Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is arguably one of the greatest video games ever designed.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Legend of Zelda series the game is played in the 3rd person and you are the main character of Link. Your job is to save Princess Zelda. Though in this game Zelda isn’t exactly Zelda, she is…well, I won’t spoil it.
The game is cel-shaded which is a fancy way of saying it looks exactly like a cartoon. Previously the series had tried to make Link and his environment look as realistic as possible, but this game marked a radical departure from the traditional style that not everyone thought was an improvement. Personally I thought the cel-shading made it much, much more beautiful. Given the hardware limitations of the Gamecube I think it was the right call. You can make a stunningly beautiful cartoon or you can make an okay-looking computer graphic. And the graphics of the Wind Waker are indeed stunning. Not just in terms of what the ob
The sheer beauty of the game is enough to distinguish it from its contemporaries (notable exception: Metroid Prime. Another stunning beautiful game), but what elevates Wind Waker to rarified realms is the game play. In most games the ob
Early in the game you find the Wind Waker, which is a wand that allows you to control the weather. You do this by learning certain melodies. The controller allows you to play certain musical tones by pressing up, down, left, right. So if you conduct the melody correctly and with the proper musical timing, then the spell is cast and you can change the direction the wind blows. This ability comes in handy when you acquire your sailboat. If you want to travel across the sea to explore a nearby island you simply pull out the Wind Waker, conduct the proper melody and then tell the wind which way to blow to power your boat. That in and of itself is light years ahead of other games in terms of sheer originality. But it gets better. Infinitely better. And much more creative.
In most games if you were to sail for Point A to Point B it would be done instantly, the assumption being that no one wants to “waste time” virtually sailing a boat for 2mins. The Wind Waker dismisses that assumption and actually has you physically sail a virtual sea from one island to the next. It is a surprisingly immersive and relaxing experience to sail your virtual boat to a new island. But they didn’t stop there! The game designers also added weather. Sometimes you get rained on! They also added a day and night cycle too. The attention to detail in this game is jaw dropping.
The game is revolutionary because it isn’t afraid of down time. Most games insist that something be “happening” at all times in order to be exciting. You’re either constantly being shot at, attacked by zombies, etc. In the Wind Waker it’s okay to just sail around. Or fish. Or stop by an island and wander around exploring the area to see what is or isn’t there. Some islands had nothing on them. Just grass and rocks. You could sit and watch the sun set or just run around the virtual beach making foot prints. Or test out your trusty telescope to see if you can see anything of interest on the next island. Of you can jot a note down on your map of what you found (or didn’t find). The portions of the game where “nothing” was happening proved to be just as stimulating and engaging as the huge Boss fights at the end of every chapter. Fighting a dragon in the center of a burning volcano is undoubtedly exciting, but so is trying to find “unimportant” items hidden in small caves in remote islands seemingly totally disconnected from the main plot.
And the puzzles where challenging too. Whereas most games demand nothing more than continuous button-mashing, this game required a lot of thought. At least it did for me. There is nothing more satisfying (video game-wise) than finally figuring out where the iron boots are and what they are used for.
It’s challenging to describe this game to people who haven’t played it because it is so unlike any game on the market (even though it is over 5 years old at this point). Trying to describe the Forsaken Fortress and what it’s like to tip-toe past a Moblin with a barrel over your head is difficult at best.
Suffice to say that Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is one of my favorite games.