I had mixed feelings about The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker when I first played it back in 2003. On one hand, it was a fascinating departure from a series that had always taken place in the grassy fields of Hyrule. A vast ocean that separated the dungeons and towns gave the series a sense of scope it hadn’t possessed before. It took me a few hours to gain my sea legs, but I gradually accepted the new setting with open arms — even if I left with a few thorns.
Sailing between islands may have made the world feel huge, but it slowly suffocated my will to explore them. In the original version, sailing involved pulling up the map, finding out where you wanted to go, playing a song, watch Link conduct the song, change the wind’s direction, watch the short animation of the wind changing direction and, finally, regaining control. If you were unfortunate enough to overshoot your destination, you had the pleasure of repeating that process all over again.
It was novel at first, but sacrificing 15-20 seconds to alter wind direction turned exploring the high seas into busy work. That’s no longer the case thanks to a little item dubbed the “Fast Sail.” True to its name, the Fast Sail doubles your sailing speed, making the game’s many fetch quests much more reasonable tasks. More importantly, the fast sail ensures the wind is always at your back, rendering the Wind Waker practically obsolete. You can switch between the two sails if you like, though I only did so to remind myself what life was like in Slowsville.
The fast sail might be the largest improvement, but the updated visuals are the game’s most noticeable.
It’s tough to pinpoint exactly what makes this game look so much better. The higher resolution is an obvious answer, but this isn’t a simple up-res job. The way the sun’s bloom is juxtaposed with the shadows of towering palm trees makes Wind Waker HD one of the Wii U’s most gorgeous titles to date. The game just looks…brighter.
I noticed the frame rate dips whenever explosions or a crowd of enemies inhabit the screen, but they’re so rare that it’s hardly worth mentioning.
What is worth mentioning is the stupid Triforce piece fetch quest that encompasses the game’s final third. It’s still there. And while I get that news might be frustrating to hear, I understand why developers left it in. Brand new dungeons aren’t a reasonable expectation for a re-master, and they needed something to make up the game’s starving all-too-brief conclusion.
Fortunately, there’s a consolation prize in the form of a map that tells you where handful of Triforce pieces and charts actually are. I’m still not a fan of playing errand boy, but the new map makes the ordeal a little easier to swallow.
And…that’s about it. Other than what I’ve mentioned above, this is still the same game you played back in 2003. The developers tweaked some quests to make them less frustrating, but the gameplay, items, characters, songs and whatever else made Wind Waker what it was is still intact—for better or worse.
As a fan of the original, it’s the former.