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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | |
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Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Series | The Legend of Zelda |
Platform(s) | Wii |
Release date(s) | EU November 18, 2011 |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Input methods | Wii Remote with Wii Motion Plus + Nunchuk |
Compatibility | 5 Perfect |
GameIDs | |
See also... |
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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.
Problems
Wii Motion Plus
Skyward Sword requires the Wii Motion Plus addon. Dolphin is currently not capable of emulating the wii motion plus; the only way for dolphin to play this game is to use a physical wii remote with wii motion plus.
- Pre 3.0 revisions of Dolphin had rudimentary wii motion plus emulation, but it does not work properly, lacking calibration and constantly disconnecting.
Depth of Field (DoF)
Skyward Sword uses a Depth of Field effect to blur distance objects in a painting like style. Older revisions (pre 3.0) do not render the effect. Newer revisions can sort of render it, but requires EFB to Ram to avoid scanlines. (See issue 4703). Note that using EFB to Ram for this effect causes a significant performance hit even with powerful machines.
As user reports are inconsistent and the game was just released, at this time it's still not clear which setting(s) should be changed or which versions are the best for this specific feature. See the forum thread for details as it develops.
Shadow Flickering
Shadows in the game can flicker when the internal resolution is set to "Auto" with the DX9 backend. Either use 1x Native internal resolution in DX9, or use DX11.
Configuration
This title does not need non-default settings to run properly.
Version Compatibility
The graph below charts the compatibility with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
Testing
This title has been tested on the environments listed below:
Test Entries | |||||
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Revision | OS | CPU | GPU | Result | Tester |
Gameplay Videos
- Nintendo EAD (Developer)
- Nintendo (Publisher)
- The Legend of Zelda (Series)
- Europe (Release region)
- North America (Release region)
- Japan (Release region)
- 2011 (Initial release year)
- Action-adventure (Genre)
- Single-player (Game mode)
- Single-player only (Game mode)
- 1 (Players supported)
- Wii Remote (Input supported)
- Nunchuk (Input supported)
- 5 stars (Rating)
- Untested
- Action-adventure games
- Wii games