The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword get alot of criticism for its motion controls not working as people would want. But I find this criticism unwarranted and from my own experience I found that the controls are very responsive and is down to user error.
I made this thread to help give advice to people to get motion controls working for them. The game is alot of fun with motion controls.
You need to Practice, Practice, Practice. You need to do a little bit of practice to build hand and arm coordination to move in a straight line.
The best place to practice is in the Skyloft's Knights Acedemy cutting down the logs.
I found a more fuller arm movement works best and to follow through with your swings. You may get away with smaller movements as long as you move your arm straight, no scoops, no werid curves, straight line.
The best starting position for your swings is in the direct opposite position of where you want to end up. So if you want to swing diagonally up to the right, then start your swing by moving your arm in the down diagonal left position. If you want to slice vertically up. Start in a bottom position. And do the same for the other different directional swings, always start opposite of where you want to swing to give your self maximum room for arm movement. With jabs start with the controller close to your chest so you can have more arm extension with your forward jabs. It's all about giving yourself room for extension.
Standing positioning matters, you need to be directly in front of the log for your angles to cut properly. You may notice this on the log you need to cut vertically. If you look at its side there is no groove to cut and if you try to cut its side with the correct horizontal slice movement, the log won't cut. So you need to be directly in front of it where the groove is.
When you approach a log and Z-target it, if you wait a bit before slicing you may notice the log slightly rotates. This is to accommodate the fact that you might not be standing directly in front of it. It rotates so that the groove is directly in line with your sword. If you start your swing too soon right after you approach it without waiting, the groove of the log won't have time to be in line of site and you won't be able to cut it.
So the best method for high success rate is to approach a log in the front of it, hold the z-target, then while holding the z-target wait a bit for the log to rotate in line of site, then slice in the correct direction. Rinse and repeat this method for every log. Front of log wait slice, next log wait slice, next log again wait then slice.
Practice as many times as you want moving your arm in a straight line the best you can and build coordination. This is a game not meant to be rapidly flailing your controller randomly. It won't respond well that way. It's about taking your time for the opportune moment then slice.
The controls work well for me with very high success rate, and can for you too if you properly build the coordination for it and practice.
I made this thread to help give advice to people to get motion controls working for them. The game is alot of fun with motion controls.
You need to Practice, Practice, Practice. You need to do a little bit of practice to build hand and arm coordination to move in a straight line.
The best place to practice is in the Skyloft's Knights Acedemy cutting down the logs.
I found a more fuller arm movement works best and to follow through with your swings. You may get away with smaller movements as long as you move your arm straight, no scoops, no werid curves, straight line.
The best starting position for your swings is in the direct opposite position of where you want to end up. So if you want to swing diagonally up to the right, then start your swing by moving your arm in the down diagonal left position. If you want to slice vertically up. Start in a bottom position. And do the same for the other different directional swings, always start opposite of where you want to swing to give your self maximum room for arm movement. With jabs start with the controller close to your chest so you can have more arm extension with your forward jabs. It's all about giving yourself room for extension.
Standing positioning matters, you need to be directly in front of the log for your angles to cut properly. You may notice this on the log you need to cut vertically. If you look at its side there is no groove to cut and if you try to cut its side with the correct horizontal slice movement, the log won't cut. So you need to be directly in front of it where the groove is.
When you approach a log and Z-target it, if you wait a bit before slicing you may notice the log slightly rotates. This is to accommodate the fact that you might not be standing directly in front of it. It rotates so that the groove is directly in line with your sword. If you start your swing too soon right after you approach it without waiting, the groove of the log won't have time to be in line of site and you won't be able to cut it.
So the best method for high success rate is to approach a log in the front of it, hold the z-target, then while holding the z-target wait a bit for the log to rotate in line of site, then slice in the correct direction. Rinse and repeat this method for every log. Front of log wait slice, next log wait slice, next log again wait then slice.
Practice as many times as you want moving your arm in a straight line the best you can and build coordination. This is a game not meant to be rapidly flailing your controller randomly. It won't respond well that way. It's about taking your time for the opportune moment then slice.
The controls work well for me with very high success rate, and can for you too if you properly build the coordination for it and practice.
Last edited by SG854,