It's easy to overlook or take for granted a society in which it's 'easy' to prove that deities or higher beings exist. It's comforting to know that there is a being like Levias, who has limitless knowledge and is there for the living. This type of society might have natural disasters, or maybe some sickness. Maybe Groose is off somewhere trying to get Link to jump off of their city. But overall, a place like this hasn't felt real strife in years upon years.

That's why the avalanche of disaster hits so deeply in Skyward Sword. And it's why Link is the best Link we've had. He's purely human - he barely even cares about a prophecy or such. First and foremost, he's out to get Zelda back. His childhood friend. That isn't to say he wouldn't want to save the world, but nobody desires the burden of prophecy. Not him, not Zelda, not Demise. But despite this, Link is there for every person he meets. Despite this, he succeeds every test of his will. Hell, most of the game is characters testing Link to make sure his human spirit is as indomitable as possible.

And, despite his upbringing in a picturesque society, he is able to solve everything going wrong. Sure, you might argue that it's just because Link is a silent protagonist, just meant to be there. But it doesn't deny the fact that Link is told that he is the Goddess' hero as he watches Levias begin to falter with his parasite, or the fact that he finds one of the divine dragons dead and gone - raptured by an illness that only a unique and virtually extinct medicine can cure.

What makes this game supremely singular is that Zelda knows and recognizes this. She, with the memory of the Goddess of course, apologizes to Link for the destiny she has thrust upon him. The game is self-aware about the fact that these are people. These aren't just stand-ins. They aren't just plot devices. It's something that a franchise like Zelda can forget.

Ludonarrative dissonance means nothing to me if it happens - but it's very exciting to play a game where Link isn't a warrior and this dissonance isn't there. He can't do what he does in Breath of the Wild where he just swings his sword around as a knight or slow motion shoots a guardian across the world. No, it's exciting that combat is a puzzle. Link is there figuring this out with you. It makes sense, and these enemies above all are just plain fun.

The dungeons in the game are also the best the series has ever seen, with the final dungeon really showing how interesting the game's mechanics can be in terms of its items. Every time the game brought out the time-change mechanic I was so enamored with wondering how it even ran on a Wii. It's by far the best mechanic in the game.

There's a character in the bazaar - the repair guy/invention man. About halfway through the game, you ask him for help to carry something around, and you wish to use one of his grandfather's old pieces of equipment. It basically confirms his grandfather's suspicions of a land below Skyloft, something he had apparently been ridiculed about in his time. It brings peace and a sense of happiness to the repair man to know this. Considering the setting of the sky for Skyward Sword, it's obviously an homage to One Piece's Skypeia arc (which continues when the Goddess statue falls down to Hylia as well). It's something that stuck with me throughout the game. It reminded me that despite their picturesque society, the people of Skyloft are still human. They tease, they make fun, they disbelieve. These are people that make mistakes. These are people that wish that they could be a hero of prophecy, but by the end of their story, they are happy to have played a part in the legend at all. They learn, and they help, at no real benefit to themselves, even after they've hurt. So, maybe picturesque isn't the right word - Skyward Sword has the best depiction of what a human society is when it functions without strife. It might not be picturesque, but even Demise turns Skyward when fighting Link in their final phase - life in the sky is living with hope.