Topic: Wind Waker HD Adds New Difficulty Setting, Smooth Sailing

[NWR_Neal]

Get ready for Hero Mode, the Swift Sail, and an easier Triforce hunt.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35260

The upcoming The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will add a new difficulty mode called Hero Mode, an optional sail, and more, according to recent hands-on impressions.

Hero Mode, which is selectable from the beginning, is a harder version similar to the mode of the same name in Skyward Sword. Players will only be able to heal through collecting Heart Containers or drinking potions, and enemies do more damage. You can toggle it on or off at any point before starting a file.

The Swift Sail is another new addition that allows players to freely sail in any direction they want to. It will be an optional purchase at the auction house available after the first dungeon.

The Triforce hunt from the latter half is also being fine-tuned. Instead of having to collect every map and paying Tingle to translate it, you will only need to do that for three of the eight pieces. Also, Tingle will no longer be a character you can optionally meet earlier in the adventure as he will be introduced during the main story.

You can now move around in first-person mode, too, and shoot your bow or any other item that could previously be used in the first person. Lastly, in addition to posting pictures to Miiverse using Tingle Bottles, you can now take selfie pictures of Link with goofy faces using the Picto Box and then post them in the same manner.

[Mop it up]

I was hoping the Swift Sail would have increased the sailing speed, but I s'pose this still helps. I like the little tweaks they're adding to this game, I may get it at some point if it drops enough in price.

[broodwars]

So you have to buy the capability to make sailing suck less in the new Wind Waker? Well, that's better than it not being there at all, but that feels like something that should just be there from the moment you get the boat & sail.  And yeah, like Mop mentioned, faster sailing would be a plus as well.

As for the rest, "meh". Not having to do all of the Triforce Hunt is just putting a bandaid on the overall problem, which is that the Triforce Hunt exists at all.  I'd never bother with Hero Mode, either.

[Pixelated Pixies]

That all sounds great for people who haven't already played the game, but I can't imagine these additions are going to excite those that already own the original.

[Sundoulos]

Agreed.  Wind Waker is great and all, but I'm not willing to pay full price for it again at this point if these are the only features that they are adding.   

[Adrock]

I don't think any remake is meant for people who own the original. A company won't say no to those sales, but they're targeting people who never played it before.

$60 is pretty steep for The Wind Waker HD. Nintendo also sold Ocarina of Time 3D and Star Fox 64 3D at full price so I'm not surprised if they continue the trend. I had no intention of paying full price for The Wind Waker HD anyway so while I scoff at the cost, it's not really affecting me.

Anyway, it's a wasted opportunity to not add gameplay to this release. Mini-dungeons housing the Triforce pieces could have made the late-game fetch quest more interesting rather than fewer maps making the hunt merely less annoying.

[syn4aptik]

So they are fixing the two things that probably prevent this game from being my favorite 3D Zelda? And actually make it my least-favorite 3D Zelda? (I hate the Triforce hunt/sailing that much).


Yeah I guess I'll buy it at full price 

[TruenoGT]

Speaking of first person aiming, has anyone heard of the chance of motion/pointer controlled aiming as in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword? Analog stick aiming for weapons seems like such a step backward... I'd even take what they did in Ocarina 3D with the gyro aiming over analog stick.

[Luigi Dude]

I was hoping the Swift Sail would have increased the sailing speed, but I s'pose this still helps. I like the little tweaks they're adding to this game, I may get it at some point if it drops enough in price.

The Swift Sail does increase the sailing speed.  From footage and previews shown, the Swift Sail makes the ship sail faster then it ever went in the original Wind Waker so it has been increased.

[MagicCow64]

But, but, but it doesn't make sense to be able to sail in any direction! As annoying as the wind direction stuff could be, it at least jibed with the idea that you were piloting a boat.

[Ceric]

But, but, but it doesn't make sense to be able to sail in any direction! As annoying as the wind direction stuff could be, it at least jibed with the idea that you were piloting a boat.

From that perspective being able to magically direct the wind also breaks that.

[MagicCow64]

You control the wind. The wind blows the sail. It's a nautical game. Taking the wind out of the equation doesn't make sense within the terms of the game.

[pokepal148]

You control the wind. The wind blows the sail. It's a nautical game. Taking the wind out of the equation doesn't make sense within the terms of the game.

different kinds of sails handle wind differently(some ships, especially ones based on Chinese design, have sails that do best when you go against the wind) it makes sense that someone made some magical sail that can go wherever it wants.

[Ian Sane]

I remember when I first played Ocarina of Time having to manually play the Ocarina with button presses was super cool.  That sort of detail was very cutting edge in 1998.  But like most game mechanics the novelty wears off and I don't think anyone completed the game before growing bored of using the Ocarina and started firing off the button presses as quickly as possible without any attempt to make it sound good musically.  That's just the nature of playing a videogame and isn't a knock on the Ocarina controls.  We all were impressed at first and appreciate that Nintendo did it that way.

Wind Waker and Skyward Sword also have instruments but their mechanics are such that timing much be correct.  You cannot rapid fire through it like with the N64 games.  I mean this as a joke but it almost feels like Nintendo knows we all stopped playing the Ocarina "correctly" and was very offended by it and thus has made sure that such a thing is not going to happen again!  The problem is that Wind Waker requires you to control the wind constantly and not being able to rapid fire it like the Ocarina makes it become a real chore.  Paring up the most time consuming instrument with the game that requires the player to play songs just to move from one area to the next was a pretty unfortunate combination.  By themselves I don't think it would have mattered that much.  I think if they kept the wind but just made it quicker to change the direction it would all be fine.

And while sailing with the wind is logical and realistic, such things need not override the Rule of Fun.  I also don't have to constantly eat to keep Link alive and if I did, it wouldn't make me have to go to the bathroom afterwards.  When I get hit by a sword, I merely lose health.  Link's arm doesn't get hacked off like it would in reality.  Nearly every videogame glosses over these details because that makes the game more fun, and videogames have to be fun to play.  I'm sure there are RPGs where you can go around the overworld in a sailing ship and you just move the boat around with the d-pad and no one ever questioned it or cared because it's a game.  Why couldn't they just let you move the boat around with the analog stick while just animating Link moving the sail around to different positions to give the impression of using a sail boat?  The immersion created by that little detail would remain while the player wouldn't have to deal with tedious gameplay elements.

Of course, would it matter if the world wasn't flooded and sailing was a more minor part of the game?  Would it matter if there wasn't a Triforce hunt that required the player to sail all over the damn place?  The commonly cited flaws of Wind Waker seem to combine together where addressing one would make the others less annoying.  If anything it's a testament to the game's quality that despite these elements the game is still generally considered a classic.

[MagicCow64]

I thought the fix for the sailing stuff was going to be the elimination of conducting the wind song every time you wanted to change directions. I'd prefer that to the magic uni-sail. I'm probably looking at this through a a nostalgia lens, but the ocean felt to me like a living system that you were harnessing with the wind mechanic.

For all of its massive problems, one of the highlights of ACIII was the feel that you were really piloting a ship.

[MegaByte]

Good to hear about Hero Mode. The original was too easy -- I never died throughout my entire playthrough, and didn't do much potion stocking.

[Wah]

Agreed.  Wind Waker is great and all, but I'm not willing to pay full price for it again at this point if these are the only features that they are adding.

Look at Ocarnia of time remake that was awesome!

[Pixelated Pixies]

I realised when playing through Skyward Sword's Hero Mode that playing through Zelda games on a higher difficulty holds little appeal for me. I think the reason is that the real draw for me is the puzzles, the items and the exploration (none of which change in line with the difficulty). The combat for me adds flavour, and in boss battles hopefully a little tension, but it's note the reason I play those games.
 
It totally makes sense, however, that Nintendo would include a more difficult option for those that have already played the game (as I'm sure there are some out there that are looking for an excuse to replay it), but for me personally the addition of Hero Mode holds little appeal.
 
Perhaps it's asking too much, but had new areas or dungeons been added I would be a lot more enthusiastic about the proposition of a Wind Waker HD. The premise of the game even lends itself to the idea of new areas. The game is designed around exploring uncharted seas, and areas in that game are comprised of little chunks of land separated from each other. It would have been really great if Nintendo had sprinkled some new islands in along with the old stuff, or perhaps even added a second quest which allowed you to venture beyond the borders of the original sea charts.
 
Wishful thinking I know, but that would have got me really excited to play Wind Waker again.

[Sundoulos]

I agree.  It would have been the perfect opportunity to add in another dungeon or two, especially since the original game had one or two dungeons cut from it in order to get the game out on time.

[Shaymin]

Apparently the dungeon ideas were used in Twilight Princess so that wasn't an option.