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Granted, the story in each Zelda is only barely noticeable, even with its grand fantasy tales of good and evil colliding in a never-ending struggle. With some exceptions, they start the same, they finish the same. Twilight Princess had perhaps the largest, most epic tale of them all, but at the very least Skyward Sword is mixing things up and presenting Link as something a bit different.
Link lives on Skyloft, a floating island shrouded in clouds. He’s lived his entire life there and, up until recently, had no idea anything existed outside those clouds. For reasons that’ll be explained by Nintendo later, Link is thrust into the lower world and forced to fight its malevolent rulers. Throughout the game you’ll have to travel back and forth from Skyloft, again suggesting a flow that’s unlike previous games. Not sure if Ganon is behind this one again though – his Twilight Princess incarnation was the best yet, so we wouldn’t mind if he took a break and let another villain rise to the top.
The art design is tops
This doesn’t come through in screens well, but the art style is not just Twilight Princess mixed with a Wind Waker candy shell. While Link and the immediate enemies may look like that, the sweeping vistas look more like a moving Van Gogh painting than “regular graphics.” It’s not as striking as Okami or Muramasa, but it does already stand out from prior Zelda games and will undoubtedly have some amazing visual tricks that we haven’t seen yet.
Probably won’t see much more of this for a while, so soak it in while you can.
Jun 17, 2010
