This game is significant. Especially for me, since it was the first Zelda experience that really clicked with me when I played it as a kid (I was around 10 years old). Link to the Past had an allure of mystery and fantasy, and futzing around on Lon Lon (Jindemann) Ranch in Ocarina of Time was fun and all, but it was the inviting tones, colourful artwork, and warm sea breeze of Wind Waker that truly captured my heart when I played it on GameCube almost 20 years ago. For added nostalgia for this RetroActive, I prepared myself with the following: I pulled my original CIB copy of Wind Waker for the GameCube off the shelf and skimmed through the manual; I grabbed my GBA and my “Nintendo GameCube™ Game Boy® Advance Cable” so I could use the Tingle Tuner; and finally, I dragged my Nintendo Wii out of retirement by defiling it with the large Wavebird GameCube controller adapter before hooking it up to my 65” 4K TV via composite inputs. As you can probably imagine, the picture quality left something to be desired.
In a sentence, Wind Waker is easy, breezy, beautiful, Covergirl. The enemies and bosses are facile, as are 97% of the puzzles and challenges. Not once did I lose all of my hearts, even though I consistently had 2-3 bottled fairies on reserve should such an occasion arise. However, I found the ease of play here to be very relaxing, and aside from some regular frustrations with fumbling the camera around (since it is forced inverted) and general bullshittery with trying to lock on to the right enemy, this game does almost everything right. The quick pace at which you complete dungeons may signal to some that this is a shallow game; however, I would argue that this game is near perfect in this regard, given that it offers a wide breadth of locations to explore which keeps gameplay exciting for the player. You are continually pushing onwards and covering new ground without getting bogged down in monotonous exploration in a single dungeon.
I see/hear people regularly chastising the GameCube version of this game for being “tedious” because there is no Swift Sail, and because the journey to find 8 Triforce charts (and subsequently, the corresponding shards) is cumbersome. To those critics I say, “Bah!” The lack of a Swift Sail brings a welcome reprise; it affords time for one to rest their weary soul among the soft splashes of salty sea and the enchanting tunes which harken back to human’s innate search of adventure. Further, regarding the quest for the 8 Triforce charts, hast thou not spoken to the many fish in this great wide sea? Hast thou not taken their words to heart, for they speaketh only truisms as to the definite locations of each and every Triforce chart (“Triumph Forks chart”) thou profess to have no knowledge of? Dost thou not take notes with parchment and quill to chronicle your future expeditions? Hast thou not laid thine eyes upon the “IN-credible Chart” so lovingly prepared by our comrade, Tingle? My friends, it is true. We live in a society where the common man is unable to reason for himself, and requires a waypoint on a map to dictate the next stop he should take on his journey. If only life were so simple. In my opinion, this game could do without the “IN-credible Chart” (my apologies to Tingle for his hard work), for what is adventure without an accompanying sense of pride and accomplishment for achieving the end goal on your own? I’m unsure why people prefer the WiiU remaster of this game, as it is essentially removing content (there are only 3 Triforce charts to collect) [EDIT: I have since read more about the differences between the two versions and I think I was a bit too foolhardy with my comment here. The WiiU version does have some great improvements, so I can see why people prefer it]. As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoy the GameCube version and I will generally defend its systems.
One thing I cannot defend about any version of this game is the story, which manages to be both extremely thin and very bad. It is full of coincidental happenings and just-in-time good fortune. For instance, the entire plot hinges on the Rito mailman, named Quill, telling Tetra at the beginning of the game that she must help Link, since it is her fault that Aryll (Link’s sister) was taken by the giant bird. Quill coerces Tetra into taking Link along, and had Quill not been there, Tetra would have set sail without Link. On the topic of Tetra, you mean to tell me that a bad-ass pirate captain, who has explored countless islands to pillage for treasure and has engaged in combat with monsters and humans alike, is content with being morphed into a frilly princess and sealed in a musty castle at the bottom of the sea?
Finally, I will end by recounting a funny memory of my time with this game when I played as a 10 year old. I was playing this game the first time my mom heard me curse out loud. I had just arrived at the Forsaken Fortress for the first time with no weapon to defend myself. With the eerie music playing and the guards on high alert, I was tense to say the least. My mom and little brother were watching me play, which did little to ease my tension. I was inside one of the cylindrical turrets of the fortress where the rooms are 2 stories high, with wooden platforms on either side of the second floor separated by a large gap running between them where you can fall down to the first floor. I was standing on one of the wooden platforms on the second floor, mentally preparing myself to jump across to the next platform, knowing that I could not defend myself should I fall down to the first floor and encounter enemies. I mustered the courage to jump the gap, and to my horror I somehow missed and fell down to the first floor. On cue, suddenly I am jumped by 6 or so little bouncing devils, shouting, “Dah-da! Dah-da!”, jabbing me with their tridents. I felt so helpless and frustrated with myself that I instinctively shouted “FUUUUUUUCK!” Immediately I realized what I had done, and I spun my head around to look at my mom and tell her how sorry I was for what I had said. In the end, I got away without punishment and the moment left a lasting memory of Forsaken Fortress in my mind.
Thanks so much for choosing Wind Waker for this RetroActive. I’ve really enjoyed revisiting the game and I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the podcast.
Lots of love,
Noah