CGA-2026-01 🕹️⛵🛡️ REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Welcome back, Heroes of Wind! (For the sake of full disclosure I myself am not yet a Hero of Wind, but should be within an hour or so...)
Hopefully everyone enjoyed their second consecutive month on the high seas as much as I did - I'd say at this point, we can basically consider ourselves a pirate club!
I had initially planned to actually plan something to write about in this post, but due to taking on way too many things this month I unfortunately haven't really had a chance to do any research beyond my own (almost) completion of the game. Hopefully any Wind Waker veterans in here will be able to help us out with any important insight that I am certainly overlooking!
For me, the most notable thing about The Wind Waker is how strongly it influenced the most recent two Zelda games. I'd say it seems to be the game that contributed the most to the modern Zelda formula. The freedom it offers you in being able to simply choose a direction and start exploring is a feature that is more or less missing from most 3D Zelda games. Also, the sheer scale of the world is really only comparable to BOTW and Tears. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Koroks - I had no idea that was a Wind Waker thing!
While I had heard about it in passing, actually seeing the underwater kingdom in this game was a strangely nostalgic experience. The way they tied in the old angular Link statue was very cool; I imagine it is safe to assume that an extremely long time passed between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker to allow for such evolutionary toon-ification.
I wish I had had more time to finish exploring more thoroughly and compile a list of secrets. I just finished exploring the map today, and know there are still plenty of things that I have yet to see. So instead of rushing through the last dungeon, I decided to post this for now, then come back to share more thoughts in the comments later.
Next month, join us as u/Kawa guides us on a trip to the lagoon... the Racing Lagoon!
| Month | Game | Host |
|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | Racing Lagoon | u/Kawa |
| March 2026 | Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls) |
u/J-Chiptunator |
Until next time, you filthy bilge rats!
CGA Announcement: We have officially ejected the cartridge for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. No worries if you're not done -- there is still plenty of time left in the month to play!
This topic is for people to share their parting thoughts and experiences. Spoilers are NOT required to be hidden for this topic, so if you're reading this before you've finished, be careful about reading any comments here.
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Thank you! I accidentally absconded from my duties
Hi y'all,
Multi-time Zelda game attempter, first-time Zelda game finisher here!
Prior to this, over the course of my life, I have played the opening hours of the following:
I ended up bouncing off of all of them for various reasons. I think the same thing would have happened for me with my second attempt at The Wind Waker had I not installed the QoL mod (faster sailing + not having to deal with the wind is SUCH a nice improvement) and had CGA not been the positive pressure I needed to see it through.
Is there a word for something that you would be nostalgic for now if you had first experienced it as a kid? Because, this game definitely fits that. If I'd had a Gamecube and this game back in the day, I would have been deep into it. It would have been one of those games where I would scour it and do literally everything you could do, only to then delete my save and do it all over again (you know, because we had a lot fewer games back then, so you had to make the most of what was available).
Playing it as an adult, with more time constraints and less patience for the slow-paced scattershot collecting and exploration the game requires, it didn't hit as hard as it would have were I younger, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
The game's vast open world admittedly feels more limited by modern standards, but the game's from back in a day where having even open levels was novel (much less a WHOLE world!). It’s also from a day where simply navigating a broad 3D space was cool and interesting on its own because it was so novel.
I was a little disappointed that the world was so regular (one main feature per grid square) and that many of the islands were so small, but I also think I'm asking for too much from a game that very skillfully hides the limitations of its hardware. I'm pretty sure the grid system was a way of hiding loading from the player (which I like a lot better than that more modern trend of "have a character slowly navigate a narrow space"). Also the "small" islands often hide larger areas behind explicit transitions once you’re there, so many of them end up being far larger than they appear from the sea.
Other people have praised the art style, and I'm here to do the same. The game looks gorgeous. With the HD pack installed, it looks downright fresh. I never understood the controversy over the art style, probably because I’m a Jet Set Radio forever fan. I think cel-shading is striking.
My completely uninformed guess as to why they went this direction is that they needed a way to make water look good, found out it worked well with a flat, monochromatic color accented by bold white lines, and then designed the rest of the visuals to fit in with that. If you look at water from any other game in this time period, it never actually looks good, whereas in this game, the sea is a beautiful example of artistic minimalism.
In terms of gameplay, I liked it but didn't love it. I liked the exploration and dungeons far more than I liked the combat. By the end of the game, I was sick of dealing with enemies who were there seemingly to just annoy me. It's cool that each one has their own little way of dealing with it, but I also got sick of equipment switching ALL THE TIME.
I asked some of my friends about this. They are longtime Zelda fans (enough that they played co-op OOT randomizer runs together) and they said that equipment switching is like, a standard part of Zelda games, but I never really got used to it even after dozens of hours. I didn't love how dipping out to the pause menu frequently would interrupt the game, and not having set buttons for each of the items made the game unintentionally comedic. I can't tell you how many times I'd be in a combat only to hit a button and have the camera dramatically zoom in on Link as he holds up a sail with a message that I can't use that right now (because I hadn’t swapped it out after sailing).
Z-targeting is nice when it works, but it failed to work enough that it annoyed me. I found it and the combat quite clumsy when there were multiple enemies, especially armored ones. Also, I fought my way down to the 50th floor of the Savage Labyrinth only to be rewarded with A QUARTER OF A HEART?! Come on, game.
While I'm on annoyances, I have to call this out:
THAT. DAMN. CREAKY. BOAT. NOISE.
The game feels so good when you get on the water! It looks beautiful, you're headed for a new destination, you can almost feel the wind in your hair, the inspiring music kicks in, and then, for SOME reason, when you even TOUCH the joystick to make the most minor of adjustments, there's this obnoxious creaking sound that pulls you completely out of the glory of the moment. I wouldn't mind it if it were intermittent, but it was nearly constant while I was navigating. It's especially prominent when the music isn't there, like when you're parking your boat. SUPER ANNOYING. It kills the vibe.
Now, these nitpicks are all the kind of ones that come from playing something so much that the flaws feel bigger than they actually are and overshadow all the good stuff that you're now taking for granted because you've been with it for dozens of hours.
The game does so much right. It's fun. It's charming. It's got a good sense of humor (I loved that I got the silver membership from the shop guy and my reward was... a compliment XD). There are lots of neat little touches. I love how expressive Link's eyes are whenever he's sidling. I like that the game gives you the Master Sword, which feels like this momentous thing, only to throw you into a big battle afterwards where you find out that it sucks. I was legitimately mad at that point and mentioned it to one of my Zelda-loving friends who was just like "no no, keep playing, there's a reason for that."
I like that there’s a teacher that has her own private island cabana (#goals).
I tried to play without a guide for the most part, but I ended up turning to one a few times (how exactly was I supposed to know that the aforementioned teacher would give me the deed to her aforementioned cabana in exchange for jewelry?).
By the end of the game I admit that I was ready for it to be over. If I were playing the game more leisurely, over the course of a couple of months, I think I would have vibed with its length, but trying to rush it in the span of a month made it feel a tad long in the tooth. That’s not a criticism of the game though — diminishing its scope would take away from its charming grandiosity.
I loved that the game kept throwing different ideas at you with smart little additions or tweaks to them. For example: I initially thought that being able to fly as a seagull was just a fun “see the world” feature, only to later learn that I could use it to activate switches, for example. Whenever I wasn’t sure what to do, I’d just start cycling through my various tools and invariably find the one that I needed (my husband got some good laughs at me doing things like, say, attempting to control the wind in the middle of a dungeon). Having Zelda shoot arrows off your shield during the final boss fight was another neat little twist. The game had so many little things like that, none of which were necessarily huge or game-changing individually, but altogether they show you how thoughtfully it was designed.
Overall, I think the game is splendid for what it is, and I enjoyed my playthrough of it. I can’t quite say that I love the game personally, but I also know that if I’d played it when I was younger, then it would have lodged itself into my heart and stayed there forever. It’s such a clever, compelling game, and I’d say it has aged better than most of its peers. With the QoL mod and the HD textures, it felt like I was playing a modern remaster rather than the original with minor tweaks and a fresh coat of paint.
I’m glad CGA gave me the excuse/reason/pressure to play this, because I’m 100% certain that, had I started this on my own like I did the last time I played it, I would have bounced off of it again just like before. It really is a slow burn of a game that doesn’t show you its best ideas until you’re well into it. I’m glad I stuck it through and ended up beating it. I can now say I’ve actually played through a Zelda game, which feels like some sort of essential gaming milestone.
Anemoia is a term coined to refer to being nostalgic for something that one never actually experienced first hand. While semantically not quite what you are looking for, I would argue that etymologically it fits The Wind Waker perfectly: the word combines the Ancient Greek words ἄνεμος (ánemos, or "wind") and νόος (nóos, or “mind”).
As the linked article mentions, nostalgia in general seems to be a creative process that utilises imagination, and while it can be based on memories, it doesn't necessarily have to be.
Congrats on finishing your first Zelda! You're now eligible to make referential comments like "Hey, listen!", or "It's dangerous to go alone!".
There is definitely some item swapping in these games. It's worse in the GameBoy games, which often play a bit more metroidvania-esque as items are used to navigate terrain. Though even the 3D games have their moments. In Ocarina's Water Temple, you needed to swap your boots dozens of times to navigate the dungeon. Though this was greatly improved in the 3DS rerelease.
Thankfully that was also improved in the HD remake. They swapped it to the Hero's Charm, which is a bit of a better reward.
I'd be curious to hear what you guys see as the biggest strengths of The Wind Waker and/or other Zelda games. Is it the story? The world? Skill challenges? Intellectual challenges? Aesthetics? Collectathons? The humour? Are they games that you play to test yourself, or something that you play to relax? If you love The Wind Waker or Zelda games in general, what is it that you love the most?
I'm asking since I've always found it difficult to stick with Zelda games, and it wasn't different this month, either. I didn't complete The Wind Waker. I don't think I even got a third of the way through.
This is not to say that I didn't like the game. I have very fond memories of it. But in the end, whenever I thought about continuing the game, I found something else to do that I wanted to do more. I just didn't seem to be able to find the "hook" that would capture my interest. It's been the same with every Zelda game that I have tried over the years. I think I have played about half of them, yet never completed a single one. As charming as they are, the games in the series don't seem to either challenge me or allow me to be creative, and I don't find their stories all that interesting. I just seem to be moving from one place to another and stuff happens, with relatively little meaningful player agency.
Or that, anyway, is my feeling about the games. And so, I have started to accept that me and Zelda games just aren't compatible. Which is fine. But at the same time, I would love to be able to love Zelda games. There is clearly much to love about them and they are exceptionally well made. Just for some reason, they don't hook me.
I would therefore really love to hear what it is that hooked you in The Wind Waker. And was it different than with other Zelda games? Help me see the game through your eyes.
Will repurpose some thoughts since I think it's sort of an answer here.
I've played The Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons, Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword, Link Between Worlds, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom in some regard. Majora's Mask was very formative to me as my first console game, despite the fact I never got past Woodfall Temple. (I still haven't beat it!) The level of quality for these games has never been low, as a product. As an experience, there's a clear level of intention around most of their gameplay that serves the feeling of high adventure.
I only beat a few of em, though. And I find quite a few of them, personally, very boring and repetitive! I had little drive to complete them. Wind Waker ain't one of those, though. I LOVE Wind Waker.
There are a lot of faults dancing around the core Zelda tenets with stuff they tried in Wind Waker; the Tingle quest really could've used some tuning (pun intended!) (and it got tuning in HD!), the first dungeon being a stealth experience is a little wonky and negatively affects the pacing, and the experience is very compressed for a Zelda game. Rather than presenting the game and sort of nudging you to make your own decision about exploring it's nooks and crannies, the ocean kind of funnels you directly to those places during the latter half; from that, there seems to be less to discover yourself by the end. But iunno, man, I just don't care about any of the problems. I think this swashbuckles more than anything else I've ever played, faults be damned.
As mentioned in the thread, people saw this game with confusion at the start, and some celebrated when the Twilight Princess trailer signaled a return to a kind of conservative outlook on what Zelda "should" be, even before that game came out. You can boil Zelda games down to how they execute their gameplay motifs; dungeons, fights, Link's arsenal, the Hyrulean mythos, handling the Master Sword as the central macguffin, what the fuck an Octorok looks like, etc. But from a gameplay standpoint, Wind Waker feels kind of ironically on the conservative side of Zelda, very iterative - they don't really shake up the grand skeleton of the things that conventionally define the series. If anything, it goes backwards in raw number of dungeons.
Instead, I feel like they polished the formula into the finest sheen they could manage by distilling Zelda stuff. The lore feels like it's at its most well-developed up until this point. Link's weapons aren't too crazy, but the Deku Leaf especially allows you to get more free-form in navigation. Regular enemies are more interesting to fight than those in the earlier games. The dungeons work around very neat concepts, even if the side character gimmicks are a bit clunky via Command. And oh my god, the bosses. Chef's kiss. All of em. God I fucking love the bosses in this game.
I bounced off Twilight Princess, I bounced off Skyward Sword. I think I expected them to turn into something that captured a new, fresh way to tell the story. Personally I think the team was mired in Ocarina cues, and Ocarina was already technically mired in Link to the Past cues. Wind Waker tried to capture a different spirit without losing the general narrative, and I think that's what felt so fresh to little me at the time.
And man do I fucking love the aesthetics. The visual style never drops the weight of the story any more than 8-, 16-, or 64-bit graphics ever did, even while it's so super-deformed. It gets your guard down, but it delivers stuff like the Helmaroc King fight that's so grand and personal through that "cartoony" demeanor. The music drives all this with one of the most gorgeous, stylistically-diverse soundtracks the Nintendo sound team could manage. Even the writing feels very lively; every little thing on Windfall feels oddly quaint and loaded with some individual conflict, unaware of what's literally below the waters. The characters are more dimensional; many of the good guys are abrasive, and even the grand evil is extremely relaxed and charming. That all results in a very refreshing, cathartic climax, which is tinged with some bitterness but acts as a serious tale of movement. Nintendo didn't seem to get that message for a bit.
But! If you don't latch onto the aesthetics as much, or you don't think they prop up the gameplay narrative enough, or you just plain dislike Zelda in any reconstituted form? No, I think it's extremely valid to find it's "just" another Zelda game. Anyone who doesn't feel those so viscerally, though, I believe should give it a fair shake.
Big caveat for me, I played Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker when they came out and then skipped all the proceeding Zelda games, as I didn't have a Wii, until Breath of the Wild. I never got all that far into those games when they first came out but have now played all of them all the way through multiple times.
I love all Zelda games, but Wind Waker brings a real sense of joy. I fucking love it, and contentiously might call it my favorite Zelda game. Like you say, it's got to be the most Swashbuckling game I've ever played. It was also the first open world game I ever played. I love how many little rabbit holes you can find yourself in. All of the funk characters. And apart from others, I freaking love the cartoony graphics.
You really managed to capture what I couldn't find the words for beyond "Wind Waker has so much soul compared to other Zelda games I've played". Perhaps it's just I played Wind Waker at a very formative time for myself, or maybe it's that they managed to capture a je ne sais quois, a magic, that I never really felt in other Zelda titles. I haven't played Wind Waker in two decades, but hearing the title alone brought a smile to my face. I associate the game with such joy and heartwarmingness, I think mainly it's the vibe - being on the ocean, the spray peeling off either side of the prow. The talking dragon head boat, a concept that would probably sound lame in basically any other context but worked so well and was so cool in Wind Waker. The music, the charm, Link radiating joy in every action. To me, the game makes you feel so full of life in a way that I can't think of any other game managing to achieve.
Personally, all of the above kinda? At this point nostalgia is definitely a huge component. Link's Awakening was one of the first games I got with the original GameBoy, and Ocarina was a staple of middle/high school.
The story usually isn't anything special, but it's a classic framework. There's usually a lot of neat characters along the way, and a variety of settings. Even if they tend to be fire / ice / woods / etc. Some of the worlds are more interesting than others. Ocarina is a pretty straight fantasy kingdom, where WindWaker is WaterWorld. But they all at least have some character. The aesthetics tend to lean into a pretty unique blend of cozy and melancholic somehow. Though that's definitely strongest in Majora's Mask.
The puzzle aspect is really nice. There's an overworld with lots of mini-puzzles. Each dungeon is a larger inter-connected puzzle with each room being a smaller puzzle in the whole. The change in themes and tools lends to a large amount of variety in those puzzles. One of the less successful aspects of Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom for me is that the dungeons are pretty samey. There is variety, but not to the extent of the more linear games. They mostly compensate for that with a lot of the overworld locations, but still. The youtube series Boss Keys is a good review of how dungeons can be little puzzle boxes. Though like he says in the relevant video, WindWaker isn't super strong on the larger puzzle front. WW is a large influence the Switch games, maybe more than most other Zelda games.
I'm past the point of walking down a checklist to make sure I got every collectible/upgrade, but I do like that most random caves you poke your head in will give you something for your trouble. Metroidvanias tend to be my bread and butter gaming wise, and Zelda games are definitely in that vein.
For Windwaker specifically, mostly it's a vibe thing. I'm a huge sucker for travel mechanisms I find fun or relaxing. I went through Journey dozens of times. The art style is very expressive with Link's face and all the animation work on display. I was in the crowd that was upset we weren't getting a more 'dark/realistic' Zelda at the time but what we got is gorgeous in it's own right and lets them use 'cartoon' physics and logic in interesting ways. The combat especially has a lot more going on than previous Zelda games.
I love the Zelda series, so we might just have different preferences. In all of the early 3D games, I think they do a great job with the story telling. There is enough guiding from section to section to make progress, but with enough fun little side quests, puzzles, and characters to spice it up. I'm a big wanderer in games so Wind Waker was perfect for me.
The hook for me was the sailing aspect. I loved exploring all the little islands. Finding the secret little areas or unique fights. And the pirate theme was just so fun. Like going canon v canon with the enemy ships or the manned platforms was excellent. I also loved the gliding elements, they really rounded out the sea feeling for me and added extra depth to the game - I mean it literally gave us a Z axis.
And the aesthetics were soooo fun. It's my favorite interpretation of Link and crew.
To be honest, I live by the coast and it just resonates. I love that you find the big sea monsters by following the swarming seagulls, that happens in real life with Whales. And that you have to consider the wind as you're sailing is such a nice touch. It feels like a well thought through game in terms of mechanics and consideration for sailing/life at sea. Which makes sense considering Japan is an island.
While there are games like the other games in the Zelda series, I've never come across another game like Wind Waker. Nothing seems to capture the seafaring components or mechanics they way they did!
For me, the best thing was definitely the world and the exploration. I loved exploring all the little islands with their unique setups. Skill challenges were more or less non-existent, and I can only think of one box sliding puzzle that was hard. I've always been a fan of Zelda combat however, even if it is easy. The music has also always been a high point for me with Zelda.
Weirdly I think I need to add aesthetics to the list as well, even though I initially hated it. Now the graphics seem warm and inviting to me.
I think for me it came down to the treatment of Ganondorf and Zelda. The villain finally felt like he was a character with some real motive (whether or not it was bs). Tetra finally gave Zelda something other than being a voiceless kidnapped Zelda. You could argue Sheik gave Zelda some character, but she was mostly just speaking in riddles in Ocarina of Time. I think this was the turning point where both story and characters were beginning to matter to the series.
The final thing to add is that this art style was how the creator originally imagined the first Legend of Zelda to look like, and this was the first time the technology could achieve it. It’s the Zelda game that hasn’t really aged visually.
My forays into the Wind were brief, both then and now, but I thought I'd nudge everybody's memory of how contentious the graphical style was when it was originally unveiled.
Years after Ocarina of Time set the benchmark for how Zelda would look and feel in 3D, and at the height of mature gaming (we'll call the GTA3 era that for now), the cell shaded art in this game was roundly criticized when it came out in 2002.
In 2002, Nu-metal was in full force, the USA was in full homeland security/Iraq mode, so in the west at least, it seemed like Wind Waker was an odd choice.
Personally, I was still soaking up what I could for the Dreamcast, so I missed this. What do others remember about the initial release?
Anecdotally: the Spaceworld 2000 demo set expectations for a darker followup to Ocarina of Time and it seemed like a reasonable path after Majora's Mask had a more sinister tone as a side story. So when "Celda" showed up with a wildly different style and a goofy-looking Link in bright colors a lot of people were disappointed with the shift compared to what everyone previously thought was coming. Personally I didn't mind it and by the time the intro shifted to playing the classic melody I was already in love.
People wanting a more serious-looking Zelda got their wish a few years later with Twilight Princess, though in the decades since both there's been a lot of talk about how The Wind Waker's appearance aged better.
Thanks for sharing that Spaceworld demo, very cool to see how things could have gone.
For someone who was a huge Zelda fan at the time, I remember surprisingly little about Wind Waker's release. Pretty much the only think I remember is hating the graphics!
I didn't join in playing this time around, but a few memories from when it first came out:
One thing I loved to do in the game as a kid was sail around, it felt fun to explore the massive sea compared to the limited hub fields of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It was mostly empty for technical reasons but even just piloting the boat through the waves with nothing on the horizon was a joy.
The final battle was an amazingly cinematic fight and I loved this version of Ganondorf, from his design to his characterization and motivation. "I coveted that wind, I suppose." sticks with me to this day.
There were a number of standout soundtrack pieces for Wind Waker, like Dragon Roost Island which is now a classic. The Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past was one of my favorites from the franchise prior to this so hearing the new piano arrangement (starting at 10:15 in the final battle video) after it was absent from the previous two games made me freak out the first time I heard it and I sat there for a few minutes before moving on in the dialogue.
I really love it when Zelda games bring back old musical themes - Breath of the Wild has some reductionist hitters.
I didn't play through Wind Waker this month as I did so just a year or two back. It's a great game, though, and one that offers a level of openness unlike any other.
True, OoT and Majora's Mask offer you a great field to explore, and on N64 hardware they certainly feel expansive. Wind Waker however let's you go anywhere. I loved that sense of freedom and discovery. The waters felt just open enough to allow you to get lost, but with enough points of interest along the way to keep you engaged. You'd often stumble across little islands with treasure, challenges, or secrets to uncover.
I do remember getting a little lost in some of the dungeons. The environments were larger, and I felt the puzzles weren't quite as telegraphed as in previous games. Though I don't mind a little friction in a video game, and I don't think I ever needed to specifically look anything up. Though I did admittedly get stuck on the final boss for a while. The weak point of Puppet Ganon is its tail, but I was distracted by the arrow pointing at its head. Cheeky game.
I wouldn't say any of the dungeons specifically stood out to me or were that memorable, with the exception of Dragon Roost Island. Despite being an early dungeon, I loved the visuals, the sense of scale, the story beats, the epic boss fight, the grappling hook, and that brilliant theme song. Great dungeon overall.
There's a lot of optional content in Wind Waker, but I think most of it is discoverable without guides. The game offers direction with its charts and hints, or even the Tingle Tuner if you've got the hardware for it.
I originally played Wind Waker for the GameCube, but had only borrowed the game and so hadn't completed it. My more recent playthrough was the HD version, which did add a few niceties. I didn't mind the slight change in art style, and most of the changes were quality-of-life things to smooth out the rougher parts of the game. Though I'm not sure if I liked the more powerful sail. It was convenient, but I liked the sea being a little bit of a threat. Maybe it could've been broken down into multiple upgrades throughout the game, or moved to a later point.
One thing I really enjoy about the Zelda series is how experimental each game is. They create a new identity for each game, making major changes to gameplay, tone, and even genre (talking 'bout you, Zelda II).
Wind Waker is no exception. A game about piracy and sailing is completely unique in the franchise. And of course, the unique toon cel shading stands out as well. The game still looks gorgeous today, regardless of if you're playing the original or HD remake. Everything from the visual effects, HUD, and even the sound effects help support that unique aesthetic.
It stings me a little bit to think of anything from the GameCube era as being "retro", but I guess I need to accept that truth now. So yes, Wind Waker is a solid retro game. It may have been a little controversial on release, but it has long-since shaken that off and earned its reputation as a fan favourite.
This time, I'll list a few of my favorite parts of the game. I already listed my complaints in the last topic, so I'll try to be positive here
My favorite bosses were the centipede under the dragon's butt, the hanging tentacle flower, and the final boss, even though I struggled with the puppet part. The centipede boss felt so epic, somehow, as the first real boss of the game. Swinging on that rope and looking down on the centipede, it looks massive. The tentacle flower, it was mostly satisfying using the boomerang and hitting a bunch of targets all at once. And I just loved the creativity of the puppet boss, it was a memorable design, and so creepy!
My favorite dungeon has to be the first paired up dungeon, where the winged girl goes in with the hero. It was fun swapping back and forth and controlling a different character, one with multiple different skills and that participated in puzzles. It was so funny seeing the hero carry her around too! I really liked that dungeon's puzzles!
That brings me to the art design in general, it's timeless. I feel like games are still coming out with similar art, even after twenty years. It was easy to ease in to this one, after installing that mod that fixed the camera.
It's the same with the general design of the game, it felt a lot like a modern open world game, in a lot of ways. It was mostly missing the always-in-your-face quest markers, and there was some retro game repetitive tedium, like conducting the same Wind Waker songs again and again, but otherwise, I was honestly impressed with how modern it felt
I appreciate how most of the island secrets were optional, that's respectful of the player's time, they made it clear enough what's optional, and there's plenty of secrets for anyone who wants more of that
I was happy to have experienced The Wind Waker, thank you, Tildes!
My main question is why the dragon in the ceiling is still present when re-fighting the centipede in Ganon's Tower... I was struggling to explain that one!
I quite enjoyed that winged girl dungeon as well, even if it was a bit close to Jabu Jabu's belly from Ocarina. I was less into the carry gimmick with the Korok though, wish they didn't do 2 of those dungeons in a row.
After actually playing the game, I can appreciate the art style as well. Although I do kind of wish I had played it on GameCube now so I could have seen the original style.
Lol, I hadn't thought about that, but I interpreted those bosses as a dream sequence, personally. I played the Gamecube version, I don't know if it's different on other ones, but the recycled bosses in Ganon's Tower came with trippy visual effects entering the battle, and black and white everything during the fights, so it felt like a dream
I still haven't posted my thoughts and we're on to February already. Keep meaning to come here and say something, but felt like what I have to say is mostly short and not very interesting, but I'm going to do it anyway.
I liked what I played of Wind Waker. I think I put about 8-hours into it and defeated a couple of bosses, getting to the point where I can kind of sail freely; the last thing I did was use the cannon to open up the rock face on the starting island.
Ultimately, Zelda titles aren't often very sticky for me. I like them, I loved the art style of this one and very much enjoyed what I played, but it's not a title I end-up thinking about when I'm not playing, which is ultimately what does keep me enjoying a game. It's more Zelda and I know what I'm getting, so I just ended-up falling off in favor of some other stuff that caught my eye.
One thing I didn't enjoy though was the sailing. It felt extremely tedious to want to explore the map and then you end-up going in one direction for 5+ minutes with absolutely nothing happening; I found that pretty dull, in spite of actually really enjoying the conceit.
Anyway, aside from Chrono Trigger, this is probably the CGA game I played the most in all the months so far.
I'm hosting.. and I'm kind of right there with you haha. I took on too many things last month, was doing a music production challenge in addition to playing Wind Waker. Then I got sick too, and my energy for writing Tildes length posts dropped to around zero.
I felt like the sailing was a bit of an issue as well at the start, until unlocking the song for quick travelling. I heard there was a faster sail too, which I never actually unlocked. I did enjoy exploring the islands though, and definitely thought about the game a decent amount.
Beating this actually inspired me to convert my switch BOTW save to something that will run with Cemu so I can finally finish the master mode trials. It only took me several weeks on normal mode, how hard could it be!
I am going to add a few more thoughts to my original post:
Overall, I really enjoyed this game, and was excited to get back to it when I wasn't playing. I loved the exploration, even though the sailing did take a while at the beginning. The dungeons required a little bit of thinking, and were varied enough to stay interesting. I enjoyed all the game's characters (except for the absolutely disgusting snot kid, no idea wtf Nintendo was thinking with that one... why is there a picture of him elsewhere? ffs!), and found the setting and main story pretty entertaining as well. I'm still a big fan of the underwater kingdom and the angular link statue as well.
That being said, I do have 2 main complaints about this game (three if you count the dragon in the ceiling in Ganon's Tower). I can't say for sure if these are remastered problems, however.
My primary issue was difficulty. I died one time during the whole game, and it was to the village pig. I highly regret not playing on hero mode, as the whole experience was too easy. I assume that's because this was supposed to be for children under 10 - but Nintendo still makes kids games, but has also learned about difficulty since then. I died SO many times in Tears of the Kingdom, possibly due to the stupid order i did things in. And as I mentioned elsewhere, I am currently re-attempting the Trials of the Sword in BOTW in Master Mode, which seems to be approaching Sekiro levels of difficulty.
My second gripe is another feature in Ganon's Tower. I truly hope this was only in the remastered version, because it is some embarrassingly stupid game design. In the main foyer in Ganon's tower, there are 2 rooms opposite one another that require you light torches in a given order. When you first walk into the room with the order you need to copy, it slowly zooms in on each of the extremely obviously marked things, in order. Okay, I guess, maybe people were getting stuck there in the original because it was too obscure... i can forgive that once. But then you walk to the opposite room with the torches, and it zooms in on all of them again, in order? Seriously?!? Is there even anyone alive who made it to the final dungeon who isn't smart enough to figure that out?