The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD was released earlier this month, and as far as remasters go, it’s a great effort.
Several big changes were made to the game, including an entirely new control scheme to allow for button controls instead of mandatory motion controls. In addition to enhanced visuals and audio, there are also plenty of quality-of-life improvements that weren’t present in the original game.
Although Skyward Sword HD is a standout game with more positives than negatives, there are still several things that annoyed me while playing it. Some of these could have been straightforward changes, while others would have taken a lot more time and effort to fix.
In any case, here are five things I still hate about Skyward Sword HD that I wish could have been different.
Combat
It’s a bit tricky to discuss the combat in Skyward Sword HD. Motion controls play a huge part in battling, but I’m not complaining about the motion controls themselves. In fact, Nintendo did a fantastic job in the remaster by creating a control scheme that works well with both separated Joy-Con and traditional button mapping.
I didn’t have a problem with motion itself when playing Skyward Sword HD. I played primarily in handheld mode, swinging my sword with the right analog stick. It worked well.
The part that I still hated was the combat itself. Nearly every enemy in the game is designed around motion patterns. Bokoblin holding its sword to the left? You need to swing from the right. Deku Baba with its mouth open vertically? You need to swing horizontally. Beamos with a vulnerable eye? You need to perform a jab. Nothing else would work.
While each of these enemy battles seemed creative at first, by the end of the game, it felt like a chore to defeat them all in such specific ways. It often slowed down combat as I tried to remember how I should be fighting even the most basic monster.
I found myself longing for a more fluid combat style such as the one in Wind Waker HD, where consecutive sword swings chopped up an enemy seamlessly without the need for intricate strategy.
