Nintendo has released a brand-new “Quality of Life” trailer for their upcoming Zelda title, Skyward Sword HD. Skyward Sword HD is coming out two weeks from today on July 16, and it couldn’t come soon enough! Skyward Sword HD is a game we have been writing about for the better part of five years. You could say that the mission of our outlet was to get that game to be made. Although Nintendo said time and time again that Skyward Sword would not come out for the Nintendo Switch, here we are, two weeks away! Let’s go over what Nintendo has in store for us from a quality-of-life standpoint in Skyward Sword HD.
Help from Fi is now optional, so she won’t be what so many gamers complained about as to either being “annoying” or hand-holding. Either way this option for casual and hardcore gamers, re: giving them a choice, is a great thing.
This we already knew, but the motion controls are more precise and the button-only controls give the game more accessible to those who either cannot play with motion controls or simply don’t want to. Either way, everyone wins.
The game also runs at 60 FPS, running smoother and adding to the enhancement of the gameplay.
Information is now streamlined. Gone are the days where you have to read the same text over and over again when getting the same item. Bird statues also do not ask you anything; it simply gives you the options to save, return to the sky, or remain.
The dialogue now moves fast forward at a much smoother pace, compared to the slow text in the original.
Cutscenes were skippable in the original version of the game, albeit only during a subsequent playthrough. Now, cutscenes are skippable from the get-go. I’d have no idea why anyone would want to skip any of the cutscenes in Skyward Sword HD, but to each their own.
The QOL enhancements are good, but not great. They are everything the game needed, save fast travel. And that’s locked behind an amiibo. I’ll have the amiibo, so I’ll have no problem, but for those who don’t? Well, it’s really a shame that Nintendo decided to lock the best feature regarding QOL behind an accessory that will be almost impossible to obtain.