The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker was the Gamecube's main Zelda game. It divided the fanbase with its unique cel shaded art style and has been referred to as either the best Zelda game ever made (by its devotees) or the worst (by its critics). But how good is this game, and should you buy it? To answer those questions, here's my review of the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker.
Graphics
Despite an art style that has divided the fanbase, the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker is a fantastic looking game improved vastly by the cel shaded look. The locations of full of colour and detail, the characters have plenty of charm and interesting (read: unique) designs and everything works together really well. Nothing to criticise here.
Music
Also fantastic. Whether you like the graphics or gameplay, you have to admit the music is really nice. The standard sailing theme when you're going across the Great Sea sets the mood for adventure perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_x1rpGbY8
Other great pieces of music include the various island themes. Dragon Roost Isle has some very fitting music too, which really makes you feel like you're on a tropical isle when you hear it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGGvsHq6iA
And then the boss music is even better. The Molgera theme needs no introduction given its now famous status due to be remixed for Super Smash Bros Brawl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlF0-Qs2xkI
But the mini boss theme is very nice as well and really is one of the most impressive battle themes in the entire series. I'd say it works much better than the boss or mini boss themes in either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess due to how catchy it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xlsy3cC03o
Finally, Ganon's Tower just keeps the good music coming with its impressive final boss theme and incredible remixes of the four earlier boss themes as well. Some even say Jalhalla's theme is better remixed than it is in the initial battle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKltOpt4iac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKBQ-YewqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUYKT24vqb0
All in all, the music in this game is genuinely amazing. That's not a particularly unusual thing for a Legend of Zelda game (most of the series has fantastic music in general), but the Wind Waker manages to have catchy, original themes for pretty much every charater, situation and location and is much the better for it.
Gameplay
Again, excellent. It's a shame so many people overlooked the game originally due to the 'cartoon' art style, since the actual gameplay mechanics are great with the game being brilliant fun to play.
The items all work well, with the new additions like the Grappling Hook and Deku Leaf feeling like items that should have been in earlier Zelda games. And the way you use items is much improved as well, it's no longer such a chore to switch to use elemental arrows with the bow or to figure out where you're aiming the Boomerang before throwing it.
Combat is good too, much more fluid than in the Nintendo 64 games with many more possible sword attacks to use and an even greater amount of strategy. Okay, it's still a bit easy considering enemies barely do any damage when they hit and the parry ability lets you dodge enemies right at the last second, but it works well. Most importantly of all, it's fun to fight and kill monsters, and that's what matters.
Another strength of the game is the area and dungeon design, which is mostly fantastic. Outset Island and Windfall Island feel more like proper living towns than those in any Zelda game bar Majora's Mask and every dungeon has a clever, maze like design with plenty of unique puzzles and well designed boss battles at both the midway point and end. Some interesting examples of these excellent dungeons are Dragon Roost Isle (which slowly becomes a dungeon as you scale the mountain and melds the overworld and dungeon gameplay really well), Forsaken Fortress (which is visited twice, once being a stealth sequence) and the Tower of the Gods (an interesting test of your abilities set over about four different floors, and the lead in to one of the most interesting plot twists in Zelda history). The temples are well designed too, having you work in tandem with a sage character and use their specific abilities to solve puzzles and navigate further.
Which brings me to the plot. It's pretty decent this time around. Link sees his sister Aryll get captured by a giant bird, so he trains with a sword, goes off with some pirates led by Tetra and begins his quest to save her. Of course, there's more to it than this (Ganon returns, the Great Sea conceals a secret beneath its depths, the King of Red Lions is inhabited by the spirit of an actual king, etc), but generally it works much like in any of the other Zelda games that have been released over the years. The prologue has a lot of charm too, and really sets the mood of the game perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujEZQbBi2Yc
However, the plot has one flaw, one directly related to the biggest problem with the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. I'll expand on this later.
Unfortunately, while the game is very good (and gets better and better up up until the Earth and Wind Temples), it all falls apart as it nears the endgame. Basically, after the last temple you have to find triforce pieces. No dungeons. No bosses. No items to collect. Just sailing around, finding maps, translating those maps and hauling up the chests from the sea bed. The story just completely loses steam and all the interesting design found earlier vanishes in favour of enemy gauntlets and sidequests.
This was because, put simply, the game was rushed out the door after various delays and two whole dungeons were cut out as a result. one was presumably originally found on Greatfish Isle, the other would have been straight after the Wind Temple with its own sage and probably have made the game structure nice and symmetrical. As it is now, these omissions basically made their parts of the game the weakest and pretty much led to the Wind Waker feeling half complete at times.
The rest of the game after the missing one or two temples doesn't get much better either, Hyrule is reduced to a linear path you literally just follow to get to the final dungeon (its hinted that this was meant to be a proper explorable area with its own secrets and such since half the unreachable ground turns out to be perfectly solid) and Ganon's Tower feels like it was thrown together at the last minute to tie the final two bosses to the rest of the game, there's no real dungeon feel, a mix of reused elements and bosses and a whole ton of rooms which are all the damn same. There's just so much evidence the final parts of the game bar the end boss were rushed and so many missed opportunities that the game just runs out of steam.
It also means the plot never really goes anywhere at this point and much of the hoped for impact is lost as a result. When Hyrule is flooded, why should a new player care? They've only seen it as a land filled with monsters and creepy dungeons. They never see that it's a proper place with years of history or interesting locations, just that old Hyrule Castle, a single path, the Earth and Wind Temples and Ganon's Tower are located there. Why should we care about it? It might as well be the Dark World for all anyone cares. If it was actually explored in game like the developers probably intended, people might find it more interesting.
And the Triforce piece collecting just feels like a total anticlimax. Come on, you're just hauling them up from the ocean floor? These pieces that thousands have died and fought for are just lying there for anyone with a boat and grappling hook to get their hands on? Ganondorf could have found themself himself if he tried to. They should have been located in an actual dungeon or a heavily guarded area. Maybe just remove the charts altogether and make it so you directly find the actual shards. Then again, is sticking them in a cabana basement or Birds Eye Rock really much more of a secure place? Needless to say, it feels really strange and underwhelming just coming across the pieces in random treasure chests and a proper dungeon with them in would have been much more logical.
That said, the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker is still a perfectly fun game and it does have a lot of fun mini games and sidequests as well. It's just that the gameplay gets worse after the temples and never really recovers due to how much content was so obviously ripped out at the last minute.
Length/Replay Value
Tons of it, at least if you're after extra content rather than the story. You've got the daunting Nintendo Gallery to complete (hundreds of characters and enemies to take pictures of), you've got all the treasure charts and heart pieces to find and numerous islands with all kinds of bonuses (like the coral reefs and those islands with tons of enemies to fight). There's also the Savage Labyrinth, 50 rooms of hell complete with numerous enemies and a reward for beating all fifty floors in one sitting. As far as this kind of content goes, the Wind Waker has great value.
Just don't expect a perfect story or a lot of dungeons to explore and beat since about half were cut out to meet the game's scheduled release date.
Conclusion
The Legend of Zelda is a great Zelda game. It does a lot of things right and is worth a buy for those alone, but unfortunately it's not the best game in the series and kind of falls apart as you get closer to the finale. Buy it now if you don't have it, or wait until it's available on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
9/10 or 92%
Graphics
Despite an art style that has divided the fanbase, the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker is a fantastic looking game improved vastly by the cel shaded look. The locations of full of colour and detail, the characters have plenty of charm and interesting (read: unique) designs and everything works together really well. Nothing to criticise here.
Music
Also fantastic. Whether you like the graphics or gameplay, you have to admit the music is really nice. The standard sailing theme when you're going across the Great Sea sets the mood for adventure perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_x1rpGbY8
Other great pieces of music include the various island themes. Dragon Roost Isle has some very fitting music too, which really makes you feel like you're on a tropical isle when you hear it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGGvsHq6iA
And then the boss music is even better. The Molgera theme needs no introduction given its now famous status due to be remixed for Super Smash Bros Brawl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlF0-Qs2xkI
But the mini boss theme is very nice as well and really is one of the most impressive battle themes in the entire series. I'd say it works much better than the boss or mini boss themes in either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess due to how catchy it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xlsy3cC03o
Finally, Ganon's Tower just keeps the good music coming with its impressive final boss theme and incredible remixes of the four earlier boss themes as well. Some even say Jalhalla's theme is better remixed than it is in the initial battle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKltOpt4iac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKBQ-YewqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUYKT24vqb0
All in all, the music in this game is genuinely amazing. That's not a particularly unusual thing for a Legend of Zelda game (most of the series has fantastic music in general), but the Wind Waker manages to have catchy, original themes for pretty much every charater, situation and location and is much the better for it.
Gameplay
Again, excellent. It's a shame so many people overlooked the game originally due to the 'cartoon' art style, since the actual gameplay mechanics are great with the game being brilliant fun to play.
The items all work well, with the new additions like the Grappling Hook and Deku Leaf feeling like items that should have been in earlier Zelda games. And the way you use items is much improved as well, it's no longer such a chore to switch to use elemental arrows with the bow or to figure out where you're aiming the Boomerang before throwing it.
Combat is good too, much more fluid than in the Nintendo 64 games with many more possible sword attacks to use and an even greater amount of strategy. Okay, it's still a bit easy considering enemies barely do any damage when they hit and the parry ability lets you dodge enemies right at the last second, but it works well. Most importantly of all, it's fun to fight and kill monsters, and that's what matters.
Another strength of the game is the area and dungeon design, which is mostly fantastic. Outset Island and Windfall Island feel more like proper living towns than those in any Zelda game bar Majora's Mask and every dungeon has a clever, maze like design with plenty of unique puzzles and well designed boss battles at both the midway point and end. Some interesting examples of these excellent dungeons are Dragon Roost Isle (which slowly becomes a dungeon as you scale the mountain and melds the overworld and dungeon gameplay really well), Forsaken Fortress (which is visited twice, once being a stealth sequence) and the Tower of the Gods (an interesting test of your abilities set over about four different floors, and the lead in to one of the most interesting plot twists in Zelda history). The temples are well designed too, having you work in tandem with a sage character and use their specific abilities to solve puzzles and navigate further.
Which brings me to the plot. It's pretty decent this time around. Link sees his sister Aryll get captured by a giant bird, so he trains with a sword, goes off with some pirates led by Tetra and begins his quest to save her. Of course, there's more to it than this (Ganon returns, the Great Sea conceals a secret beneath its depths, the King of Red Lions is inhabited by the spirit of an actual king, etc), but generally it works much like in any of the other Zelda games that have been released over the years. The prologue has a lot of charm too, and really sets the mood of the game perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujEZQbBi2Yc
However, the plot has one flaw, one directly related to the biggest problem with the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. I'll expand on this later.
Unfortunately, while the game is very good (and gets better and better up up until the Earth and Wind Temples), it all falls apart as it nears the endgame. Basically, after the last temple you have to find triforce pieces. No dungeons. No bosses. No items to collect. Just sailing around, finding maps, translating those maps and hauling up the chests from the sea bed. The story just completely loses steam and all the interesting design found earlier vanishes in favour of enemy gauntlets and sidequests.
This was because, put simply, the game was rushed out the door after various delays and two whole dungeons were cut out as a result. one was presumably originally found on Greatfish Isle, the other would have been straight after the Wind Temple with its own sage and probably have made the game structure nice and symmetrical. As it is now, these omissions basically made their parts of the game the weakest and pretty much led to the Wind Waker feeling half complete at times.
The rest of the game after the missing one or two temples doesn't get much better either, Hyrule is reduced to a linear path you literally just follow to get to the final dungeon (its hinted that this was meant to be a proper explorable area with its own secrets and such since half the unreachable ground turns out to be perfectly solid) and Ganon's Tower feels like it was thrown together at the last minute to tie the final two bosses to the rest of the game, there's no real dungeon feel, a mix of reused elements and bosses and a whole ton of rooms which are all the damn same. There's just so much evidence the final parts of the game bar the end boss were rushed and so many missed opportunities that the game just runs out of steam.
It also means the plot never really goes anywhere at this point and much of the hoped for impact is lost as a result. When Hyrule is flooded, why should a new player care? They've only seen it as a land filled with monsters and creepy dungeons. They never see that it's a proper place with years of history or interesting locations, just that old Hyrule Castle, a single path, the Earth and Wind Temples and Ganon's Tower are located there. Why should we care about it? It might as well be the Dark World for all anyone cares. If it was actually explored in game like the developers probably intended, people might find it more interesting.
And the Triforce piece collecting just feels like a total anticlimax. Come on, you're just hauling them up from the ocean floor? These pieces that thousands have died and fought for are just lying there for anyone with a boat and grappling hook to get their hands on? Ganondorf could have found themself himself if he tried to. They should have been located in an actual dungeon or a heavily guarded area. Maybe just remove the charts altogether and make it so you directly find the actual shards. Then again, is sticking them in a cabana basement or Birds Eye Rock really much more of a secure place? Needless to say, it feels really strange and underwhelming just coming across the pieces in random treasure chests and a proper dungeon with them in would have been much more logical.
That said, the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker is still a perfectly fun game and it does have a lot of fun mini games and sidequests as well. It's just that the gameplay gets worse after the temples and never really recovers due to how much content was so obviously ripped out at the last minute.
Length/Replay Value
Tons of it, at least if you're after extra content rather than the story. You've got the daunting Nintendo Gallery to complete (hundreds of characters and enemies to take pictures of), you've got all the treasure charts and heart pieces to find and numerous islands with all kinds of bonuses (like the coral reefs and those islands with tons of enemies to fight). There's also the Savage Labyrinth, 50 rooms of hell complete with numerous enemies and a reward for beating all fifty floors in one sitting. As far as this kind of content goes, the Wind Waker has great value.
Just don't expect a perfect story or a lot of dungeons to explore and beat since about half were cut out to meet the game's scheduled release date.
Conclusion
The Legend of Zelda is a great Zelda game. It does a lot of things right and is worth a buy for those alone, but unfortunately it's not the best game in the series and kind of falls apart as you get closer to the finale. Buy it now if you don't have it, or wait until it's available on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
9/10 or 92%
