Is Skyward Sword Open World?

This is a guide about whether The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for the Nintendo Switch will be open world or not. Read on to see what type of exploration you will be able to do in Skyloft and Hyrule!

What is an Open World Game?

Can Explore the World Freely

A game can be defined as an Open World if it allows the player to explore the virtual world freely and is given the freedom to choose how or when to approach objectives. However, more games are being developed that for a game to be defined as an open-world game is more of in a grey area.

Although the term Open World game might be challenging to determine, checking Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's gameplay might be useful. The game gives players the freedom of exploration, allowing you to even go straight to the final boss with starting equipment!

Is Skyward Sword Open World?

Action-Adventure, but not Open World

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is not an open world game. While the game introduced features such as the stamina gauge and gear upgrades that were later adopted in Breath of the Wild (a true Open World game), Skyward Sword HD has the traditional overworld and dungeon exploration found in previous Zelda games.

In fact, of the 3D Zelda titles, Skyward Sword is perhaps the most linear. Instead of an open-world, the game takes place in the Sky and the Surface with the former being used as the main overworld and the latter as the game's dungeons. While there are still many opportunties to explore each area, the Surface areas are all detatched from one another, and tend to have a clear cut start and finish point.

Thus, new players of Skyward Sword should expect less of an open world experience like that of Breath of the Wild, and more of a linear type adventure, with most exploration happening in the Sky area, rather than on the Surface.

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