My first and only play through of The Wind Waker was quite the forgettable experience....literally. All I remembered was how I hated this game, and disliked the whole cel-shaded art direction.
Other than that, I can't really say why I hated the game. I believe I never gave it a fair shot and judged it solely on some petty changes. I have been wanting to give it another go with an open mind and what better chance to do so with Nintendo releasing a HD version for its newest console.
The entire kingdom of Hyrule has been flooded as water stretched as far as the eye can see. The blue liquid is everywhere and I quickly regain some of the aggravation this game caused me. Sailing is absolutely the worst. The constant stopping and going, the time spent traversing the sea, and redirecting the wind can certainly make you want to not even bother. You eventually will learn a song that can warp you from one area to another to cut down distance and time but by that time, sailing as run its course and is tiresome. You can also get a Sail that lets the speed of you boat increase but I was never able to find it.
Maybe the sailing wouldn't be so bad if there were actually sights to see. The world is pretty empty and boring. There are a few towns but
Now I mentioned the art direction above and how it turned me off completely during my first playthrough but this time, I didn't mind so much. The game is bright, vibrant and sharp. I definitely enjoy the art design of Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess much more because it offers much more depth and textures giving more life and character to the world. Enemy designs are a bit too cartoonish looking too, which is another reason why I enjoy a more realistic looking world. I did notice some framerate drops when one too many enemies are on the screen, and during Puppet Ganon's fight. Overall, its a pretty good looking game when you're in towns or dungeons.
The gameplay is basically like all the other Legend of Zelda games as you get your dungeons and puzzles, exploration and items. There's a cool counter attack that gives you the chance to maneuver your way around an incoming hit and roll your way to victory. When you're not sailing the game is enjoyable.
You get your well designed 3 temples in the early going as Link tries to collect these spheres that will show the location of possibly the most badass sword in video game history. After that the game goes into its 2nd phase of collecting stuff to progess you to the final fight with Ganon. The boss fights are somewhat challenging but more so on the simple side once you know what to do. The final fight with Ganon however is awesome and the set pieces make it for one epic showdown--ew, I just used the word epic. The Legend of Zelda is remarkable in a sense that he can throw out the same formula every time but it will never get stale (to me at least). Nintendo does a great job to release a new Zelda game every few years so this certainly helps...unlike other franchises that throw out garbage yearly.
There were some annoyances too that hold back the gameplay though. I never noticed this before but the targeting system was a tad bit frustrating. There needs to be an option to toggle bewteen targets. Another one was finding the triforce pieces...8 of them to be exact. It completely dragged on the game and made it difficult to push through. Also, the shops suck. They never sell the same thing and you have to warp around trying to find arrows for about 5 minutes because you don't know where they are sold..yes this happened to me! It would have been nice to have all the shops sell the same items.
Overall The Wind Waker is a good Zelda game even though it hits some rough patches on the open waters. My second playthrough was much more positive this time around and I'm glad I gave it another go. The sound was solid offering tunes that everyone knows but also including some unique ones as well. The core gameplay and the LoZ formula is still as fun. A few tweeks here and there, and excluding a boat, wind, and scattered triforce pieces could have had this game sailing into the sunset.
20 years later, The Wind Waker’s Ganondorf is still The Legend of Zelda’s best villain.
Nintendo is a weird company. It has the most illustrious legacy of any single company in the medium and seldom chooses to take advantage of that fact. Countless classics are confined to their original platforms or only available through outdated retail models or a cheeky bit of emulation.
This holiday would've been great and it would've calmed my hunger for tears of the kingdom. It supposedly exists but why has it taken this long I wonder. Here's hoping it still releases before totk, maybe a trailer at the game awards and a shadow drop.
I wouldn't hope too hard. The Metroid Prime Trilogy or even just Prime 1 remaster supposedly exists and has been complete for several years now. Either Nintendo are evil bastards, or everyone claiming it's existence is full of shit. Frankly, I believe both scenarios to be true.
Wii U was such a great to play every 3D Zelda game and various 2D ones as well
It'd be nice if Switch caught up to that wealth of legacy content
Booted up WW HD through emulation on Deck. Forgot how much I like that game, it's so charming with how expressive Link is. Ninty has taken too long.
Nintendo wants the focus on tears of the kingdom. Though with these year Zelda old rumors I question if the collection ever existed for the Switch. Much like the Prime Trilogy that evolved into a remake or remaster of just Prime 1 in recent months.
Nintendo will be shutting down the eShop for the 3DS and Wii U completely in 2023. Makes sure to check out these games before they do.
If they're not important enough to be held on their own official storefront then they're not important enough to give your money to Nintendo.
Buy these, physically, used or simply emulate them.
This article comes off as nothing more than advertising games that Nintendo, themselves, don't care to offer you... buy now!
Wait hang on where all the outrage? I swear when Sony tried to do this with PS3 last year. There was outrage from all corners of the gaming universe.
Why does no one care Nintendo is doing it?
There has been.
A lot of it.
Simply type in "3DS" in Google and tell me what you see.
Oh I have a fair few websites reporting on it. But where is the outcry on here? I remember their was 2-3 approved top voted articles when Sony announced they where closing the PS3 store. All slating them and not caring about customers.
I should of worded it better. Where is all the outrage on n4g?
N4G is a fanboy site, mainly frequented by only Sony.
Microsoft is their direct competition, so you'll typically only see articles that are made to rile up those fanbases.
Nintendo does it's own thing, so they're rarely brought up, aside from their fans. The most you get is the same typical two or three posters claiming Nintendo is only for infants.
If you come to N4G for educated discourse and reasonable discussion, this isn't the place. Sad as it is.
It's lame that it is shutting down. Now I feel rushed buying all the rpgs I missed out on the system.
You guys know that even archive.org has 3DS roms, and all other console roms. I'm downloading 846GB of 3DS roms and will add the best games to my soon to be soft modded New 3DS 😁. Might as well throw in DS and other emulators in there to. Guys this would be the best way to play and enjoy the 3DS. Just need to buy a bigger micro SD card and format it to FAT32, which you can if it's even 256GB or larger there are ways.
This should help if you want to soft mod it excellent guide and up to the latest and probably last 3DS firmware update: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Whodat!
I don't think it's fair to complain about the sailing when you didn't get the new sail. Personally I was someone who hated the old triforce search but the new search was greatly improved and almost a non issue if you had been collecting triforce charts along the way. I also disagree with the "empty" world complaint seeing their are lots of optional islands to explore and to a degree the isolation makes sense. You are on a grand adventure sailing the ocean exploring uncharted territory It's not supposed to be super populated. But I can see where you are coming from.
this person should never be allowed to write anything on the internet again.
" I definitely enjoy the art design of Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess much more because it offers much more depth and textures giving more life and character to the world." - Really? TP's world has more life and character than WW's? No...just...no.
"--ew, I just used the word epic" - This kind of statement doesnt belong on any objective review, and it only shows how you hate on the game even when you arent pointing out any flaws.
"Also, the shops suck. They never sell the same thing and you have to warp around trying to find arrows for about 5 minutes because you don't know where they are sold..yes this happened to me! It would have been nice to have all the shops sell the same items." - Wow. Have you tried...i dont know...cutting some grass? Ive beat the game multiple times, and nothing similar ever happened to me. That expecience certanly isnt the games fault.
Its fine to criticize the game, but at least bring legitimate criticisms, other than the usual haters "sailing is boring, and i dont like how the game looks"