Fi is the worst part of Skyward Sword, without a doubt.
After riding high with
the successes of Twilight Princess’
Midna, you’d think that Nintendo’s masterminds would want to make an even
better, even more delightful sidekick -- one that had a more overt personality
and style than everyone’s favorite nightcap-wearing knight, Link. Unfortunately, that’s not the case; Fi has
zero personality. She has a token arc
(and I use that term loosely) where she goes from unfeeling automaton to a
partner enamored with the idea of love and camaraderie…and likely enamored with
Link himself. She talks a lot, yet has
nothing important to say.
Fi is especially
jarring when she stops the flow of the game to give you information you just
heard from an NPC/dialogue box, or otherwise takes the adventuring part out of
the adventure game. She exists to make
absolutely sure -- or at least 85% sure, in accordance with her speech pattern
-- you know where you’re going and what you’re doing and where you are and what
this item does. It wouldn’t be so bad if
you could turn her off, but you can’t.
She’ll automatically appear no matter what, and give you “advice” no
matter what. But she outright pissed me
off during the Silent Realm trials; apparently if you screw up more than three
times, she’ll say something to the effect of “I’m starting to doubt you’re cut
out to be a hero.” This, in spite of Link
(i.e. the player) having conquered several dungeons, slaughtered monsters at
least three times his size, pushing back rival swordsman Ghirahim, and sealing
away a horrific, shambling, evolving
beast of pure malice and evil. I’m not
cut out to be a hero? Back off, you
knockoff vocaloid piece of shit.
With all that said, Skyward Sword may be one of my favorite
games ever.
(Warning: there will be spoilers.
And blood. But mostly
spoilers. But mostly blood.)