How is the game different from botw?
They are diametrically opposed. They only resemble each other in superficial ways.
Skyward Sword is cut from the same cloth as every 3D Zelda before it, with a linear progression (even moreso than ever before in SS) and more or less the same structure and game design ethos: you go through the story motions (with a companion basically holding your hand through it the entire time in SS), one beat at a time, and slowly gaining new weapons and abilities as you clear a handful of dungeons in a specific order. It is literally nothing like the open-ended design of BOTW.
Biggest negative is that the world is tiny and there's a real dearth of environmental variety, the game forces you to go through the same locations over and over again because it simply doesn't have other places to fill the time with. And there's zero quick travel nor is the game interested in saving you any time, so a large portion of your playtime is spent doing the same trek to the same locations you've visited over and over again. And it's incredibly boring because there's essentially nothing in the overworld that links places together, visually or in terms of content. Skyward Sword needlessly pads shit out in the worst possible manner. Almost inexplicably so. It's like they spent too much time fucking around trying to implement motion controls in every single facet of the game (even when unnecessary) and forgot about the actual game.
If you can deal with its worst aspects you'll still find an engaging action adventure game with some of the high points of a classic Zelda experience: some really great and inventive dungeon design, a bunch of fun weapons/items to use, excellent boss encounters, and a charming cast of characters. The low points are just
low. At the end of the day, there just aren't a lot of Zelda-type games out there. :P
Basically, the motion controls were hyped to hell and beyond with this game. Then when it turned out to be 8 angles, a thrust, a special slash and... Jumping slash? Basically like the previous games it was just kind of sad. And then they didn't even work half the time even with the Wii motion plus controller.
Total mess
And the rest is just gimmicky bullshit, there's basically nothing that could be easily done on a controller. Like there was no need to tie tilting the wiimote to flying and swimming. There's a perfectly fine analog stick right there. There are so many weird instances of motion use and so much of it feels forced upon the game. It's really funny to me they even managed to stick a drawing mini-game in there. At least they don't have you turning the wiimote every time you open a door in Skyloft. :P
I loathed the original release, but I was almost up for buying the HD re-release to play it without the motion controls, but I don't think I can do another 3D game without analog camera controls.
But
this is the worst part of SS's controls, and sadly it won't be alleviated in this remaster. Having to
constantly recenter yourself with Z-targeting because that's the only janky means you have of controlling the camera feels awful. Or having to go into first-person mode just to look around your environment. It is easily, for me, the most dated aspect of the game. The automatic camera in the game is not even remotely good.
