Zeruda no densetsu: Kaze no takuto

...Very good. Not as good as Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess, but it is unique in its own way. The cel-shade graphics are beautiful, and the characters are very expressive. The boss fights are challenging, and the story very interesting. The only bad thing is that you have to sail for way too long at times. But apart from that and trying to find good islands that you went to before and do not show up on your map afterwards, it is pretty close to flawless. The area is large, and there is a lot of things to do and you will want to go back to the islands again and again. Even though it is not as good as TP and OoT, it is better than I had expected.

I'm writing this from the perspective that the reader already knows Link and Zelda and has possibly heard a lot of negative comments, mostly about the cel shaded graphics, which give Wind Waker a more cartoony appearance. Major features of the game include: cel shaded 3D graphics, over 50 locations with tasks to complete, only slightly structured, fairly free storyline and game play, fun for all ages (I'm 38, my son is 6), and linking to a Gameboy Advance without needing a separate cartridge.

Considering the first Zelda I played (A Link to the Past) was stylized 2-D animation, this transformation to 3-D seemed pretty natural to me. Despite what some people have complained about, Link's appearance wasn't distracting at all, nor were the cartoony graphics. As a matter of fact, as a computer animated anime story, it was done quite well. I'm looking forward to future "realistic" Zelda games, but have no problems whatsoever with the cel shading used in Wind Waker.

The story revolves around you (an apparent heir of Link's) trying, once again, to defeat Ganondorf, Link's archenemy from the past. It starts innocently enough on your home island from which your little sister is abducted by a giant bird. The world is made up of 49 island locations on a 7 by 7 grid. You link up with some pirates who take you to where your sister is being held. Instead of rescuing her, you ultimately discover Ganondorf's plot to take over the world.

You are given the Wind Waker, a wand that can conduct wind (among other things), that initially helps you sail a LOT faster to various locations on the map, but ultimately has many more uses. Learning one pattern helps you conduct a gale that can carry you to one of eight locations on the map quickly, without having to go through the often tedious sailing.

A series of adventures ensues where you find stronger and stronger weapons, interact with dozens of the denizens of the world, and slowly but surely uncover the plot and collect all the items necessary to defeat the big bad enemy in a final showdown at the end.

I specifically wrote the previous paragraph that way so that you can cut and paste in your review of just about every adventure game in existence. We all know what it's about long before picking up the box, it's just a question of "did they do the adventure right?" All in all, I had a great (if sometimes frustrating) time playing the game. The story is downright addicting. I have a small family of four, and whenever someone (either me or my son) was playing, anybody who happened by would usually sit and watch. It's one of those games where, after hours of playing, you would keep saying "I'll just finish -something- and then I'll stop for today." You'd tell yourself that maybe a dozen times before you finally were ready to quit for the day.

The drawbacks are numerous, often taking a little something away from the game play. Despite these shortcomings, the game comes way out ahead, having great, fun game play. But just so you won't think I didn't warn you, here are some of my pet peeves:

Sailing is fun . . . for a little while. There's way too much of it here.

The music is not bad, but the game takes so long to finish you can't help but start to get annoyed at it.

The game often pauses to display dialog or other information. When it's dialog, you can skip past it fairly quickly by tapping the button. When it's instructions, it does not let you skip. This is annoying, because by the fortieth time I've found a "Joy Pendant", I already know what it's for. This happens on far too many objects.

When conducting with the Wind Waker, the animations are tedious after a while, with no way to skip past them.

The default 3D camera position is almost always WRONG, and the controllable camera is not versatile enough. Too many places require you to go to a first person mode in order to look around. This is especially bad in a number of fights, especially bosses.

And one final comment, without any spoilers, is during the final battle Zelda often talks to you. Now, note the last "peeve" I wrote above... after someone talks to you, the camera goes back to the default position... so if you're pushing one way to run, then the camera changes, the way you are pushing is usually not the way you want to go. Very frustrating.

Some of these "peeves" are things where it was just painfully obvious the creators of the game were trying to stretch out game play. Pretty annoying. As I said though, it's all about game play and this game was FUN, it was very hard to put down. I'd give it an easy 8 out of 10, maybe even a 9.

IMDb side note: IMDb keeps saying "cel" is not spelled correctly. It is, in fact, the way you spell the word when you are talking about animation.

There are lots of good things about this game. The music (at least towards the beginning of the game) is catchy, the controls are easy to learn, and gameplay is usually interesting. The graphics are great, and the expressions on faces are well done. The camera control is great. All in all, it's much better than Ocarina of Time.

This game does, however, have some problems. Getting around is really tedious. The world is big, but there isn't much there. So you find yourself changing the direction of the wind (do I have to play that stupid tune again?) and then putting the controller down while you wait out your long ride to the next island.

Some of the most annoying features of Ocarina of Time have been brought back to this one. There are some puzzles that really make you want to stop playing ("How in the world was I supposed to figure that out?"), and using the windwaker to perform tasks is a somewhat tedious process. Why don't they just have a simple command menu instead? There are a lot of things you need to do in the game that don't add to the enjoyment or the interest or the storyline, but just seem to be there in order to lengthen the gameplay.

There are some puzzles that need to be played over and over until you get them right. It's this way in just about every trademark game by Nintendo that I can think of (and, in my opinion, this is bad design). However, there aren't as many of these as there are in Ocarina of Time, and it's much less of an issue than it is in games like Super Mario Sunshine (ack!).

The fun, the challenge, and great graphics make this game a good one. Still, I had to stop every once in a while and play Metroid Prime instead, just to remind myself why I bought the GameCube in the first place.

I think "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" deserves a place right alongside "Ocarina of Time". A vast amount of people who call themselves 'fans' downed this game for a couple of reasons that I have read from previous reviews: they hated the graphics and they hated the fact that it actually takes TIME to sail around the ocean. I, personally, thought the game was beautiful to look at. Besides, who wants the same old thing every time? Cel-shading was a very wise and unique move, and I love the characters' facial expressions in this game, something you didn't see much of in the previous Zelda games. And as far as sailing on the ocean goes, I enjoyed the scenery. It DID get a little dull at times, especially sailing from one end of the screen to the other with no warp song accessible. But nevertheless, it didn't take any enjoyment of the game away from me. Exploring the towns was nice, and fighting the bosses was very entertaining. The game isn't too long, though it took me about a week and a half to beat it because I was in college at the time I had purchased it. Overall, "The Wind Waker" is an outstanding game and offers the player many extensive, entertaining hours of gameplay. 10/10

I was a big Zelda fan growing up, and I knew I had to play this game when I first saw the commercial for it years ago as a kid. It was a fantastic gaming experience, and I still remember it fondly today.

Hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time, the land of Hyrule has been completely flooded, leaving only the mountain tops for its surviving inhabitants to live on. An Outset Island boy, Toon Link (as he's called here), sets out to rescue his kidnapped sister Aryll, with the help of the mysterious pirate captain Tetra. In the process, Link gets caught up in an adventure to become the hero of the wind and save the world from Ganondorf, the great king of evil, who has broken free from the sacred realm.

While the controls handle much the same as previous installments, the game has a distinctively cartoonish aesthetic which was the result of cell shading because of the GameCube's limitations at the time. While many gamers felt this new art style was a drawback, I found it endearing. While the last console installment, Majora's Mask, was dark, surreal, and frightening, Wind Waker is bright, cheery, and festive. Even ReDeads don't look that creepy. I feel this made the game more appealing to young gamers whose first console was the Nintendo GameCube.

The graphics were gorgeous, bright, and colorful. The characters have excellent designs and more extensive expressions and fluid movements. Not to mention there's more voice clips during dialogue. You could see rippling swells and foam in the water while sailing, floating pollen particles inside the Forbidden Woods, and lava embers inside Dragon Roost volcano.

The story is brilliant and has engaging dialogue with rich new characters and plenty of touching moments, like Link reuniting with Ayrll, healing his sickly grandmother, and Tetra apologizing to Link and bidding him good luck inside the Master Sword chamber.

The composers, including Nintendo legend Koji Kondo, once more knock it out of the park with the game's marvelous music. The soundtrack includes the nautical and adventurous song you hear while crossing the Great Sea, while the islands of Outset, Windfall, and Dragon Roost all have fittingly bright, catchy, and tropical themes. Of course, there's some darker tunes, like the boss themes and especially Ganondorf's theme played during the final battle. The sound effects tend to be as bright and quirky as the character designs. Everything here sounded great.

The world of Zelda has been completely rebuilt here. The theme is a little more modern with pirate-era themes like sailing ships and cannons involved. Instead of Hyrule Field, the main hub is the Great Sea which you traverse via the King of Red Lions instead of Epona. The games titular instrument, the Wind Waker, replaces the Ocarina and gives you control over the wind. New races, like the birdlike Ritos and Koroks are introduced as descendants of the Zoras and Kokori respectively. Items exclusive to Wind Waker are introduced, and items like the Telescope, Grappling Hook, and Deku Leaf are available. All of this gives the game a fresh new feeling and style.

Sure, the games difficulty is a step back from the N64 entries and it's a little short with only seven dungeons, but the story is still well-written, the characters are rich and well developed, and the dialogue is riveting. They even provide Ganondorf with a more sympathetic reason for coveting the Tri-Force besides a mere lust for power.

In the second half of the game, there's lots of sailing and searching for Triforce pieces involved that can be frustrating and it doesn't come cheap, thanks to Tingle. Luckily, there are plenty of treasures to find and sell to get the rupees you need to beat the game.

Overall, this was an excellent start for the Zelda franchise on the GameCube and is now available to play on the Switch 2.