Field Note #1: Skyward Sword & The Call to Adventure

Base Stats:

Game: Skyward Sword

Version: Original Wii Version, Physical Disc

System: Nintendo Wii U

Session Play Time: 1 hr 55 min

Total Play Time: 1 hr 55 min

Content Covered: New Game Start through just before 1st jump to the surface

My first thought booting up Skyward Sword for the first time in at least 5 years was “wow, this looks rough.” Although brightly colored, the SD game looked jagged on my modern HD TV. It was so distracting that I had to lower the sharpness on the TV to soften the edges enough for it to be tolerable. The graphic engine wasn’t the only part of Skyward Sword that was showing the 9-year-old game’s age. The odd Wii motion controls took longer to adjust to and required more syncing than I remembered, and the cord for the tethered nunchuck kept getting in the way and coming unplugged in the middle of fighting and climbing.

It wasn’t long until I started to ease back into the old experience, Wiimote and all, but then I was struck by the maddening frustration of the “Legacy Zelda Formula”. It took me 45 minutes after starting the new play file to get my first practice sword from the Knight Commander. Those 45 minutes were full of people stopping me to tell me basic Zelda controls in long, unnecessary dialogue trees, often punctuated by slow cinematic camera sequences. Although some of this was necessary 9 years ago when the technology was brand new, today it felt like everything took twice as long to do and I was mashing B to get through the dialogue tree as fast as possible.

The mini-quest from Professor Horwell to get Mia down from the roof of the academy is the absolute worst. He stopped me no less than four separate times with stupidly slow dialogue like “ah, autojump…it has a nice ring to it” and “you can’t climb that roof by yourself! Press A when standing near a box to push it.” The worst thing is that the most excruciating part of this whole sequence wasn’t even the hand-holding dialogue—it was the slow, unnecessary camera pans after he spoke which showed you the entire answer to the puzzle at hand before you even got a chance to figure it out for yourself. The whole sequence was like plucking eyebrow hairs—excruciating torture.

Despite all these complaints, at some point my experience shifted. One moment I was clunking my way through a rough old Zelda game while trying to not get so frustrated that I stopped enjoying it, and the next I was absorbed in the story and having the time of my life. That old Zelda magic hit me, as it always does, and the line between reality and the game blurred.

This time, the magic came on gradually. It started when I actually listened to Zelda’s advice during the wing ceremony and used the ascent/decent speed mechanic to my advantage rather than mashing the A button for a difficult-to-control limited speed boost. I captured the statue faster than I ever have before and shouted “YEAH!” after my victory while pumping my fists in the air and giving my wife a high five.

The cinematic sequence from the ceremony atop the statue with Zelda to the magical midnight journey following Fi to hidden sword chamber is still one of my favorites in the whole series. And that one moment—the moment I drew the Goddess Sword from its pedestal—was just as magical today as it was 9 years ago when I got to physically draw the sword from its pedestal myself for the first time.

Me drawing the Master Sword for the first time in 2011.

Now that I’ve had a couple days to contemplate the themes I took notes on during my playthrough, there is one theme which seems to dominate this first section of the game more than others: the persistent themes of awakening and growing up.

I watched a video recently about the awakening theme in Skyward Sword’s opening. In the very first moments of the game, Link is having a prophetic dream where a strange voice is telling him that it is time for him to awaken. It isn’t uncommon for the first moment of a Zelda game to involve Link waking up. In fact, this is a common trope in fantasy literature. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey calls this moment the “Call to Adventure”—when the hero wakes up to their great destiny. What is interesting to me about this particular instance is that Sky’s awaking is different from most other Links in that it’s less of the typical “wake up to discover your heroic destiny” and more about growing up.

Throughout the opening sequence of Skyward Sword, everyone is telling Link to grow up. The people in the academy are continually surprised that Link slept in so late. Pipit tells Link that the wing ceremony is a rite of manhood. Random citizens around town echo this sentiment—that this is the day where Link will grow up (if he wins the ceremony), or that he is childish for sleeping in so late. Even Zelda alludes to this sentiment while talking with her father about Link’s chances to win the ceremony, and Groose tells Link that he needs to straighten up and become a real man.

This Link is very much, as Groose criticizes him for, “floating through life with his head in the clouds.” Think about it: a mystical, rare bird comes to him as a child and he learns to ride and bonds with the bird effortlessly. He doesn’t bother to practice for the wing ceremony and yet he wins anyway. Zelda seems more worried about him graduating and becoming a knight than Link himself. He can’t even keep an appointment he made with Zelda without her waking him up for it. Other Links have to fight and risk their lives to obtain the Master Sword, but this Link receives it practically gift wrapped right in his home town. He’s even given a shield and his first bottle for free before ever stepping foot off of Skyloft. Every advantage is given to this Link with little effort on his part.

I’m not saying that Sky Link is arrogant and is taking advantage of people—quite the opposite in fact. He barely stands up for himself or asserts his opinion. Zelda does it for him. He lets everyone and everything else steer the course of his life while he sits in the passenger seat and benefits from it.

It strikes me that this is how children act. Parents and schools do all the work to provide the child with everything they need to be successful. They then dictate what the child is going to do and what “success” will look like for them. Many children will go through their lives not really understanding how much has been given to them, done for them, or decided for them until they are older (often college-age), when they are left on their own to figure it out as an “adult”.

Link is very much a child at the beginning of Skyward Sword. I believe that his awakening is about growing up and taking responsibility for himself. It will be interesting to see how this theme plays out as the game continues and Link sets off on his new adventure in the land below the clouds.

What do you think about Skyward Sword’s opening? Do you agree that Skyward Sword Link’s awakening is more about maturity than destiny? Sound off on the comments and subscribe to HFN to catch next week’s Field Note. Thanks for reading!