Thanks to the official UK site for Skyward Sword HD, brand new details have emerged for the title. There are also a number of brand new glorious screenshots from the game visible on the site, albeit they are not saveable. There is also a ton of new artwork with all the major characters, including Link, with all of his items.
“Choose from two unique ways to experience this epic adventure. Swing your sword and angle your slashes with intuitive motion controls that match your movements or – for the first time – take advantage of the newly-added button controls, ideal for playing in handheld mode or on Nintendo Switch Lite.
Enhanced motion controls put you in the middle of the action. Swing the right Joy-Con to swing your sword in-game and use the left Joy-Con to raise your shield to block enemy attacks. Physical movements like these can also be used with items, such as wielding a bow and arrow or rolling bombs along the ground.”
There’s one thing that stands out in this huge info dump by Nintendo on their UK site, and that appears by the bottom. There will be changes to Skyward Sword HD. To be more precise, quality of life improvements. This has seemed to slip through the cracks and there was never an official announcement, but this comes from an official Nintendo source.
A CLASSIC ADVENTURE, REDEFINED
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD takes the classic quest and optimises it for Nintendo Switch, improving the experience in a number of ways including:
- Enhanced performance
- Improved motion controls with the Joy-Con controllers
- All-new button controls, allowing you to choose your style of play
- Various quality-of-life enhancements, including refinements to player tutorials and general guidance throughout the adventure
This last bit of information is huge. We knew that the motion controls would be enhanced, and we knew all about the button controls (though whether those truly work remains to be seen), but according to Nintendo, there will be “various” quality-of-life enhancements. The fact that tutorials will be refined is a huge relief, as the original tutorials in the game, though it is my favorite Zelda game, were unbearable. I never disliked Fi, but hopefully, her level of annoyance is severely diminished from the original.
All in all these sound like great things. Regardless, Skyward Sword HD for the Nintendo Switch will be a fantastic game, but, with some tweaks and quality-of-life improvements and this will be cemented as one of the greatest games of all-time.