Wind Waker is up there with Skyward Sword as one of the most divisive Zelda games ever made, though its detractors tend to focus on the cartoonish art style and straightforward dungeons. There’s no denying that it took risks, and these risks elevated the series above anything that had come before. In many ways, the GameCube title is the most innovative Legend of Zelda game ever madeꦛ.
Before we get into The Wind Waker itself, let’s talk about what came before. Ocarina of Time is the other most obvious candidate for the most innovative Zelda game pre-Wind Waker, as it ushꦕered in 3D Zeldas, which is obviously a huge departure from tradition. However, its 🎃story followed the classic formula and the world was pretty traditional, just with an extra dimension. This isn’t a sleight on Ocarina, it’s one of my favourite games of all time, but it took fewer risks than its successor and built on the success of Mario 64 before it.
The Wind Waker pushed that open world to its limits, for better or worse. I’m soothed by traversing the ocean, but the game’s sailing haters have a point: it takes ages to get anywhere, and there’s not a great lot to do while you’re on the open water. However, even if you’re not a fan, it’s hard to ignore the fact that sinking the ꧑entirety of Hyrule is a bold move.
Sunken Hyrule was intended to be fully playable, which would have been incredibly cool to experience. However, it’s almost ꦚmore powerful that you can’t fully explore this Hyrulian Atlantis, and that the vast majority of the game takes place on its uppermost peaks, which pierce the vast sea as islands. The Wind Waker is to Zelda what Black Flag is to A🌼ssassin’s Creed: an interesting, oceanborne iteration on a popular formula, and both games are better for trying something radical.
It’s not just about the sea, though, The Wind Waker’s combat is a vast improvement over any game to come before it. Admittedly most enemies and even bosses are far too easy (something the HD remaster fixes), but the ability to counter foes instead of just bashing them repeatedly makes for more interesting and varied fights. Take Darknuts, for example. In previous games, you had to wait for similarly sized opponents like Stalfoses to drop their shields before slicing their skeletal torsos in two. In The Wind Waker, you’re prompted to counter Darknuts by pressing A, which makes Link frontflip over them, slicing the leather straps that hold their armour together, and making them suddenly vulnerable to your strikes. This is an idea that many Zelda games built upon moving forwards, and is the entire basis of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild’s combat.
Not all of The Wind Waker’s innovations were successful (I'm not sure why Elvis cameos didn't catch on), but that’s the price of taking risks. I mentioned the linear dungeons earlier, but they’re one of the game’s biggest flaws. Coincidentally, the same could be said for Breath of the Wild, which is probably the most innovative Zelda game since.
The Wind Waker doesn’t always try new things, either. The story is fairly standard Zelda fare, and there are clever reflections of Ocarina of Time throughout. Take the final battles of each game. In Ocarina of Time, you fight Ganondorf in a fiery arena, before taking on his monstrous form. In The Wind Waker, you battle his monstrous form first before taking on the man himself in an arena surr✃ounded by a sphere of falling water. It’s an epic climax to the game – even if the final fight in The Wind Waker itself is a little underwhelming – but the thematic contradictions are a nice touch.
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I haven’t even mentioned half of the smaller touches that The Wind Waker incorporates into Zelda for the first time, and the cartoonish art style has been thoroughly discussed by countless others before me. Tetra is an iconic iteration of Zelda w🧸ho has more agency than most Princesses before her – Sheik excepted – there’s a golf minigame, and Link even speaks in a few moments!
Whether you think these changes to the Zelda formula worked or not, there’s no denying that The Wind Waker tried to do something new. Its status as a cult classic among the Zelda canon is largely defined by these shifts and twists, as players had to deal with their expectations being subverted at every opportunity. The Wind Waker did an open world before Breath of the Wild and better than Ocarina of Time. It sank the territory players knew and loved, and placed Link at the helm of the King of Red Lions instead of atop Epona. There may still be fairies, heart pieces, and dungeons, but The Wind Waker changed everything for the Legend of Zelda. You can see its DNA in every game since, and elements of its combat and exploration will undoubtedly be visible in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom, too. Love it or hate it, The Wind Waker is the most innovative Zelda title ever made, and the series would look very different today if Nintendo hadn&ไrsquo;t taken so many risks 20 years ago.