The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

"This game really blew me away"

The pun was intended. I was referring to the wind theme, if you didn't know. This game was just sheer awesome. Every aspect of Zelda and more was in this game (Although it didn't quite contend with Ocarina of Time). It gave me the great feeling of playing a great Zelda Game. Every Zelda fan and platformer fan will love this game. Some parts may look a little childish, but, trust me; it is a great game and has a lot of good serious moments. I found wind to be an intriguing theme in this game. With your boat, control over the wind is important. Also, I found a particular wind spell VERY helpful with this games vast sea. Instruments in Zelda games have always been interesting (especially in Ocarina of Time), but this game uses a maestro's baton instead. The thing this game has over Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is no insanely annoying glowing ball always hovering over you saying “Hey!”, instead it has a giant glowing A icon that makes less mindless, stupid, and annoying noise. Still, the most obvious difference in this game is the graphics, with which many were surprised by the graphics and though it was an automatic failure (some people still think that, but many others do not).

The thing that really blew me over was the excellent plot. Many parts took me by surprise. I would love to, but will not, spoil the ending. It was a great scene. It is possibly the best plot so far in Zelda, in my opinion. Although, the beginning has the whole sheer coincidence thing going on, this, like many game producers put in as a plot thing, is simply called fate. There is noting wrong with that, though. The length of the game is good, on the verge of great. Then again, that sea took a lot of this time. It took me a good load of my time to beat the game, and I didn't even collect everything! What was really good was how it followed up on Ocarina of Time. So many important plot concepts come from Ocarina of Time's also glorious plot. Those plot concepts are mentioned in-game, so you don't have to play Ocarina of Time to understand, which is helpful. Most Zelda games have a tendency for a difficult time understanding the plot line. This game, however, is easily placed one hundred years after Ocarina of Time. This game some interesting new characters, too. Link's sister and grandma, are two important and somewhat surprising (Link hasn't had a family in earlier games) characters. But, for a little downer, there are so few Gorons and only one Zora in this game. There is only one Kakori child left as well. There is, however, two more races that fill in their spots, which are the Rito (the people who grow wings) and the Koroks (who are miniature wood people who also have the power of flight due to the leaves on their heads). My very missed (but very useless, at least in this particular game) character is Epona, and, if you know that horse from previous Zelda games, heck, since you know she is a horse, you can see why she is useless. There are a lot of other characters that are gone. And by a lot, I mean A LOT. Pretty much everyone is new except Link and a particular character that I will not mention due to spoilers.

The cell-shaded graphics were new, and it surprised and almost killed the game for many fans, including myself. I didn't know what to expect, and almost didn't buy it. But, I, being a loyal Nintendo and Zelda fan, decided to buy it anyway. It worked out great for this game. Some parts were fairly humorous and some graphical displays were enjoyable. However, it did make some parts just a little too cartoony and ruined some of the seriousness. It worked out good, though. The graphics were very well cell-shaded, which is difficult to pull off, and they add a nice effect to everything in this game. Link has a great new look (and you get to seem him try on new clothes, too, but only for a short time) and so do many others. There really isn't any particular bad looking character or object in this game. I suppose I might have been a little (but just a little) disappointed with the main villain's look. But, other than that, no real problems.

The controls were good. It had the normal Zelda feel. You might of had to get used to the Y, X, and Z controls. But swordplay is pretty much the same, except for the very much enjoyable parry attack. And the camera in all 3-D Zelda games is good. Except, in this, you get a free camera that lets you use the C-stick AND the old L-button looking method. The use of the A-button has become a little more important (seeing as it's the action button, it's already used a lot already, for many events call you to use it. One thing you can't due is dive underwater (just imagine how much more time it would of took to program a whole underwater part of the huge ocean in this game), you just can swim, but still can drown. This game also comes with many of the original items, such as empty bottles and bombs, but with the new cell-shaded graphics, they, in a way, have a new feel to them.

The gameplay, in general, is like that of all Zelda games. Go into a dungeon, do what you need to do or get what you need to get, beat the boss and other bad guys, and then go to the next area. Of course, there the occasional important item that needs to be collected or objective that needs to be accomplished in between these dungeons. But, one of the biggest things in Zelda games is still here, and that is the puzzles. From the large-scale ones that take a few minuets to solve, to the simple ones that should take a few seconds to solve, but it takes you nearly an hour to because you can't figure it out and the answer is right in front of you. These puzzles make up a large part of the game and are usually enjoyable. But, don't worry, there is still enemies to clobber in between puzzles.

I felt that there could have been more enemies and bosses; then again, it would have just added more enemies to take pictures of for an annoying, unnecessary, unrewarding part of the game. I guess that is more the reason just not to do that part. They were all designed well, so this is a quality or quantity issue for me, although, this isn't at all a big turn down for me, and some methods in fighting enemies are interesting. I rather am fond of the improvisation fighting methods that Nintendo uses in their games. There is, however, a boss that takes after a previous Zelda boss, and you will probably know what to do when you get to that part (one minor difference was added in). Most Zelda games usually have a stealth part or two and this game does, too. I think the stealth in Zelda games is always fun. What deserves an honorable mention in this game is the final boss (don't worry, I won't spoil it) due to its obvious awesomeness, the fact that it was epic, and, of course the awesome scenes that come before and after it.

There were only two big downsides to this game. The size of the islands (lack of people could be said, too) and the ocean size (a faster boat would have fixed this). I felt it was to long a ride from one area to another. That is the only thing that prevented the game from being perfect. There was just too much of nothing. Of course, the sea monsters made it just a little less boring. The islands should have been bigger. I would expect the ocean to be vaster than the land, but it didn't have to be that much vaster! I think that was biggest problem, the ocean to land ratio. Another somewhat less serious issue with me is that the game was too easy. Some people of a little less gamer experience will enjoy the difficulty, but, it made it less fun. When I beat it with only five hearts, well, THEN it was difficult and fun, so I guess you have the option to make it harder or not, and that is what makes this down side very minor.

What can be said about this games music? It's Zelda music. That already tells you its good. This game has great music like all other Zelda games, only orchestrated. This actually goes along with the whole atmosphere of the game, and I think the makers did a great job. The best atmosphere music is what is played while you are traveling at sea. It is very fitting and done wonderfully. My favorite, though, is Dragon Roost Island's music. Wind Waker has all the best music from all the best Zelda games. The sound effects are pretty well done too. I thought that the makers did very well with the various kinds of monster noises. This game still has no voice-over material. Just grunts and laughs. Well, none except the boat merchant, Beetle, who says “Thank you!” and “Bye!” and Link still has no real dialogue. But, that is practically a tradition in all Zelda games. Still, no voice-over material may be a downside for gamers who think we are beyond a “no actual talking” era.

All in all, this game has a lot of the old, like similar fighting system, items, and so on, but it could have some of the new. Oh well, it's great anyway. I suppose that it could lead to the question “Why change what is already good?” But, I digress. The original reactions to the graphics were bad, and some still think it's bad. But, the cell-shading was done beautifully and worked out well for certain natures of the game. There was the huge overworld, of course, but, unfortunately had a little bit too much empty space. At least it had enemy ships and monsters to blow to smithereens and A LOT of treasure to find. The dungeons were of a great size and some of the puzzles were fairly challenging. The game was reasonably long and is really long if you decide to do all the other optional stuff.

This game deserves a nine out of ten because it has the whole Zelda feel to it, a great plot, and some very interesting graphics. It would have been a ten, if not for the huge, somewhat empty over world.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/06