Game Review: ゼルダの伝説：スカイウォードソード

Other than Ocarina of Time, this was the Zelda game I was most worried about playing. But whereas in Ocarina's case it's because it was so universally loved, in Skyward Sword it's because of the opposite.

Skyward Sword is a console Legend of Zelda game, so when it came out it got plenty of perfect or near-perfect reviews (AV Club, IGN, Eurogamer, Game Informer). I even listened to an old Nintendo Voice Chat podcast episode a couple months ago where they gushed about how great the game would be. But since then, opinions turned on it a bit. People talk about the motion controls, of course, but they also complain about the fetch quests, the backtracking, and the hand-holding, which have gradually been escalating through the Zelda series and find their ultimate expression here. So when I loaded it up, I wasn't sure whether to expect a complete mess or a maligned masterpiece.

What I got was a game that tries very hard but sadly falls short of its lofty ambitions.

The Japanese title is just a transliteration of the English "Skyward Sword."

A hero has to start somewhere.

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