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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002)

Nintendo EAD

Nintendo GameCube · Wii U

4.45 from 4507 ratings · #33 top rated on Grouvee

8373 members have it in their collection · 292 playing now · 1651 backlogged · 1344 wish listed

How long? Main story 23h · with extras 29h · 100% 40h (from 29 logged playthroughs)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the first Zelda game for the Nintendo GameCube and also the first in the series to employ cel-shading, a lighting and texturing technique that results in the game having a cartoon-like appearance. Like its predecessors, The Wind Waker is an action game with puzzle-solving and light role-playing elements. Basic gameplay mechanics are … Read more
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the first Zelda game for the Nintendo GameCube and also the first in the series to employ cel-shading, a lighting and texturing technique that results in the game having a cartoon-like appearance. Like its predecessors, The Wind Waker is an action game with puzzle-solving and light role-playing elements. Basic gameplay mechanics are similar to those found in Ocarina of Time, but it differentiates itself with its massive Great Sea which must be explored using a boat named King of Red Lions. Read less
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Details

Developers
Nintendo EAD
Publishers
Nintendo
Genres
Adventure, Puzzle
Themes
Action, Fantasy
Franchises
The Legend of Zelda
Series
The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Events
Nintendo Treehouse Live: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025, Nintendo E3 2002 Press Conference, Nintendo Space World 2001

Release dates

  • Dec 13, 2002 (Full Release) (Japan) Nintendo GameCube
  • Mar 24, 2003 (Full Release) (North_America) Nintendo GameCube
  • Apr 16, 2003 (Full Release) (Korea) Nintendo GameCube
  • May 02, 2003 (Full Release) (Europe) Nintendo GameCube
  • May 07, 2003 (Full Release) (Australia) Nintendo GameCube

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Featured in lists

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The Legend of Zelda - Ranked by lingsdook · 33 games · 3
Lengthy Games by Roach · 58 games · 2

Rating distribution

5 stars
2626
4 stars
1404
3 stars
391
2 stars
64
1 star
22
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Community All Reviews Statuses

danksocks

Status danksocks Aug 22, 2024

I've gotten to what I've heard is the most annoying part of the game, which is the triforce shard collection. People weren't lying. If this weren't a Zelda game I think I would've DNF'ed it. It is all of the most infuriating, tedious parts of this game lumped together right before (I assume) the end, completely killing all of …

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I've gotten to what I've heard is the most annoying part of the game, which is the triforce shard collection. People weren't lying. If this weren't a Zelda game I think I would've DNF'ed it. It is all of the most infuriating, tedious parts of this game lumped together right before (I assume) the end, completely killing all of the momentum the plot has built up.

It really sucks because I was seriously thinking that this could take OoT's place as my favorite non-BotW/ToTK Zelda. It was that good up until this point. It's like giving up a three run homer to blow a lead in the top of the ninth. We could still come back and get a walk-off win, but man if this didn't just suck all the wind out of this game's sails. We'll see how it ends up I guess.

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1 Comment Permalink
danksocks

Status danksocks Aug 8, 2024

I'm going to start this game and hopefully finish it before August is over. My question to you is, what do I need to know before playing? I have zero experience with WW in particular but love the old Zeldas up through the N64 games as well as BotW and ToTK. Never played TP or SS or basically any of …

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I'm going to start this game and hopefully finish it before August is over. My question to you is, what do I need to know before playing? I have zero experience with WW in particular but love the old Zeldas up through the N64 games as well as BotW and ToTK. Never played TP or SS or basically any of the handheld Zeldas. Am playing WW for the first time per a recommendation from a nice Gamestop employee.

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0 Comment Permalink
PangEr97

Status PangEr97 Jul 2, 2022

Re--playing it after so many years! Just beat the first dungeon on Dragon Roost and now doing the Forbidden Woods.

0 Comment Permalink
TheresaBoBisa

Status TheresaBoBisa Dec 22, 2021

They need to port the HD release to the Switch already! I've been wanting to replay this for yeeeears but I also don't want to buy a Wii U just for one game...

1 Comment Permalink
Shamslux

Status Shamslux Sep 25, 2020

Joyful and fresh adventure

The first "The Legend of Zelda" that I finished was Breath of the Wild, for the NS. It was marvelous. After it, I finished Ocarina of Time and then I finished Wind Waker. I obviously gave five starts to all games, but Wind Waker surprised me a lot more than the others. It is a fresh, …

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Joyful and fresh adventure

The first "The Legend of Zelda" that I finished was Breath of the Wild, for the NS. It was marvelous. After it, I finished Ocarina of Time and then I finished Wind Waker. I obviously gave five starts to all games, but Wind Waker surprised me a lot more than the others. It is a fresh, cartoonish and joyful game! It is light and very welcomed to the previous styles of the series. Many mechanics from it were reintroduced in BoW and I didn't know until I played WW. It is a must for any ToZ fans and another masterpiece from Nintendo. I also need to note how fantastic were the graphics! They still great even I playing it in 2020! If we use our imagination, that was the time of Xbox and PS2, and honestly, PS2 was the most popular, but with the most ugly graphics out there! The gameplay is very smooth and nice, surely it could have a better aim (maybe a crosshair for the bow, but this is not main problem, it is hard to aim with the boat to launch bombs!). I could not test the HD version, from WiiU, unfortunately, but I would recommend it over GameCube's version, for it was harder in some aspects (Tingle statues were complicated, because it seemed that I needed to use GBA or something like it). HD version brought some good updates for these parts. In short, highly recommended!!!

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0 Comment Permalink
plasmasnake

Status plasmasnake Jul 16, 2020

Just missed getting the heart container after the tower of the gods boss and stepped into the one-way circle of light, ended up sitting through a long cut scene then reset and reload to fight the boss again.

0 Comment Permalink
plasmasnake

Status plasmasnake Jul 9, 2020

Barely beat the big plant on second try, controls were really frustrating. It wasn't clear that the boomerang was doing any damage, the camera hid the plant target behind Link while it struck.

Need to go back for some of the deku water later. Why isn't the forest haven on the map now?

0 Comment Permalink
SunBr0ther

Status SunBr0ther May 20, 2020

It might be because I'm a working adult who's playing this game in small 45 minute chunks instead of a little kid who pours the game into a bucket and drowns myself in it, but this game is even better than I remember it.

2 Comment Permalink
oldbeyonds

Status oldbeyonds Jul 30, 2019

It was one of my most anticipated games in life. Missed the GameCube and Wiiu version, so had no choice but to play on emulator. The visual art was wonderful. Especially Link's eyes, so vivid. The dungeon is also so Zelda. Perfect! I would have undoubtedly given it a 5-star score (or even higher) until I came across the triforce …

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It was one of my most anticipated games in life. Missed the GameCube and Wiiu version, so had no choice but to play on emulator. The visual art was wonderful. Especially Link's eyes, so vivid. The dungeon is also so Zelda. Perfect! I would have undoubtedly given it a 5-star score (or even higher) until I came across the triforce mission. Be awarded that it is not a sub-mission but a main one. It makes me feel Nintendo is not confident enough in the span of main story. Also finding the sage at exactly the opposite way of one another is another pain to me. Hope Nintendo can keep this series alive (at least this art genre), with better idea on which should be the main mission and which should not.

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2 Comment Permalink