The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

"Ignominy"

Zelda has made itself the epitome of video gaming. From its initial release in 1986, Zelda has always been like the intelligent kid in class; seemingly always knowing what to do, and then executing it flawlessly. Prompting others to feel shame, and making them wish they could do as good. It comes to no surprise, after the years, that Zelda has built up such a loyal, downright colossal fan base. Fans series have become increasingly jaded, though. This is most apparent after the release of Zelda: OoT. The move from the traditional over-head view was maybe too much for some fans, as they left disgusted. For I was one of them, and using the bonus disks that were free with the reservation of Wind Waker proved good for my golf swing. Wedge please, caddy.

FOUR!!!

You begin by seeing link perched on a high out-look point, asleep, when the games starts. He is suddenly wakened by his younger, scrawny sister, Aryll, to inform that it’s his 12th birthday. When you turn the age of 12, you get them classic green ol‘ cloths. From this point your adventure begins; if you consider running around doing errands an adventure. The beginning of the game, like the others, starts at a snails pace. Incase you’ve never played the Zeldas for N64, you just wonder around till you acquire some cheesy items. As you have to go here, talk to this person, run back, talk here, train there. The same applies to Wind Waker. Just doing these mind-numbing tasks alone can eat up all of the first parts of the new Zelda. It’s strictly a trial-and-error gameplay element hidden under what is suppose to be “fun”. After you find that item or ability that you need to progress, the game speeds up. ….

You’re right, FFM, it does take forever to speed up

You’re then enticed to a vast world. Once you get your boat you literally have the whole world to explore. The world is composed of a 7X7 grid. Feel like the adventuring type? Watch as hours fade away as your discover the great sea. Maybe, on second thought, it’s not such a great sea. You’ll spend long times just traveling place to place. The amount of time it takes to travel around eat up about 50% of the game. Exploring is one thing, making a tedious task out of it is another. An additional time eater is that of the dungeons.

That’s a pretty big figure

Zelda has always had some of the finest dungeons around. So, it wouldn’t be a surprise to you that Wind Waker’s dungeons would be just as deep and compelling as it‘s predecessors is it? Well, get used to some irony, (fan) boys. The dungeons are overly easy and repetitive. If that sentence had you running to press “No” on my review rating, you just made my day that much better. If I came off as an ass, that’s because I am one. Then again, why should I make an ass out of myself when Nintendo did a good enough job at it by themselves? I mean…*cough*…back to the review at hand.

While the dungeons may be repetitive and easy, they still have some fun factor to them. Getting through one will at least leave you with the feeling of victory. Justifying the fact on why you had to use the same item over 100 times just to get to the boss. Speaking of bosses, Wind Waker has some odd ones to say the least. Lava fiends, towering serpents……a giant plush doll. You’d think since you worked so hard to get to the bosses, they’d at least last over 2 minutes with you in a bout to the death. No, they don‘t even begin to last that long. The bosses are just pushovers that can be killed by using the same strategy over and over. Use the item you just got, then attack him with the sword. Rinse, repeat. Anyone up for proving me wrong?

This strategy proves the same for about all the enemies in the game too. I‘m still amazing at the fact on how shallow the fighting system is. Just press the A button a multitude of times to pull off a “combo”
Your other ways of attack is that of jumping in the air, and crashing down upon the enemy

But, I found the game rather challenging

I also assume your coming into the world of videogames is after you watched the ad on MTV about FF7 a billion times. Anyways, not all the action in Wind Waker lie in the dungeons. You got some espionage with teamwork too. Sneaking around with no weapon too throwing characters around like they are paper planes. Nintendo manages to make only some of this a little bit entertaining. Who wants to keep starting at the beginning of an area every time your presence is found? The teamwork is a strong addition to the Zelda formula. Adds more complexity into a otherwise shallow game. Since when in Zelda have you had to carry a character around to beat a dungeon…and it was fun? Either my memory is giving out, or that’s a big fat NO.

FFM would like to hand out tissues at this point in the review

You’re still probably wondering what in the world is a Wind waker. It’s Zelda attempt to stand out for the rest of the average games that are of the same genre. The premise of the whole game is basically controlling the wind, and other aspects with this baton. Then using the advantage it creates to move forward into the game. Now that I just calmed that little mystery about Wind Waker, let’s go on…

From the opening scenes, you’ll notice Link looks like he’s been drawn by hand--ohh wait. Cel-Shading has become a huge fad in the videogame market as of late. Zelda is no exception to this fad. As this new graphical approach doesn’t affect the gameplay any, it does raise some concerns. One of these is the alleged “kiddy ness” that the cel-shaded graphics have on the game. The graphics don’t make the game suited for kindergartners; leave that to gameplay. The graphics actually look pretty decent. Vibrant details all around makes everything look a lot better than most other cel-shaded games. What ever direction the wind is blowing, links hat/hair blows that way. Grass getting caught in the wind, link kicking up dust where ever he steps. Nintendo gets kudos from me on this section of the game…..

The kudos end here, and they end for reasons too. We all know Gamecube has an oddball controller. This isn’t exactly a bad thing if the company knows how to set-up the control scheme. Nintendo could’ve set the control scheme up better. Sometimes you’ll lock onto the wrong enemy, causing you to take damage every now and then. As this isn’t really anything to care about at the beginning of the game, but by the end when you take a lot more damage, it can be. Besides the lock-on problem, the rest of the controls seem to be laid out in a good manner. Manipulating where you want link to go is not a problem. Just pressing up or down on the direction pad should be sufficient enough for this task, and I really hope this doesn’t come as a surprise to you.

Then you got the classic Zelda tunes too. What could possibly be missing? They’re rehashed, yes. But, it’s nothing to go cry home about. Because Zelda tunes are Zelda tunes, and everyone likes them. I’m pretty sure at least. From the epic “Do..dododododdd..dodo” and so forth so on. They managed to incorporate about all the old songs somewhere within the game. Aside from the classic themes, you just got a bunch of lame beats that are orchestrated with beats on a drum. Most NPC’s (Non-playable characters) in the game go “HEY!” or “Ugghh”, and other cheap, none needed boisterousness. Then they go and make link sound like a girl. They stripped the poor guy of all his manhood, and made him sound like the 6th singer in N’sync. Well, maybe he could at least make a career there.

In the end, you got a pretty shallow game. The missing depth is ever apparent around every corner. They should’ve had shiggy more involved in this project, then we might have had a good game in the end. It’s such a shame, behind the novelty, there’s no real game to be played; again. This seems like a pattern with Zelda anymore.

Final Verdict

Graphics - 8
Gameplay - 2
Control - 4
Sound - 3

Final = 3
Some might thin that my score is a tad low for one of the biggest franchises out there in gaming today, but it’s at least justified. In closing, maybe next time Nintendo can live up to the dreaded Hype, and give us a decent game to play. Don’t send me hate mail, either.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/03, Updated 07/29/03