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E3 2010 - The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Preview

All those Wii Motion Plus minigames finally make their way into a "real" game, and it feels great.

June 16, 2010
Skyward Sword
Credit: Skyward Sword

It's been a year since Nintendo offered us a teasing glimpse of the next Zelda game for Wii, which consisted entirely of Link standing in front of a spectral girl bearing a startling resemblance to the famous Master Sword. According to Nintendo designer, that fundaments of this new Zelda adventure were more or less set in stone back then, with only the art style needing definition.

"When you're first developing a game you spend a lot of time thinking about what you want it to look like," he said at an E3 media roundtable event today. "A lot of times there can be a big lag between when the graphics are complete and when the game is done. Last year we showed a piece of art from the game. At that point, most of the game was complete, but all we had to show visually was that single piece of art."

Now, after a year of silence on the game, Nintendo finally revealed the full game. Entitled Skyward Sword, this latest Zelda appears to be a prequel of sorts to the series that we've known -- the Master Sword-like girl in that teaser art is the titular Skyward Sword, and producer Eiji Aonuma happily spoiled the story for us: Eventually the Skyward Sword becomes the well-known Master Sword.

But it's all about the journey, right? The Skyward Sword in this game can appear as a Navi-like assistant to Link, offering advice and narrative exposition as needed. How she ends up turning into the Master Sword is undoubtedly an important part of the experience -- the part that players will be involved in. As usual, the player controls a young warrior named Link who wields a sword and shield and collects an unwieldy array of special weapons. The difference here is that this time, the sword talks back.

Twilight Princess. The difference here is that the player's motions translate precisely into the angle and velocity of the on-screen sword attacks. The game feels precise, accurate, and surprisingly untiring.

Based on the game's E3 demo, Nintendo has tailored Skyward Sword's entire world around these controls. Enemies must be defeated with attacks delivered with specific angles: Deku Baba plants can only be destroyed by swiping along the axis that their maws open along, and random goblin creatures carry shields which will repel Link's attacks, forcing players to attack their unguarded flanks. This carries over even to the demo's boss, a massive scorpion whose claws rotate and must be struck with the same tactics as the Deku Babas; once it's declawed, Link has to dodge its tail's attacks and strike its armored eye with precise thrusts. Fortunately, the classic Zelda lock-on targeting mechanic still works in perfect combination with these new sword capabilities.

One classic that's not carried over in Skyward Sword is the now-cliché Zelda boss mechanic of attacking an enemy with a specific special weapon to expose a weak point, wailing on it, then repeating a few times. The scorpion is much more straightforward, requiring raw skill over simple gimmicky; hopefully this design philosophy carries over into the other bosses, and the rest of the game. The Zelda series of late has consisted largely of new ways to do the same old things, and many fans would definitely welcome a game that shakes up the formula.

Click the image above to check out all The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword screens.

Skyward Sword certainly explores its interface refinements to the fullest. Wii Motion Controls offer incredible precision not only with the sword, but also with ranged weapons like the slingshot and the arrows. Players can toss bombs in an overhead arc or roll them like a bowling ball, not unlike a bombchu. Even the Wii nunchuk controller's motion sensor comes into play by working as Link's Shield (yes, he's a righty once again), with carefully-timed forward thrusts translating into a shield bash that can deflect attacks and repel projectiles back at foes. Destroying Deku Scrubs with their own rock-spittle is no longer a simple matter of holding up a shield but rather of timing a shield strike properly to return their fire.

Besides the revamped interface, the other notable element of Skyward Sword is its art style. While it seems largely similar in aesthetics to Twilight Princess, upon closer examination you realize the largely commonality between the two games is Link himself. Skyward Sword is a much more colorful game, and it has an almost impressionistic art style. The world appears to have much larger vistas and more explorable environments, and the game uses a painterly sense of abstraction to render depth of field rather than a simple blur effect. It's subtle, but it's gorgeous in motion -- as it should be, given its inspiration from the old masters. "I'm a big fan of impressionism in the art world, so we've drawn on that," Miyamoto said. "There's a definite [Paul] Cézanne influence.

He also noted that perfecting the visual style has been the most time-consuming element of the game's development. "If we'd just used the same graphics from Twilight Princess, the game would already be done."

It should be noted, though, that to date we've only seen a small portion of the game world. As with many other Zelda games, Skyward Sword is about the duality of two worlds. A Link to the Past had the Dark World, Ocarina of Time had the grim future, and Twilight Princess had the Twilit Realm. Skyward Sword's parallel worlds are a flying kingdom known as Skyloft and the dark surface world tainted with evil. Link is a child of Skyloft, but eventually becomes aware of the world below and sets out to save it, accurately-mapped sword in hand.

I'm surprised by how positive I am on Skyward Sword. The increasingly formulaic structure of the Zelda series has been wearing on me lately, and while Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks have redeemed themselves with a few interesting wrinkles, I can't shake the sense that Zelda has been getting by on desperate good luck lately. Skyward Sword has the potential to truly shake things up. The new interface is great -- its swordplay and archery feel like the standalone minigames of Wii Sports Resort with an added sense of purpose -- and there seems to be a genuine effort to redefine how the game unfolds at work. The ingredients are here for a masterpiece. The question is, can Nintendo bring them all together into a satisfying whole? Unfortunately, we won't find out until early next year, as Miyamoto and Aonuma have decided to give themselves plenty of room to perfect the game. Here's hoping Skyward Sword is worth the wait.


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