Kiddy, stupid, horrible, untouchable and ugly are just a few words used
by the mass public at their first glance of The Legend of Zelda : The
Wind Waker. But these people are wrong, horribly, stupidly, untouchably
and ugly, ugly wrong. Wind Waker definitely had its own share of
controversy primarily because of the new graphical direction taken, as
you would already know. But let's set this aside and talk about the
game, how is it good? What are its flaws? And most importantly, should
you get this game?
First off, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a follow-up to N64's
legend, Ocarina of Time (and also technically, Majora's Mask which is
OOT's direct sequel). When you begin a new game, you're immediately
showed a small video describing Link's adventure in Ocarina of Time
(referring him as the Hero of Time). The introduction video shown is a
summary of what happened in OOT and ultimately what issued immediately
after it. Then begins the game; you are Link, a young boy residing in
Outset Island with your kind grandmother and your little sister, Aryll.
Today also happens to be Link's birthday, he has come to the age of the
Hero and must wear the classic Link green tunic. Later on, your sister
gets kidnapped by a giant bird and you set off to find and rescue her,
thus begins the game's story.
For veteran Zelda gamers, the gameplay and controls will feel entirely
natural; the Gamecube controller has really perfected the controls
found in Ocarina of Time. As for the series' newcomers, it will not
take much time for you guys to learn and master the controls in this
game. So as I've just stated, the controls in that game feel very
natural and fit this game entirely. Your basic sword attack is still
with the B button, the A button also still serves as the action button,
R for the shield and now L for the lock-on system. You can also still
hold 3 items at a time with now the X, Y and Z button. The gameplay
really is great in that game thought after being used and re-used in
the series; it is starting to feel outdated. But since this is the
transition from N64 to GCN, the gameplay will still look kind of fresh.
The camera in that game is just perfect, it follows your character very
well and whenever you need to move it on your own, its controls are
very intuitive. Clearly this game was designed to let you take a good
view at the game's scenery.
Speaking of the scenery, this brings me to my next point; the game's
visuals. Now this is where all of the controversy originated from; the
cel-shaded graphics. Yes Link looks cartoony, yes at a certain extent
it does make him look kiddy, but this game is anything but kiddy and I
personally find the graphics to suit that game perfectly. Taking a good
glance at the game's environment reveals just as much details this game
has to offer. Every location, characters and various objects in this
game look phenomenally fantastic. Definitely the best cel-shaded
graphics I've ever seen in my entire life! The visuals in that game are
definitely not to be turned off from, this is actually one of the
game's strongest points (alongside the perfectly stable framerate) and
by far the best use of cel-shaded graphics to date in a videogame if
not, ever!
The visuals also play a good role at showing the direction that the
wind is taking in the game. Yes you might have guessed it by the title;
the wind is the main theme for this game. Early in the game, you
acquire some sort of baton used to conduct songs called the Wind Waker.
This magical item plays a role very similar to the Ocarina in Ocarina
of Time but this time you can control the Wind, objects, teleport and
so on… You also have your own boat in this game, called the King of Red
Lions. This boat not only can give you a lift from islands to islands,
but it also talks! You'll be using the King of Red Lions very often
(too often) to sail the Great Sea to save your sister Aryll. Sailing,
at first it's incredible, the 2nd time its great, and the 3rd time its
ok….. But after that it gets very but very annoying! This is by far the
biggest flaw in the game (good things always come with bad things) and
really is the only thing that could actually turn you off from it. Yes
it's really that boring… Plus with the fact that the Great Sea is
extremely huge, the therefore long sailing times will really bore you a
lot in the game. What's worse is that it's very repetitive. The good
side is that eventually you'll be able to teleport, but still….. You
can't escape from the fact that you'll still have to sail.
As one could always expect from any Zelda game following OOT, some of
the music tracks from that game get remixed once again in Wind Waker.
But the good side is that Wind Waker is also filled with tons of
original music and that really does set it apart from other Zelda
games. The music is really enjoyable and the Sea's music is the only
good part of sailing. Quite frankly, to say the least, this game's
soundtrack is very, very incredible. Also like all Zelda games, you can
expect many side-quest and Wind Waker is filled with tons of those.
Ranging from taking pictures of people and helping setup a potion shop,
to treasures searches and making business all around the globe, Wind
Waker will definitely keep you occupied for a very long time if you
plan on finishing it at 100%. The only bad side for those side-quests
is that most of them require sailing, we've already touched on the
subject, and this could make some of those missions feel too long.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is for short, an excellent game. It
follows up pretty well on everything that made the Zelda franchise so
great and expanded it with its own ways. The cartoon-looking visuals
should not turn you off from such a grandiose game as it is excellent
like the previous installment in the series. Today the game can be
found at a relatively cheap price and should not be looked over simply
because it's old. It is one of the best things that the Gamecube had to
offer and I most definitely recommend this to all Zelda fans and
Action/Adventure game fans.
