The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker

So, that's it, the last game in the Zelda series has been completed!

And honestly, this IS one of the best ones. This game is widely criticized for having a LOT of water and a lot of pointless sailing in it, or in the words of the critically acclaimed Drs. Summerhouse "It's kinda fun, until you hit the waters", but then, what the Hell does he know, the idiot!

There is no doubt that this game has a lot of sea in it, and that you have to spend some time traversing the waters and just staring at the screen without anything happening. Sometimes you can easily put down the controller and just go away for awhile until Link's reached his destination, and just do something more useful, like making tea, doing your homework, or throwing flowerpots at passers-by.
Boredom does lead to interesting conversations like this:

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with....S!"
"Uh...Is it blue?"
"Yep!"
"Sea?"
"No, SKY, you moron. Geez!"

So when I started playing I was ready to start flaming this game, with the bad after-taste of Majora's Mask still in my mouth, but in all honesty, I wasn't nearly as bothered by it as I thought, or as seems to be hip on the Internet.
To be fair, there's a warping system to get you around quickly, and every patch of ocean has something to do. There's always an island nearby that has something nice hidden inside it somewhere, making exploration and taking the long route worth your while. It is clear that there is just a little bit too much water than seems strictly necessary, but I never found it becomeing actually annoying.

To compensate for the large stretches of ocean though, there is very little in terms of pointless item-fetching and wild goose-chases which is what plagued the Gameboy versions. The dungeons, once again, are great, and they retain the real Zelda feel. Boss fights never become as interesting as in Ocarina of Time though.
Still, the dungeons are definitely what make this game worth playing, even though there's only a measly 6 of them around this time. This also means you get only 6 heart containers, making a total of 9 you'll get guaranteed. So you have to get the other 11 hearts (=44 (!) pieces of heart) all by yourself, and they're very well hidden again. Majora's mask had this exact same problem. A serious lack of dungeons means a serious lack of health, so you are forced to look around a lot.

Once you have finished all the dungeons though, that's when the game throw a really stupid twist at you. You have to find 8 Triforce Pieces, which are scattered all over the ocean. First you have to find the maps of their whereabouts, then have the maps translated for 398 rupees a piece (that's a total of 3184 rupees!) and then you have to find them and fish them out of the water. This seems like a really cheesy way of making the game longer, and it's not very interesting or entertaining at all.
This way you are also FORCED to explore, and what made the older Zelda games so great was that exploring was always something that you could do on the side if you wanted, to perhaps make the game easier, earning rupees, hearts and finding secret weapons, but it was never actually required to do it.

I still love this game though. Everything about it screams quality. It still looks absolutely marvellous. It is without a doubt some of the best cell-shading ever used in a game, even though it may not be as stylish as Killer 7, it's still gobsmackingly beautiful. I for one am not bothered by the cartoony look, no matter how different it is from the darker look of Ocarina of Time.

I do recommend this game, cos it's good, classic Zelda fun, but I understand that not everyone will have the patience to sail across a huge ocean back and forth all the time. I enjoyed it greatly though. A 9.3.

posted by Ingen! @ 8:04 PM