Culturess’ Ranking of The Legend of Zelda Games

13. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Hopes were high for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I would know, because I was there, oohing and aahing over the reveals, sighing at every single delay (five years of development!), and hoping that even though the art style was a little weird, it would be a really good Zelda game.

Here’s the thing: parts of Skyward Sword are indeed really, really good! The dungeons are creative, as are the bosses. The story as a whole actually stands up pretty well, too, and not just because there’s an actual story beyond “there’s this evil being and you need to defeat him/her/it”. (There’s still an evil being. Two of them, in fact.) The world in general is actually quite beautiful.

The problems with Skyward Sword, however, are not easily ignored. Fi, your companion, does not stop talking for more than five minutes at a time. The motion controls, which are supposed to be very precise, do not always work correctly, even after multiple calibrations. The game feels more linear as a whole, with the overworld contained to specific areas and the sky regions pretty empty as well.

Getting through Skyward Sword can be a test, but there are some rewards to it.