The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (ゼルダの伝説 スカイウォードソード, Zeruda no Densetsu: Sukaiwōdo Sōdo) is an action-adventure game for the Wii console and the sixteenth entry in the Legend of Zelda series. Nearly 5 years in development, the Skyward Sword departs from many of the traditional Zelda norms, featuring new controls, a new art style, and formula differences. Skyward Sword requires either the Wii Motion Plus add on or a Wii Remote Plus.

Skyward Sword heavily integrates the use of the Wii Motion Plus; swordplay, for instance, is integrated with the controller to a point where the player has one-to-one motion control over Link's sword and the its attack directions. In contrast to earlier installments, battles do not focus solely on timing attacks, but also on their target, such as the direction in which enemies are hit. This also allows for the sword to be integrated into puzzles to a greater extent than in previous titles.

Wii Motion Plus
Skyward Sword requires the Wii Motion Plus add-on. Dolphin is currently not capable of emulating the wii motion plus; the only way for official Dolphin builds to play this game is to use a real, physical Wii remote with Wii Motion Plus. See.
 * Pre-3.0 revisions of Dolphin had rudimentary Wii Motion Plus emulation, but it does not work properly, lacking calibration and constantly disconnecting.
 * Development of proper Wii Motion Plus emulation is underway. See the forum for details.

Depth of Field (DoF)
Skyward Sword uses a Depth of Field effect to blur distance objects in a painting like style. Revisions 7719 and earlier do not render the effect. Current revisions can render the effect, but require EFB to Ram to avoid scan-lines. (See ). Note that using EFB to Ram for this effect causes a significant performance hit even with powerful machines.



Anti-Aliasing (AA)
Anti-aliasing brings the Skyward Sword DOF effect closer to Link, blurring the game more then the developers intended. Keep anti-aliasing off to prevent the problem.



Shadow Flickering
Shadows in the game can flicker when the internal resolution is set to "Auto" with the DX9 back-end. Either use DX9 with a preset internal resolution (example: 3x Native), or use DX11.

Banding
With Anisotropic Filtering (AF) at its default 1x, banding may be present in shading on characters and surroundings. Increasing AF to higher values (such as 16x) will correct the problem. It should not cause a performance hit, but may on weaker machines.



Pellets/Arrows Aim
"Skip EFB Access to CPU" can provide a useful speedup for this demanding game. However, having the feature on can prevent you from aiming properly. Disable "Skip EFB Access to CPU" to fix.

Sword Missing
Links sword may disappear. To insure the sword does not disappear, makes sure "Cache Display Lists" is disabled.

Testing
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Gameplay Videos

 * The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (Dolphin)
 * Zelda Skyward Sword - 1080P Dolphin Emulation - MAXED Settings - 2-GTX580

Links

 * Gamepro:Zelda: Skyward Sword Looks Badass on PC
 * Gameranx:Skyward Sword Stunning PC Screenshots Surface