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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
GameCube
Released On: Mar 24, 2003
9.0
All Platforms
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 80 Critic Reviews
96
100% Positive
80 Reviews
80 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 80 Critic Reviews
96
100% Positive
80 Reviews
80 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
There's quite a bit of value in the title. Tons of subquests, and a second quest after you complete it, but the main run-through is just not as satisfactory as Ocarina's was.
As close to perfection as one can get. Wind Waker features some of the greatest graphics to date, an easy and intuitive control scheme, a truly epic storyline and a brilliant score to top it off.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 1,710 User Ratings
9.0
90% Positive
1535 Ratings
1535 Ratings
7% Mixed
113 Ratings
113 Ratings
4% Negative
62 Ratings
62 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 1,710 User Ratings
9.0
90% Positive
1535 Ratings
1535 Ratings
7% Mixed
113 Ratings
113 Ratings
4% Negative
62 Ratings
62 Ratings
Phenominal game despite being rushed for the holidays! Dungeons may need a little work but the first few were fun and pretty easy but hard enough to be satisfied after completion. The sailing is fun but slow but worth it because you can also find treasure in the ocean! If you have a sea chart then you can also find more significant treasure! The final boss fight is one of my favorites in the entire series and i would absolutely recommend this game to anyone that has a gamecube or backward compatible wii!
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GameCube
10 / 10 / 10/ 10 - 40 platinum
The animation is also top-notch. When you watch Link engage in a sword duel, the fluidity of it is remarkable, and unparalleled. There are just so many times where it blew me away.
There are literally no flaws and everything is constructed and delivered with beauty and grace.
The worst aspect though is the story telling, it is watered down to such an extent that I half expected it to start teaching me my a-b-c's.
An entertaining, albeit unoriginal Zelda title that fails to be revolutionary yet still has the classic gameplay elements that make the series so great.
This game's greatest boon is its presentation. The simplified, cell shaded art style may have been panned at the time, but it manages to be visually beautiful even today; environments truly pop out to the player and characters are the most expressive they've ever been in the LoZ series. The soundtrack is also a personal favorite of mine out of the Zelda franchise. It also does well to expand on Ocarina of Time's combat while still remaining simple and easy to pick up. The vastness of the Great Sea provides a great feeling of openness and adventure, and also easily signals to the player locations of importance due to the overworld being one ocean filled with small islands instead **** field. Constantly changing the direction of wind can get quite tedious and the sailing speed often feels too slow, but this is mitigated later on by the addition of fast travel. Where this game mainly falters is its dungeons, which are the weakest of the 3D series. Dungeons are forgettable and puzzles are often simple or too similar to past LoZ games and the Command Melody gimmick becomes tired as early as the first time you use it only to be overused for two more dungeons. The dungeon number is also the second lowest out of the pre-BOTW 3D Zelda's so this isn't even a case of quantity over quality, and unlike Majora's Mask, Wind Waker does not have nearly as many side quests to make up for it.
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GameCube
I've played pretty much all Zelda games and I gotta say that WW (and PH) isn't that high on my list and I'd say it's just a decent game. The sailing is annoying because it takes so much time to change the wind direction, the exploring isn't rewarding enough and there are too few dungeons.
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GameCube
The whole "everything is on an island" idea quite literally gets in the way of the game. It doesn't do anything except waste time. You have to change the wind direction every time you want to go somewhere, because hurr durr you're in a boat. Gets old fast, they should have just made it something in the menu you select quickly, or better yet, eff the wind and the sail works in any direction you want.
The whole part with the triforce SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN IN THE GAME AT ALL. You have to find a MAP that lets you find OTHER MAPS that FINALLY have a location of the piece of the triforce, and you need like 15 of them. Every step of the way it costs 500 rupees to have a map translated, so you need to collect 5,000+ rupees to beat the game. If you didn't know that you have a problem by the time the end of the game comes with the map business, have fun grinding for a few days before you can move further. You're "supposed" to treat it as a side-quest that you do bits and pieces of here and there throughout the game, but it's just SO boring that most players put it off, hoping there will be something at the end of the game that does it for them, but that doesn't happen.
They screwed up the spin attack. HOW could you do that? You have to unlock it which is the first problem, but it makes you think it's good. It takes too long to charge up so most of the time you will get hit and not be able to use it. If you manage to charge it up, you spin for 10 seconds while Link screams, which is stupid but most importantly HE THEN STOPS AND IS DIZZY. Oh my god how could you screw that up? That would be like putting his pogo move in the game but making it damage you or something.
The sneaking part of the game is forced and stupid, but at least it doesn't last long. It's at the beginning of the game before you have any items.
The hookshot is not in the game, they use a stupid rope and claw thing. It's so bad because you can only use it in "approved" places, ie where there is a pole sticking out to latch onto. The hookshot was so good in OOT because it made you think about what was wood or vines or not and what you could or could not hook into. Also with the claw rope you have to swing across and time it, which just wastes time. That should have been automatic.
The guy on the boat who baits you in to grind and get his bracelets or whatever is a complete waste of time, all he does at the end is says thank you. So you wasted your time. WHY IS THIS IN THE GAME!
The cartoon style is fine, that doesn't really make a big difference. A lot of characters look stupid with their gorilla style arms, but it's fine overall it's a stylistic choice. It's dumb but it doesn't ruin the game.
It's definitely trying to be a Zelda game and the main part of the game is great. The dungeons are great and the story is great. Nintendo at least learned from their mistakes, but they were definitely mistakes, because when they made an HD remaster of this game, several of the problems I've mentioned were removed. The only things they really kept from Wind Waker was the leaf item, where you use it as a little parachute to float across gaps, and also this was the first game where they started a huge deep dungeon that is very challenging and just a fun slaughterfest.
Nobody plays this game after their first time for a reason. It's not a completely terrible game but for being a Zelda... nobody remembers this or pines to play for it after their first time. You don't see people being nostalgic for it but you do for Zelda games both before and after. Things in other Zelda games were kept for the next one but this is definitely the dark horse of the series because it's all just a bunch of experiments that didn't work. Gamecube games exploded in value and it looks like the HD remake are both expensive. Both of them are a waste of money but if for some stupid reason you think you want to play this, the HD version on the Wii U is cheaper and also better in every way because they removed a lot of completely pointless things that are in the game. If this was your first Zelda game, you probably liked it but I feel really bad for you.
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GameCube
While the game has interesting visuals, everything else quickly falls apart. The mechanics are far more tedious than in any other entry in the series, especially at sea and in dungeons that rely on the awfully slow character-switching song. The seemingly open-world is massive but also quite empty, full of invisible walls and required equipment that deter the player from exploring until the very end of the game.
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GameCube
Summary AN EVIL WIND IS RISING... Legend has it that whenever evil has appeared, a hero named Link has arisen to defeat it. The legend continues on the surface of a vast and mysterious sea as Link sets sail in his most epic, awe-inspiring adventure yet. Aided by a magical conductor's baton called the Wind Waker, he will face unimaginable monste...
Rated E
for Everyone
Platforms:
- GameCube
Initial Release Date: Mar 24, 2003
Developer:
- Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genres:
