My favourite game of all time, don't think I've ever beaten a jrpg as many times as this one, and I still end up discovering new stuff.

The ex skill system and friendship affinity system adds for different nuances per playthrough with extra/different scenes, dialogues and gameplay. At points of the game you can mix up how you want to progress and get through the story in different ways, which adds for a lot of replayability.

The HD version has japanese va (with fully voiced skits) as an alternative, though the english va (no voiced skits) is still pretty good. I'm too attached to the english voices to usually swap, but I would probably recommend japanese to experience the skit dialogues with voice acting. The HD version has some extra sidequests and high ougis. (late game special attacks)

Meanwhile, the lightning and shading effects, as well as the older character models makes the original GC version pop more visually. The music also doesn't loop after battles on the GC.

Still, this is also the series first outing in 3D at a time when set standards were more undefined and experimental.
Granted there's certain aspects which haven't aged as greatly, there's stiff stock animations, some cheesy dialogues, the plot may seem shallow the first hours, some akward dungeon puzzles, no free running in battle, missable items and time sensitive quests that even fleshes out character motivations and other elements of the story.
It's definitely aged, yet I still absolutely appreciate Symphonia for what it was back then for me, and how it still keeps me hooked with its amount of diversity, great cast of characters and story filled with layers on layers of details and the sense of new discoveries every damn time I replay it.

A great and colorful zelda game, a lot of ww later game consists of sailing to miniature islands boasting reused assets, small puzzles or gauntlets, whereas the final dungeon and story feels a bit rushed after a certain point, everything leading up to that point is a briskly paced fun narrative journey through greater islands and larger dungeons that really stands out.

The attention to visual detail is majestic with both Link, goblins or other enemies reacting with fully animated emotions to their surroundings and hazards.

Other environmental details like flower and trees swaying in the same direction as the wind. Or specks of dust blowing away from the ground as the wind changes, all adds for a very organic artstyle. Windwaker is still one of the prettiest if not THE prettiest cel shading around. And the HD version lifts up the presentation even further, with some exceptions.

The bloom effect hits some sour spots at times and the shading really doesn't benefit as much in the darker areas, but when the sun shines and you're out in the light there's a whole other spectrum of the visual quality.

While the game runs at a generally stable 30 fps there's some occassional framedrops whenever too much is going on at once. But thankfully the HD version has so much more added in that remedies most of the issues of the original gamecube version.

Alongside a higher resolution, better draw distance and new instruments added for the OST that really makes a handful of tracks stand out even more, the HD version also adds a lot of small fixes with a new faster sail, gyro aiming + 1st person roaming, aiming cursor for cannon aiming, real time inventory+map with the gamepad etc, a bunch of small fixes that just makes the gamecube version hard to get back to.

While you can tell they had to resort to recycling assets for the sidequesting, Windwaker is still a great journey with sound mechanics, a great OST and glorious visuals. It's very understandable how many would considers this their favourite LoZ.