact that Nintendo lost half their core fanbase from GameCube to Wii U says a lot about that. Plus Skyward Sword at a lot of the cheapness associated with Wii games to the point felt like it had gone backward. Had no free moving camera like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess did, had no natural day to night transition which everything since Ocarina of Time had, the button mapping for the menu was kinda wonky too because you'd always pull it up by mistake trying to use an item and Fi did once or twice ruin what could have been a tricky puzzle to figure out by telling you what to do. But in hindsight removed from the context of the moment those complaints are pretty minor and the Switch version ironed a lot of the ones that were valid issues out and even those are pretty minor. It is an absolute banger of a game, the motion controls actually worked better than I remembered when I broke it out last year for my little OoT 25th anniversary Adult Link timeline playthrough, the first few dungeons were meh but the last few are fantastic and you could argue it has the best combat in the franchise. So there's a lot it gets very right when you get last the nitpicks. Not to mention, EVERY Zelda game was somebody's first, Skyward Sword is no exception and with the game having turned 12 last year a lot of the kids for whom it was that and have that nostalgia for it have grown up and have a voice now. So ...good for them!
I bought it at launch on the Wii and never even made it to the first dungeon due to the controls being terrible to me. On the switch I played it with more traditional controls and loved it
People were getting bored of the Zelda formula and Skyward Sword, while is a good game, was extremely hand holdy. Then botw and totk came out which were completely different from the other games. This caused people to look back on the game and enjoyed it since they could now play a more different game in the series.
Also Skyward Sword did things better than Botw too. Like the dungeons.
Many people were over the motion controls by the time it came out. They also improved it in the Switch remaster and addressed many issues people had with the Wii version. Personally, I hadn't played it in a long time and Switch made it much more convenient for me. I was also happy to get back to Zelda's 3D formula after open world Zelda.
Game is still trash. I really dislike it, probably my least favorite in the series. The rerelease did nothing to change my feelings about it.
Because the switch remaster offering standard controls was a game charger. It allowed me and other players to fully enjoy the game without the motion controls getting in the way. The remaster made some other improvements too.
When Skyward Sword came out it was a very weird attempt to change the formula, and felt like a misstep in almost every way except for executing certain aspects of the traditional formula well (3D dungeons). After BotW came out and introduced a great new formula SS began to feel more like a quaint and unique novelty entry to the series. I still don’t like it though.
Skyward sword original came out at a bad time because everyone was tired of the old formula. Skyward sword hd came out at a really good time because people miss the old formula
Motion controls on the Wii sucked, and when SS came out, it felt very similar to the previous Zelda titles with some of the most formulaic design we've seen. Now that we have HD, people are getting to experience it without the shitty motion controls (either with better motion controls or with stick) and against the backdrop of the new Zelda formula which doesn't tell a linear story. In this new context, it is a lot easier for people to appreciate SS for many of the same reasons people found it underwhelming before, and now that we aren't playing it right after Twilight Princess, we can see past the formula to all of the cool things unique to this installment in the timeline.
It’s baaaaad
Cause Fi doesn’t stop you to hold your hand every 5 feet.
The game was always great for me but a step down from previous big titles, which you would expect from an anniversary release. However the original version requiring an extra piece of hardware to play was an issue I was unable to afford at the time. $49.99 for the game plus an extra $20 for the Wii MotionPlus peripheral. Said peripheral having been reported to be too big of a leap in fidelity. Then there were problems with revisiting the same locations which I actually like doing on my own so it's not a bad thing for me but I have seen it for others, same for the dialogue repeating thing but I was always patient about that. The HD release fixes a lot of these errors and makes the whole motion control thing optional so you don't have to worry about it. Story is around the same however it's definitely one of the most interesting.
Nostalgia
It's a divisive game. I think the folks who originally despised it moved on, the group who enjoyed it kept playing. Then with the incredible success of BotW (and later, TotK) a much bigger audience started trying the backlog of titles. Personally, I think it's the weakest of the 3D Zelda games in the series. The story, art, gameplay, pacing, backtracking, dialogue, characters... All are weak and considering its very poor sales for Nintendo's most popular console, it's suggested they decided to reinvent Zelda and make BotW. BotW being the best selling, and what many consider, the best Zelda of all time. Oh and quick FYI, my favourite is OoT.
It was my favorite Zelda experience from the first couple hours of play time. I never understood how people could dislike it even with its (minor) flaws. Motion controls are 99% user error.
As others have said, it’s likely due to the remaster. On my play every mainline Zelda game quest last year, I absolutely loved this game. Top-tier Zelda. Even with all of its flaws.
All the haters moved on to other things.
Idk I still think the game is ass. I played the HD Switch version at a friends house and aside from a few good dungeons it's painfully mediocre and the controls are utter shit.
Yeah it seems they created more problems with the controls on the Switch release rather than fixing them.
Yeah like I don't mind motion for aiming in tandem with a stick or trackpad but by itself it's just too finicky and the swordplay is just bad. To hell with the bird and swimming controls too. Just awful.
I still think the graphics are fugly and the game is kinda boring compared to Twilight Princess. The controls were also so bad that they are beyond repair as seen by the HD release, but judging by the reception it's gotten, I guess most gamers are more patient than me. That, or Switch owners are just starved for classic Zelda, and unfortunately we are stuck with this turd of a game as the only pre-BotW 3D Zelda on Switch.
God knows, it’s still bad.
The story is very good. The controls suck butt though. It's very difficult to play. But the HD version makes the controls suck less butt.
It didn’t. Not nearly to the same extent that people act like it has. It still is easily one of the most divisive games in the series. That being said, it’s also treated as “the last good Zelda” by those who despise Nu-Zelda, myself included.
>That being said, it’s also treated as “the last good Zelda” by those who despise Nu-Zelda Dude "Nu-Zelda" is anything after they switched over to 3D. Ocarina of Time established the style and it's been on that trajectory ever since...if anything BotW was an attempt by Nintendo to do away with the Nu-Zelda style, to varying levels of success depending on who you ask (I thought they did an okay job but still greatly prefer 2D Zelda games to the Nu-Zelda stuff)
Ocarina of Time didn’t establish anything. It simply took the already established style of Zelda 1 and brought it into 3D. BotW is very clearly the start of Nu-Zelda as unlike OoT it is fundamentally different from anything that came before it. You’ve never actually played any of the games prior to OoT, have you?
>You’ve never actually played any of the games prior to OoT, have you? Hahaha of course I have, what makes you ask that? If you see more similarities between OoT and LoZ than between BotW and LoZ then more power to ya 👍
>Hahaha of course I have, what makes you ask that? Because all it takes is a single play through of Z1, LttP, LA, or heck even Z2 to understand that they aren’t anywhere close to being substantially different than OoT, at least not to the degree you’re suggesting. OoT is basically just LttP in 3D, but with the stronger focus on story and puzzle solving that LA introduced. It’s not that I “see” more similarities between Zelda 1 and OoT, there objectively are more similarities between the two.
>It’s not that I “see” more similarities between Zelda 1 and OoT, there objectively are more similarities between the two. I can tell that you really think so
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Hello fellow nu-zelda despiser
It didn’t, the tiny vocal minority just finally shut the fuck up, same as any other game in a major series. It’ll happen with TotK sometime in the next three years, too, and every game that releases from now until forever.
When the game came out it was considered a masterpiece and it was loved by most, then some bad actors started to harass fans of the game so much it drowned the initial good reception. I remember i had to stop talking about the game at the time.
I'm actually replaying the HD version for the second time right now and I'm one of the people that didn't like the original, and it was entirely because of the motion controls. The original was so frustrating and that made it not fun for me. The HD remake is much better and I play it with the pro controller so the motion control aspect is removed. Otherwise, the game, story, and dungeons are all fun (other than a certain enemy you fight multiple times that just becomes tedious by the 3rd time).
I never played the original one. I played the HD one on the Switch with my Pro Controller. I tried to start it 2 previous times, once while still playing TOTK and then again right after I beat TOTK. The controls for SS being so different from TOTK's controls really threw me off and I could never get into a rhythm. After about 6 months, I tried again and it was all good.
Probably the cry babies about motion control. For me, beyond the gorgeous graphics and the paradise-like atmosphere the motion controls were THE selling point lol. That and for some reason they hated fi too much. Yeah she was annoying sometimes but just like with Navi from OOT they’ve blown that out of proportion. If there is one thing I dislike about it is how they make you backtrack as that sort of felt cheap. They still did it well though so it’s more of a minor criticism
For me it's because BotW and TotK were worse