4.5/5 ★ – Empyrean's review of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Review copied from the remaster which looks worse: Revisiting a childhood favorite is always a gamble, especially after 20+ years, but thankfully Wind Waker still holds up. Mostly. Unlike perhaps any Zelda entry up until this point, WW is all peaks and valleys. It has some series highs, such as the timeless visuals, Toon Link, the story (when it happens), and a cast of characters almost as good as MM. Also the wisps of smoke. Sadly, it also seems quite confused and is determined to waste your time. For a game about letting go of the past it sure it determined to recycle a lot from Ocarina, and other titles to a lesser extent. People like to praise this Ganondorf as the best due to his characterisation, but that’s only in the final monologue. Until then he’s exactly the same and tries to kill Link several times only to say he’ll spare them at the end? The dungeons, and their respective music, are also very weak across the board and made me appreciate Majora’s a lot more. The pacing is also pretty horrendous. The last half of the game is an absolute slog, especially if you’ve already done a lot of side content (which already isn’t worthwhile and features the worst trading quest in the franchise). Similarly to Link’s Awakening, it feels like a good amount of my playtime was halted by various pace breakers. Whilst I walk away from Wind Waker after all these years slightly disappointed, it’s still a fantastic game and an essential title in the series.