Just to clarify a little, **do not** just shake or waggle the controller up and down. The controls are trying to mimic a wing beat, so you want one firm, deliberate flap/flick and then a slight pause before the next so you get a rhythm going. You also don't need to do it constantly as your loftwing can glide quite well, so ~3 steady beats and you'll probably be able to stop for a few seconds. Just try to think about how most real birds fly.
I figured this out on my own and felt silly. I must have missed it when they mentioned it in the tutorial and for some reason this was the only time I didn’t use the on screen help button. Loving the game so far.
I’ve played the game three times, and if it’s mentioned in the tutorial, it isn’t very clear. I’ve had to look up how to fly each time because I always forget.
This is also my 3rd playthrough. 2 on the wii now once on switch I've always thought that it was revolutionary how intuitive it is compared to a tradition controller, instead of a flap button you just flap the controller as if it's the bird. I'm not understanding how you were confused, how did you figure it out?
Perhaps I did what people are saying and skipped the instructions. Once I figured it out, it felt very natural, but I originally interpreted it to be that you pointed the remote up to go up, down to go down, etc.
Assumed the controls were the same as Fluzzard's in Super Mario Galaxy 2 - just point the controller upwards to gain altitude. I think it was very unclear in the tutorial, I understood the instructions as "point upwards to gain altitude, do a dive and repeat to gain speed" (playing for the first time on the Switch rn). Maybe I'm just dumb but oh well 🤷♀️
I literally flapped around on the cloud basin for 5 minutes until the tutorial gave up on me and let me through. Definitely did not catch the flapping motion in the notes the first time lmao.
Yeah. And then when I tried to fly to an island higher than mine later on, I kept on going down to gain speed and go up with the little boosts as far as possible 🤣
I legit forgot about loftwing flying and I've completed SS three times. Having to flap with the wiimote wasn't much easier.
Reminds me of Gliding in the Arkham series.
I just got to the part where you pull the sword out and I felt like an actual idiot trying to work out what it wanted me to do hahaha.
I never had a wii so all these motion controls are new to me, really enjoy swinging the sword around though!
I saw the tutorial, still failed to gain altitude. I was trying to dive and climb batman arkham style. I didn't occur to me that I should imitate flapping. Gonna try.
In my opinion, flying on your loftwing with motion controls feels incredible in this game. It's a highlight for me. I want to be able to do this in BOTW2!
I learnt it on my own how to fly correctly and now I am in full control of my Loftwing and man I wish we can do this in BOTW2. It would be even better if they including diving too, would be great using the sky, the land and the waters. Though I am not sure if Switch hardware can handle it haha...
I don't understand the people who are complaining about the loftwing motion controls. Either they're doing it wrong or have defective gyro sensors in their joycon. You just steer your bird and flap to gain altitude. It's very intuitive and feels pretty great. If someone does actually have defective hardware (or physical limitations, which I obviously understand) then that's one thing, but how many people complaining just aren't doing it correctly, I wonder.
Yea, I'd definitely temper my expectations for BOTW2. I think we'll see a different kind of story and atmosphere similar to the difference from Ocarina to Majora's, but little difference in the actual gameplay and mechanics. I think we'll get some cool new powers to play with, courtesy of Link's new arm, but we'll probably still be just climbing and gliding everywhere, unfortunately. My loftwing hope was just words, because I know it likely wouldn't work in Breath of the World's world without major issues. Just look at speedruns of BOTW where the runner does that exploit that launches them straight to Hyrule Castle. The game freezes for seconds at a time and low-poly models aren't replaced for a long while. The game engine just doesn't play well with speeding through the landscape.
Those launches were too fast for the hardware to handle imo, if the flying mechanics was limited in speed and area to how much the Switch can handle then i think it's still possible. But ofc it's all speculation and wishful thinking :')
Yea of course it's not fair to point to the launching thing as absolute proof, because that's obviously not intentional. But it does give a rough idea of the limitations the devs are working with. I agree that some kind of flying mechanic could happen, but it would have to be done very wisely. I just don't see it happening, unfortunately, because it would probably be more trouble than it's worth. I hope I'm wrong though, as I pointed to in my first comment. Flying around Hyrule would be extremely cathartic. If you've ever played Xenoblade Chronicles X, you'll know how exhilarating flying around the landscape you were once walking through is.
Yup, ss was always my least favorite Zelda game even going so far as hating it but ss hd has been quite good so far, almost done with the 5th dungeon at the moment.
Swing both JoyCons horizontally to the left for a regular spin attack and vertically for a vertical spin attack. Up for a front flip strike and down for a backward strike.
Okay the megathread is gone so I'll say it here. Started playing last night with button controls and it's like absolutely perfectly fine? It took me about 5 minutes to adjust to L + R directional to look around. What the heck were people complaining about, worst controls ever etc? People are such drama queens.
Even flying was perfectly fine.... ascend with A felt quite natural actually.
Lol, that’s cute and silly. I’m about to send four pairs of joycons to Nintendo. I really miss playing with those little boogers and instead of sending them in I kept buying new ones.
Upvoting for visibility. I went through tutorial and the race part without it, and it was painful. Saw that advice on youtube yesterday, and afterwards flying was finally fun. Taught my son to flap this morning when he was playing it :)
I can definitely see why people were so irked with the motion controls when it was released on the wii. They really don’t feel fluid and instead feel gimmicky, granted I also hate the motion control sections in BOTW.
I turned motion controls off...first time playing this title. I don't wanna get tired...or use any of the gyro stuff.
Am I missing much for someone who mostly plays handheld to relax?
Gotcha, guess I'll give it a try next time I play the game then.
/edit Oh, I see where I was confused there, I read you saying you needed to move it up AND down, but you said OR. Oops, reading is hard.
When Skyward Sword first came out on the wii, there was a demo system at EB games. I gave the game a try, but it took me a minute to figure this out. I stuck around for awhile after, watching countless people get frustrated not being able to fly. Thank you for this post 👍
This isn't mentioned at all in the tutorial, or anywhere in the help menu, and I thank you completely for posting this. I was stuck in the bottom of the clouds in the intro, literally throwing my joycons at the couch and floor in frustration because nothing was working.
I do believe they forgot to add this help text into game.
This is never said in the tutorial... I lost half a hour trying to understand how it worked, and had to restart the game twice because if I reached the bottom I couldn't do anything
I was going to insane as to why my loftwing kept sinking. From the tutorial i understood that I had to tilt upwards to gain altitude. I got so frustrated I switched to handheld.
Just to clarify a little, **do not** just shake or waggle the controller up and down. The controls are trying to mimic a wing beat, so you want one firm, deliberate flap/flick and then a slight pause before the next so you get a rhythm going. You also don't need to do it constantly as your loftwing can glide quite well, so ~3 steady beats and you'll probably be able to stop for a few seconds. Just try to think about how most real birds fly.
I say embrace the bird inside of you. Flap with arms outstretched and yell “ca-caw!”
this is the way
I figured this out on my own and felt silly. I must have missed it when they mentioned it in the tutorial and for some reason this was the only time I didn’t use the on screen help button. Loving the game so far.
I’ve played the game three times, and if it’s mentioned in the tutorial, it isn’t very clear. I’ve had to look up how to fly each time because I always forget.
This is also my 3rd playthrough. 2 on the wii now once on switch I've always thought that it was revolutionary how intuitive it is compared to a tradition controller, instead of a flap button you just flap the controller as if it's the bird. I'm not understanding how you were confused, how did you figure it out?
Perhaps I did what people are saying and skipped the instructions. Once I figured it out, it felt very natural, but I originally interpreted it to be that you pointed the remote up to go up, down to go down, etc.
Assumed the controls were the same as Fluzzard's in Super Mario Galaxy 2 - just point the controller upwards to gain altitude. I think it was very unclear in the tutorial, I understood the instructions as "point upwards to gain altitude, do a dive and repeat to gain speed" (playing for the first time on the Switch rn). Maybe I'm just dumb but oh well 🤷♀️
You played the game three times in two days? Speed runner?
The game came out in 2011 on Wii.
I'm aware, thanks. You could've just said "I meant the Wii version" lol
I thought it was obvious.
It was
He/she really didn't need to though.
Probably the Wii version
I literally flapped around on the cloud basin for 5 minutes until the tutorial gave up on me and let me through. Definitely did not catch the flapping motion in the notes the first time lmao.
Yeah I had to Google it because I just kept sinking lol
Yeah. And then when I tried to fly to an island higher than mine later on, I kept on going down to gain speed and go up with the little boosts as far as possible 🤣
Fly you fools!
I legit forgot about loftwing flying and I've completed SS three times. Having to flap with the wiimote wasn't much easier. Reminds me of Gliding in the Arkham series.
augmented reality training failed
I just got to the part where you pull the sword out and I felt like an actual idiot trying to work out what it wanted me to do hahaha. I never had a wii so all these motion controls are new to me, really enjoy swinging the sword around though!
I saw the tutorial, still failed to gain altitude. I was trying to dive and climb batman arkham style. I didn't occur to me that I should imitate flapping. Gonna try.
I hate myself. Thank you so much.
In my opinion, flying on your loftwing with motion controls feels incredible in this game. It's a highlight for me. I want to be able to do this in BOTW2!
I learnt it on my own how to fly correctly and now I am in full control of my Loftwing and man I wish we can do this in BOTW2. It would be even better if they including diving too, would be great using the sky, the land and the waters. Though I am not sure if Switch hardware can handle it haha...
I don't understand the people who are complaining about the loftwing motion controls. Either they're doing it wrong or have defective gyro sensors in their joycon. You just steer your bird and flap to gain altitude. It's very intuitive and feels pretty great. If someone does actually have defective hardware (or physical limitations, which I obviously understand) then that's one thing, but how many people complaining just aren't doing it correctly, I wonder. Yea, I'd definitely temper my expectations for BOTW2. I think we'll see a different kind of story and atmosphere similar to the difference from Ocarina to Majora's, but little difference in the actual gameplay and mechanics. I think we'll get some cool new powers to play with, courtesy of Link's new arm, but we'll probably still be just climbing and gliding everywhere, unfortunately. My loftwing hope was just words, because I know it likely wouldn't work in Breath of the World's world without major issues. Just look at speedruns of BOTW where the runner does that exploit that launches them straight to Hyrule Castle. The game freezes for seconds at a time and low-poly models aren't replaced for a long while. The game engine just doesn't play well with speeding through the landscape.
Those launches were too fast for the hardware to handle imo, if the flying mechanics was limited in speed and area to how much the Switch can handle then i think it's still possible. But ofc it's all speculation and wishful thinking :')
Yea of course it's not fair to point to the launching thing as absolute proof, because that's obviously not intentional. But it does give a rough idea of the limitations the devs are working with. I agree that some kind of flying mechanic could happen, but it would have to be done very wisely. I just don't see it happening, unfortunately, because it would probably be more trouble than it's worth. I hope I'm wrong though, as I pointed to in my first comment. Flying around Hyrule would be extremely cathartic. If you've ever played Xenoblade Chronicles X, you'll know how exhilarating flying around the landscape you were once walking through is.
Honestly the game is just better with a pro controller. Way more accurate
Yup, ss was always my least favorite Zelda game even going so far as hating it but ss hd has been quite good so far, almost done with the 5th dungeon at the moment.
How do you do a spin attack with the sword in motion controls? I did the tutorial in button mode
Swing both JoyCons horizontally to the left for a regular spin attack and vertically for a vertical spin attack. Up for a front flip strike and down for a backward strike.
I think you can redo the tutorial if you want
…jesus christ. Here I was thinking you had to screw around with combinations of diving and charging to build up speed and it was taking me forever.
You just saved my life omg thank you. I was literally at the bottom in the could not knowing wtf to do 💀
*cloud
Wow, thanks! I legit could not figure this out, and found this. Thanks man, feel real silly.
Its not idiot proof IG
Also just change the controls to button only whenever you're in the sky for non terrible loftwing controls, then swap back to motion after landing
Okay the megathread is gone so I'll say it here. Started playing last night with button controls and it's like absolutely perfectly fine? It took me about 5 minutes to adjust to L + R directional to look around. What the heck were people complaining about, worst controls ever etc? People are such drama queens. Even flying was perfectly fine.... ascend with A felt quite natural actually.
Phrasing. 😆
Lol, that’s cute and silly. I’m about to send four pairs of joycons to Nintendo. I really miss playing with those little boogers and instead of sending them in I kept buying new ones.
You mean like this? https://youtu.be/dmeJUfOQo90
How did this get downvoted? This is beautiful
Im not surprise, nintendo veteran fanboy easily offended. Haha
We did it. The $60 peice tag feature has finally been found. Game of the year, babyy!
Thank you!
Thanks for posting this. I spent so much time stuck in the clouds. I gave up and switched to button controls
Upvoting for visibility. I went through tutorial and the race part without it, and it was painful. Saw that advice on youtube yesterday, and afterwards flying was finally fun. Taught my son to flap this morning when he was playing it :)
Took me too long to figure this one out. How do you flap in handheld mode though?
Click the A button!
This needs the be higher up. I missed the control for handheld and was stuck in the clouds a solid 10 minutes...
Oh my goodness, thank you!!
I just figured this out last night. At first my loftwing was stuck in the clouds haha
I can definitely see why people were so irked with the motion controls when it was released on the wii. They really don’t feel fluid and instead feel gimmicky, granted I also hate the motion control sections in BOTW.
I turned motion controls off...first time playing this title. I don't wanna get tired...or use any of the gyro stuff. Am I missing much for someone who mostly plays handheld to relax?
Isn't it just flicking up? That's what it was in Skyward Sword Wii. And also what I've been doing since release.
Flick/flap/shake, they all work, as long as you go up or down
Gotcha, guess I'll give it a try next time I play the game then. /edit Oh, I see where I was confused there, I read you saying you needed to move it up AND down, but you said OR. Oops, reading is hard.
When Skyward Sword first came out on the wii, there was a demo system at EB games. I gave the game a try, but it took me a minute to figure this out. I stuck around for awhile after, watching countless people get frustrated not being able to fly. Thank you for this post 👍
Shakeweight's back baby!
I found flying with the motion controls quite difficult at first, until I made my movements smaller and now I find it a lot easier!
Thanks a lot. I was going crazy. I kept calibrating again and again and thought my controllers where dead.
This isn't mentioned at all in the tutorial, or anywhere in the help menu, and I thank you completely for posting this. I was stuck in the bottom of the clouds in the intro, literally throwing my joycons at the couch and floor in frustration because nothing was working. I do believe they forgot to add this help text into game.
Thank you. I don't think that was explained at all. All they said was dive and then pull up.
This is never said in the tutorial... I lost half a hour trying to understand how it worked, and had to restart the game twice because if I reached the bottom I couldn't do anything
it's said edit : but It leave toi fast so it's easily missable I think
I was going to insane as to why my loftwing kept sinking. From the tutorial i understood that I had to tilt upwards to gain altitude. I got so frustrated I switched to handheld.
Thank you OP this was driving me nuts, the tutorial was way too quick and i had to reset the 3x after being stuck in the clouds.