The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the next instalment in the bestselling and trend-setting Zelda series, is a bit of an enigma. It’s existence wasn’t even officially confirmed until very recently, and even though it was given a full blown E3 reveal this year, we know nothing about this game apart from how it controls. Although series head honchos Miyamoto and Aonuma have stated that this game will be a ‘reboot’ of the franchise, following a different structural progression, and focussing on a different narrative set-up, we don’t know much.
However, speculation has been rife on the point that Skyward Sword will feature a flying Link, in part due to Aonuma’s own comments, and partly because the game is set on a kingdom in the clouds. However, in a recent interview, Aonuma laughed off the suggestion. While he confirmed that the game is set in an airborne land, and that there will be considerable travelling between the sky kingdom and the ground kingdoms, he said that Link will not ‘sprout a pair of wings, and start flying.’
In his own words, ‘I hadn’t thought of [Link or Epona flying]! You surprised me with that one! Of course, you know, Link does have to travel between Skyloft and the land below, and back and forth, so he’s obviously going to have to do that via some sort of conveyance.”
However, as with pretty much everything else about the game, Aonuma prefers to keep the specifics under wraps: ‘That being said, I’d like to reveal that at a later time, so I don’t want to give away too much other than to say that he is going to be travelling between the two. However, I can guarantee he’s not going to be flying around like Kid Icarus!’
Interesting. The more I learn about this game, the more optimistic I become. Undoubtedly, Nintendo have planned something big for us.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword releases early next year, exclusively for the Wii.