tommy_lop's Full Review: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube
I haven't wrote in the past two weeks but I have two excuses Zelda and Pokemon. About 2 weeks ago I was awoken by the mail man to discover a package had been left for me. I open it and found that the two games that I order several months ago (long before I got the cube) had arrive. Zelda the wind waker and Zelda the master quest, I was excited because it arrived a day before it was supposed to have been released. I popped the master quest and had a go with that one first before I decided might has well try the wind waker. I popped it in and was I impressed, well the game was more of a mix bag (the game play not the graphics). And unfortunately the free bonus game that I got was better then this
Story.
Legends tell about an ancient kingdom of Hyrule where the golden Triforce lays, whoever touches it can get any wish they wanted. All was well in the kingdom until the evil Gannondorf tricked a young kokiri boy from pulling up the sword of evils bane (the master sword) out of it's pedestal. The sword was the last key to where the triforce laid. The boy was sealed in another dimension by the sword and Gannondorf got the triforce, or at least a piece of it representing power. With it he wrecked havoc on the citizens of Hyrule, and everybody thought the hour of doom was upon them. That is when suddenly the seal holding the boy was broken and he return has an adult using the master sword and the piece of the triforce representing courage he sealed away Gannon in the dark dimension. The tale of the time traveling boy was known has the legend of the hero of time and it was pass down for generation.
Until Gannon escaped from the seal that imprison him and once again reeked havoc on Hyrule, at first the citizens where not afraid because they where confident that the hero would show up again and save him. But he did not appear. Faced with Gannon evil the citizens left there destines in the hand of fate. What happen to Hyrule nobody remains who knows. However out on the great sea the island of outset has started a tradition to dress all boys with the same green garb when they come of age. And it just so happens that today's Link's birthday and he's none to thrill with wearing the green garb. But he soon gets more to worry about when a giant bird drops a leader of a group of pirates on the island and then takes off with Link's sister. Link (with a little bit of help from the pirates) sets off to rescue her.
Now if your worried that this one like most of the past few ones hasn’t taken place in Hyrule don't worry you get to venture there, in face in some ways the entire adventure takes place in Hyrule you just don't know it in till the middle of the game. Has for Zelda being in the game she is and it's one of her disguises to (it's not that hard to figure out I figured it out just by reading the advertisement in the bonus disc.) and she of course helps you out after you rescue her.
Graphics.
Now when I first heard that Nintendo was using toon shaded graphics for the game I was a bit disappointed especially at some of the rather ugly screen shots that they had up on IGN. It wasn’t until I saw some of the game advertisements that I became interested. The graphics on this are probably the best in Zelda history and the new cartoon Link fits the world perfectly. It's the fact that A Link to the Past has such cartoony graphics that it's by favorite Zelda game. I am finally glad Nintendo finally gave us a good cartoon Link.
Now don't expect because Nintendo gave us a cartoon Link and world that they did a half hearted effort on the graphics because they didn’t. The colors are bright and Link and other characters move around smoothly. I should also mention the amount of stuff you can see in the distance is huge. The shadow of islands moving in out of the horizon has you sail on your boat. You can see some of the bigger island for miles around. Some can be seen from the map half a world away, has blurry shadows. Has you sail closer they slowly get bigger and you see more details just like you do in real life.
Now finally about the animation system that has been advertised. The more realistic Link featured in the N64 versions only had 3 facial expressions. A non emotional frown, a dopey happy face for when he found something, and of course the infamous jaw drop. In this one Link has a lot more going on and is big anime eyes can express more detail. Even though Link never talks he does a lot of miming so you know what's he always thinking. He even does a little dance when he completes a dungeon.
For example of how good the graphics are and the trouble Nintendo went through to make them the forest haven island looks like it was taken out of Princess MononokePrincess Mononoke (made by what is consider the greatest master of animation Hayo Miazaki). Which is no surprise sense in an interview Myiamoto listed two Myiazaki movies Totoro Totoro and Luputa (Castle in the Sky) has some of his favorite movies.
Sound.
The sound is a little disappointing in some areas mainly there's no voices. Now Nintendo says they didn’t want to have Link have a voice because they say everybody has in there mind what Link would sound like. Well I know he sounds either one of two things. A high pitch Japanese woman that grunts (from the N64 version), or teenage boy with a lot of attitude (from Zelda cartoon series). Now I know what they meant Link has been and always should be a silent protagonist. However there are several other characters like Zelda and Gannondorf who have plenty of lines could have easily been given voice but didn’t. In the music department the Zelda theme is taken out with the exception of a violin version of it at the very beginning it's not featured at all. The sailing theme they have has the main theme is nice and so is a couple of the island themes. But the dungeon themes and most of the other ones are easily forgettable.
Gameplay.
Zelda series relays on it’s strong game play which includes dungeon crawling. Like most Zelda games Link will have to explore dungeons in order to find magical stuff to help in his quest forward. While the game does start off a bit linear after the first two dungeons your allowed to basically go wherever you want on the map. But for the most part your destination is marked on a map.
Like most Zelda games Link’s main weapon is an upgradable sword and of course an upgradeable shield for defense. Link has a few new tricks including combo attacks, and the more powerful parry attacks can be used. For the use of special weapons they will be equipped to the X, Y, Z buttons, similar to the C buttons of the N64. The Z targeting has now given way to L targeting using the L button, but it operates the same way you just hit the L button instead, and there’s no annoying Navi. To add a little bit more the weapons Link can now pick up weapons that enemies drop and use them against his foes, this actually comes in handy in some puzzles (especially when lighting torches).
Wind Waker is the name of the ocarina like item in the game. You play songs in pretty much the same way, except the notes are only activated when a light meter hits the middle of the screen. With it Link can play notes to summon spells, including changing the wind.
A new addition to the game (and one of the most annoying ones but more on that latter) is the king of red lions a talking boat that seems to be connected to Gannon and the legendary hero. He gives Link advice and he transports him around. After you get a sail you can use the wind waker to change the wind so you can sail faster.
Tingle.
If you have GBA a cable you can upon Tingle the fairy (he’s the kind of fairy that doesn’t have wings) to help you. Once Link gets his hands on the Tingle tuner he can summon him to help. The 2nd player using the GBA can hook up and play has Tingle. The GBA screen will show a map of the surrounding area and Tingle can check and get information on the area has well has where treasure is. On the TV screen Tingle will appear has a cursor on the ground that has Tingles ugly mug on it. Tingle can also bomb enemies in front of Link has well and give potions to Link, but it will cost rupees. And if you get a jerk on the GBA watch out Tingle can run around and bomb Link has well.
What I found wrong with the game.
First off there is a big lack of dungeons only 6 of them in all. While they are good-sized dungeons the lack of them, and the of diversity between them does happen the game somewhat but this isn’t the worse part of the game. Like Majoras Mask Nintendo has done plenty to make sure the available side quest where plenty enough to keep you interested in the game. There is treasure to dig up and plenty of Island to explore so lack of dungeons does hurt the game it’s not enough to really take away from the game to much. All though the quest for the triforce of courage towards the end of the game winds up being rather tiedus, I would have preferred a regular dungeon then the treasure hunt that you have to do. I heard that Nintendo had to cut some of this out in the American version after people complained about it. Another thing they added to help the short amount of dungeons is to give a 2nd quest to the game. There’s not a whole lot to the 2nd quest of the game except Link get’s to keep his regular clothes from the beginning of the game all the way through, and you can understand the characters that speak the Hylian language.
Another problem is Link is no longer a regular Hyliean Hero, he is now Super Link. Able to get burn in lava, get blown up by bombs, and get is butt kicked by a gang of moblins, and not loose an entire heart of health. Nintendo gave Link just to much defense and if you add in the fact that there are still plenty of fairy’s around to capture it’s next to impossible to die.
Finally the biggest problems is the sailing around to get to places. Normally when you hear the words huge over world, will take you minutes to get from one place to another you think it’s good. Give me some bad guys to fight while I get there and I am happy. The problem is that in this you sail, and there are very little bad guys. Once you make sure your heading towards the right destination all that is left to do is sit back in till Link gets there. I haven’t just sat there and watch the screen while something happen in a video game since FF8.
Final recommendation.
While these are small complaints and any one of them would be forgivable has stand alone problems but when you add all three of them together they keep Wind Waker from even surpassing Ocraina of time, never the less being the greatest Zelda game of all time. I still recommend it though (especially if you can get it bundle up with OCT) and it’s still a good stand alone game.
Set 100 years after the events in The Ocarina Of Time, this incredible adventure takes a different young hero named Link on an all-new quest Link's si...More at Amazon Marketplace
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