I never beat Wind Waker. I’m going to have to admit that. I had some stuff go down just as I was on the cusp of beating it, I was just about to fight Ganon, that made it really hard for me to get through it. I really liked the game back then, and I have an even higher opinion now.
Zelda has always been a game about a young boy that goes from being a weak person to finding himself on an amazing quest and acquiring all sorts of new abilities and weapons. Miyamoto has always said that was the core of the game along with the idea of exploring, as he had done in the caves near his home. And as I played Twilight Princess I really didn’t feel as if it kept in this mold. To me, Twilight Princess took everything that was (and is) currently popular with gaming and tried to calm all of the angry cries of the gamers that disliked the cell shaded Zelda look. Right down to the Gears of War color palette. I liked Twilight Princess, but I think it is probably the weakest Zelda that Nintendo has ever developed.
Every Zelda previous to it has been a completely new and different gameplay experience. Obviously, the first one stands for itself. After that The Adventure of Link added RPG elements into the mix and side-scrolling action levels. A Link to the Past returned to the game play of the original, but greatly expanded upon every element and adding several new ideas such as the light and dark worlds. The Ocarina of Time brought Zelda into 3d and, in my opinion, is the best 2d to 3d transition a series has ever had while preserving Link’s trek from little boy to powerful hero. Majora’s Mask had an intersting time element brought into the fold. Wind Waker completely re-visualized the series to return it more to its original art style while adding the sailing mechanic. And Twilight Princess…well…added poor Wii support? I mean the bow and the boomerang was ok, but towards the end of the game I was really sick of wagging my hand all around. I would much have preferred using the Gamecube controller, and had it had widescreen support I probably would have. Twilight Princess, to me, is just a response to the criticism of the Wind Waker art style and an attempt to appease fans of games that use the dark Gears of War color palette. Obviously, the Gears of War palette works amazingly for a game like that, but completely goes against everything that Zelda has been. Twilight Princess should simply have used different characters and called itself something different and I would have been fine.
This brings me back to Wind Waker. As I’ve been replaying it it has more and more made me realize just how much ZELDA flair was missing from Twilight Princess. The Wind Waker has all the nods to the other games in the series while still doings completely new things. It also was an amazing artistic choice to go with something so different and buck the realism trend. Wind Waker has the great style present in so many 2d games, and basically helped me realize why I dislike so many 3d games. It is the attempt at realism! I love the artistic choices that different designers make, and just trying to make something look completely perfect as it is in the real world is more of a technical achievement than an artistic one. With 2d, the designers basically had to think creatively with their limitations. Nothing wrong with realism, but it almost instantaneously takes everything that I love about games away. I find nothing interesting in it, and I’m glad I’ve finally figured out exactly what it is about certain games that I detest.
I’m really excited to get through more Wind Waker, but it has been slow going as we have been so busy lately! With work during the week and something every weekend up until the move, I have barely had time to sleep! It is crazy! Literally something that I have to do every weekend. I never knew that preparing for a move and all this stuff took so much time. It is all wonderful and exciting though. See you all on Saturday!
