The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is on its way, set to arrive in less than two weeks as of this writing. When fans dive into it, they'll be able to see all the ways the title has been changed for the Switch, but Nintendo wasn't going to let them go in blind. It recently released a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD that went over a ton of changes, except one.
This trailer highlighted everything from how it made Fi's advice optional, introduced new control schemes, added the ability to speed through dialogue, ensured item descriptions were non-repeating, and gave players the ability to skip cutscenes. A lot of these changes will ensure there are less info dumps throughout The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but perhaps more importantly, a lot of them seem aimed at streamlining the game. The unmentioned QoL update ensures that as well, as unlike the prior version, this new version of the game will also feature autosaves.
Autosaves are to be expected in practically all games nowadays, but it's something that's easy to take for granted. Thankfully, the folks at Zelda Dungeon took a fine-tooth comb to the aforementioned trailer and noticed "Autosave" marked on a save file. This stands in contrast to the original game, in which players had to make it to a Bird Statue in order to save their game. These Bird Statues will clearly still be in the game, but this will help streamline saves in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
It does remain to be seen exactly how they work: it could be a checkpoint based system, it could be a gratuitous save system, or it could be less helpful than it seems. Right now, it's a wonder why Nintendo hasn't drawn attention to this fact, but fans don't have to wait long to find out why exactly either. It is just one of many coming to the upgraded system, so it's possible that it forgot or expected autosave to be presumed (it was indeed in the trailer after all). At the very least, it's not locked behind a paywall like the Zelda and Loftwing amiibo.
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's original version, players had to travel to a Bird Statue in order to travel to the Sky. The aforementioned amiibo, on the other hand, allows Link to travel to the Sky from anywhere, while players may no longer have to travel to a Bird Statue if they feel comfortable relying on autosaves. As such, putting these two Bird Statue features side by side likely draws some eyes, but fans will see how it all works out on July 16.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD releases for the Nintendo Switch on July 16.
Source: Zelda Dungeon