One of my biggest disappointments with Skyward Sword was a sense that the game held my hand too often. Skyward Sword felt to me like one of those games where the tutorial never lets up; my sense of agency and freedom as a player felt stripped away because I felt like too many puzzles were explicitly explained to me either by Fi or the camera zooming to an objective. I want to be challenged, but I also want to have some idea of what I have to do in order to progress. A fine line exists between telling me what an item does, and a magic ghost woman flying out of my sword to explain exactly how I need to use an item the moment I enter another room… before I even see the puzzle, let alone get a fair chance at solving it.

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