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Discussion The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is 20 years old

Hero of Hyrule

Hero of Hyrule

Frieren the Slayer
Pronouns
He/Him
legend-of-zelda-the-wind-waker---button-1559683061504.jpg


20 years ago, The Wind Waker released.

It was a delightful game. While it is not without its shortcomings - the dungeon design is weak, and the game is distinctly unfinished, with a lot of padding added to compensate for the lack of critical path content that would be in other Zelda games - it was a delightful, incredible experience. With its incredible art style (which to this day has not aged a single day), beautiful sound track, and emphasis on a post-apocalyptic story that sought to finally conclusively end the cycle that was perpetuating the broader Zelda narrative, it was a masterful outing. It also represented the first tentative steps the series took towards what it would become with Breath of the Wild - physics based interactions, open world exploration, dynamic combat, a lot of BOTW's bones are ideas first seeded here.

Unfortunately, The Wind Waker, while winning rave acclaim, was roundly rejected by the market. Its failure would cause the Zelda team to regroup and reassess, and just give the market exactly what they were looking for, which was a bigger, more modern Ocarina of Time in the guise of Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess was a great game, but the thorough walk back from The Wind Waker owing to its underperformance meant that a lot of the evolution and steps towards a systems driven player driven sandbox that the series started to take with this game were then not followed up on for the better part of a decade... until a second crisis would cause the Zelda team to try and rethink the series from the ground up, and rediscover a lot of what The Wind Waker had been building up towards.

Happy birthday The Wind Waker! You were an amazing game. One day I hope you are actually available on a system more than 15 people bought.

 
Legendary game! Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD should have been released on Switch. A damn shame that they were not.
 
It's easily my least favorite 3D Zelda and one of my least favorite Zeldas in general - but I would like to try the Wii U remaster to see if my opinion changes as the tedium with sailing was easily my biggest complaint.
 
Looking back as much as I like the game I just feel sad about how rushed it was.

Even from a business standpoint, I think choosing Zelda as the other game they needed to hit Q4 2002 was the wrong choice. It should have been Mario Kart. Not that I endorse crunch (but lets face it that's what they were doing) I think getting a decent Mario Kart game out in the sort of deadline restrictions and conditions Nintendo seemingly had for early GC release dates was more doable, or would have resulted in a less rushed or compromised product than what we got.

I often just sit back and think what if this was the holiday 2003 game, how different would it have been. How many more legendary dungeons would this game have had. Its a great game, but it's half finished.
 
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I am just gonna leave this here



The fact that Wind Waker sequel was scrapped due to mixed reception and it devastated Aonuma hurts, but he said that Wind Waker is kinda special to him and so is the Toon Link since around that time his son was born.
 
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I think it's my favorite Zelda after BOTW. The world felt BIG, and the game was incredibly relaxing.

Rather than reusing BOTW's map with sky islands, I would have preferred if Zelda TikTok had expanded the map with a strong emphasis on boats and navigation. With the wind system, it would have been perfect.
 
My favorite Zelda and one of my favorite games of all time. Still the best main story in a Zelda game, too.
 
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The last Zelda game I enjoyed without reservations.
 
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Incredible art direction and music, but gameplay-wise it felt like busywork to me. I never got far.

Something about the Aonuma trio Majora's Mask - Wind Waker - Twilight Princess feel a bit "auto-pilot" to me in regards to gameplay. Levels just kinda happen.
 
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The Wii U version of this game was the first 3D Zelda I really loved, will have a special place in my heart due to the timing I played it to.
100% Wholesome game.

Also one of the best theme's ever made.
 
Love the graphics (though not on the HD version), and even some of the dungeons are pretty cool (Earth Temple is my fav). But to me it's the weakest of the classic 3D Zelda's.
 
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Easily one of my favourite 3D Zeldas, I love exploring the ocean. I find Wind Waker refreshing and engaging in a way that Majoras Mask, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword just aren’t for me. I like the combat with the sword techniques too, and the endgame/finale. Not so keen on its opening and the first dungeon, it takes a while to get going, but once you’re fighting these huge waves on the ocean at night, it’s amazing. It reminds me of the (very brief!) cut scene at the start of Link’s Awakening- Link on a small boat against the sheer power of a storm at sea.
 
Mekanos said:
This is my bit but with Mario Sunshine

The GameCube and I have a complicated relationship
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I don't dislike either but both are more interesting conceptually than in their actual execution and it's difficult for me to look past how rushed they feel. Though I have to say, at least Sunshine has a unique and appealing hook. WW on the other hand just feels kinda boring in the gameplay department. Sailing is extremely tedious and the dungeons are among the series' worst so it really only has its presentation going for it.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
I don't dislike either but both are more interesting conceptually than in their actual execution and it's difficult for me to look past how rushed they feel. Though I have to say, at least Sunshine has a unique and appealing hook. WW on the other hand just feels kinda boring in the gameplay department. Sailing is extremely tedious and the dungeons are among the series' worst so it really only has its presentation going for it.
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Yeah, it sounds obvious but I think you have to love sailing to love the game and I always viewed it as a chore. Other than that the game mostly just has the charming vibe and story to carry it. Most other things are done better by almost any other 3D Zelda.
 
Beautiful game. Considering how dungeon critical the old structure of the series was, it was a shame there were not more in this. I'd happily play through a Switch version of the game.
 
IMO, none of the Zelda games after Majora and before BOTW reached the heights that the series is known for

But if I had to choose one as my favorite, it’s Wind Waker with no hesitation

Happy 20th birthday lil fella
 
Definitely my favourite 3D Zelda post Ocarina. Love the artstyle and music, the sailing and honestly the combat too.
Also liked that Ganondorf comes off somewhat of a sympathetic villain here as well as Link starting the adventure for a personal reason too.
 
It’s a testament to the quality it does have, that despite being clearly unfinished, it’s still held in such high regard.

The visuals are brilliant, the music is nice, the story is good and the characters have so much charm to them. Unfortunately the dungeons are probably the worst in a 3D Zelda game, the cut dungeon areas stand out like a sore thumb, the difficulty is ‘my first adventure game’ level, and the Triforce hunt was the worst design choice ever seen in a major Nintendo title.

It’s a shame the Gamecube was being absolutely trounced because if this game had another 12-18 months in development, it would have had a great shot at being amongst the true greats of gaming.
 
I used to really dislike the game back then for its terrible pacing and the amount of time you have to not only change the wind but see the entire "You played the song" cutscene, every, single, time... and also the second part where you HAVE to farm rupees for Tingle & the Triforce maps...

Most of the problems I had with the game were fixed with the Wii U HD Remaster so I ended up enjoying the game A LOT. To me it has a lot of wasted potential (the see is pretty much useless ; the weather never affect how you travel, storms doesn't represent any danger at all, navigating is just... looking at the boat with a very boring scenery that doesn't really feels alive.

I had more fun navigating in The Phantom Hourglass (I enjoyed it a lot too).

The ending was touching and I really liked Ganondorf in this version, especially when he beat Link and while holding him, he says "Don't worry, I don't want to kill you", I was like "Wait, what ?!". He "just" wanted to restore Hyrule back to what it was (and take it over but that's a minor detail... right ?). And back then, I too wanted Hyrule back ! I was so annoyed that the only space you are allowed to explore in Hyrule was basically the a single room, a hallway and the final dungeon with that massive space all around !

(to make matter worse, the final battle takes place in a MASSIVE open zone desert that you cannot see unless you explore with Dolphin or on the Noclip website, check the Ganondorf tower and go explore. Hell, there's even a grotto with a path !)
 
I liked the expressiveness of the characters, and the overall art direction as well as the soundtrack. The combat wasn't bad either.

The sea however was my main issue.

Have not played it in ages, so if a port makes it to Switch I'd definitely give it another go.
 
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An incredibly forward-thinking and ambitious project that had its wings clipped.
Breath of the Wild realised some of its promise, but I'll always wonder what we could have got if Nintendo had let Aonuma and co cook.
 
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I loved Wind Waker as a kid but over time I've really soured on it. I think my main thing is that the dungeons are uninteresting and the exploration is tedious. I find it baffling to see so many people state BOTW has a "boring, empty world" and then prop up Wind Waker. Honestly, the sea never worked for me because there is actually very little interesting to find and the act of exploring is extremely hands off. It's basically a long loading screen. What hurts it even more is the lack of visual variety on the great sea - which makes exploration completly uninteresting to me as the majority of the islands are identical rocks or reefs.

The dungeons are probably the weakest of any 3D Zelda being very linear and lacking in any memorable setpieces or designs. The Earth and Wind temple do have some nice atmospheric flourishes but are brought down due to the focus on the partner mechanics.

I think Wind Waker is a very inspired game in conception but in execution it is clear their vision for the game far exceeded what the technology of the time would allow. Also I feel like the game gets a lot of buy-in with people due to it's art style. I don't dislike the highly stylized visuals but I also mich prefer the art of almost every other Zelda game to it (the main exception being Skyward Sword which has easily the least appealing art style in the series).

With all that said, I would be lying if I didnt state that my original playthrough as a kid wasnt a dearly cherished memory and the games easier difficulty and wide linear design make it a good jumping off point for new players.

Phantom Thief said:
...It also represented the first tentative steps the series took towards what it would become with Breath of the Wild - physics based interactions.

...The Wind Waker owing to its underperformance meant that a lot of the evolution and steps towards a systems driven player driven sandbox that the series started to take with this game were then not followed up on for the better part of a decade
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This isn't really true. I don't really see how Wind Waker is a "systems driven player sandbox" more or less than any of the other pre-BOTW games. It's a very binary game.
 
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I'm a lover of story in Zelda games first and foremost, I know, I know... and I really love Wind Waker's story about moving on from the past and how expressive the characters are in that game.

Has it really been 20 years?
 
I really like Wind Waker's structure.
You can explore everything, even stuff that will only make sense later on the game. It really feels like the type of exploration Zelda 1 provided.
Other than that I only truly played it when Wind Waker HD was released (played a couple of hours before around 2000's). So between my least favotire 3d Zeldas (SS and BOTW) and despite its flaws, at least I had a opportunity to play a game that reminded me how I love this series.
 
I adore the game, completed the original and the HD version on Wii U.
The sense of exploration and adventure was awesome (and missing from Skyward Sword) and the graphics amazing, such a delight of a game.
I'd love a sequel.
Aonoma, if you're reading this, now ToTK is finished, get cracking on Wind Waker 2.
 
I'll never forget the endless promise of the first five or so hours of this game. The visuals, the charming characters, the intriguing story set-up, the endless ocean to explore. And of course I'll never forget how the rest of the game simply couldn't live up to that promise.

If they had done the following:
-Had another island town
-Had two more dungeons where they should have been
-Replace the "dice islands" with actually interesting things to explore
-Added maybe two more enemy types
-Made the cannon usable while sailing for proper, kinetic sailing combat

The game would have been BotW before BotW. Instead, it was just a beautiful, charming outline of what could be.

It really stuck the landing, though. The last hour is just phenomenal.

The cell-shaded thing affecting its reception can't be underestimated though. This was just two years after the PS2 released and "serious games" were all the rage. I had just started college and when I played this my roommates thought I was mentally subnormal or something - as if they didn't already for having a gamecube (it has Fifa world cup guys, look!). The market just wasn't at the right point for this kind of experiment.
 
So much promise. Wind Waker has a lot good going for it, but honestly feels brought down by its ambition on a deadline of only 2 years. Remember that folks, Majora came out only two years before Wind Waker.
 
Aesthetically a great game, but I hate the sailing. People can praise it for its open exploration, but that exploration is dependent on navigating a boat through an overworld that is not that interesting.
 
Mekanos said:
It's easily my least favorite 3D Zelda and one of my least favorite Zeldas in general - but I would like to try the Wii U remaster to see if my opinion changes as the tedium with sailing was easily my biggest complaint.
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It absolutely does. It's hard to overstate how much double-speed and never having to fuck with the wind improves the sailing.

Unfortunately, nothing can save the awful dungeons that stain the late-game experience.
 
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I love this game so much. Was such a delight back then, and playing through it right now with my kids is such a fantastic experience.
 
Sailing is fun! Some people just got no chill.

Though Phantom Hourglass might be the better game.
 
Scrawnton said:
You know a new Zelda game is coming out when people start trashing the old games. Give it a year and everyone will love Wind Waker again.
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Keeping in that spirit:
  1. Breath of the Wild
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. The Wind Waker
  4. Majora's Mask
  5. Twilight Princess
  6. Literally anything else
  7. No, seriously, I'll play Crackdown 3 or something to avoid this next one
  8. Skyward Sword
 
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