Flying on a Loftwing is one of the many charms of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. Players can zip around from island to island and the surface. But players can only get from one place to another if they learn how to land their Loftwings with button controls or motion controls.
Landing with a Loftwing
Unforntuely, there is no way to "land" a Loftwing in Skyward Sword. Players instead have to dismount in the same way they have been mounting their giant birds: by leaping off into open air. With the button controls, players will need to hit "minus" on the Joy-Con to open the menu and choose a destination. Once Link is flying over that destination, players can press down on the d-pad to dismount.
After that, Link can open the Sailcloth that Zelda gave him at the beginning of the game and sail down to the island by using ZR. Some additional buttons that may help in floating down to the proper island without difficulty are:
- When on a Loftwing, players can press A to gain a little altitude over the island, giving Link more time to glide into position over it.
- Holding ZL on a Loftwing gives Link a bird's eye view of the area to see how far he is from the island he wants to jump to. This can also help Skyward Sword players search for hidden items on the islands.
- Press B to slow the Loftwing's flight.
Motion Controls vs. Button Controls
Jumping from a Loftwing doesn't change much between motion and button controls on the newly-released Switch version of Skyward Sword. Regardless of which a player is using, they need to jump from the Loftwing using ZL and ZR to open their sailcloth. The main differences come when players dismount and are floating through the air as Link with his sailcloth.
Motion control users will have to tilt the Joy-Cons in Skyward Sword to maneuver Link to his landing place on the island of choice, while button control users will need the sticks.
Landing with the amiibo
Once again, players cannot actually land a Loftwing, but they can use the amiibo to change locations quickly. The amiibo works more like a teleporter that zooms players from anywhere on the surface to the sky, and anywhere in the sky to that same location on the surface. The amiibo just needs to be scanned on the right control stick of the Joy-Con.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is available for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Game8, GameStop, Gamepur, Outside Gamer