First Impressions: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Gameplay Demo Posted by Martin Watts on June 7, 2011 · 3 Comments

GameTrailers’ Demo Unveils a Few New Details

The team at GameTrailers were fortunate enough earlier today to get an exclusive look at The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii. Thankfully, their live stream meant that Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming was also able to take a look at what’s to come.

New information was, however, pretty sparse. We’ve still to learn more about what the actual storyline will incorporate, other than it possibly being the earliest set Zelda game to date, and that some of the story will revolve around Skyloft, a series of islands among the cloud above the land of Hyrule. The gameplay demo gave us a glimpse of the aerial locale, showing an early part of the game where Link must use a rather large bird as a method of transport. Controls for this aspect of the game are similar to when you control aircraft in Wii Sports Resort. Skyloft will act as a central hub of sorts, and bird statues situated on the ground below can be used to return to the city in the clouds in order to purchase health potions and other supplies.

We also got our first look into one of the game’s dungeons, the Sky Temple. During this part of the demo, Link engaged in sword combat with a few enemies. Sword fighting in general looks a lot more challenging than in previous titles, and will require a lot of “manual dexterity”. Furthermore, weapons can now be upgraded by collecting ingredients, which are then used in culmination to create new projectiles for your slingshot for example.

While the gameplay elements look a lot more polished than they were at last E3, and the game will still incorporate that great Zelda formula, we can’t help but think that it will still be somewhat dated from a storytelling point of view. Voice-acting, in particular, seems to still be absent from the series. Nevertheless, the new setting may allow for the story to stray from the fairly standard plotline that most Zelda games have adhered to in recent years.

Unfortunately, we’ve yet to receive an official release date for the game, but we expect to see it making an appearance on store shelves later this year, more than likely during the holiday season. The game looks like it’s nearing completion, and Shigeru Miyamoto stated during the conference that he has been playing it on a daily basis, which we imagine is probably a sign that he’s looking to work out the kinks here and there.

We’ll let you know more as and when we know about it.

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Share Your Thoughts: What were your thoughts on the Zelda discussion at the Nintendo E3 Conference? Were you satisfied with the information that they released? Is there a distinct lack of Wii software between now and Wii U’s 2012 release?



