The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (2013)

Thits title is a stunning remaster of one of the GameCube’s most unique Zelda titles. The HD visuals breathe new life into its distinctive cel-shaded art style, making the ocean and islands more vibrant and expressive than ever before. I highly recommend playing this version instead of the original one, and this is a rare things for me to say, I tend to stick to the originals, but this remaster is simply too good not to play, in every single way.

The game’s world feels timeless, filled with charm, personality, and a sense of adventure that few others in the series match. The story remains heartfelt and whimsical, supported by memorable characters and a beautifully composed OST that enhances every voyage across the Great Sea. This version improves on the original with smoother performance and several QOL upgrades, such as the Swift Sail for faster travel, streamlined inventory management, and enhanced use of the Wii U GamePad for maps and item control.

These changes make exploration far more enjoyable and reduce some of the pacing issues of the 2003 release. However, a few elements still show their age, certain quests, especially toward the end, can feel repetitive or slow, and the sailing, while atmospheric, may test the patience of people seeking constant action. Despite these small flaws, this game remains one of the most charming and emotionally resonant adventures in the Zelda series. It’s both a faithful homage to the original and the best way to experience its magic today.

This is a must-play if you like this franchise to any extent, it's sense of adventure is the same as any other entry in the series, some people may get themselves fooled by the nature of the sailing mechanic, thinking if would limit the exploration and world-building, but it is quite the opposite, it is a very welcome addition to the varied mechanics the Zelda developers tend to be inclined to implement. And similar to all Zelda titles, I highly recommend this one to be played to the fullest, doing 100%, it'll be a very pleasant experience.

After nearly a decade of sporadic playing across two save files, I finally buckled down and cleared through the back half of The Wind Waker. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, which I suppose explains to some degree why it was so difficult to push myself to finish it. Yet I feel pretty happy about the experience, both due to what was undoubtedly an excellent finale to the game and also because I can finally close the book on it at last.

I'll start with the good. The art style in this game has aged quite gracefully, even if the Wii U version makes it a tad too bright to look at sometimes. The ocean is beautiful. The characters are super expressive and downright adorable. And the enemy designs feel inspired-- well-suited to the world they reside in. The soundtrack is similarly excellent and the game for the most part feels great to play. I love how the sea charts and items display on the gamepad so you aren't forced to open up a separate menu to navigate them. I think it'd be tough to go play the Gamecube version after this because the QOL is so well integrated.

What's more hit or miss for me are the dungeons and bosses. Granted, it took me years to play through so my memory of the early game's dungeons is quite fuzzy, but I don't recall being all that impressed with them. The dungeons in the second half have an irritating escort mission feel where you're switching between Link and an NPC to solve puzzles but every time you want to switch you need to pull out the titular Wind Waker and play the right song. It gets old fast. Like I said, bosses are also a mixed bag, but in general I liked them. The final boss as well as the boss of the Wind Temple are clear standouts for me.

What drags the game down is the world it takes place in. It was certainly ambitious to have the world largely covered in water but I'm not sure it panned out in my eyes. The gameplay of sailing metronomes between requiring so little interaction that you can walk away from the TV and get a drink while Link sails straight ahead to the destination and forcing you to play the same song on the Wind Waker two to three times just to keep redirecting the wind so you can reach the opposite side of an island. It's very tedious but also makes up a bulk of the game's playtime so it's a big negative for me. The Swift Sail, added in this remake, removes the need to adjust wind and also speeds up travel time. This feels more like putting a portrait over a crack in the wall than any kind of real solution because as a result I'm interacting even less with the game until I get to where I need to be.

My issues with the sailing trickle down into other parts of the game as well. The ocean feels empty and uninteresting. Each large square on the map has on average a single zone of interest-- the remaining space peppered with irritating enemies that respawn as soon as you leave. The tedium of sailing made it a chore to explore the few things I could. The available loot also felt pretty meh. Once I filled out my map I didn't have much to spend my rupees on save for chart deciphering in the notorious final overworld quest, which was also a slog to get through despite being trimmed down a bit from the original.

I think at the end of the day, The Wind Waker ends up near the bottom of my favorite 3D Zelda games, but that's mostly due to their generally high bar of quality. This is still very worth checking out, especially for any fan of the series. I do appreciate how it fits into the larger story of the franchise and also feel it has one of the coolest versions of Ganondorf.

The Wind Waker HD is a title that adds a fresh coat of paint to an old GameCube game that has held up so fantastically well that it feels brand new, even to this day. The art style was divisive and was a real make-or-break decision for many people, but in my opinion the cel-shading and overall unique art direction takes the game in a direction that provides a breath of fresh air to the classic 3D Zelda formula.

At a glance (spoiler-free!)

Pros:

• Visually appealing to this day, with some lovely graphics updates
• Great balance of exciting combat and inventive puzzles/dungeons
• Exploration feels fun and rewarding
• One of my favorite settings and stories in the series
• Some fantastic QoL improvements (I love you Swift Sail)
• The use of the Wii U gamepad sold me on the console

Cons:

• Performance can get a bit jittery
• Although MUCH improved, that one specific annoying quest still exists
• Still a few tedious bits and bobs that carried over from the original

More Details (potential spoilers!)

Let it be no secret - I LOVE this game. It has been too long since I've replayed it, so it is inevitable that I will be making my way back through the flooded realm of Hyrule again soon. The Wind Waker HD is, as the name implies, a better-looking, HD version of the original GameCube title. What may not be immediately obvious is that the game also packs a series of minor tweaks and improvements all throughout the game that make it feel overall much nicer than the (already incredible!) original.

Chief among the improvements, and the first thing that I will always gush about when talking about what this game does better than the original, is the use of the Wii U Gamepad. Seriously, I will play this on the GamePad instead of the Pro Controller any day of the week, and that's saying something when you consider how much better the Pro Controller can feel to hold and use. A staple requirement of 3D Zelda titles is the need to pause the game all the time to open menus, swap out your inventory, use items, check the maps, et cetera et cetera. However, with the gamepad, all of this can be done seamlessly using a touchscreen without EVER having to reach for the pause button. You can pull up maps, drag items around your inventory, the whole kit and caboodle without ever stopping what you're doing on the main TV screen. This feature was so satisfying to use that it singlehandedly sold me on the existence of the Wii U gamepad as a whole. I cannot stress enough just how much of a difference this one small change makes to the overall flow of the game.

There are a handful of other changes as well that honestly make me never want to go back to the original GameCube title. The Swift Sail is such a fantastic item that it makes me wonder why it wasn't included in the base game. By the time you reach the point where you can throw a ton of money at the auction house, you're undoubtedly getting a bit tired of the somewhat long sailing times and the need to stop and whip out the Wind Waker to change direction every time you need to go somewhere else. It is right at this point that BAM, you can grab a sail that lets you go faster AND change the wind direction automatically. Easy sell. Fantastic.

If there was only one other improvement I could talk about, it would be this: The Triforce Hunt has been made so much more tolerable. No further comments.

Of course, there are a few flaws that are still visible. The game occasionally shows its age with the occasional bit of weird shading, and the Wii U can struggle at times to keep the game running smoothly during intense scenes. There are also some parts of the game I feel slow down the pacing more than I'd like, and a couple of mechanics that I feel could still have been simplified and smoothed out. In particular, if I had a dollar for every time I had to drop everything to pull out the Wind Waker and play the Command Melody for like, the sixth time this dungeon, I would have skipped college.

When everything is said and done, though, these minor flaws really pale in comparison to just how fantastic the worldbuilding and story feel in this game. I constantly felt myself torn between going off and exploring or pursing a sidequest or main story objective just to see what would happen next. At no point did the story feel mundane or boring and it really kept me invested in the game for the entire duration. The side characters are fun and memorable, there are a handful of fun side quests to do, and the combination of dungeon-crawling, puzzle solving and monster slaying that the classic 3D Zelda games are known for is on full display in this title. In many ways, it feels like the Wind Waker took the all of the elements that made Ocarina of Time great, and improved on them - and the Wind Waker HD took the Wind Waker and added an additional coat of polish.

Wind Waker is a beautiful game, with a lot of charming elements. The music is fantastic, the gameplay is fun, and it's a joyful remake that improves on the game (Swift Sail, a faster Triforce hunt).

But it's still a game that feels a bit empty and lacking at times. The Great Sea is enormous, but ultimately too empty for the most part. There are so few dungeons. It's a game that you can zoom through, and while there are a ton of collectibles and things to do, they don't really make up for the emptiness of the main quest.

It's interesting to see the seed of many of the elements that I liked in BOTW. The organic gameplay of setting fire to things, or using the leaf to attack and to propel yourself on a raft.

There's also the elements I didn't like from BOTW: the complete non-story and non-characters. Although Link's expressions make him more of an actual person and less of an empty mannequin pretending to be a person like in BOTW.

And also there's the thing many BOTW detractors missed: the linear dungeons. These I also don't like as much. It's fine but too game-y for my taste.

But my overall feeling is generally positive. I'm not blown away as with BOTW, but the gameplay is swift and engaging and the art-style is gorgeous (even the GameCube version is beautiful even by today's standards).

It is interesting how one small addition can completely change your experience with a game. When I got in that sailboat my first thought was  "ooooooooohhhhhhh nooooooooooo". Realising I would have to stop and play a song to change the wind direction so I could slowly travel across the map was immediately frustrating. I found myself lining up the boat, checking my phone, and ignoring the screen except to make the occasional minor adjustment.

Enter the Swift Sail, and now I fucking love this game. Navigating the ocean is a breeze (sorry).   All I wanted to do was sail around and explore, talking to fish ("TAAAY!), and hunting for treasure. I had completely mapped the ocean (minus one square) before even getting the Master Sword. That one change turned the game from a chore to an absolute pleasure to interact with.

There is a lot I like about this game. It looks great - the visuals are charming, and so are the characters. While the sidequests can be hard to find, they are worth seeking out, since they often lead to nice moments. I helped a couple express their love for one another, a child turn away from crime, and possibly lead another child to be eaten by a Bokoblin... but hey, that's just how it goes sometimes. I also love how the races are related to those in OoT, and was weirdly touched when you get to perform music with them and the spirits of their ancestors.

The implementation of the gamepad is wonderful. It's just a big DS, so not having to pause the game to use my inventory or check the larger map makes playing a lot smoother. The map is such an essential part of navigating the ocean, and it feels great to be able to flick through the various charts on the move. I haven't played the original release, but I assume it just used a minimap, but I could be wrong.

That's not to say I loved everything this one had to offer. The dungeon design feels a little lacklustre, and the puzzles don't offer any challenge. You'll mostly just go through the motions until you arrive at the bosses, who you will quickly destroy and immediately forget. I didn't dislike the dungeons, but none of them left any real impression, except for maybe the semi-escort dungeons which resulted in minor annoyance from having to play the Command Melody again and again.

There is also a lot of filler and repetition. The triforce hunt could have been so much more than fighting rooms of different assortments of enemies. What's the point of a ghost ship if it is just another submarine? I wasn't surprised to read a lot was cut for time in the original release. It feels a little unfinished, and could have done with a couple of good dungeons to expand the world. I wanted to explore a larger chunk of underwater Hyrule, and it would have been nice to flesh out Ganon's Tower, which is mostly terrible except for Puppet Ganon.

Oddly, none of these complaints really matter since I came away from Wind Waker with an overwhelming feeling of warmth towards it. This is a world I can imagine revisiting in the future, preferably when it is eventually rereleased on Switch.

Lovely plot and atmosphere! The soundtrack may be the best one in the series and the stylized visuals are timeless :) Very easy, so it's probably a good first Zelda game to play. For anyone other than beginners it really poses no challenge though, so if you want a game that challenges you, look elsewhere. However if you want an easy, charming, light hearted game, this is it my friend.

The game begins in a pretty linear way, but after Tower of the Gods the world really opens up. You can explore the whole map before that too, but I personally felt like the plot driven, linear part of the game ends there, letting you get in the drivers seat. Exploration was engouraged, and I loved the fish guys who fill in your map and give you hints. They reminded me of the old men in the first Zelda.

The dungeons are unfortunately linear. They never require much of the player, and where you need to go seems to always be conveniently in front of you. The puzzles are easy but good, and I do think that if you haven't played a Zelda game before they would be the perfect difficulty to get you familiar with the way these games work.

There are only four main dungeons, but to get the triforce pieces you have to get through a few enemy gauntlet style minidungeons. They're fun the first two times, but after that whacking on enemies that pose no real threat to you just gets repetitive and boring. This was especially bad on the way to the final boss. There was the road to Ganon's tower, the long repetitive fight against Phantom Ganon, the corridor to get up the tower... It just felt like filler. I mean it was repetition to fill out time, and quantity of enemies to make up for the lack of difficulty.

Then we get to the only hard boss in the game. Puppet Ganon was fantastic! Really a great and challenging boss. The final fight with Ganondorf was not super hard, but the story was perfectly told. This is by far my favourite Ganondorf in the series so far. His humanity really comes through, making him more than just big bad evil guy who's evil because he's evil.

Overall, loved this. Plot, sound and visuals 5/5, dungeons and difficulty sort of disappointing, but fine. Highly recommended for anyone!

I finally got a Wii U at a garage sale this weekend and it included Wind Waker HD. As a die-hard Ocarina of Time fan, I hated the change in art direction at the time and barely gave Wind Waker a moment to prove me wrong.

Thankfully, the rest of the internet has shown me that it's a good game and now I've spent about an hour really enjoying the art direction and the intro gameplay. It reminds me of Ocarina in the best ways.

My kids are really enjoying it so far and I look forward to giving them the controls as we get deeper into the story.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker tries to differentiate itself from its predecessors by adopting an unique art style – cel-shaded to simulate a cartoon – and delivering an adventure lighter in tone. However, it’s simple and less-than-inspired design has led to the repetition of ideas and activities, making it the weakest 3D installment in the series to date.

The story of The Wind Waker begins the day Link is about to receive the green robes that symbolize his passage into adulthood. The festivities, however, are interrupted when a group of pirates, in pursuit of a gigantic bird, arrives on his island. After helping the pirates regain their leader, Link sees his sister being kidnapped by the same bird and needs to travel with the pirates to rescue her.

The narrative structure of the game is its main strength. The affection that Link feels for his sister, for example, is the first element to be established when the character wakes up, which makes the kidnapping more dramatically strong. In the same way, the protagonist’s goal, which starts being personal in nature, quickly evolves into the epic undertones expected of the franchise.

Containing some twists and turns that, although expected, work by reinforcing the narrative role of certain characters, the story of The Wind Waker is agile and busier than that of Ocarina of Time, albeit it does not even attempt to have the complexity of Majora’s Mask: there is nothing here that compares to the nuances of the themes discussed in the previous game and that can lead to different interpretations.

Although the story is simpler and more blunt, it remains properly developed. Link’s narrative arc, for example, though clichéd, being a coming-of-age story, is well delineated. The game begins by interrupting the preparations for his transition into adulthood, and his journey serves to complete this process: if at first the characters see the boy’s courage as foolish because of his age and appearance, near the end, they already respect and understand that he is able to fulfill his purpose.

Benefited also by being one of the few installments in the series that tries to humanize, even briefly, its most iconic villain, the story of the game still capitalizes on the mythology built up so far, bringing the Triforce to the center of the stage, which has the potential to thrill fans of the franchise.

The art style used in the game, based on the cel shading technique – which renders 3D images to give them a 2D animation look – is also effective in conveying the characters’ emotions, especially those of Link, besides being responsible for giving a lighter and comical tone to the events. The faces and mouths that the protagonist makes when he is about to be “thrown” into the fortress guarded by his sister, for example, are fun because they are able to capture the absurdity of the moment. Now, the instant that a fairy reveals that Link “is her type,” the expression on the boy’s face has nuances enough to be a mixture of embarrassment and a confident “Yeah, I can’t help it.”

The Wind Waker also innovates in its setting: the horse-riding fields of Hyrule and Termina go away and enters a great navigable ocean. Using a baton, Link can command wind directions and use his mysterious sailing boat – which speaks – to explore the countless islands and lost ships that populate the place. Nintendo tries to develop this theme to the fullest, placing pirates as central characters in the narrative and a ghost ship haunting certain waters, introducing battles at sea with cannons, and even guiding the exploration through treasure maps that mark with a X the place where the treasures are hidden.

However, if the story and the art style work in The Wind Waker, the same cannot be said about most of its dungeons. The first two in The Wind Waker suffer from being very simple and linear. In Dragon Roost Cavern, for example, there is only one path to follow until the end. Whenever Link returns to a room that he has been before, he still manages to be walking in a straight line, and the player does not need to worry about the design of the place: after winning a challenge, a shortcut opens that takes the player, by the hands, back to the rooms that they need to go. Shortcuts are useful in complex spaces that invite exploration, making it both rewarding and practical. In The Wind Waker, however, they are used to prevent the player from leaving the pre-established path. Instead of being a reward for exploration, the shortcut is a tool that produces linearity: it makes the way to an earlier room the only way to be taken. One of the last challenges of this temple becomes actually funny: the player is finally in a dead end and what they need to find out is that they have to turn around to get to the boss’s room. Meanwhile, back at Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time, the player needed to understand both the layout of the place and the mechanics introduced so far to figure out how to clear the way to the place’s underground area.

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Introduction

As I neared the completion of the game I was wrestling with what score to give it. I knew it was going to be high but I wasn't sure if it was a solid 4 or 5 type of game. It had everything and delivered so much more than I could have wanted. Even when I began my first playthrough three years ago and the first enemy exploded into a dark purple cell-shaded haze I thought to myself, I am about to play something special. And I did. The game was magical; enchanting and feels timeless, as if it operates within its own vacuum.

Just one problem...

But. I cannot get past the fact that the lock-on button and camera reset use the same button. Time and time again I would attempt to lock on only to have the camera swing around, have the game ignore the lock-on because I wasn't centred properly or the enemy was too far, or try to re-position the camera only to have it swing around and focus on an enemy. Whether it was me or the system I couldn't say but it rendered the combat experiences with many enemies frustrating and killed the momentum the game was otherwise giving me.

The game allows you to aim in First-Person, in fact it is necessary in places but trying to quick shoot arrows could sometimes place you in First-Person unintentional and kill the momentum of battles. These contrivances weren't absolutely detrimental to the overall experience of the game or even the combat, but it made skirmishes feel more contrived than they should have and one boss battle in particular in the sand felt borderline impossible at times. Now, on to the good.

Welcome to the Cell-Shaded Sea

The game is without a doubt beautiful. I'm reviewing the Wii U version and the added gloss and shine is stunning. The game truly does look ageless. It'd be hard to describe the game without the word charm, it just oozes it from the enemies through to the NPCs. Everything feels cohesive and just like a functional world. The sea actually feels as if its thriving and there is always something to discover and treasure to pull up. The draw distance can be choppy at times but it doesn't bring the game down in any way.

When you begin it already feels like an epic adventure is about to begin and as the game progresses and you gather your upgrades to unlock more of the map and areas it continues to feel bigger and grander. The lack of voice-overs in cutscenes do kill some of the epicness but I understand that the 3D Zelda games didn't have this feature until Breath of the Wild.

The temples are few in this game but they are deep and if you're unfamiliar with them, can take a while to complete. I got stuck several times and only once did I have to look up a guide to find out what to do. In this case, I'd simply forgotten what a certain item did which brings me to explain that this game can be a challenge if you only play it small burst at a time.

I forgot where I was going, what I was doing so many time it was would have been frustrating if I hadn't been content with just exploring the Great Sea. It was just an amazing experience to be up late at night, headphones in and on the GamePad cruising against deep blue sky over the cutting waves.

Some Final Notes

Wind Waker is a great game visually and design wise. I read up on a lot of the changes from the original and all of them seem like necessary and functional choices. I played the game for around 25 + hours and used a guide in places when I got stuck and didn't know where to go. The game lived up to the hype placed on it by the internet and as my first 3D Zelda game I can say it was an absolute blast and pleasure to play despite my grievances with the lock-on system and the camera at times. However, as with many things, there could still have been room for improvement and changes. Which is why, despite being charmed to Hell by the game I can only give it a 4 out of 5, or 9 out of 10.

Being my first Zelda game, I didn't know what was I going to see or play. I remember that there was no jump button, which was crazy for me coming from Mario. But soon I forgot it, because this game immersed me right from the start.

The game is beautiful to look at. After seeing some videos on the gamecube version, which did not look bad at all for its time, the difference is obvious. Just looking at the water or Link, this is definitely a beautiful game and a great remaster. Combat is nor easy nor hard, being instead a nice middle point between the two. You have enough sword techniques to make it feel varied yet not overly complex. And then, apart from the main weapon and shield you have other weapons that you gain throughout the game that help making the combat not feel stale and boring. And wow does the bow feel great to use. The motion controls of the gamepad have never been better implanted than this. It feel natural to aim and the game plays better this way. And if you don't like it, you can turn it off. And that's great, because the more choice we have, the better. Passing onto the level design, the best areas on this game are the dungeons. They are perfectly designed, fun to play through and great to explore. And just because the dungeons are the best part, doesn't mean the islands you visit are poorly designed, with each one of them being and feeling different than the other, while also also being beautiful to look at.

Then there's the amazing story. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but if when you reach the middle of the game you pause and look at what your first goal was when you started the game, which goes to show how great of an adventure it is. All of the characters have different personalities, and they all feel complex and real. Ganondorf, the villain of the game, doesn't feel like the generic villain, and ends up making you understand his side and why he is the way he is. He is definitely evil, but not just for the sake of it. Even Link has chance to shine in this game. The cartoon style graphics are used well in his situation, because while he still doesn't talk, he is given expressions and there are some really clever comedy scenes that are made funnier because of the amount of detail that went into his facial expressions.

And now we go into the last aspect of the game: the sailing. This is the aspect often regarded as boring and tedious. And I just have to disagree. It can get tedious, but now, thanks to the remaster/remake, you can get a new sail that let's you control the direction of the wind blowing and let's you go faster than normal. It's not hard to get the sail, however it is kind hard to know where you get it or that it even exists without help from a guide or a video. And that has to be my only small issue with the game. And even if you don't get it, fast travel is introduced early in the game which fixes the hassle of going to already discovered islands. And to be honest, the game felt like, to me, a contained yet greatly designed open world game. There were side missions, and you gain new weapons or improvements to Link from them. It felt great to sail off into the unknown, and I just got an immense amount of satisfaction from hearing the game's music while travelling through the sea. I think that after all I said it is kinda of obvious what my final rating will be. I absolutely loved this game, and I'm happy to give The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD 5/5 stars.