4/5 ★ – stephenhill777's review of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.

A brief explanation on my relationship with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I played this game in the late 00s, at least 5 years after it was released. I came away from it feeling underwhelmed, despite its many positives. I have now played the HD version and certainly feel a little bit better about the game….but I still maintain that this is one of the weaker entries in the Zelda franchise. In terms of 3D Zelda games, only Skyward Sword sits lower on my list. I’ll acknowledge the many positives it has, but there are some glaring faults that I feel most people give a free pass to. First of all, let’s give credit where it’s due; this game still looks incredible, obviously. The cel-shaded art style remains as flawless today as it was back in 2003 and refuses to age. This is the most likable and expressive version of Link there has ever been, and his supporting cast members are equally well-drawn. I particularly like Ganondorf, who has been depicted here as a weary old samurai. However, the star of the show is the snot-nosed kid, who walks around with a 6-inch drip hanging from his nose at all time. How could you fail to be charmed by that? Locales are simply drawn, but pleasingly framed, with plenty of rounded edges and swirling motifs. The HD version improves on this in many ways, though there are occasional lighting choices that look notably worse. These are rare however, and for the most part, it is a net positive. There is also a lot to be said for the very specific atmosphere that the game is aiming for. This has a very cosy Saturday morning cartoon vibe about it. The secluded island communities and their completely unproblematic lifestyles are a testament to this. You’ll visit places like Windfall Island or Dragon Roost Island and no one bats an eye at your arrival because you’re basically neighbours. You solve quaint little dilemmas for the villagers, such as playing a game of hide and seek with school children, or helping to repair a lighthouse. In turn, you will be rewarded with valuable trinkets, such as feathers or bottles of soup. These feed terrifically into the game’s vibe, which emphasizes that this is a world seen through a child’s eyes, and the threat to the world is nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Commuting between these island paradises is, for the most part, a very soothing experience, aided considerably by the stellar music. The Wind Waker has an iconic soundtrack. Each island boasts its own unique theme, and all of them are as comforting as a warm blanket on a winter evening. No tune is more uplifting and universally appealing as the Great Sea theme however, and you will have a hard time finding a review of Wind Waker that doesn’t single out this specific track for how inspiring it is. And while I do agree that the track is a fantastic one, I also think it’s responsible for blinding people to one of the game’s biggest flaws: the sailing. You spend a massive amount of this game, possibly 30-40% of it, sailing with the King of Red Lions. On paper, sailing across the Great Sea is a very romantic notion, and there are snapshots within gameplay that made me feel as much a brave sea-faring explorer as any great nautical epic. However…I would recommend, for the sake of objectivity, taking a journey across the waves with the volume muted. Doing so will reveal that that the gameplay in these sections is as shallow as the sea is deep. There’s nothing to do while you sail, except occasionally change the wind direction (annoying), hop over attacking sharks (mindless) and collect appearing rupees (pointless). There are submarines and small islands to discover, absolutely, but that sense of discovery doesn’t benefit from the sailing in any way. The original game included fast travel, which helped, and the HD re-release features the special Swift Sail item, which increases your speed and automatically shifts the wind direction so it's always behind you. This shortens the experience, rather than improves upon it, which should have been the focus. To make matters worse, the game often encourages aimless exploration, with no clear goal in mind. The infamous Triforce shard quest is worth bringing up at this point, although it has in fact been overhauled and improved upon in this HD edition. Despite being more streamlined, there`s no getting around the fact that this is still a flimsy substitute for the dungeons that clearly weren`t completed on time. Searching for these sunken treasures, while thematically appropriate, still feels like artificial padding and serves to highlight the sailing flaws mentioned earlier. Worse still, there is a point in the game where you are told you don’t have the tools needed to access the Earth and Wind temples. Not to worry, as the King of Red Lions tells you, because they can be found “somewhere in the world”. This is a real line of dialogue; in which you are tasked with scouring the entire world map in an effort to find specific, one-of-a-kind items. To add insult to injury, this is a multi-tiered side-quest, which offers practically no hints at all as it develops. Despite all of this, Wind Waker does still get a stamp of approval. For all of these flaws, which do make up a significant portion of the game, there is little that can be faulted outside of your main mode of transport. Combat is vastly improved since Majora’s Mask, allowing you to dodge, counter-attack and pick up enemy weapons. There is a side-mission that involves hitting your swordplay coach 300 times in order to win a heart piece and even that doesn’t feel anything like a chore. The dungeons are as tightly designed as ever, albeit a little simpler than in previous games. The way the game teaches you how to use items or solve puzzles is particularly note-worthy. Rather than explain with text, the game constantly provides the easiest version of a puzzle for you to solve, to show you understand the mechanics. Only then does it get more complex and include more elements. The items too have been improved upon, the floating Deku leaf being a particular highlight, which predates Breath of the Wild’s glider. Only the grappling hook, which offers similar utility to the hookshot, feels like a bit of a dud. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is an incredibly easy game to recommend, because the highs are so very high compared to the middling lows. It is not the perfect masterpiece it is often made out to be however, it’s more like a trip to Disneyland. You’ll spend a ton of time waiting around, more than you would anywhere else, really. You might even spend that entire time complaining, like I just did. But you accept it because, in the end, you’re going to walk away smiling.