quote FiFth Column
Played through the Lanayru Dessert earlier and I think I'm starting to get it. The change is cool, but I do wish there were some more areas to roam around without everything feeling like one long battle. I guess it does fit in with the theme of the game with The Surface being a wild area, but I would have liked at least one or two more towns to interact in between all the challenges. I like to mess around a lot with Zelda, a lot of the times I play I'll just do some sidequests or screw around cause I like to stretch playing the game out as much as possible. With Skyward Sword it feels like I'm obligated to kick ass every time I do. It's long enough of a game that I can do that while still managing to take plenty of time, but I dunno, it just feels like something's missing from it all.
You can still do that. Every time you complete a section of the story (i.e. beat a dungeon) a new sidequest or two will open up in Skyloft, and as you progress through the game, more and more mini-games will open up for you to sink time into. The only Zelda game to have more sidequests than Skyward Sword was Majora's Mask.