If there was ever a Zelda game that encouraged me to slow down, explore, and appreciate the world around me, it would be Breath of the Wild. But Wind Waker would take second. Out of all the traditional Zeldas, this is the one that I most enjoyed wasting my time in, if that makes sense. Charting the open seas, filling out the map, and basically ignoring the main quest was easily the most fun part of the game. For me, it was the journey of the Wind Waker that I most enjoyed.
And thank goodness for that, because damn did I hate the destination. Wind Waker has got to have the weakest story in the series. Every other 3D Zelda game has some narrative element that really hooks me. Some more than others, obviously, but there's always at least something: Ocarina of time has a rich thematic story about coming of age, shintoism, and the tragedy of Link having his childhood stolen from him, with the most intimidating iteration of Ganon easily; Twilight Princess has impeccable atmosphere, the best cast of characters in the series, the most compelling introduction by far, and my favorite version of Link; Breath of the Wild has a great setting, a great exploration of how the different places and races of Hyrule interact with one another, and while it has a weak plot, it tells its story through the world and its inhabitants better than any other game; Majora's Mask, for as mad as that game made me, has a tragic core and some of the most beautiful moments in the series. Wind Waker has... a companion who isn't annoying? Yea, that's something.
I'll be honest, nothing about Wind Waker's narrative grabs me. I like the motivation for saving your sister, and I like how expressive Link is. I think both of those things were done better in Twilight Princess though. Sure, Link in Wind Waker emotes more than any other Link bar none, but I know the Link in Twilight Princess much better and have a much better understanding of his dynamics with the people in Ordon Village and see how he reacts when things happen to them. Honestly the character in Wind Waker I feel for most is Link's grandma. Outside of that, I don't find any of the characters to be very memorable (except for the guy who runs the battleship minigame, I relate to him).
The plot similarly is just kinda there. I went through the motions so much when going from place to place, and after Aryll is rescued from the forsaken fortress it feels like there's a huge lack of urgency to continue the main adventure. Sure, Ganon's still a threat, but once Aryll is safe, Link has accomplished everything he's set out to do. Outside of being the reincarnation of the hero, what reason does Link have to go and stop Ganon? To stop him from conquering Hyrule? What is there left to conquer? The world is flooded and everyone lives their lives on their islands almost independently of everyone else. Ganon in OoT, Skull Kid in MM, and Zant in TP all demonstrate the consequences of their rule over their respective lands in a way that Ganon in Wind Waker doesn't. Breath of the Wild doesn't do a great job in this department either necessarily, but Ganon already won there making the stakes much different (plus I'm not going to argue that BotW is a narrative masterpiece). Seriously, am I missing something here? If I'm forgetting something please let me know.
Wanna talk about what else is really weak? How about those dungeons? This is the lamest set of dungeons in the franchise, easily. They're lacking in visual variety, they feel like they all play themselves, and every boss is super disappointing. Shoutout to this game for having maybe the most obnoxious final boss in Zelda history. Seriously, puppet Ganon can kiss my ass. The rest are all really easy, and some suffer from what I'm dubbing "Zelda Syndrome." Have you ever played through a Zelda game and gotten stuck on a puzzle, only to eventually find out that the answer was something you already tried but you didn't quite hit the sweet spot so it didn't work and you assumed that it was something else entirely and then you get really frustrated? Maybe that's just me, but I've experienced this in every Zelda game to some degree except for maybe BotW. Gohma took me an embarrassingly long time to beat because I tried to grapple Valoo's tail but I guess I wasn't close enough because the reticle just didn't appear at first. Oh well.
Speaking of Gohma, another thing that irritates me about this game is how similar it feels to Ocarina of Time. Call me a hypocrite because of how much I love Twilight Princess, but I never hear anyone talk about how similar this game is to its predecessor. It's a direct sequel to the point where the story outright references OoT multiple times, and outside of the fact that you're sailing the ocean in WW, the structure of the journey seems exactly the same. It felt like I was playing a sequel in the same way that a new generation of Pokémon feels like playing a sequel.
Ok, so time to be nice. Did I like anything? Yea, like I said before, the journey itself was fun. I loved sailing to each quadrant of the map and discovering each new island. I couldn't imagine completing this game, but charting the entire sea and finding all the fairies and fighting multiple big octos was cathartic. I hated changing the wind every ten seconds, and at the beginning of the game I was put off by the railroaded nature of the quest for the pearls and all the downtime and the emptiness of the ocean and the terrible pacing and how repetitive all the content in the great sea is, but I came around to it and just enjoyed vibing with the game. I like how the triforce quest is super open ended and you can tackle anything in any way you want, and I like how the fish give you clues about how to proceed with your adventure, that makes it feel like I'm discovering things on my own.
I think the music is alright. It has some bangers like Dragon Roost Island, the first part of the Forest Haven, Aryll's theme, the title theme, and Outset Island, which is probably the happiest song in video games ever, I love it. The rest I could pass on though; never been a huge fan of the Great Sea theme, but I think it fits really well when playing the game though.
The visuals are outstanding too, obviously. I could be really cynical and nitpick some elements that I didn't enjoy about them, but I've been mean enough so I won't do that here.
Aaaaaaaaand yea, I think that's it. I've wanted to play this game for a decade and I'm very surprised by how much I didn't enjoy it. The next Zelda I play will definitely be Tears of the Kingdom, I think I've had my fill of Zelda until that time. Sorry if this is your favorite game and I did almost nothing but talk shit about it; I'm learning more and more that Zelda is a franchise that I have complex feelings about. But lemme know what you think of my takes if you bothered reading this much.
And thank goodness for that, because damn did I hate the destination. Wind Waker has got to have the weakest story in the series. Every other 3D Zelda game has some narrative element that really hooks me. Some more than others, obviously, but there's always at least something: Ocarina of time has a rich thematic story about coming of age, shintoism, and the tragedy of Link having his childhood stolen from him, with the most intimidating iteration of Ganon easily; Twilight Princess has impeccable atmosphere, the best cast of characters in the series, the most compelling introduction by far, and my favorite version of Link; Breath of the Wild has a great setting, a great exploration of how the different places and races of Hyrule interact with one another, and while it has a weak plot, it tells its story through the world and its inhabitants better than any other game; Majora's Mask, for as mad as that game made me, has a tragic core and some of the most beautiful moments in the series. Wind Waker has... a companion who isn't annoying? Yea, that's something.
I'll be honest, nothing about Wind Waker's narrative grabs me. I like the motivation for saving your sister, and I like how expressive Link is. I think both of those things were done better in Twilight Princess though. Sure, Link in Wind Waker emotes more than any other Link bar none, but I know the Link in Twilight Princess much better and have a much better understanding of his dynamics with the people in Ordon Village and see how he reacts when things happen to them. Honestly the character in Wind Waker I feel for most is Link's grandma. Outside of that, I don't find any of the characters to be very memorable (except for the guy who runs the battleship minigame, I relate to him).
The plot similarly is just kinda there. I went through the motions so much when going from place to place, and after Aryll is rescued from the forsaken fortress it feels like there's a huge lack of urgency to continue the main adventure. Sure, Ganon's still a threat, but once Aryll is safe, Link has accomplished everything he's set out to do. Outside of being the reincarnation of the hero, what reason does Link have to go and stop Ganon? To stop him from conquering Hyrule? What is there left to conquer? The world is flooded and everyone lives their lives on their islands almost independently of everyone else. Ganon in OoT, Skull Kid in MM, and Zant in TP all demonstrate the consequences of their rule over their respective lands in a way that Ganon in Wind Waker doesn't. Breath of the Wild doesn't do a great job in this department either necessarily, but Ganon already won there making the stakes much different (plus I'm not going to argue that BotW is a narrative masterpiece). Seriously, am I missing something here? If I'm forgetting something please let me know.
Wanna talk about what else is really weak? How about those dungeons? This is the lamest set of dungeons in the franchise, easily. They're lacking in visual variety, they feel like they all play themselves, and every boss is super disappointing. Shoutout to this game for having maybe the most obnoxious final boss in Zelda history. Seriously, puppet Ganon can kiss my ass. The rest are all really easy, and some suffer from what I'm dubbing "Zelda Syndrome." Have you ever played through a Zelda game and gotten stuck on a puzzle, only to eventually find out that the answer was something you already tried but you didn't quite hit the sweet spot so it didn't work and you assumed that it was something else entirely and then you get really frustrated? Maybe that's just me, but I've experienced this in every Zelda game to some degree except for maybe BotW. Gohma took me an embarrassingly long time to beat because I tried to grapple Valoo's tail but I guess I wasn't close enough because the reticle just didn't appear at first. Oh well.
Speaking of Gohma, another thing that irritates me about this game is how similar it feels to Ocarina of Time. Call me a hypocrite because of how much I love Twilight Princess, but I never hear anyone talk about how similar this game is to its predecessor. It's a direct sequel to the point where the story outright references OoT multiple times, and outside of the fact that you're sailing the ocean in WW, the structure of the journey seems exactly the same. It felt like I was playing a sequel in the same way that a new generation of Pokémon feels like playing a sequel.
Ok, so time to be nice. Did I like anything? Yea, like I said before, the journey itself was fun. I loved sailing to each quadrant of the map and discovering each new island. I couldn't imagine completing this game, but charting the entire sea and finding all the fairies and fighting multiple big octos was cathartic. I hated changing the wind every ten seconds, and at the beginning of the game I was put off by the railroaded nature of the quest for the pearls and all the downtime and the emptiness of the ocean and the terrible pacing and how repetitive all the content in the great sea is, but I came around to it and just enjoyed vibing with the game. I like how the triforce quest is super open ended and you can tackle anything in any way you want, and I like how the fish give you clues about how to proceed with your adventure, that makes it feel like I'm discovering things on my own.
I think the music is alright. It has some bangers like Dragon Roost Island, the first part of the Forest Haven, Aryll's theme, the title theme, and Outset Island, which is probably the happiest song in video games ever, I love it. The rest I could pass on though; never been a huge fan of the Great Sea theme, but I think it fits really well when playing the game though.
The visuals are outstanding too, obviously. I could be really cynical and nitpick some elements that I didn't enjoy about them, but I've been mean enough so I won't do that here.
Aaaaaaaaand yea, I think that's it. I've wanted to play this game for a decade and I'm very surprised by how much I didn't enjoy it. The next Zelda I play will definitely be Tears of the Kingdom, I think I've had my fill of Zelda until that time. Sorry if this is your favorite game and I did almost nothing but talk shit about it; I'm learning more and more that Zelda is a franchise that I have complex feelings about. But lemme know what you think of my takes if you bothered reading this much.