The Wind Waker is maybe the best damn thing Nintendo has accomplished in the past ten years
This is the part where you're probably like "what, that silly thing? How so?" Well, hypothetical reader, I'm glad you asked, so allow me to present you with my own list:
FIVE REASONS WHY THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER IS SO DAMN GOOD YOU JUST DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE
So, without further ado, let us jump into the awesome of this game that you might just have a higher opinion of by the end of the next ten minutes or so.
(Spoiler Warning: Obviously, the ending of this game will be ruined, but also several references to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's religious implications and revelations will be made, complete with a spoiler warning when they do pop up)
#5: A huge world... that you actually WANT to explore
Obviously, the
This is where The Wind Waker got it right: you start with virtually nothing on your map, and your Sea Chart, even when complete, has minimal information on it. You collect other charts, but no one chart has everything, you have to piece the information together, even cross-referencing treasure charts with your main Sea Chart. This sounds like a lot of work if you haven't played the game, but it has a wonderful side-effect: you WANT to see everything there is to see. Some islands have no plot relevance... so what are they hiding? What secrets can you get? You're sailing between islands, and you see... a lookout tower! A submarine! A fish! Sunken treasure! Let's stop and fight/explore/ask for hints/scavenge. There's so many things, and this is the secret. Unlike the other games I mentioned, where the overworld feels frankly mechanical, the ocean here feels ALIVE. You can ignore the plot for days on end and just... explore. There's so much depth, and that's what The Legend of Zelda has been about since 1986. The original game had so many useless areas, but that's because you didn't care, you just wanted to see everything, to explore. And that's what almost every 3D Zelda game did wrong, but The Wind Waker did right.
#4: Finding the Triforce of Courage... without main dungeon-crawling
There comes a point in the plot of the game where the dungeon-crawling comes to a halt, and you are expected to find eight pieces of the Triforce of Courage, which might be the longest stretch outside of a dungeon in a Zelda game to date, depending on how much exploration you've done up until this point in the game.
Again, this is another thing so many Zelda games do one way, but The Wind Waker tries another way... and gets it perfect. The shards of the Triforce themselves are located under the sea, meaning the player must salvage them manually, but cannot do so without a chart. Getting the chart, on the other hand, is where the adventure comes in. For example, one is found on the bottom floor of the Savage Labyrinth, which puts Link's endurance and courage to the test. One requires you to solve what you thought was a side-quest involving schoolkids and a teacher on Windfall Island in order to get a key to a private villa. One involves traversing a maze to get the Ghost Ship Chart, which then sends you chasing a vessel that changes location depending on the phase of the moon.
Sounds like an awful lot of work, doesn't it? But again, this is a game that makes you WANT to explore. The Triforce Charts really integrate the ocean into the plot of the game, making the overworld feel just as puzzling and exciting as the dungeons, and gives the game a homogenous feeling of exploration throughout, something the other games don't always accomplish. Sure, you're not finding a dungeon item and beating a boss with it, but this is really what makes it feel less artificial, less like a "game," and more like an adventure. Because at the heart of it, that's where The Wind Waker really gets it right - it's an adventure.
#3: Ganon is a total badass
Thanks to Hyrule Historia, we now have the Nintendo-Approved timeline to The Legend of Zelda, so we can make statements on the progression of the one character who exists in the most titles in the series: Ganon (remember, each Link is generally considered a separate person in a line of spiritual successors of the Hero of Time; same goes for Zelda). At the end of Ocarina of Time, Ganon is sealed in the Sacred Realm by the Seven Sages, and Zelda sends Link seven years into the past so he may live the childhood he missed, due to being sealed in the Temple of Time for seven years. According to the official timeline, Link and past Zelda reveal Ganon's plot before he can enact it, which leads to the execution scene from the flashback in Twilight Princess. However, in the future Link just left, his bloodline is permanently removed, thanks to Zelda sending him back. If we continue among this timeline, Ganon eventually breaks out of the Sacred Realm and amasses an army, and the people of the land pray for the Hero of Time to save them again.
...but the hero did not appear.
Eventually, the Goddesses "answer" the Hylians' prayers by flooding the land, killing basically everyone not living on top of a mountain (except, ironically, Ganon), and resetting everything. The Wind Waker takes place while Hyrule is still underwater, and Ganon has realized he can once again return Hyrule to its former state through the power of the Triforce.
Eventually, when Link meets Ganon, he learns Ganon's motives, and the player's hatred of this man hits a brick wall. Ganon just wanted the Gerudo people to be able to experience the fresh world, the feeling of inclusion and acceptance, that the Hylians had. I mean, granted, he's a proven lying bastard, so the fact that he's [SPOILER] a being manifested out of Demise's pure hatred, making him essentially Hyrule's Anti-Christ, probably has something to do with it, too.
In the final fight, Ganon's true colours emerge. Once he's deprived of his chance to rule the beautiful lands he coveted, he decides that, since he's about to die under the crushing weight of the ENTIRE OCEAN, he might as well take you down with him. And this is arguably the most spectacular and fun fight in the entire franchise, with Koloktos from Skyward Sword being the only enemy I can think of to even come CLOSE to the scope of this particular bout with Ganon.
Of course, he must eventually be defeated, but even when he is, he closes with one of the most badass last lines in gaming.
"The wind... it is blowing..."
#2: Traditional Gender Roles are skewed, then re-established... then upended all over again
I'm not talking much about Aryll here, who serves as our damsel in distress for most of this game. It's Tetra that's the interesting one. Tetra starts out the game as a pirate captain, bossing around the boys, and looking several years too young for some of the lewd implications the other pirates make about her. She's tough, she's confident, she's the girl in charge... and then everything changes when she and Link go to Hyrule Castle, which is held in suspended animation under the sea.
It turns out that, surprise surprise, Tetra is actually this game's princess Zelda, and therefore [SPOILER] the physical manifestation of Hylia, making her this game's Jesus. This is where the game really rubs me the wrong way, similar to how Pokémopolis claims Togepi ruined the strong female lead of Pokémon by turning her into a one-dimensional maternal figure (couldn't find the link, sorry). Zelda remains in Hyrule Castle, where the King wants her to be safe from Ganon... of course, she is kidnapped eventually. She went from ass-kicker to helpless maiden locked away to damsel in distress... way to "feminize" in the worst possible way, Nintendo.
Eventually Link makes it to the final battle with Ganon, and promptly gets his ass handed to him. Before Ganon is victorious, the King buys Link a couple seconds of time, and guess who shows up... ZELDA. With the Master Sword. Link ends up taking the sword, and Zelda the Light Arrows, and they gear up for a two-on-one battle against Ganon.
Here's where things are really shaken up. Sure, in Ocarina of Time you fight Ganon with Zelda, and she uses magic to pin him down for you to deliver the final blow, but it's pretty damn obvious that you don't need help. You're the Hero of Time, dammit, you just owned this fight all by yourself, you could keep going for hours. Yeah... not in this game. In The Wind Waker, Ganon is more than a match for BOTH of you. Pay attention to the third phase of the fight, after Zelda re-awakens after being knocked unconscious, but before she gets the idea to reflect light arrows off of your shield. How many times did you hit Ganon? Oh, that's right... NONE. Without breaking into the code to confirm, I feel I can safely say that short of exploiting glitches, you CANNOT hit Ganon in this phase. He is infinitely better than you, poor player.
This is where Zelda comes in. You see, she started as being the badass you hoped to be, was then diminished to passive female lead, and then to damsel in distress. All of a sudden, she's now your only hope of defeating Ganon. The fight is impossible to win on your own, and she becomes your lifeline. Partnering with Zelda is the way you overcome, and when you finally do triumph over Ganon, it's because the lead female character opened up a can of whoop-ass on him. However, don't forget, there's still one more thing even better about this game...
#1: The Hero of Winds is better than you at everything
Hey, he used the title of the post in the post, how cute. Anyways, let's jump back to Hyrule Historia for a second, and realize something pretty huge about Link. You see, at the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda sends Link back to the past, but in doing so, removes Link's bloodline from this chronology. When Ganon eventually breaks from the seal holding him in the Sacred Realm, there is no descendant of the Hero. Ganon's entire purpose, [SPOILER] being the incarnation of Demise's hatred for the Hero of Time, is now lost, and so he's free to go about his slightly-less-mindlessly-evil evil ways.
Enter this Link. The Hero of Winds. Link here is treated in the beginning of the game as the butt of almost any joke. He's smashed against walls, ridiculed by pirates, strapped in barrels and catapulted into evil fortresses, thrown into the sea, chased around by snot-nosed kids and pigs, and all sorts of humiliating things. He just can't get a break. Then, of course, in traditional Zelda style, it turns out you're the hero... BUT WAIT.
No, go ahead, watch it again. I'll wait while it sinks in.
Seriously, this has to be the greatest idea Nintendo had in The Wind Waker. Previous games use incarnations of the legendary Hero of Time, knight of Skyloft who [SPOILER] vanquished this game's equivalent of the devil, Demise, and whose bloodline is burdened with keeping his malevolent intentions at bay. The Wind Waker does nothing like that. Link is not the reincarnation of a legendary hero. Link is not connected by fate to the Blade of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword. Link is not destined to wield the Triforce of Courage.
But you know what? HE DOES IT ANYWAYS.
Seriously, this is brilliant. It's all because Ganon kidnaps Link's sister, thinking she looks enough like what Zelda is supposed to look like that maybe she is. Obviously, we find out it's Tetra, but Ganon's not above kidnapping girls until he stumbles across the right one by chance. And that's his mistake... he messes with this little kid with no destiny, no background, no anything. Just a whole lot of courage, and a whole lot of determination. Ganon could have never seen it coming. He lets Link live at the beginning of the game, because he's not the Hero of Time, he's some worthless kid.
But Ganon KIDNAPPED HIS SISTER.
And for that... he dies.
Link, the Hero of Winds, goes down in the books as one of the biggest badasses in video games.
(Also, this track is amazing)
(Next time: probably some trumpet stuff!)
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