Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker review

So I’ve talked about Skyward Sword and I said that I liked it but I thought it had a lot of flaws and was ultimately one step forward and two steps back back for the Zelda series. Well today I am here to talk about another 3D Zelda game that I can almost cry over. That might sound like I hate it, but hell no I don’t hate this game like many other people. What I mean by that is that this game is just so beautiful. I absolutely LOVE this game. What you’re about to read is me gushing over this game and praising the living hell out of it. I’ll be doing what I’ve been doing with my reviews, so let’s dive into this sea of wonders.

Graphics

There’s very little I have to say about how this game looks. When it was originally revealed to the public that this game would use cel-shading, lots of people went ape shit about it and this game got quite the bit of bad talk, even getting the nickname of Celda. All I’ve got to say is this: did this game shut people up after release or what? This game is GOURGEOUS. The beautiful graphics have barely aged a day and while I prefer Skyward Sword’s visuals, Wind Waker’s graphics are ageless and with the HD remake on Wii U, I think this game will really stand the test of time graphically. The colors are varied, everything looks great, and the cel-shading really opened up for a lot of facial expressions with the characters, especially this game’s incarnation of Link. Sometimes when I bump into something in the game, I actually do say ouch like I really did bump into something. I can completely block off what’s going on around me in person when playing this game. That’s how well this game sucks me into its absolutely amazing world. Needless to say, graphics get a 10.

Plot

The plot of this game is great. Many of the modern Zelda games have really good plots, namely this game and Twilight Princess, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Every character has real weight to them unlike in other Zelda games. Link isn’t just stopping the forces of evil because it’s his job; he’s doing it for his family. His little sister Aryll is captured at the beginning of the game and with the help of Tetra and her crew, he gets to the Forsaken Fortress where she’s being held captive. Unfortunately, when he gets there he loses his sword and the game becomes Metal Gear Zelda. The stealth bothered me in the original game but I found it to be a lot easier in the HD version. It might be because I played the remake after the original version, but I’m really not sure. Apparently Link doesn’t have the necessary qualifications to defeat the giant bird that stole his sister and he wakes up on a boat known as the King of Red Lions, who is the navi of this game. He’s pretty good. He doesn’t annoy the shit out of you but he does take a bit of a backseat for the most part. Not a problem at all. In fact it’s what I prefer with these guide characters. Link then learns that he must collect 3 pearls to find the goddess tower to retrieve the master sword, defeat Ganondorf, who’s back yet again, in order to get his sister back. He first goes to Dragon Roost Island where human-bird hybrids called the ritos live. The prince of the rito race has the pearl but doesn’t wanna give it up. The Sky Spirit Valoo, who’s a giant red dragon, is upset because something is tugging at his tail. By the way Link gets this game’s instrument at Dragon Roost Island, which is the Wind Waker. More on that in gameplay. Link ventures into the Dragon Roost Cave to investigate what’s going on with Valoo and after defeating this game’s version of Gohma, who is a giant insect that lives in lava, he is given Din’s pearl. It’s just so badass to start the game off like that in such a huge, lava-filled dungeon with an outside area that really brings a nice natural feel to it. Link then goes to the Forest Haven where Farore’s Pearl lay. We meet this game’s version of the kokiri, the Koroks, who are lead by none other than the Great Deku Tree. He must go to the Forbidden Woods to rescue Makar, who is being held captive there. After defeating a weird flower-like thing he rescues Makar and is rewarded Farore’s pearl. Link then finds out that the island where Jabun, the holder of Nayru’s Pearl, has been destroyed and he’s hanging out back at Outset Island. Link retrieves the last pearl, sets them in the 3 triangle islands, which reveal the location of the Tower of the Goddesses, which is the last trial Link must face before he can get the master sword. The Tower of the Goddesses involves you guiding statues around and doing water-based puzzles which are much more tolerable than the ones from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. After an epic boss battle with a robot-like creature that can snort bombs out of his nose, Link is given access to the world underneath, which is none other than Hyrule itself. Or what’s left of it. The goddesses had to flood Hyrule because the Link from Ocarina of Time wasn’t there to stop Ganondorf (this game take place in a different timeline and universe than Ocarina of Time). Once Link pulls the master sword from its pedestal, all the monsters upstairs come back to life and your skills are put to test with your newly acquired sword. You then travel back to the Forsaken Fortress and beat the shit out of everyone you had to sneak past the first time, including Phantom Ganon, who has an awesome sword. This time your sister is sent home, but you still have work to do now that you’ve claimed the master sword and everything. You meet up with Tetra again, and after defeating the Helmaroc King, you meet Ganondorf who tells you that the Master Sword isn’t strong enough to defeat him and that Tetra is Princess Zelda. Having no idea what Ganondorf is talking about, you are taken back to the world underneath and the real King of Red Lions appears. Apparently he was using the boat to telepathically talk to you this whole time. He bestows the triforce of wisdom upon Tetra in an epic sequence with a nice remix of the opening theme of A Link to the Past, and Tetra magically gets a dress and everything that Zelda is supposed to have. She then has to stay where she is so Ganon can’t get to her, which is a little sad considering how good of a character Tetra was. She wasn’t your typical damsel in distress at all. She was the captain of a bunch of male pirates for pete’s sake! This is definitely my favorite incarnation of Zelda because of her being more than a damsel in distress or a refugee in disquise.  Link then goes to the Earth and Wind temples to reforge the Master Sword. Both of these temples have you with a partner. In the Earth Temple it’s Medli, who you met a Dragon Roost, and Makar in the Wind Temple. Both of them are helpful for the dungeons in question and add to the huge charm this game has. After reforging the master sword, Link has to collect the shards of the triforce. This part is infamous for how much it pads out the game. While it is a bit tedious, I love sailing the sea so much in this game that I could care less. You then return to Hyrule and with your fully powered master sword, you break the barrier that made it so you couldn’t go to the final dungeon of this game, which has you defeat 4 previously beaten bosses. They’re much easier this time around due to the reforged sword. You then fight Phantom ganon once more, this time with a tricky room puzzle, get the light arrows, and then use his sword to open the door to Ganon’s 3 puppets, and then you finally fight Ganondorf with an epic ending where you stab him in his forhead as he turns to stone. The king of Hyrule wished for the goddesses to drown Ganondorf and in a very sad ending sequence link and Zelda float away from the king and surface to find everyone ok, including Aryll. Apparenty Ganondorf wasn’t just evil because of his ancestors, but the gerudo race lost their home and he actually had some good intention for once. You see how 3 dimensional these characters are? This game’s plot is very well written and there isn’t really a time that feels like unnecessary padding other than maybe the triforce quest, but even that’s not so bad, so I’ll give the plot a 10.

Gameplay

This game plays VERY smoothly, especially in the Wii U version. So you have your normal Zelda items; a sword, shield, boomerang, bow, bombs, bottles, and hookshot. The Fire, Ice, and Light arrows make their return yet again in this game but sadly this is the latest console Zelda game to have them. They are technically in Twilight Princess, but they’re not items that you use, Zelda does. The Ice and Fire arrows work nearly the same as they did in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, but the Light arrows are a bit different. They automatically kill every enemy with one hit, but you get them very late in the game so you won’t be that overpowered for most of the game. The Skull Hammer can be used to hit switches, break objects, and break the skull of the Helmaroc king. The boomerang can now target multiple object and enemies, which is a very welcome change that returns in Twilight Princess. The bombs are exactly the same as they were before, except you can use them when at sea to bomb other ships, enemies, and objects. The hookshot is pretty mucht he exact same as it’s been since Ocarina of Time, but there is a similar item you get much earlier in the game called the Grappling hook, which is used to cling on to things on the celling for you to swing across gaps. It can also be used to snag these little items called spoils from enemies, which you keep in your Spoils Bag. Collect a certain amount of, say, Knight’s Crests from Darknuts and you can learn the Hurricane Spin, which is a mobile version of the spin attack that’s been in every 3D Zelda game. It’s great for taking out a lot of enemies. You have to stop what you’re doing in the original version to change which direction you swing in, but in the Wii U version you can freely change to direction you swing in. You also get the Deku Leaf, which is used to float across gaps. It’s great for catching yourself before making an accidental fall. It’s also used as a little fan to blow wind at switches that require it or to push platforms across the room. You can also get mail from a mailbox that’s on a lot of the islands. You can deliver it to get some goodies like Heart Pieces. The Wind Waker is this game’s instrument and it’s put to good use just like the Ocarina. You can use it to change the direction the wind is blowing so you can sail to the places you need to get to, certain songs for plot progression, the Command Medley which s used to command your partner character in the Wind and Earth temples as well as statues in the Tower of the Gods. You can also learn the Ballad of the Gales, which is very convenient for warping around the map to place you need to get to. You can actually take the weapons from other enemies in this game and use it against them. It’s a really nice little touch. Target locking returns and is helpful as ever. Now there’s the infamous part of the game known as sailing the Great Sea. This is the overworld of the game and you will be sailing across it constantly to get from place to place. If you’re going in a direction other than the direction the wind is blowing, you must play the wind’s requiem to make it go the way you need it to. However, in the Wii U remake, you can obtain the Swift Sail through this weird raffle mini-game that changes to wind for you and doubles your sailing speed. The sea itself isn’t quite as bad as people make it out to be. It sometimes feels great sailing across the vast ocean, especially with the beautiful theme to go with it and sometimes sailing while the color of the sky changes has an unexplainable beauty to it. Plus you get the Ballad of the Gales later on in the game, which lets you warp to certain spots on the map to make it more convenient.  You can get parts on your map filled using fish bait to get a little fish guy to do it. He does it for the map tile you happen to be on. You can also get Hyoi Pears (I have no clue how to pronounce it) tog et seagulls to fly around and collect stuff for you. I get the feeling this was an inspiration for the Beatle in Skyward Sword. So gameplay gets a 9 for the original version and a 10 for the Wii U remake. It’s already very smooth in the original version but it’s pretty much perfect in the remake.

Music

It’s a Zelda game; I really don’t need to say much about the music.  This game in particular has some absolutely epic and beautiful music to boot. Windfall Island, Outset Island, the Great Sea, Dragon Roost Island, farewell King of Hyrule, the title theme, and Tetra’s theme all com in mind when I think of the best tracks in this game. Music gets a 10.

Overall

Needless to say, Wind Waker is an absolutely amazing masterpiece of a game. Even though it isn’t exactly my all-time favorite game, it’s definitely one of them. I might as well consider this game (in my honest opinion) the best game ever made. This is definitely my favorite Zelda game. Many other games have immersive and amazing worlds but Wind Waker's world is something else. I can completely block out everything else going on around me when playing Wind Waker and feel part of its world and get more enjoyment out of it than any other video game world I have explored and tried that with. There's just something I really love about the world of Wind Waker and I can barely put it in words. This game isn’t completely perfect, but this game is so damn incredible that all of its tiny flaws can be forgiven. The graphics are great, the music is beautiful, the story and characters are great, and the gameplay is nice and smooth, and the game has a charm that other Zelda games and other games in general wish they had. Wind Waker for the Gamecube gets an average of 10 and a 39/40 and the Wii U version gets a perfect 10/10 and 40/40. Let’s see if Zelda U can amaze me like this.
Next review: TBD (possibly Sonic Adventure 2 or another Sonic game)
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