For the past couple of decades or more, pop culture entertainment had been moving towards darker themes, whether it's movie, games or comics, but there were always certain themes that were timeless: a grand adventure, an expedition to uncharted lands, good vs. evil and of course saving the princess.
When Wind Waker was first reveled, many dip-shit fanboys "criticized" it based on the art style. They called it childish and cartoony. The problem is, LOZ was always curated for all ages, especially for children and young adults, the only difference this time around is that Nintendo used a more fitting art style.
The game opens like most LOZ games, you wake up in your village blah blah, girl gets kidnapped blah blah...The important thing is you get your sword and shield, say goodbye to good-old-grandma and set sail along with a band of pirates.
Despite the limitation of the Gamecube, the open world aspect was done amazingly well. It served its propose by bringing the feel of a grand epic adventure to life. You have a huge map (By the 2002 standards) divided into squares, almost each square had either an island, city, dungeon, enemy outpost...etc, to keep you interested. You'll visit wonderfully imagined cities and cultures, dungeons, ancient ruins, pirate ships and magical islands.
The cities are full of personality, whether its the culture, interesting characters, soundtrack or just the level design. In no time you'll know all the characters, the old man that needs help finding his doughter, the gang of kids that play hide and seek, the guy who looks like a cross between Elvis Presley and Evel Knievel. The bottom line is, when it comes to personality and character where ever you look in WW you'll find it.
Just as an example of the level of intricacy that went in the shaping of the world: Link. His facial expressions, animations and voice acting (which mostly consists of screams of pain falling or getting hit) are all done with great care. His eyes looks at every point of interest, when your low on hit points he will be out of breath, he will smile, he will laugh,...etc. To this day I haven't seen any protagonist done with such details and personality, and without dialog.
The cities are full of personality, whether its the culture, interesting characters, soundtrack or just the level design. In no time you'll know all the characters, the old man that needs help finding his doughter, the gang of kids that play hide and seek, the guy who looks like a cross between Elvis Presley and Evel Knievel. The bottom line is, when it comes to personality and character where ever you look in WW you'll find it.
Just as an example of the level of intricacy that went in the shaping of the world: Link. His facial expressions, animations and voice acting (which mostly consists of screams of pain falling or getting hit) are all done with great care. His eyes looks at every point of interest, when your low on hit points he will be out of breath, he will smile, he will laugh,...etc. To this day I haven't seen any protagonist done with such details and personality, and without dialog.
When it comes to gameplay it lacks challenge, and that is my biggest criticism towards it, but still the easy difficulty didn't didn't ruin my enjoyment, it only kept it from reaching it's full potential.
Level design shines mostly in the dungeons, every dungeon is done with astonishing amount of polish, creativity and details. Each room will pit you against a puzzel, enemy, sub-boss and of course a final boss.
Most of the items are refined version from previous games with a couple of new ones, and unfortunately, as it is with most Zelda games, old is gold. Still some of the items are used in new and creative ways, such as the Grappling Rope or Hookshot as you can use them in battle. The rope in particular wont't do damage but what it will do is steal items.
When it comes to battle my main criticism towards the game stands: it lacks challenge, yet it's well crafted and enjoyable. The sword combat consists of attacking, blocking and parrying. As I have said before, you can use items in combat, but also you'll be able to pickup enemy weapons. Using enemy weapons is a bit restricted; you can't add them to your inventory nor travel further, Link will simply drop the weapons if you enter another area, but still you'll get to swing a sword three times your size and in doing so you'll force the enemy to fight you hand to hand.
The enemy design is wonderful, but the roster is still hindered by the usual useless ChuChus and Octorocks, they may still give you a smile or two from the sense of nostalgia, but really why are they still in the game? As always those enemies existence is just a distraction from what ever i'm doing they aren't fun and a total waste of time. On the other hand, you have the Darknut, Moblins, Redead, Stalfos,...etc, that's where the real fun lies. Attacking the Moblins, you'll see their huge flailing jaws swinging side to side with every attack, the Darknut's armor drops a pieces after every critical attack and like if he drops his sword he'll fight you hand to had, that as well as the animation gives the enemies a lot of personality. The parrying system is probably the best new addition to the battle mechanic, just before the enemies attack, most of them have subtle tells that would let you parry there attacks and rolling to their backs or jumping over their heads and delivering a satisfying critical hit.
The Bosses are as usual in all LOZ games. Every encounter is a grand epic battle. The presentation of every boss is an unforgettable event, whether the boss is crawling under the sand, sticking to a ceiling, hung by a puppet's string, you're up for a great experience. As always, most of the fun with the bosses is figuring out how to beat them as they follow the same LOZ boss formula, and all of them are fairly easy to figure out and my issue with them is also the lack in difficulty; even if they do manage to hit you, their attacks don't take much of your hit points and you'll need minimal amount of skill to get through them.
The soundtrack is expansive and with great quality. The official release soundtrack holds around 120+ tracks. I've spent months listening to it, and every couple of years I returned to it. Koji Kondo and the others brought the dungeons, enemies, bosses and cities to life with great new tracks and remixes that fit the theme.
In closing, the game was and still one of the greatest journeys I've had; you'll meet a great cast characters, visit wonderful cities and fight epic battles. The journey is the kind that will stick with for years to come, ever time you hear the name Wind Waker the intro flute music will play, you'll smell the sea, taste the salt and feel the wind.
The Bosses are as usual in all LOZ games. Every encounter is a grand epic battle. The presentation of every boss is an unforgettable event, whether the boss is crawling under the sand, sticking to a ceiling, hung by a puppet's string, you're up for a great experience. As always, most of the fun with the bosses is figuring out how to beat them as they follow the same LOZ boss formula, and all of them are fairly easy to figure out and my issue with them is also the lack in difficulty; even if they do manage to hit you, their attacks don't take much of your hit points and you'll need minimal amount of skill to get through them.
The soundtrack is expansive and with great quality. The official release soundtrack holds around 120+ tracks. I've spent months listening to it, and every couple of years I returned to it. Koji Kondo and the others brought the dungeons, enemies, bosses and cities to life with great new tracks and remixes that fit the theme.
In closing, the game was and still one of the greatest journeys I've had; you'll meet a great cast characters, visit wonderful cities and fight epic battles. The journey is the kind that will stick with for years to come, ever time you hear the name Wind Waker the intro flute music will play, you'll smell the sea, taste the salt and feel the wind.
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