Wind Waker's Infamous Forsaken Fortress Isn't Nearly As Frustrating As You Remember

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was my first proper game in the series. I’d dabbled briefly in Ocarina of Time and caught my siblings playing smaller portable titles over 𒈔the years. But if I had to pinpoint exactly when my lifelong obsession with Hyrule began, it would be with a cel-shaded masterpiece that took the world by storm back in 2003.

Now the classic has arrived on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch 2 alongside three other GameCube bangers through its online subscription service. This isn’t the HD remaster, but a faithful journey down memory lane, complete with a third act where you spend too long collecting Triforce pieces.

But I don’t want to talk about that obnoxious endgame grind today. Instead, let’s go to a lit🐭tle place called the Forsaken Fortress.

Forsaken Fortress Is The Only Thing Standing Between You And Wind Waker

Wind Waker begins with Link doing odd jobs around Outset Island before his younger sister is kidnapped by a giant bird, and you team up with a crew of pirates to save her. You’ll learn how to fight with a shield, pick up objects like pots and pigs, and even run away from a child w𝓀ith snot dripping from his nose. If you know what you’re doing, you can speed through this introduction in a matter of minutes, although there is something wonderful about taking your time on Link’s birthday and learning to love this homely island before it’s taken away.

If this really is Ganondorf’s true hideout, the dude needs to ser🍬iously improve his interior decoration skills. Nothing about thi🥃s place screams ‘final boss’ to me.

Tetra winks at Link before firing him out of a cannon in Wind Waker.

And, once you leave it behind, only a few dialogue scenes and irksome platforming puzzles stand between you and the Forsaken Fortress. Ganondorf’s base is a sprawling wooden beast flanked by giant Moblin guards and Bokoblin searchlights watching every corner. This isn’t the place for a hardened warrior, let alone a sm🐷all child like Link. But you’re here, and you ain’t leaving until you’ve at least tried to save your sist♊er.

I always had trouble with this section as a kid, and even found it to be oddly terrifyi🦋ng as I hid inside barrels and prayed the guard wouldn’t notice me sneaking about the pla♎ce. When they do, a piercing sound cue follows as Link is thrown into jail. It’s not only scary, but surprisingly unforgiving for this early stage of the game.

I feared this section as I picked up the emulated version on Nintendo S💃witch 2 as well, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about.

It’s Not Nearly As Punishing As My Childhood Memories Tried To Tell Me

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Forsaken Fortress

Video games felt a lot bigger when we played them as kids. Levels that today are just a few small rooms and a handful of enemy encounters were unstoppable labyrinths with countless possibilities. Wind Waker still feels like a huge experience when exploring its colossa💜l blue ocean, but the Forsaken Fortress is🌠 a small and pretty simplistic dungeon once you break everything down.

It’s made up of a series of corridors and rooms🅷 filled with patrolling guards and a handful of smaller enemies like bats and imps, with a giant pool alongside a couple of platforms found within the centre. All around the place are searchlights that will spell a quick prison sentence once you stumble into them, and it’s your mission to switch them all off. Do that and you will open up a route to the prison room in which your sister is being held.

If anything, Forsaken Fortress i♉s an incredibly basic tutorial dungeon. It even has a map and compass you can track down if you’re willing to explore every 🍰single room.

There are only a few enemies you actually need to kill, and with your sword being taken away, you’ll need to pilfer long stick🃏s from pots in order to do so. The pig-headed Moblins that used to give me nightmares as a child are trivial to outsmart, with long turning circles and a predictable movement routine that Link can skirt around with ease. I used to view Forsaken Fortress as an impossible obstacle, but two decades later, I conquered it in less than ten minutes. Then you me💧et the King of Red Lions and the real game can finally begin.

I’m glad this previously frustrating section is easier as an adult, although I’m somewhat sad t🍨hat so much of its magic and terror is drastically diluted. Video games have evolved, and my perceptions of them and how I can go about conquering each one have done so too. The Wind Waker is still a magical game, and I’m sure collecting all of those Triforce pieces will be an absolute bore, but the section that once made me quak🦋e in my little boots is no more.