The year of Zelda continues apace, and I have found myself in a peculiar situation. I've been playing what count as chronologically the first and last stories of the series. Last week, I'd been leafing through the Legend of Zelda Wikipedia page and happened upon the official timeline of the world of Hyrule. It's interesting to say the least. Especially at the point of Ocarina of Time, where the timeline splits into three separate branches. Closer inspection revealed Skyward Sword to be the first story and Spirit Tracks as what could subjectively be called the last. Starting as I have with Skyward Sword, I've decided to compete the games in the chronological order as best I can. So that means Minish Cap will be next.
That means, of course, that I have finished Skyward Sword. And it was utterly fantastic. It's the best Zelda game I've played by quite a long margin and possibly one of the best games I've ever played full stop. First of all it's gorgeous. It really does look like a painting in full motion. The poor little Wii must have being straining as hard as it could to push those visuals down the component cable. It played beautifully too, with the 1:1 swordplay and subtly polished battle system being the highlight. I loved how the world has been cut down to four main areas, with new areas opening up with repeated visits. Story wise, Zelda games have long been the black sheep of Nintendo's line of titles, shot through as they are with an undercurrent of sadness that you don't often see in their other games. Skyward Sword is no different, in fact the line of sadness probably runs deeper in this game than any other.
The more you play, the more there is to be a touched by, from the grand tragedy of Impa's thousand year vigil, alone in the sealed grounds, likely kept alive by the power of the gate of time or the power of the goddess, only to fade away to nothing when her task is completed, to the small tragedy of Beedle living all alone on an isolated island with nothing but a beetle for company. It's everywhere you look. I found myself looking in on Pipit's problems at home and wondering what happened to the rest of Batreux kin, or what had turned him into a monster and what he had done to deserve it. Then there was the part I had in breaking the hearts of both Cawlin and the item check girl. There was no way to let her down gently, and that's what made it worse.
The most surprisingly sad events surround the fate of the ancient robot civilisation in the desert, seemingly immortal consciousnesses trapped inside non-functional bodies, unable to act as they watch their verdant homeland turn to desert and their civilisation crumble around them. Press the A button while stood next to one in the present and they will try and talk to you. Activate a time crystal in their vicinity and they will be fully functional and pottering around as if nothing as happened. Deactivate that time crystal and you will see them shut down and deteriorate right before your eyes. In most games, this would just be detail, but in Skyward Sword, the little robots are so damned endearing that you really do feel sorry for them. I found myself hoping that after the ending, Scrapper the robot left Skyloft and returned to the Lanayru Desert to repair his kin and rebuild the lost robot Civilisation.
Then there were the unanswered questions. Where are the rest of the Gorons. What was the lost civilisation that created the Goddess Sword like? There are stories everywhere in the gameworld that sound like a relatively primitive civilisation trying to make sense of technology so advanced that it is indistinguishable from magic. Take Fi for instance. She is obviously some sort of powerful artificial intelligence. I'd love to see Nintendo go further back into Hyrule's past and explore the first civilisation.
Finally, and most tragic of all is the tearful goodbye between Zelda and Link as she seals herself away to keep the bonds of The Imprisoned intact. Link and Zelda have a real relationship in this game. She's not just a princess to be saved. It meant that Link actually had a valid motive to go after her and gave every interaction between them genuine warmth then made their eventual reunion all the more powerful when it finally happened.
Skyward Sword is a masterclass from beginning to end. The game that finally justifies the Wiimote. The swordplay is just fantastic. It's amazing how Nintendo have managed to make the way Link wields the titular sword look so natural. It could easily have made Link look like a puppet. The game has one of the series best antagonists and an ending that ties every game before it into one recurring Narrative and shifted the way I perceived the series as a whole. They are not just individual stories tied together by common threads anymore. Just as in Bioshock, wherein there is always a Man and a Lighthouse, in The Legend of Zelda there is always a Boy, a Princess and the ancient evil that follows them.
Long may the cycle continue.
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