The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 🧝‍♀️

Finally beat one of the entries. Not the best or most well-known one, but it's considered the first in the fan-made timeline that got canonized. Though in reality it doesn't really matter, given the different worlds, details, and all that, but I'd like to believe that with this fictional paradigm it'll be easier to piece together the picture of the game series in my head.

As for the game itself, in my opinion this is a true gaming adventure, exactly what one should be. Partly because the gameplay is fairly balanced and varied, there are no overloaded mechanics, no suffocating bloat, or anything else that might get old after ten hours (except the backtracking lol). The scale isn't very big, but in this case it's hard to call that a downside. 
We start in a cozy little town floating in the sky. By the end of the game it'll feel like home. You could even add it to memes about childhood gaming "hangouts." And the town music contributes to that, as does the menu melody. There are about 30 characters in it, and while they don't have multi-page backstories, that many dialogues, and all that, each one is memorable thanks to their appearance and a couple of lines that easily reveal their personality. Most of them have quests, and nearly all of those serve one specific purpose. Some are pretty funny, even with choices. Besides that, there are a few amusing situations and dialogues, to some extent even relatable. Generally, the Japanese know how to do this kind of thing, I think, which is why it turns out so cool. 
Briefly on the story: we're training at a knight academy, and at the start of the game we have to win a competition among students to earn the title. After that we watch cutscenes, maybe do something else, and at the end a tornado swoops in and carries Zelda away from our cozy island down somewhere below. We have no choice but to set off in search of her, descending beneath the skies... 

Besides the town, there are three main locations (forest, volcano, desert) set on the ground, and as the story progresses they expand. To put it briefly, the visiting pattern goes like this: town-forest-town-volcano-town-desert-town-forest, and so on.  We get to them on a big bird that lets us fly in the sky. So you leave the town, summon your pet, and freely fly around the sky area, which has a couple of useful islands, secret chests, and even enemies. Then you land at the location you need. Overall, the mechanic is good but debatable, since it's backtracking for the entire game, and that's the only thing that might start to get on your nerves. That said, you don't need to fly every five to ten minutes unless you want to. The main locations differ greatly from each other — the forest has an underwater sector, and in the desert you can ride a boat (go figure), plus there are time stones that change the environment around them. There are also temples everywhere, where you usually "take an exam" on using new items. There's also a temple at the end of the game where you need to apply all the knowledge you've gained throughout the whole playthrough, and that moment is genuinely awesome.  

As in other entries, skills gradually appear here, unlocked by obtaining items. And even at the 60-hour mark, the game still has ways to surprise you. Most of them are needed for story progression, of course, but you can also use them to find secret cubes (chests), and some even for earning money, like the gust bellows (for a fee you can "vacuum" one of the houses in town). Though the freedom in using them certainly isn't as big as in the newer entries, but that's understandable. And if I'm not mistaken, almost every new item is needed to defeat the boss encountered right after obtaining it. The same gust bellows was used to "dig out" a scorpion hiding in the sand.

The gameplay itself isn't just running around and fighting — you also have to think, and sometimes I thought a bit too much (guess I've gotten a bit dull from other games). And I'm not even talking about puzzles as such, but simply about finding the way forward, because there aren't many hints in the game (apart from some general ones from the NPC partner), and sometimes you don't understand what to do next. I really liked that. Occasionally I had to sit with bosses too, since it's far from always just hitting them like in Souls-likes and other games. Besides that, there are mini-games, almost all of which I completed (couldn't max out the bamboo cutting, and not sure I cleared the minesweeper on the big field). You can also catch insects needed for potion upgrades. To upgrade items, you need to hunt for resources, either by farming them from mobs or just finding them in specific spots. By the way, in town you can sleep until night, and stepping outside you'll find monsters roaming around while the residents stay inside their homes. I found the game segment near the end amusing, when stealth suddenly appeared in the game, needed for literally 15 minutes. Although there was a similar segment in the spirit realm, but the situation there was different.

The combat is generally fine (there's a shield and dodges, and rolls seem to be out of combat only), though it was unusual playing on a gamepad and took time to get used to. At first I tried fighting with motion controls, and the feature seemed cool, but I quickly decided to drop it. Maybe some moments would've been easier, I don't know. Early on, the spiders annoyed me because you had to finish them off, which I struggled with, especially after a break when I completely forgot how to do it and had to look it up online. Some bosses also took time — I'd sit there for half an hour at times. Though with HP upgrades it gets easier, and only at the very end might you hit snags again, since bosses start taking away more than one heart per hit. But the most annoying one was the huge demon I had to fight three times. He's not particularly hard, but there's a nuance that really stressed me out, and because of it I had to replay the fight, since it's timed. That's the only suffocating moment in the entire game.

The biggest flaw I'd call getting the best shield in the game. All the previous ones could be found/bought and then upgraded at the blacksmith, but the last one is only given for completing a trial. It consists of a boss rush, which I dropped without a second thought, without even trying. Why bother grinding through eight bosses in a row that I'd already beaten, when the game was almost over and only the final fight remained (two fights). The shield is cool, of course, because it can't break, and that's actually a great feature, especially in the battle with the last boss. But my upgraded one was decent too, since it recovered after a few seconds when I ran away from the enemy and didn't use it. In the end, I defeated the villain without issues, though not on the first try. Maybe on NG+ all those things are more useful.

Verdict: a good game, but I'm sure half of the other games in the series are even better 🧝‍♂️

PS I'll highlight the two most memorable moments:
1. There was a funny and romantic quest in town about a ghost living in a toilet(?). It was unexpected and a bit creepy
2. The "vacuuming" ability was originally a quest where a woman asked you to clean her house because she's lazy and usually waits for strong wind to just blow all the dust away (that's a quote), and her son scolds her for it and doesn't want her wasting money on a hired helper lol