You jerk! You just made my wallet $50 lighter. I was on the border about this game (I’ve never played it before) but after reading your review I’ll be downloading tomorrow it at 10pm (I love how the digital releases are midnight eastern and 10pm for me!!!)

Do you still have to sit there and watch your boat sail across the ocean for five minutes at a stretch? I understand the Swift Sail, but my goodness was that some terrible design in the original game.

Jon it was my understanding that in the Gamecube version you didn't sail any faster because that's as fast as the Gamecube could load the content without having a loading screen. So with increased performance of Wii U you can now sail faster.

Swift Sail makes sailing way faster. Actually...

There's a video on YouTube. I can't find it on my phone but It's way faster. Sailing from one end of the map to the other with the wind at your favor takes 3:50 with the Swift Sail while doing the same on the Gamecube took 7 minutes or more. Add not having to change wind direction every time you make a turn and sailing times should be way down this time around.

Can NWR just coin and retire the word "obtuse" in the gaming context and move on from it?  EVERY game has something that's obtuse to you guys.

I will make a sincere effort to not use "obtuse" in the near future. A quick Google search shows I seem to have a crush on the term over the past year or two. Don't lump the rest of the site in when I've used the word to describe obtuse things in 4 of the 80+ reviews I've written between Steel Diver and Wind Waker HD.

Re-releases of Zelda titles are usually immune to the Zelda Cycle, right?

Do you still have to beat the game before the picture taking and figurines become available? I like that feature but will not play through twice to experience it.

The Pictograph Box and figurine gallery were available in the first playthrough of the original.
The one that was hardest to get, Link riding on the King of Red Lions, was obtained by completing the entire gallery and most people missed it the first time around because they unlocked the gallery after beating a few once-off enemies.

That said, it was still possible to complete the entire gallery in a first-play of the game as well, I've done it twice.

Man, the Triforce hunt really gets dumped on like the game was literally pulling out your fingernails. I thought it worked okay as a part of the extremely ocean heavy nature of the game, and also gave rupees a real use, which happens in almost no other modern Zelda game. But then again I'm also weirdly fixated on Tingle and wish Nintendo didn't treat him like their Jar Jar Binks.

The Triforce hunt is ill-timed and way too time consuming to be fun. Coupled with the way sailing required constantly changing wind directions, traveling to different parts of the sea was a chore at that point in the game (even with teleporting). Sailing lost its sense of wonder with so little left of the world to discover that I just wanted to get on with the rest of the game. The last dungeon, from what I remember, was excellent as were the gauntlet of bosses leading up to Ganondorf which makes the Triforce hunt even more of a hassle in hindsight. One of the best parts of the game is delayed for hours to collect "triumph forks." Fetch quests just aren't that fun in any game.

And if this was the best way Nintendo could think of to justify Rupee use, they seriously need to go back to the drawing board.

There were some secrets in the original game that could only be found using the Tingle Tuner. Since the Tuner has been replaced with the Bottle in the HD edition, is there an alternate way to access those secrets, or have they been removed entirely?

The Triforce hunt is just blatant padding.  In the old days it isn't like games would just halt and make you do something completely unrelated to the rest of the game before you could continue.  On the Gamecube Nintendo suddenly got really scared about game length so Wind Waker and Metroid Prime both have out-of-nowhere fetch quests towards the end.  It's the gameplay equivalent of having an 8 minute "experimental" song on an album to fill the CD.  It's better to just have a slightly shorter game with better pacing.  What good is a longer game if the extra time is spent doing boring busywork?

Of course what made the padding more annoying in Wind Waker is that there were clearly dungeons cut from the game.  If Nintendo had kept those dungeons in then the game length might have reached their goal without padding so we realistically traded those dungeons for a fetch quest (and, to be fair, an earlier release date).

I always find it jarring when I read complaints about this game. If you hate padding or things that take time, then you must LOATHE Skyward Sword.

I could only possibly find sailing a pain if you are in a rush to just finish the game. I found it pure joy for escapist adventure and exploration.


Same with that last fetch quest - I didn't notice how much time or effort it took because I was enjoying exploring the game so much.

As a matter of fact, I loathed Skyward Sword. I only finished it out of principle since I spent $70 on it. I won't go as far as to say that the game was bad or poorly made. It was mainly just "not for me." Too many things I. The game absolutely pissed me off. For brevity's sake, I won't list them all. However, I will say that it has the absolute most infuriating and impossible heart piece to attain in the entire series. Seriously, fuck you, Fun Fun Island. I never got it, but the prize of a single heart piece isn't even worth trouble. For that nonsense, the prize should have been Samus' arm cannon with the hyper beam which one-shots every enemy in the game, including the final boss.

This is basically my position. Granted, I was younger when I played it and might not have the patience anymore, but I loved sailing and treasuring hunting. The high cost also made keeping up with the treasure maps worth it the entire game (if in retrospect).

I never played this game because I was that guy that hated the art style and utterly refused (remember I was in Jr. High so my abililty to think and reason wasn't that great) The more I read about the slow sailing and the tri-force hunt the more I think I would have hated both. However it sounds like they were both fixed for this remake so I downloaded the game last night. I plan to start right after work today

I've only played through the GameCube original once, and that was around release. It seems like a no-brainer to pick up this enhanced version for Wii U.

Skyward Sword is rough.  While I wouldn't call either title a bad game, Wind Waker is the better title.  But then it shouldn't get a free pass because Nintendo made a Zelda with even MORE padding.