From the moment Link is (rudely) awakened by Zelda at the start of Skyward Sword HD, the entire Skyloft community is pestering our poor hero about the Wing Ceremony. But before Link can participate in the Ceremony, first he’ll have to find his Crimson Loftwing (fortunately easier than obtaining a Loftwing Amiibo, thank you “unforeseen shipping delays”) after Zelda pushes him off the sky island and, hey, there’s no Loftwing there to scoop him up.
After you locate the missing Loftwing, you must practice flying. Yes, the practice helps orient new players to various game controls, but after a while, we were yelling “Alright, already, we get it!” at the screen.
Nonetheless, Gentle Reader, you need to walk through all these steps and build your own level of excitement to complete the Ceremony. WARNING: Your newly recovered Loftwing steers like a pig. Try to pay attention during the training, despite the nagging from Zelda. If you do well, you’ll complete the requisite tasks and get (almost) a kiss from Zelda (see previous blog reference to the line this game walks between “Hey that’s funny” and “Someone call the Knight Academy’s HR department, Link is being harassed.”) If you do poorly, you’ll still complete the tasks, but your wrists will hurt, and you’ll want another cocktail.
Not that we know this first-hand, of course. Cough, cough.
As usual, there is no rest for Link the Victor. SECOND WARNING: If the Loftwing steering like a pig isn’t bad enough, Link falling on his face with the Sailcloth tests your patience even more. It can be done, this falling on your face correctly, but it’s a headache. And, we’re trying to remember – we do that a lot – the trying, not the remembering – where were we? – but we are pretty sure Zelda shoved us off the Statue of the Goddess to start our Sailcloth training. She gives new meaning to the adjective pushy.
Again, no rest for Link. The minute he’s finished with the face-falling, he’s being nagged by a spirit creature who leads him on a chase through town and into a previously hidden door at the base of the aforementioned Goddess Statue. Lo, and behold, here is where you claim the Goddess Sword! By default, you also claim Fi, an androidy character who dwells within the sword, and the ability to “dowse” for objects and people.
And, naturally, you’ll be sent on another quest because – say it with us – Zelda has gone missing (and thus begins her tradition of untimely disappearances) and ONLY LINK CAN SAVE THE DAY. And thus, well into the game play, you get to visit the surface. (One would like to make a joke here, a play on words sort of thing, about something appearing on the surface to be one thing but in reality being another; one would also like a new nose and the same waist one had at age 21, so one must get used to disappointment. You’re on the surface of the planet and not up in the sky – let’s go with that.)
The Faron Woods
One of the things we disliked most about playing the original Skyward Sword was flying into the green vortex that transports Link to the ground. (See “Loftwing steers like a pig” and “Wrists hurt, need cocktail” above.) Nothing has changed on that front. But, steer and fly and fall we did, and soon enough we were in the Sealed Grounds and then standing in what passes for the Pit of Despair just outside the entrance to Faron Woods. The Pit was actually kind of fun – figure out the trick to the updrafts and you’ll like it even more – and the temple/forest entrance/whatever wasn’t too bad either. (This despite the fact that the Old One looked a little too much like a former president of the United States.) Before you can sing seven or eight stanzas of Sondheim’s Into the Woods you are, well, into the woods.
Faron Woods will feel like home after the strange environs of Skyloft. Shoot, we remember the woods most recently from BOTW! Look, here are the ancestors of Bokoblins, evolutionary-wise. And there our old friends the Keese and Octoroks!
Unfortunately, you’ll also encounter snapping Venus Flytrap monsters – officially known as Deku Baba, but really, they are Venus Flytraps. You can either shield-bash them or slash horizontally or vertically with the sword depending on which way their vicious maw is poised to attack. (Demelza would like to note that if Itzal had taken his own earlier advice and practiced shield-bashing instead of pshawing his way through it with an “I’m good, I’m good,” he might have managed this section of play better.) (Itzal would like to counter with an indignant rejoinder that if Demelza had read the guidebook correctly, she would have advised using a horizontal sword slash on horizontal maws and vice versa, rather than the, um, reversa.)
Disgruntled Zelder Tip: Master the use of your shield when told to do so at the Knight Academy and Sparring Grounds. That way, when Demelza snorts derisively that he can’t possibly dispatch the hated Octoroks, Itzal gets to show off and practice his smug face. (Demelza: This does not make up for not learning how to shield-bash, which is distinct from simply holding up your shield and returning Octorok fire.)
Kikwi, Guay, and Up, Up, and Away
Not everything is an enemy in the Faron Woods. No, naturally there’s someone to rescue! Enter the Kikwi, who – we’re sorry – appear related to Koroks, even though they wander around like penguins in this game. They’re forest creatures, after all, like their leafy relatives. They even have their own Hestu-like figure, an oversized Kikwi elder. And like the Koroks in BOTW, they’re often hiding; indeed, one of the first mini-quests you’ll undertake is to find three Kikwis and return them to the elder.
After you’ve collected these Kikwi, you get to visit a Temple – dodging nasty bird things called Guay, who drop, er, droppings on you, leading one to believe that Guay is derived from the word guano. (Look it up, if you must.)
But most important, you get the Slingshot, which we remembered fondly from Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. (Cue “Hello, Slingshot, my old friend” soundtrack, no doubt in violation of Simon and Garfunkel’s copyright.) And then you can pay what promises to be the first of many visits to Beedle in the Flying Air Shop.
Naturally, you could continue straight into the Deep Woods at this point, but where’s the fun in that? Let’s go shopping in Skyloft first! And look for the Lumpy Pumpkin bar! And (better late than never) go practice our shield-bashing! And have we mentioned the Lumpy Pumpkin bar?