In a few months, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Arrived on Wii on November 18, 2011, Link's special motion gaming adventures unfortunately did not fully convince at the time. Between the controversial chara-design, the combat system that is far too fixed and indigestible, the painful round trips in Skyloft and the under-exploited Skyrider, we had the impression that Eiji Aonuma and his teams had lacked foresight. It is however this episode which was selected to be the subject of a remaster on Nintendo Switch, and by the same to celebrate the 35 years of the saga Zelda. The first images and the trailers did little to reassure the assembly as to this restoration, which seemed light. After months of doubt, it is high time to check if the title has not just benefited from an “HD” filter, just to save money.
It's a balancing act that Nintendo is working on by choosing to adapt The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Nintendo Switch. Thought in its time for the famous "motion gaming" of the Wii, the game had chosen to limit the controls to allow players to take the time to manage both the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. A heresy already at the time, and an additional complication for the development teams in 2021. So certainly, the purists who wish to approach the game with the original experience can always keep the controls of the time thanks to the gyroscopic functionalities of the Joy - Con, but they will have to rub shoulders with this gameplay which already left something to be desired in 2011. By opting for this very special approach, the fights freeze and lose a lot of freedom, with this permanent and compulsory lock which makes confrontations prohibitive. Giving sword blows while gesticulating in front of your screen, that's 10 minutes, but throughout the adventure, it's quickly laborious, especially since the recognition of movements is far from as perfect as they want us to believe. . And you'll see that when it goes down the drain, spending time recalibrating the Joy-Con in the middle of a fight becomes extremely painful. On the other hand, on the Switch version, it is now possible to control the camera with the analog stick, something that was impossible in 2011, the Wiimote being devoid of a stick. It's a detail said like that, but it makes the gameplay more flexible, which is already well closed.
Despite everything, aware that the Wii gameplay had already divided the players in its time, Nintendo had the good sense to offer a more classic gameplay, without motion gaming, but that will not entirely solve our problems. Well no, because that's where the great difficulty lies, namely disguising a gameplay based on spirited gestures in front of the screen, by transposing them with basic controls. On paper, once motion gaming is disabled, all commands are assigned to the buttons, while motion recognition is now placed at the analog stick. Basically, to type with your sword, you just have to give direction with the stick and it also works with other items such as the lasso, the butterfly net and even the throwing bombs. On the other hand, where the rub is that once the attacks are assigned to the stick, it is no longer possible to control the camera with the latter. Nintendo has however found a little trick: you must then hold the L button and then play with the stick. It's frankly not intuitive and in a somewhat tense confrontation, we even tangle our brushes. Worse, to switch items, you have to systematically put them away by pressing the B key, then go back to basic manipulation. We don't tell you how the whole thing slows down the experience and even becomes clumsy when it's about being lively and efficient. Where the developers could have been clever is by using the touch screen of the Nintendo Switch, an option valid for all types of Switch consoles, and which could have made this wobbly gameplay a little more flexible. Because yes, you have understood it, if by misfortune, you play on Nintendo Switch Lite, you will unfortunately have no choice, the Joy-Con not being detachable...
If the gameplay has not improved much by switching to Nintendo Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD could have caught up in its technique. But the trailers were unfortunately not misleading, the differences between the original 2011 game and this – barely – restored version of 2021 remain minor. Yes, this HD version turns out to be more visually digestible, but we're going so far away that it's hard to be captivated. This is all the more true since at the time, the Wii was already a technically outdated console, and the artistic direction of the game was not the most convincing either. If the Paul Cézanne style has its little effect, with its pastel colors and its somewhat abstract rendering, the character design swears quite a bit. It is enough to meet Link's gaze to wonder if he too has not yielded to the sirens of plastic surgery. Protruding eyes and pimped mouth Nabila way, there is something to ask questions. It is all the more curious that this offbeat rendering swears only on the characters of Link and Zelda, the other protagonists adapting rather well to this slightly anamorphic pencil stroke. The environments, already quite empty and cubic at the time, had a bad experience of the 10 years of video game evolution. Complicated indeed in 2021 to accept that a ball can have geometric sides... We are not going to lie to each other, Zelda magic, unlike that experienced in Breath of the Wild, is not there and to this are added the Link's robotic animations that spoil the experience even more.
There are still some improvements in this Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, starting with a frame-rate that runs at 60 frames per second. It is certainly the norm imposed today, but the title gains in fluidity and the adventure travels more pleasantly. Another element that makes the game more enjoyable: Fay's help, which becomes optional. Indeed, its interventions are now reduced to the essentials, knowing that it is possible to call on it manually. This allows you to no longer break the rhythm of the adventure as was the case in 2011. Always with the idea of making the game more enjoyable, it is possible to speed up the dialogues and skip the cutscenes with a simple pressing the B Button. Also, the information windows no longer repeat and each explanation given on a collectible object only appears the first time the object is collected. Small appreciable readjustments certainly, but which unfortunately do not save the game from its incessant comings and goings in Célesbourg. We are not going to go back over the main flaws that are inherent to the original game, and we invite you to reread our 2011 review, but clearly The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is by far the least enjoyable episode of the saga, despite a rather interesting origins storyline. You can't be close to perfection every time, can you?
Most
- It runs at 60fps and it's more appreciable
- Fay got her mouth shut
- We can speed up the dialogues
- We can finally skip the cutscenes
- The arrival of automatic backups, hallelujah
- Remaster HD viteuf
- The environments really show the weight of the years
- Link's animations could have been reworked
- Link: fish eyes and Nabilla lips, it's still no
- Motion gaming controls adapted to the stick and buttons not in focus
- Players on Switch Lite will struggle even more…
- The Joy-Con often needs to be recalibrated
- Motion gaming in 2021 is still a pain
- The first 5 hours of play are still laborious
