Wind Waker
I don't know why I'm wasting my time with this... I guess it's just to get my final impressions off my mind like I usually do with these things, but still... This game has been out long enough that anybody who wanted to play it more than likely already has and everything that could possibly be said about it already has been a few hundred times over. That being the case, I'm going to just sum up and make this monologue as brief as humanly possible.
The Legend of Zelda: "Wind Waker" for the Nintendo Gamecube...
Every Zelda title nowadays HAS to have some sort of gimmick behind it because otherwise they'd just be repackaging the exact same game over and over again. The gimmick this time around? A fuckload of water and "Sailing." Oh... and you control the direction of the wind... but honestly, since with rare exception that ability is utilized only for sailing, I'm just gonna book it together with that. Now, normally, whatever your unique little gimmick is that drives the game, is meant to be the most spectacular aspect of the game. Unfortunately for Wind Waker, sailing produces precisely the opposite effect. Sailing from place to place is the absolute bane of Wind Waker's existence and I'm gonna go right out on a limb and say the same applies to the out of nowhere DS sequel that was recently released.
There is nothing fun about sailing you little red boat... its boring. You could literally set the wind, set your heading, lift your sail, then walk out of the room for five minutes and make yourself a fucking sandwich or something. By the time you get back, you'll probably still be only halfway to your destination. Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture. Yeah, sure, there are a "few" enemies to worry about out on the water, but not only are they few and far between, but generally if you just ignore them and keep heading straight into the wind then you'll race right past them all before they can get near you. And unless you have the boomerang, you may as well do just that, because you can't attack any of the sea enemies without it. I suppose you'd also need the cannon(IE- Bombs) before you could attack the enemy ships too, but again, since they're incredibly slow and their aim is terrible, you may as well just ignore them unless you're someplace where you just HAVE to fight them... like to get one of the Triforce Maps. So, where were we again? Oh yeah... BORING. There is really nothing more annoying than staring at water for five minutes waiting to get to your destination. Sure, you'd have long distances to travel in a normal Zelda game too, but at least in those games the scenery occasionally changes and an actual battle pops up here and there to spice things up.
So, what else is new? Items? How bout items? Well, apart from the Grappling Hook(aka - not the Hookshot), all of the important items in the game you've seen before and you'll probably be able to tell 3 rooms or less into a dungeon which one of them you're about to be getting. So not much new there. There is also of course the Wind Waker itself, your little wind controlling baton, but again, its primary purpose is just to redirect the wind to make sailing faster... or rather, "almost bearable." And it also allows you to Warp to places on the sea if you can make it far enough along to score the ability, but Warp Points are still few and far between, so it only lessens the endless traveling strain a tiny bit. It also has the obligatory Change Day Into Night and Vice Versa setting, but that's pretty much useless really.
There are also a few tunes you have to use in the dungeons and once you get to those areas Holy Fuck will you be using them a lot. Now, yeah, you used the Orcarina of Time every now and again in dungeons and places too, but you're having to use the Wind Waker to perform the "Control" tune in practically every room you walk into. And for me, as far as Zelda goes, any item based action that I can't perform in the length of 2-3 seconds is annoying, particularly so if I'm having to do it ALL THE TIME. Once you activate the Wind Waker, time your commands, wait for the correctly inputted tune to play itself over again, wait for the game to tell me I played the tune correctly(as if I couldn't already tell), and then wait for the action to actually take effect... I've spent almost a whole minute on this so that I could perform one simple action and anywhere from the next room to three feet from where I stand, I'll have to perform it again. Again, perhaps some exaggeration here, but I don't like being forced to sit and wait for something to happen constantly. This is an action game and I want some fucking action.
Right, aaaand... that... pretty much wraps up everything remotely unique about Wind Waker, other than perhaps the graphics style, but I don't really give a shit about that. The cell shading they used is supposed to give things a cartoony look and I guess they pulled that off at least, but again, don't really care. I'm not interested in the goofy looking townsfolk or Link making quirky faces. I'm interested in kicking ass and taking names because I'm the Hero of Time/Wind god dammit!
So, what more can I really say here? The game has nothing particularly new to offer other than the aforementioned annoyances and god are they every annoying. I guess I should mention there's a "counter" move you can use on certain enemies provide you're locked on and not shielding, but there are really only two enemies in the entire game that it really has any use against(Armored Knights and the Final Boss). Now when you get to the actual dungeons and things, then yeah, gameplay picks up and things are pretty fun. Still, the level of difficulty isn't all that challenging by any means, which I basically judged by the fact that I never got stuck anywhere. (Gamefaqs was consulted briefly but only to track down the Fairy that doubles your magic meter and a few other completely unnecessary items.) So all in all, this is a fairly mediocre Zelda title with a Looooot of bullcrap packed in.
The story is sorta interested and has two of what I'd call "saving moments" (IE- badass cutscenes), but the first takes forever to get to and the second is at the very end of the game. Hardly worth playing through just for those two scenes... especially when there's YouTube. So in the end, what can I say? The game has its moments, but there is just too much annoying crap in between those moments to really make it any good. Its "average" at best. Now, if you're a big Zelda fan like me, you'll probably want to play it anyways... or already have... so you may as well disregard everything I just said. But to the newbies or the latecomers looking to get into the Zelda series, I'd say look elsewhere. There are far better alternatives to this one out there. Orcarina of Time is available for 3 different consoles, take your pick. Or if you're wanting more recent, I'm hearing infinitely better things of Twilight Princess, also available on two separate consoles, so take your pick. But Wind Waker? ...I'd say skip it.
The Legend of Zelda: "Wind Waker" for the Nintendo Gamecube...
Every Zelda title nowadays HAS to have some sort of gimmick behind it because otherwise they'd just be repackaging the exact same game over and over again. The gimmick this time around? A fuckload of water and "Sailing." Oh... and you control the direction of the wind... but honestly, since with rare exception that ability is utilized only for sailing, I'm just gonna book it together with that. Now, normally, whatever your unique little gimmick is that drives the game, is meant to be the most spectacular aspect of the game. Unfortunately for Wind Waker, sailing produces precisely the opposite effect. Sailing from place to place is the absolute bane of Wind Waker's existence and I'm gonna go right out on a limb and say the same applies to the out of nowhere DS sequel that was recently released.
There is nothing fun about sailing you little red boat... its boring. You could literally set the wind, set your heading, lift your sail, then walk out of the room for five minutes and make yourself a fucking sandwich or something. By the time you get back, you'll probably still be only halfway to your destination. Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture. Yeah, sure, there are a "few" enemies to worry about out on the water, but not only are they few and far between, but generally if you just ignore them and keep heading straight into the wind then you'll race right past them all before they can get near you. And unless you have the boomerang, you may as well do just that, because you can't attack any of the sea enemies without it. I suppose you'd also need the cannon(IE- Bombs) before you could attack the enemy ships too, but again, since they're incredibly slow and their aim is terrible, you may as well just ignore them unless you're someplace where you just HAVE to fight them... like to get one of the Triforce Maps. So, where were we again? Oh yeah... BORING. There is really nothing more annoying than staring at water for five minutes waiting to get to your destination. Sure, you'd have long distances to travel in a normal Zelda game too, but at least in those games the scenery occasionally changes and an actual battle pops up here and there to spice things up.
So, what else is new? Items? How bout items? Well, apart from the Grappling Hook(aka - not the Hookshot), all of the important items in the game you've seen before and you'll probably be able to tell 3 rooms or less into a dungeon which one of them you're about to be getting. So not much new there. There is also of course the Wind Waker itself, your little wind controlling baton, but again, its primary purpose is just to redirect the wind to make sailing faster... or rather, "almost bearable." And it also allows you to Warp to places on the sea if you can make it far enough along to score the ability, but Warp Points are still few and far between, so it only lessens the endless traveling strain a tiny bit. It also has the obligatory Change Day Into Night and Vice Versa setting, but that's pretty much useless really.
There are also a few tunes you have to use in the dungeons and once you get to those areas Holy Fuck will you be using them a lot. Now, yeah, you used the Orcarina of Time every now and again in dungeons and places too, but you're having to use the Wind Waker to perform the "Control" tune in practically every room you walk into. And for me, as far as Zelda goes, any item based action that I can't perform in the length of 2-3 seconds is annoying, particularly so if I'm having to do it ALL THE TIME. Once you activate the Wind Waker, time your commands, wait for the correctly inputted tune to play itself over again, wait for the game to tell me I played the tune correctly(as if I couldn't already tell), and then wait for the action to actually take effect... I've spent almost a whole minute on this so that I could perform one simple action and anywhere from the next room to three feet from where I stand, I'll have to perform it again. Again, perhaps some exaggeration here, but I don't like being forced to sit and wait for something to happen constantly. This is an action game and I want some fucking action.
Right, aaaand... that... pretty much wraps up everything remotely unique about Wind Waker, other than perhaps the graphics style, but I don't really give a shit about that. The cell shading they used is supposed to give things a cartoony look and I guess they pulled that off at least, but again, don't really care. I'm not interested in the goofy looking townsfolk or Link making quirky faces. I'm interested in kicking ass and taking names because I'm the Hero of Time/Wind god dammit!
So, what more can I really say here? The game has nothing particularly new to offer other than the aforementioned annoyances and god are they every annoying. I guess I should mention there's a "counter" move you can use on certain enemies provide you're locked on and not shielding, but there are really only two enemies in the entire game that it really has any use against(Armored Knights and the Final Boss). Now when you get to the actual dungeons and things, then yeah, gameplay picks up and things are pretty fun. Still, the level of difficulty isn't all that challenging by any means, which I basically judged by the fact that I never got stuck anywhere. (Gamefaqs was consulted briefly but only to track down the Fairy that doubles your magic meter and a few other completely unnecessary items.) So all in all, this is a fairly mediocre Zelda title with a Looooot of bullcrap packed in.
The story is sorta interested and has two of what I'd call "saving moments" (IE- badass cutscenes), but the first takes forever to get to and the second is at the very end of the game. Hardly worth playing through just for those two scenes... especially when there's YouTube. So in the end, what can I say? The game has its moments, but there is just too much annoying crap in between those moments to really make it any good. Its "average" at best. Now, if you're a big Zelda fan like me, you'll probably want to play it anyways... or already have... so you may as well disregard everything I just said. But to the newbies or the latecomers looking to get into the Zelda series, I'd say look elsewhere. There are far better alternatives to this one out there. Orcarina of Time is available for 3 different consoles, take your pick. Or if you're wanting more recent, I'm hearing infinitely better things of Twilight Princess, also available on two separate consoles, so take your pick. But Wind Waker? ...I'd say skip it.