• 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.

Is Wind Waker HD worth digging my Wii U out of storage to play?

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I’m in the mood for a Zelda game coming up soon. I started WWHD back when it first came out and couldn’t get into it, but I didn’t give it enough time. It took me a while to get into Skyward Sword HD as well, but I ended up liking it. Wasn’t nearly my favorite Zelda, but I did like it. WWHD and Majora’s Mask are the only Zelda’s I haven’t really played all that much. I never played Majora’s Mask at all and WWHD I only played about 2 hours. The sailing just bored me and felt unnecessarily tedious. But so did the flying in Skyward Sword and I learned to deal with it.

I’d probably have went back to it sooner if not for the awful AWFUL Wii U pro controller. I fucking hate the right analog stick and button placement on that thing. It’s fucking terrible.

Is it good enough to dig my Wii U out of storage and go back to and deal with a controller I hate for what will probably be 30+ hours? Or should I wait and see if it comes to Switch at some point. Which is what I was really hoping for.
 
Its the best way to play it. Don't use a pro controller though. The whole reason the game is best on Wii U is that you have a map and item access at all times when sailing and navigating dungeons. Over the full course of the game that probably saves you 10,000 button presses.

Should follow it up with some Stafox Guard.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Its the best way to play it. Don't use a pro controller though. The whole reason the game is best on Wii U is that you have a map and item access at all times when sailing and navigating dungeons. Over the full course of the game that probably saves you 10,000 button presses.

Should follow it up with some Stafox Guard.
What should I play with then, the pad?

Have you considered Starfox Adventures HD?
Never thought about it, I never got into Starfox much, but I'd check it out of it's worth it.
 
Last edited:
What should I play with then, the pad?
The default controller with the screen. Its huge for Zelda to have a map right there. Especially when sailing its the difference between easily just navigating in real time or pushing pause 4x to point your cursor in the right direction then hitting pause every 30 sec to double check. Same goes for dungeons.

Similar plus for the 3ds Zelda games.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
The default controller with the screen. Its huge for Zelda to have a map right there. Especially when sailing its the difference between easily just navigating in real time or pushing pause 4x to point your cursor in the right direction then hitting pause every 30 sec to double check. Same goes for dungeons.

Similar plus for the 3ds Zelda games.
Sounds good, I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the thing before lol. How is the battery life on that thing?
 
Sounds good, I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the thing before lol. How is the battery life on that thing?
Dude what lol.

Its not great, even with the battery upgrade. Sit near an outlet or extension cord. The controller is what makes Wii U games unique. Its odd but its something you haven't done before. Zombi U also makes great use of it.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Dude what lol.

Its not great, even with the battery upgrade. Sit near an outlet or extension cord. The controller is what makes Wii U games unique. Its odd but its something you haven't done before. Zombi U also makes great use of it.
Yep, never used it. The thing is so big, I just never seriously considered using it. I was a late buyer of Wii U and bought it and the pro controller at the same time and that’s the only controller I’ve ever used and I fucking hate it because they swapped the buttons and right stick from where most controllers have them. For no logical reason whatsoever other than to try and be different as far as I can tell.
 

Bakkus

Member
It's one of my favorite games, but if your backlog is really big, then I'd just wait for the inevitable Switch port of it. It hasn't been announced yet, but it's guaranteed to come. Probably in the fall. Might be announced next Direct alongside Twilight Princess which will also be ported.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
I’m in the mood for a Zelda game coming up soon. I started WWHD back when it first came out and couldn’t get into it, but I didn’t give it enough time. It took me a while to get into Skyward Sword HD as well, but I ended up liking it. Wasn’t nearly my favorite Zelda, but I did like it. WWHD and Majora’s Mask are the only Zelda’s I haven’t really played all that much. I never played Majora’s Mask at all and WWHD I only played about 2 hours. The sailing just bored me and felt unnecessarily tedious. But so did the flying in Skyward Sword and I learned to deal with it.

I’d probably have went back to it sooner if not for the awful AWFUL Wii U pro controller. I fucking hate the right analog stick and button placement on that thing. It’s fucking terrible.

Is it good enough to dig my Wii U out of storage and go back to and deal with a controller I hate for what will probably be 30+ hours? Or should I wait and see if it comes to Switch at some point. Which is what I was really hoping for.
While there are some minor visual bits that worked better on the GameCube, I was skeptic al as well then Inplayer it and now ai would recommend it :).
 

lachesis

Member
I think WWHD had a some decent QoL improvement over original. Boat moving faster (?) and some end game scavenging improvement, etc.
Original WW, I had bought it but I never progressed past the first couple of islands and sold off with my GC.
I bought WWHD later on, and ended up loving it. Still took me a little while to get used to - but I find the Zelda games tend to do that. It takes a bit to really warm up.

Wii U pad was actually quite useful too. It was at least somewhat useful gimick for QoL improvement.
And also I never really had any issues with battery life for Wii U pad. My last true big session was BOTW - and I never really ran out of juice... or maybe because I really didn't have time to play games for longer than a couple hours. Perhaps its been like 5 years - so I may need to change the battery as Lithium Ion batteries tend to just die on me one day w/o warning. :(
 

Rodolink

Member
I would say yes, the lighting improvement is worth it.
I completed the GCN one like 4 times, and the WiiU never just for one reason: It has no fuckn Y invert axis for the camera that was a huge bummer and shelved it immediately xD
 

supernova8

Banned
I prefer playing it on Cemu at 4K. Both it and BOTW look glorious and are reasons alone for Nintendo to make a proper powerful machine.
 
I’m in the mood for a Zelda game coming up soon. I started WWHD back when it first came out and couldn’t get into it, but I didn’t give it enough time. It took me a while to get into Skyward Sword HD as well, but I ended up liking it. Wasn’t nearly my favorite Zelda, but I did like it. WWHD and Majora’s Mask are the only Zelda’s I haven’t really played all that much. I never played Majora’s Mask at all and WWHD I only played about 2 hours. The sailing just bored me and felt unnecessarily tedious. But so did the flying in Skyward Sword and I learned to deal with it.

I’d probably have went back to it sooner if not for the awful AWFUL Wii U pro controller. I fucking hate the right analog stick and button placement on that thing. It’s fucking terrible.

Is it good enough to dig my Wii U out of storage and go back to and deal with a controller I hate for what will probably be 30+ hours? Or should I wait and see if it comes to Switch at some point. Which is what I was really hoping for.


The way they utilize the pad makes it worth it imo.
Big improvement over the OG game.
 

01011001

Banned
fast sail + map on the Gamepad + Inventory quick swap on the Gamepad + gyro aiming + 1080p + enhanced controls like first person movement being possible... I'd say YES and PLAY WITH THE GAMEPAD!

Wind Waker HD is one of the best remasters ever, because it not only makes the game more presentable on a modern TV but also ironed out multiple issues with the game and improved basically every aspect of it in some way.
 
Last edited:

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Yeah, it's great, just takes a while to get going like almost every other Zelda.
 
Mirror mirror on the wall...
I would say yes, the lighting improvement is worth it.
The art design is interesting and the game is beautiful, I wish they made more games like that.

But I have to say I prefer the original cel shading without the SSAO/depth. For me the HD is worth it, as was the bottle system that is sadly discontinued now.
it's the worst 3d zelda, still a good game, but nothing i would go out of my way to play
Have you played Skyward Sword?

Wind Waker is one of the best, for me. Probably the last that doesn't hand-hold you all the way to the end. For instance they hint that you can shoot arrows in the tornado if you explore Fire Mountain entrance statues, but they never start piledriving you that you have to do it. So plenty people finish the game without doing it and gaining Ballad of Gales/Warping.

Subtext is strong, unlike with Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild.
 
Last edited:

Majukun

Member
Have you played Skyward Sword?

Wind Waker is one of the best, for me. Probably the last that doesn't hand-hold you all the way to the end. For instance they hint that you can shoot arrows in the tornado if you explore Fire Mountain entrance statues, but they never start piledriving you that you have to do it. So plenty people finish the game without doing it and gaining Ballad of Gales/Warping.

Subtext is strong, unlike with Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild.
played all of them, still prefer skyward sword, with all its issues.

what brings it down is the laughable difficulty level that flattens the gameplay, the fighting system ruined by the laughable easy counter (i mean they ask you to hit master Orca 100 times..they knew how easy it was), and general gameplay and puzzles basically being mostly copied from OOT and majora's

also content wise it's pretty light
 
Last edited:

Woopah

Member
I'd wait until after Summer, its fairly like that Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD will come to Switch in the not too distant future.
 
played all of them, still prefer skyward sword, with all its issues.

what brings it down is the laughable difficulty level that flattens the gameplay, the fighting system ruined by the laughable easy counter (i mean they ask you to hit master Orca 100 times..they knew how easy it was), and general gameplay and puzzles basically being mostly copied from OOT and majora's

also content wise it's pretty light
I don't think it's that much easier gameplaywise than OoT and Majora Mask, but the parry part of it is definitely unbalanced to say the least. Like the games were stagger allow for infinite combos level of broken. It's just that on top of starting easier, the game ends before the difficulty curve reaches a "high standard". So yeah it is easy, but I don't think apart from some more cerebral puzzles that any Zelda is, well, dificult.

The puzzles are not bad and I see the repetition more in the boss troupes/types, in this genre things (dungeons, unlike bosses) can never be that different once they've been done once or twice so despite that being true the "next gen" component of the game kinda carries it doing things you couldn't on N64 which add to the immersion, from the fireflies to breaking the wood blocking doors. It also starts doing things like open dungeons that would become a big part of TP and SS, Forsaken Fortress, Dragon Roost Cavern and Forbidden Woods taking place in semi-open areas with some transversal (inside dungeon, outside dungeon). All that disguised the fact that yeah, it doesn't have the best dungeons, but they have a bit of character that holds up to this day.

All in all I just think it's a well balanced game, not perfect but better than TP which felt incomplete, empty and incohesive and SS which felt like a caricature with gimmicks (and also empty). It also might as well be the best game in the series when it comes to art direction.

But I understand your point and all you've said is true imo.
 
Last edited:
Play it and Twilight Princess with the Gamepad. The gyro aiming is great in both along with having items and the map on the controller screen. WW gets some streamlining that helps the pacing of the game. Just make sure to do the auction house side quest on the island where all the Kids follow you around. That’ll eventually get you a faster sail.

It’s really too bad the WiiU version of BotW specifically got rid of the map on the screen just to make sure it wasn’t more enticing than the Switch version. Assholes.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
So I started playing this game again and I don't know if anyone can help with this, but I missed something in the Forsaken Fortress and I'm trying to sail back and once I get close it keeps saying "it's too early to sail to this location, let's go somewhere else first."

I just recently finished the second dungeon. I googled and I can't seem to find anyone saying anything about this. All I see are a couple forums where people say you should have the freedom to go anywhere once you beat the first dungeon, but I don't.

How do I get back there? I want to get a piece of heart that I missed.
 
So I started playing this game again and I don't know if anyone can help with this, but I missed something in the Forsaken Fortress and I'm trying to sail back and once I get close it keeps saying "it's too early to sail to this location, let's go somewhere else first."

I just recently finished the second dungeon. I googled and I can't seem to find anyone saying anything about this. All I see are a couple forums where people say you should have the freedom to go anywhere once you beat the first dungeon, but I don't.

How do I get back there? I want to get a piece of heart that I missed.

Keep playing. You'll be able to go back there later. Also, how the hell do people manage to play with the wii u gamepad? Thing is bulky and awkward to play with.
 
Last edited:

TexMex

Member
I bought a WiiU specifically to play it and nothing else last year and have no regrets. Tired of waiting for it to come to Switch, probably never will at this point.
 
I was not a big fan of wind waker when it came out. I played through and beat it was kind of underwhelmed. That being said, I replayed it on the Wii U and really enjoyed it.

Spoiler: get the item that allows you to fast travel. It essentially changed the whole experience for me.
 
I’m in the mood for a Zelda game coming up soon. I started WWHD back when it first came out and couldn’t get into it, but I didn’t give it enough time. It took me a while to get into Skyward Sword HD as well, but I ended up liking it. Wasn’t nearly my favorite Zelda, but I did like it. WWHD and Majora’s Mask are the only Zelda’s I haven’t really played all that much. I never played Majora’s Mask at all and WWHD I only played about 2 hours. The sailing just bored me and felt unnecessarily tedious. But so did the flying in Skyward Sword and I learned to deal with it.

I’d probably have went back to it sooner if not for the awful AWFUL Wii U pro controller. I fucking hate the right analog stick and button placement on that thing. It’s fucking terrible.

Is it good enough to dig my Wii U out of storage and go back to and deal with a controller I hate for what will probably be 30+ hours? Or should I wait and see if it comes to Switch at some point. Which is what I was really hoping for.
100% if anything the hd version is way better then the GC version purely because there's a part of the game that can take alot of time if you dont use a walkthrough, personally i find wind waker probs the best 3d zelda game next to OOT, only things i can critize is probably the boss fights (except the very last fight) but there actually is a reason for why most of the boss fights are simple and also i do find it the easiest zelda BUT you mentioned the sailing bored you, well the first part i mentioned about a part that takes time takes alot of sailing, if the sailing is that boring id heavily recommended using a walkthrough just fly through that part because once youve past that part the game gets better and better
 

Astral Dog

Member
For me it would be, Wind Waker is one of my favorite games ever made, a true classic.

However you need to deal with the boat sailing, there is an item that you can get early on that makes the boat go faster.

Anyways, even with that its not a game for everybody, you may not like it but i say its worth another shot if you ensed up liking Skyward Sword
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I'm enjoying it, but I will say so far I like it less than most of the Zeldas I've played. Even less than Skyward Sword, which I thought was a step down from other Zeldas.

The open seas was just a terrible idea IMO. The traveling is incredibly tedious, and yes, I have the fast sail. Even with that it's awful. Mindless traveling is not what Zelda games are supposed to be about. You want very little wasted time in a game like Zelda. But once you're actually in dungeons and that stuff it's fine. But what I've found myself doing is every time I beat a dungeon and have to sail to the next area, I usually have to psyche myself up to play it again because I just have no desire to hop in that boat and sail around. It's significantly hurting the experience. Most Zeldas I get hooked, have the game beaten in a week or two. This one may take longer given than I've been playing far more sparingly because of my lack of motivation due to the parts I don't like.
 
Top Bottom