9 Ways Wind Waker Is The Best Legend Of Zelda Game
9 Ways Wind Waker Is The Best Legend Of Zelda Game
Contents
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker surpassed all expectations of its time, and these are nine ways that this title is the best game in the franchise.
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Following the critical successes of The Legend of Zelda’s first 3D titles, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, 2002’s Wind Waker had its work cut out for it. Promising to deliver an even larger open-world driven by nautical navigation and the franchise’s first aesthetic redesign in nearly a decade, the stakes for Nintendo were sky-high.
Lead director Shigeru Miyamoto delivered on his promises, however, in spectacular fashion, blowing away critics with a new iteration of Hyrule so deep and realized that it would support numerous sequels and earn a place among the series’ most beloved games. Though its success has been eclipsed by more recent titles, Wind Waker’s numerous innovations still stand as a testament to Nintendo’s excellence in design, and the game deserves a revisitation as one of the greatest installments in The Legend of Zelda franchise.
9 Bold Visual Redesign
With a new-to-the-series cel-shaded design, Wind Waker looks exceedingly different from its predecessors. While this visual overhaul was at first met with unease by franchise fans, the game’s full embrace of this aesthetic yielded rewarding dividends. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask both explored unprecedentedly adult themes in their narratives. Indeed, it’s one of the many qualities that rank Ocarina of Time among the most influential Zelda games in history.
Yet the franchise’s roots in 2D animation — not to mention a polarizing short-lived run as a cartoon series — still possesses merit, and legendary designer-director Shigeru Miyamoto chose to lean heavily into this for Wink Waker’s fresh look. Miyamoto’s gambit paid off, with Nintendo’s 2000 installment of the Zelda series receiving critical acclaim both by franchise veterans and newcomers — even spawning a series of mobile console games that share Wind Waker’s cel-shaded aesthetic.
8 Side Quest-A-Palooza
From taking photos with the Picto Box to trading goods between Gorons, Wind Waker features a dynamic list of side quests that exceed franchise standards. As players progress through the game and the Great Sea becomes less daunting to cross, more and more of these optional missions become available. For the game’s original release on GameCube, Nintendo even developed a side quest that borders on augmented reality by having players connect a Game Boy Advance system to their console. Though this quest was redesigned for Wind Waker’s next-gen remasters, it nonetheless stands as a testament to the progressive industry-defining design that helps rank this classic game among the Zelda franchise’s best.
7 Great Ganondorf
Wind Waker wastes no time in pitting players against this classic foe, though he handily bests Link early in the game. Cunning, youthful, and dressed in floor-length black robes, Ganondorf is presented in Wind Waker as a master swordsman distinct from his other series variations. This incarnation of the great evil that plagues Hyrule wields not one but two swords, and his attacks are significantly quicker than his representations in prior games.
Though gamers grow stronger as Link progresses through the game’s dungeons, the meaningful cutscenes featuring Ganondorf — some of the most cinematic moments in the game — never let the audience forget how menacing and powerful of a foe he is. The final fight with this fan-favorite antagonist is nothing short of legendary and easily ranks among the best boss final boss fights in the franchise.
6 Awesome Bosses
Wind Waker features a diverse array of bosses that innovate on classic mechanics while adding new features to the mix. Fan-favorite recurring boss Gohma returns as an armor-covered scorpion, and there’s even a panda-like boss version of the series’ ghostly poe enemies. One clear standout from the game is Puppet Ganon, arguably one of the hardest bosses in the Zelda franchise, which requires players to snipe a very small fast-moving target with their bow over three unique stages, each of which recalls a historic series boss fight. The game’s final dungeon, Ganon’s Tower, even features a boss gauntlet in which players must fight stronger versions of these bosses with the skills and items gained across the game.
5 Seafaring Fun
Without question, Wind Waker’s star gameplay mechanic is sailing the Great Sea. The King of Red Lions, however, is no ordinary boat. Aside from being a memorable character, the ship can jump, fire cannons, and even use the grappling hook to probe the ocean depths for sunken treasure. The game also implements a rather dynamic weather system, forcing players to adapt to sudden or oncoming changes in sailing conditions in order to reach their destination.
This is made all the more enjoyable later in the game with the available Swift Sail, which adds a magical speed-bosting gust of wind to the King of Red Lions’ heading. Even on the longest voyage, the journey is never dull and grows more enjoyable as players outfit their boat to engage with the various enemies and dungeons the Great Sea contains.
4 Timeline Progenitor
Wind Waker has the rare distinction of beginning a franchise timeline that starts at the conclusion of Ocarina of Time and ends with the critically-acclaimed Phantom Hourglass and the polarizing Spirit Tracks. Both games were originally released for the Nintendo 3DS and demonstrated how effectively the series could translate to mobile consoles. Each of these games features the same iconic cel-shading that characterized their predecessor while making meaningful improvements upon its design.
One such element in particular, the master dungeon level conceit that is one of the Zelda series’ best gameplay mechanics, reached near perfection in the Tower of Spirits and the Temple of the Ocean King. It’s a testament to Wind Waker’s influence that its unique world and aesthetic were able to support two entire games, both of which represent two of the series’ most underrated titles.
3 Memorable Characters
With a host of challenging and distinct enemies, Wind Waker also features numerous memorable allies. Perhaps the most dynamic addition to the Zelda franchise’s cast of characters is Tetra the pirate captain who represents the reincarnated spirit of Princess Zelda. While briefly succumbing to the “kidnapped princess” trope, Tetra is depicted as a character full of agency, humor, and perhaps even more bold heroism than Link.
The aforementioned King of Red Lions — the King of Hyrule trapped in the form of a boat — adds immense and appreciated comic relief in equal measure with regal gravity that fans of the Zelda series are sure to appreciate, while the adorable Korok Makar adds endearing empathy to his chapters of the game. Even Link’s more cartoonish and childlike features endow the game with an enduring whimsey that has made him a favorite incarnation of the series’ classic green-garbed hero.
2 Sunken Hyrule
There’s a spine-tingling moment all Wind Waker fans experienced when it was revealed that the islands of the Great Sea are actually the peaks of ancient Hyrule’s mountains — the same Hyrule that Link and Zelda saved in 1998’s Ocarina of Time. This is partly impressive due to the aforementioned immersion of Wind Waker’s world.
It’s such a realized, self-contained entity that it is easy to assume that its landscape occupies just another of the franchise’s many disconnected timelines. By playing into this, Nintendo was able to craft one of the best depictions of Hyrule in the Zelda franchise, represented in Wind Waker’s final act in all its resplendent cel-shaded glory.
1 Immersive World
The single largest addition Wind Waker brought to the Zelda franchise is its meaningful expansion of the open-world dynamics pioneered by 1998’s Ocarina of Time and its 2000 sequel Majora’s Mask. Wind Waker did far more than replace Hyrule Field with water, however. The Great Sea is exponentially larger than the open-worlds that preceded it, with dozens of islands featuring unique designs, dungeons of all scales, and intricately designed NPCs that truly seem to have a life outside of Link’s interactions.
Yes, there are large uninhabited swaths of ocean that players must ford, but Nintendo’s supreme design sensibilities make these areas rare, and the result is a masterfully crafted naturalism that adds to the game’s immersion without feeling boring or overbearing.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/legend-of-zelda-wind-waker-best-game/
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