• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Twilight Princess is definitively better than Wind Waker

I absolutely adore Wind Waker. Yes, the dungeons are weak though. I won't argue that at all. Everything else is just so goddamn good though. The art, the music, the animations, the characters, the charm and style put into everything. It's a beautiful, whimsical adventure. It's a top tier Zelda for sure.

Twilight Princess has better dungeons, some of the best in the series, really. It's really brought down though by its bland presentation and boring characters. Midna is fantastic. Nobody else in that game, not even Zelda, is interesting. It's still a great game, but I'd honestly rank it as the worst 3D entry.
 

Nuu

Banned
Twilight Princess is the best Zelda game. Windwaker is the worst 3D one by far. I do appreciate the lack of handholding and exploration in Windwaker though.
 
I'm fine with this. I want the Wind Waker revisionist history to end. This game was reviled after it came out. Empty ocean with tedious boat/wind controls, lame dungeons, worst fetch quest ever, Tingle, braindead easy, dull final chapter.

People fell in love with the timeless art style and convinced themselves this was one of the greats long after the consensus was NO, it wasnt. And this is coming from someone who generally liked WW but was generally disappointed after OOT and MM blew me away.

What do you gain by starting discussions under the premise that people constantly lie to themselves to like a game. Heck, I could make the same argument that people only like TP because it went back to it's "roots". There is no revisionist story, people loved the game after they played it, while the general hate was before it. I actually love the boat a whole lot, dungeons were fine and, while the fetch quest is a low point, it made exploring the map to be meaningful. There is zero basis for any of your claims.
 

RikuDawn

Member
I never particularly loved Wind Waker but I remember when I started playing Wind Waker HD, I was thinking "at least this game's definitely better than Skyward Sword" and then pretty quickly I was like "nope, it really isn't". Twilight Princess HD, despite the fact that Twilight Princess is newer than Wind Waker, somehow felt more nostalgic to me and it really reminded me how much I loved the game.
 
Even if you want to count it as one, the fact that it's made almost non-existent is a blessing.

Yeah I get you. I edited my comment I see that you were getting at the fact that the Wind Waker and the Ocarina are a hell of a lot more important to the main game.

TP is the worst 3ds Zelda. Brings nothing new to the series unless you crave mandatory platforming fetch quests.

Perhaps not a lot new but they polished a lot of stuff that was just thrown away with Skyward Sword and it's ridiculous that that Nintendo did that. Moving and slashing at the same time, not wasting fairies if you were on full health, better bow controls and SS just said no.
 

Branduil

Member
Ww had its flaws,but both TP and SS have them as well,they just hide them more subtlety.

WW had ok dungeons,charming characters,an amazing soundtrack,sense of discovery,decent combat (for 3D Zelda although useless until the HD remaster) beautiful graphics,even great reviews.

There is a reason why Nintendo has continued the Wind Waker legacy in terms of aesthetics and not Twilight Princess
I'd say the biggest reason they've stuck with cel-shading is that Nintendo no longer creates systems with enough competitive horsepower to pull off realism. Which is good since it makes the games much more timeless. 10 years from now they'll release BotW UHD and it will look fantastic.


Also because more realism makes the NPCs look horrifically ugly.
 

EloquentM

aka Mannny
I hope that with everything Breath of the Wild does, breaking the conventions of "main 3D dungeons" sticks the most. I loathe most Zelda 3D dungeons and while BOTW flirts with them, I'm ready for Zelda to break up with it!
please seek medical attention immediately
 
I agree, kinda... TP has great dungeons, but I feel the overworld and twilight sections bring it all down quite a bit. Had the connective tissue been a bit better it could have been somethin' special.
 

Minordeth

Neo Member
I liked the idea of Wind Waker better than the actual game. It has moments that work so well, but any momentum that is built is halted in the most excruciating way.

The Triforce shard hunt is mind-crushingly bad game design that annihilates the pace towards the climax, and serves as the ultimate mindlessly tedious fetch quest in the series.
 

goldenpp72

Member
Wind Waker barely makes my top 5 Zelda titles, TP doesn't even rank well enough for me to bother to rank it, so I disagree.
 

Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
Twilight Princess had really good dungeons, and a very good mid to late game. It's biggest flaws are the weak intro, poorly done Twilight Segments, and similarity to OoT. Once you get to Lanayru Province, it easily stands among the best Zeldas. It's art style can't really compare to Wind Waker's (nothing can), but I love it because it reminds me of Lord of the Rings.
 

bibs

Member
Totally agree. Played both for the first time through there HD remakes on the Wii U and enjoyed TP far more than WW. Both are great but my favourite bit of Zelda are the dungeons and TP comfortably has the better ones.
 
I liked the idea of Wind Waker better than the actual game. It has moments that work so well, but any momentum that is built is halted in the most excruciating way.

The Triforce shard hunt is mind-crushingly bad game design that annihilates the pace towards the climax, and serves as the ultimate mindlessly tedious fetch quest in the series.

If you have a WiiU on you, I would recommend playing WWHD maybe one day they streamlined the hell out of the game.

Twilight Princess had really good dungeons, and a very good mid to late game. It's biggest flaws are the weak intro, poorly done Twilight Segments, and similarity to OoT. Once you get to Lanayru Province, it easily stands among the best Zeldas. It's art style can't really compare to Wind Waker's (nothing can), but I love it because it reminds me of Lord of the Rings.

You summed up my thoughts about TP better than I could more or less, minus the artstyle, I don't think it holds up in that department but, everything else you said, yeah.
 
I'm playing through Twilight Princess too,just beaten Snowpeak, and I think I agree. Wind Waker seems better in some respects like art style, music and the intro/link as a character. It's charm is a big part of why people might like it more. But WW is really lacking in the dungeon department. The first couple are too easy. They would be fine if there were more in the game overall but when you only have a few they need to be more interesting. I felt that Majora's Mask at least managed that. Even though I've only played the HD version it still feels like a game that Nintendo rushed out, which by their standards it makes it seem polished but incomplete. The Triforce shard hunt, the searching for the item/character you need for the last two dungeons just seemed like padding. Sense of exploration is cool but there needed to be more to discover than the little Isles.

What I've played of TP so far isn't perfect but it feels more substantial than WW. The dungeons start stronger from the beginning, the bosses are better, the items are better. Snowpeak was a really fun spin on dungeon presentation. Midna is better than KORL. There's no odd moment where finding out a character is princess immediately bleaches their skin and puts them in a dress. I'll see how I feel at the end so far I'm leaning towards TP.

Edit Just remembered regarding the look of the game- what the hell is wrong with the Ordon kids? Link and Ilia look fine but the rest look like their parents are brother and sister.
 

leroidys

Member
This thread brought to you by 2006.



On topic, TP has best in series dungeons, so I'll always love it for that. Would kill for a master quest. Of either game really.
 
please seek medical attention immediately
I'm fine though!
I just don't like their approach to 3D dungeon design, especially in regards to puzzles. I have some issues with BOTW handles its puzzles, but taking them at my own pace is infinitely better than slogging through unfun and furstrating puzzles that I have no agency in how or when I tackle them.
 

Spinluck

Member
If we're going based off of dungeons, then Skyward Sword destroys them.

TP has some great dungeons though, best music to. The overworld was meh.

WW is bottom tier but the highs of that game are higher than the two I mentioned above imo. Absolutely loved the exploration in WW even though it got a little tedious towards the end.
 

mavo

Banned
All the flaws that Twilight Princess has, Wind Waker has them but 10 times worse.

Wind Waker has one of the worse overworlds i have ever played, everytime Aonuma says they did it because "technical limitations" i just remember GTA3.
 

Mael

Member
Good to know that TP is getting its due after all this time!
Of course TP is better than WW!
WW is the single worst Zelda game released by Nintendo.
Game&Watch Zelda was actually more fun than toon link on a boat even.
That game have pointless exploration, shittiest dungeons this side of Phantom Hourglass, one-note items, decent at first but horrible the more you play battle system.
The OST is nice to hear but certainly not when you play the game's shitty audio.
WW is a failure top to bottom with 2 highlights : Phantom Ganon and Dragon roost island music.
At least Skyward Sword can be challenging!
 

Randomizer

Member
The Wind Waker was a rushed and ultimately unfinished product. The HD version just made this even more apparent with the fast sail and such. TWW could've potentially been the series best but cut dungeons and the forced Triforce gathering quest severally impact the games length, quality and overall pacing.
 
I don't think I agree. But Twilight Princess really do have the best dungeons in the whole series. It really is great in that regard. But Wind Waker has far better world and exploration. I like every main Zelda game and actually Skyward Sword might be better than both for me.
 

Spinluck

Member
I hope that with everything Breath of the Wild does, breaking the conventions of "main 3D dungeons" sticks the most. I loathe most Zelda 3D dungeons and while BOTW flirts with them, I'm ready for Zelda to break up with it!

I can see them both being married together wonderfully. However, I still want the openness of BoTW to remain. I'm in a weird place bc I want the BoTW formula to remain, but I don't want the same game. The world is so well built that I have a hard time seeing them topping it. I also like that each Zelda feels so different from the last. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they do.
 

Lightning

Banned
I don't like Wind Waker.

Twilight Princess on the other hand is one of the best games I've ever played. That game is freakin fantastic.
 

ehead

Member
I kinda agree with you OP. Although, I have only completed Wind Waker once. I find traveling/searching for items in WW to be a chore. Whenever I start a playthrough of TP, I always manage to complete it 100%.
 

Mael

Member
By the sheer amount of hate for WW I see in this thread I'm tempted to think that got sent back to 2001 through a time slip

If people were hating on the artstyle you would have a point.
It's the game part that people hate from actually playing it.
It certainly looks good.
 
Wind Waker stands on its own as a completely unique Zelda experience. Twilight Princess is poor Ocarina of Time knockoff.

Between Ocarina Of Time and Twilight Princess - those are my favorite two green Heroes Tunics in the entire series. I'm beyond elated that I can have both of them in Breath Of The Wild!

It's actually tough to pick a favorite if I had to choose one between the two. if I had to choose, I would go with Twilight Princess' green tunic because it has chainmail underneath it, which just seems more Metal.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Twilight Princess is so much better than Wind Waker in any regard that matters (dungeons, puzzles, bosses, pacing after the horrible start, which only is a small portion of the overall game though) and significantly inferior in those that are irrelevant to the game's quality (style, charm, atmosphere, visuals, story). Wind Waker is the best presented Zelda game, but it is the worst of all post-NES games in the relevant aspect, gameplay. Twilight Princess is OoT2 with a horrible first couple of hours, but some of the best dungeons in the series. Still my number three Zelda game behind Skyward Sword and Majora's Mask.
 

Mr. RPG

Member
What is a traditional Zelda? In many ways, BOTW is the 3D Zelda game that most resembles the original Legend of Zelda and ALTTP.

Breath of the Wild resembles Skyrim, but with a Zelda skin. Everything I loved about Zelda suffered when they chose to make Breath of the Wild an open world game. They followed the open world formula too closely and completely ignored what made Zelda so great. The game feels so uninspired. If you take away Link and Zelda, then Breath of the Wild is hardly even a Zelda game anymore.
 

TWILT

Banned
While I love both games, I have to agree. TP has some of the best dungeons in the series and that alone is enough to push it above WW for me. Not to say that's it's only redeeming quality though. I really dug the story (especially with Midna) and the sword techniques are really fun. I can see where people are coming from when they say TP looks kinda ugly, but I thought it looks pretty good for a Gamecube game. If TP didn't have such a tedious beginning, remove the Tears of Light segments (or at least, heavily decrease Tears of Light; the HD didn't do quite enough IMO) and not have shoehorned Ganondorf in, it'd probably easily sit in as my favorite Zelda game. I also wouldn't have minded the overworld being less empty, but it never really bothered me that much when I got every heart piece/poe soul/bug, so I dunno lol. As is, it's still a top 5 Zelda game for me, but I do recognize it's flaws.

It's been a while since I've played WW, so my memory might be a bit hazy, but I never really cared for it's big ocean and it's dungeons (though it has some cool bosses). Good artstyle though and I really enjoyed the story too. I think the Triforce Quest is probably the main thing that prevents me from replaying it, and why it's not in my top 5. Still a really good game overall though and I'd easily take either of these two 3D Zeldas over Skyward Sword >>;
 

duckroll

Member
Before BotW, TP was my favorite 3D Zelda. It had everything that made me think "Zelda" in a 3D console adventure game. The dungeons were fucking awesome too. Wind Waker is a game which gives off a magical first impression, and continues to impress as you play it because of pure charm. But it's an unfinished game which leaves the player frustrated and less satisfied by the end because of the dumb Triforce hunt and the realization of "that's it?" at the very end.
 

goldenpp72

Member
Breath of the Wild resembles Skyrim, but with a Zelda skin. Everything I loved about Zelda suffered when they chose to make Breath of the Wild an open world game. They followed the open world formula too closely and completely ignored what made Zelda so great. The game feels so uninspired. If you take away Link and Zelda, then Breath of the Wild is hardly even a Zelda game anymore.

Yeah, Skyrim was filled to the brim with clever puzzles, dungeons, shrines, calculated thought based boss encounters, as well as hundreds of mini puzzles to solve around the world. Those sure were really cool things in that game I tell ya.
 
Wind Waker is far better in my opinion. I will admit that the dungeon designs are better in Twilight Princess, but that's honestly the only area in which Twilight Princess is better. Wind Waker has better visuals/aesthetics, better music, a much more interesting over world that doesn't feel like a chore, much less useless padding and filler content (Fuck the twilight bug hunts), and it has so much more personality and charm than TP. Midna and Telma are the only characters with personality in that game, everyone else is so dull. Zant seems threatening at first but then is revealed to be a complete nobody. And honestly, I really enjoy the dungeons in Wind Waker, especially the partner dungeons, and some of the boss fights are really cool. I played the remakes in close succession and Wind Waker feels like a classic. Twilight Princess is great for dungeons, but everything in between is a giant slog.
 
If people were hating on the artstyle you would have a point.
It's the game part that people hate from actually playing it.
It certainly looks good.

Even the people criticising WW are praising the visuals though. It's almost like their issue is with the actual game.

Yeah, I was joking. I can understand WW's exploration not being for everyone. I honestly love travelling long distances in that game, so much that I don't plan on using the fast sail on HD Remake (ok maybe sometimes). TP offered me none of that, I'd go as far to say that both OoT and MM had a better Hyrule Field, with more stuff to see and discover than TP, at least every area was very recognizable.

I don't hate TP. In fact, I very much always meant to like it when a friend of mine couldn't stop shitting on it. I went as far as to say that I would definitely replay it after beating, back in 2006. It's probably the only 3D Zelda that I never revisited at all in their original hardware, and only mean to replay it now with the HD remake.
 

EloquentM

aka Mannny
Yeah, Skyrim was filled to the brim with clever puzzles, dungeons, shrines, calculated thought based boss encounters, as well as hundreds of mini puzzles to solve around the world. Those sure were really cool things in that game I tell ya.
If anything BotW was zelda on steroids.
Edit: that's a weird image
 
Top Bottom