Now Playing: The Wind Waker HD

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was originally released on the GameCube in 2003. Spin on 10 years, and Nintendo released a HD remaster of WW for the Wii U, which is the version I’m going to be reviewing. It’s an important distinction to make, because the Wii U remaster doesn’t only overhaul the graphical quality of the original, but also includes alterations and additions to various aspects of gameplay.

I played WW on release and it quickly became one of, if not my favourite of the Zelda games. Does this HD remaster do the original game justice? Do the changes they’ve made improve the experience or weaken it?

Honestly, it’s hard to say. It’s been over 10 years since I played the GC version, and whilst I remembered quite a bit of the original going into this remaster, there was a lot I totally forgot about.

Also, in the years since WW released, numerous other games, including new Zelda titles, have arrived and improved on many aspects of what WW did right . . . and not so right. It was always going to be strange playing WW immediately following Breath of the Wild, because BotW was such a radical departure from the Zelda ‘formula’ that WW so rigidly adheres to.

Has the open freedom of BotW made previous Zelda games seem less . . . good? I don’t think so, but I don’t think you can ignore the impact it’s had on the series as a whole, both past and future. Because although WW does adhere to a very rigid and linear structure of progression, that’s not really my issue with it. No, it’s not the strict, structured progression that’s the problem, but rather how the game handles it.

Something I didn’t remember about the original game was how easy the whole thing is. We get off to a rather slow start as the game walks you through an extended tutorial segment. The problem is, it never really stops walking you through the content. The game will always tell you exactly where to go and what to do.

There’s no real challenge to the game. There’s no sense of mystery, of figuring things out on your own. The solution to the dungeon puzzles are all too obvious, as are the patterns to the boss fights. The Wind Waker is easy, which isn’t itself a serious issue, it’s more that it’s insultingly easy.

The world of WW is a fairly large open ocean broken down into individual tiles, each with its own unique island. But only a handful of these islands are particularly substantial or important. And until you progress far enough to unlock various items, the majority of these islands won’t even be accessible.

If you’re playing Wind Waker, you really need to follow the main quest because there’s very little point to exploration until you’ve unlocked all of the main items. It’s also far more enjoyable to explore once you do, because without abilities such as the fast travel system, or the new HD addition of the ‘upgraded’ sail, it’s rather tedious getting about.

There is side content in WW, but very little of it is advertised and none of it is tracked. There’s some good stuff to be found, but you really need to seek it out. And whilst many of the islands in the game aren’t very important or offer any substantial content, they do nearly always contain a treasure to collect or a puzzle to solve, making your exploration feel worthwhile.

And it’s important to note that whilst I dislike how heavily WW walks you through its core content, and how easy it is, that doesn’t mean the core content is bad. In fact, it’s actually pretty good. All of the dungeons were fun to complete. Each was unique visually, but also in terms of enemies, puzzles and bosses.

Each dungeon had its own ‘theme’, usually based around a particular puzzle mechanic or key item. And each featured its own unique boss with a unique pattern to defeat. They’re all pretty clever, even if they’re not particularly challenging. In this respect, WW has far more entertaining and interesting dungeons than BotW.

And I did enjoy a return to that sense of mechanical progression that BotW somewhat lacked. Each dungeon gave me something new. Something that opened up the world just a little more. The problem WW has though, is that whereas BotW didn’t gate its content at all, WW gates its content too heavily.

You can never really shake the feeling that the game is just walking you through everything, step by step. And this is even more apparent in this HD remaster when it comes to your final main quest prior to facing Ganon. It involves tracking down eight shards of the triforce.

In the GC original, you had to first track down a sea chart for each, pay for each chart to be deciphered, and then find the islands where the pieces were located. But a lot of people apparently didn’t like this, which is why they altered the quest in this remaster so that only three of the pieces require a chart. The rest it just tells you exactly where to find them.

I can see why people would prefer this change, but it kind of bothers me. I don’t recall having any issue with the way the quest was handled originally. In fact, I remember quite liking that stage of the game. With all my key items unlocked, I could now explore the ocean as I pleased, taking my time with each chart until I discovered every shard.

But now the game practically just gives them to you, without any real work. I can see why many may dislike the original version of this quest and may find it tedious and slow, but I’m just not sure the way they handle it in this remaster is the best possible solution.

Graphically, this remaster looks fantastic. Link in this game is so damn expressive. It is, overall, a more light hearted affair, with more humour and silly characters and situations than some of the other Zelda games, but it can be serious when it needs to.

In fact, the story of WW is very good, and I really like the way it plays upon a previous game in the series, as well as how it handles both Zelda herself and especially Ganon. Here, Ganon isn’t just a giant smoke monster, but an actual character. And when you reach the end of the game and learn about what happened in the past and why the world is the way it is, you can almost sympathise with the bastard.

I also really like the ending, which is both bitter sweet, but also hopeful for the future. Oh, and your final fight against Ganon is a lot of fun with what may be best delivered final blow in the entire series.

Some other minor irritations I have to mention are the dodgy auto-jump which doesn’t always work exactly the way you want. You may, for example, just want to drop down from a ledge, but instead Link decides to take a flying, suicidal leap. The game does have some unfortunate frame rate issues. It really tanks whenever you get a few ships firing cannons at the same time.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is a good remaster of a good game, but I can’t really shake the feeling that I enjoyed the original more. I don’t know if that’s because of the changes they’ve made, or simply because Zelda, as a series, has evolved and improved since. Even so, WW is still a lot of fun to play. Sailing across that open ocean remains as enjoyable today as it did all those years ago.

7/10