Game Journal: Skyward Sword Part 1

This series of blog posts contains spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Introduction

    My first entries for this website were inspired by my love for the Legend of Zelda series, and specifically, the announcement that there would be a live action Zelda move produced in the near future. To be quite honest the thought of a Zelda live action movie (or non live action movie) didn't really excite me. In fact, I view it as just another opportunity for an intellectual property I love to be ruined. So I started thinking about the question "What makes a Zelda Game?" which led me to the questions "Who is Zelda? Who is Link?" Those of you who've read my other posts will know that I'm kind of a snob when it comes to Zelda canon. Whenever another entry to a canon comes out there is always the risk the next entry will "mess things up;" especially if the creator of the IP says it's canon AND that entry into the canon doesn't really fit with the overall narrative of the canon or how the characters are portrayed throughout the narrative (Think Star Wars TLJ). To make a long story short, I wanted to build a character profile for the character of Zelda, and for that I needed to play an entry to the Zelda franchise that I somehow missed since I became an adult: Skyward Sword. I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

Getting into New Games as an Adult

    Any veteran of any type of narrative heavy action adventure game will tell you that starting a game is not the same as actually experiencing the gameplay. You got to get through the tutorial first which usually takes at least a half hour or so. This was something I wasn't really looking forward too. Since I became a responsible adult (with a wife, two kids and one more on the way, a dog, a house and a full time job), how I enjoy gaming has changed in a way that I really don't like. Starting long games with epic narratives seems like a chore now rather than a mystery box to open. My gaming sessions are significantly shorter than they used to be and I don't have the time to sit through long intros and learn new user interfaces. That being said, now whenever I start a game the first thing I tell myself is "be patient and enjoy the ride." I was determined to get immersed in a new world rather than waste a half hour "playing" Vampire Survivor gaining a false sense of accomplishment while listening to some political podcast that just makes me depressed but makes me feel like I'm doing something productive while I waste time. 

Disorganized Ramblings of my First Time in Skyloft
    I loved the intro to this game. The art style was cool, the music was great, and the game achieved the desired goal of setting the stage for an epic adventure. The introduction that chronicled the story of Hylia and her war with the demons was told in a way that both informed me of the larger context of the world, but didn't give out too much exposition that killed any sense of mystery. The start of the game starts off like most modern Zelda games. Link wakes up in bed, is shown to be carefree and lazy but part of the larger world around him. Skyloft is big and invites exploration and the character models are fun and charming with no sense of "copy/paste." You can tell care was taken in designing each sprite. The intro cutscene to Skyloft ending with Zelda singing while playing her harp was really enjoyable. I was starting to get sucked in. 

Zelda: Link's Fangirl

   I know I haven't gotten too far into the game, but I think this might be my favorite iteration of Zelda. Don't get me wrong I really like the BotW/TotK Zelda, but there is a playful innocence to SS Zelda that is very charming. Zelda's father outright says that Zelda and Link have been friends since childhood, but that fact is something we could easily tell even with the short amount of playtime we've experienced thus far. I don't know how they did it, but the writers at Nintendo perfectly capture the "coming to adulthood" moment of the development of a relationship. Zelda acts like a protective older sister to Link by standing up to Groose (presumably because Link is too carefree to do it himself), but yet fawns over him almost every chance she gets. To Zelda, Link must succeed in the knight trial. Why? Given the information that's been presented to us the answer is obvious: She loves him. What I love about this is that we are SHOWN that Zelda loves link, not TOLD. Much in the same way we can conclude that Zelda in TotK loves Link by observing the way she describes him to Rauru. Yes this way of story telling leaves room for ambiguity, but when it is done right it really draws the player/reader in to the story and starts to make you care about the characters and their relationship to one another. By the end of my short playthrough I hadn't encountered any real action, but I got exposed a larger fantasy world and started to care for two characters in particular and their relationship to one another. Which when it comes to narratives naturally means that something really bad is about to happen, and our two love birds will be separated.