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LTTP: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (OH MY GOD SO MUCH SAILING)

D

dLMN8R

Member
In preparation for Breath of the Wild coming out, I'm finally going back and playing Wind Waker - the only mainline Zelda game other than Majora's Mask I haven't played before. Majora's Mask is waiting next on my 3DS :)

I'm really having trouble pressing through Wind Waker though. I'm taking my time and trying to enjoy it, but holy crap is the sailing tedious and endlessly uninteresting.

I've just completed bringing the three pearls to the triangle islands and opened the way to Tower of the Gods. The first few dungeons were pretty good, but I was nearly ready to give up on the game entirely leading up to Tower of the Gods.

The progression after Forest Haven is basically the epitome of all terrible fetch quests in any RPG ever. I mean, seriously?


  • Sail forever to get to Greatfish Isle --> OOPS nothing's there
  • Sail forever to get to Windfall Island --> OOPS nothing interesting, just an annoying challenge to hop from rope to rope to get bombs on the pirate ship
  • Sail forever to get to Outset Island --> OOPS also nothing interesting, just shoot some bombs to get to Jabun to get the 3rd pearl
  • Sail forever to get to Triangle Island 1
  • Sail more to get to Triangle Island 2
  • Sail more to get to Triangle Island 3
All of that took me over 2 hours of completely uninteresting events last night.

During that entire time, I had maxed out my wallet at 500 rupees, so there was little value in exploring. I dug up 10+ treasure from the sea during that time, and every single one had 50 rupees that went to waste. No heart pieces or anything else worthwhile.

I tried exploring other islands I ran across along the way - all they had were Rupees too.


Unless people here can convince me that it finally picks during and after Tower of the Gods, I think I'm done.
 
A

Anustart

Member
I beat it on the cube originally, got it on wii u and haven't bothered beating it. I made it to the final boss and just haven't bothered.

Botw looks like a much needed shot in the arm. All the 3d Zeldas past oot have just basically been expansion packs in terms that it's the same exact gameplay, different items and dungeons.
 
D

DownGrader

Member
Do you even detract from the story path? Did you stay on Windfall Island for a while? Also, yes, it seems you haven't found a Swift Sail.

WWHD and SS are my favorite Zelda games so far, each one for its own reasons.
 
R

Regiruler

Member
I didn't even know where the swift sail was until I looked it up. Never had a reason to do the auction.

I don't particularly mind the sailing, but what's at the end of the sailing isn't exactly worth it.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, it's my least favorite 3D Zelda. Still a good game, played it on GC and the Wii U remaster, and enjoyed it both times.

But I'm not a fan of the art style, the sailing gets old (even the improved Wii U version and there are too few dungeons and the ones that are their are great IMO. And dungeons are my favorite part of Zelda games.

So WW is a solid 8/10 type game for me where as the other 3D Zelda are 9-10/10 for me.
 
P

psyfi

Banned
I agree with all the criticisms about the sailing, but somehow I loved it. It evoked a distinct flavor of exploration that I had never experienced in a game before, it was amazing to me. The GC version feels pretty tedious now, but the Wii U version is fantastic. It would easily be my favorite 3D Zelda (until tomorrow) if it had more dungeons.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
To be fair, I just generally dislike traversal. I really only like open world games if they're pretty dense and have a lot of combat and things to do and minimal time just traversing from one quest point to the next.
 
J

Jailer of Hope

Member
WW is a far worse start with far worse filler to me. I guess between WW, TP, and SS you pretty much pick your poison when it comes to the "filler" content. I don't mind it as much in TP and SS. I've been called crazy over this before but I even enjoyed Spirit Tracks over WW.
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
Tambini said:
Did you get the swift sail?
Click to expand...

Pastulio said:
And the Ballad of Gales?

Both those speed up exploration a lot.
Click to expand...

DownGrader said:
Do you even detract from the story path? Did you stay on Windfall Island for a while? Also, yes, it seems you haven't found a Swift Sail.

WWHD and SS are my favorite Zelda games so far, each one for its own reasons.
Click to expand...

Look, I love open-ended exploration, and I did a lot of it in Wind Waker so far. But like I mentioned, I already had a maxed-out wallet, I did a ton of exploration, and every single thing I found was more rupees I couldn't use.

There was nothing else on Windfall Island. It was dark and stormy, the pirate ship was there, everything was closed, and there was nothing to find. No "Swift Sail", no new songs for the wind waker, nothing else.

I never found any sort of "auction house", maybe I missed it on Windfall Island? All I know is that I explored around for a while and didn't find anything else to do.


gardfish said:
IIRC you can't get the Ballad of Gales until after the Tower of the Gods, so the OP wouldn't have it yet.
Click to expand...

Well, that's pretty dumb.
 
E

Evil's Bane

Member
I've gotten the swift sail and used it to explore a large chunk of the map on my latest playthrough.


A LOT of it is just rupees. Not the most encouraging thing. You really should try to seek out the fairy fountains though as they alleviate a large chunk of the slog the game drops you into in the last third.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
Sailing for the most part isn't terribly exciting anyway. You set your sail, lean back, open a brewski and lazily gaze at the horizon. I liked it on WW back in the day. If you're rushing through it before BotW, and now the graphics aren't amazing anymore, yeah I can imagine it being a bit of a slog. I couldn't really push myself to go through the HD version again either.



Greatest Ever said:
HD version can only put lipstick on a pig.
Click to expand...
Worst Ever
Member
Today, 06:35 PM, Post #10
 
T

Thud

Member
There's nothing wrong with sailing, it's just the way to go from one point to other. The worst part is go to location, fetch thing, exposition, go to other location fetch another thing.

Most islands are not interesting. Dungeons are ehhhh.

However it's a stunning visual adventure with a certain thematic flair combined with flashy combat. This effort is why I still love Wind Waker and why it still rates rather high on my list.
 
K

kromeo

Member
I enjoyed the game somewhat but it's my least favorite of the mainline series. Nice graphics can only compensate so much for the tedious sailing and dungeons
 
J

Jailer of Hope

Member
Ogawa-san said:
As someone trying to get into the series, it's so hard to get a sense of what (or not) to play from reading Zelda threads...

I know, opinions and all, but it's amusing.
Click to expand...
It's like Final Fantasy. They are unique entries but distinctly Zelda. People have their favorites and ones they detest. Some people love them all.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I Wanna Be The Guy said:
Worst 3D Zelda. Soooooo much filler and the dungeons are weak compared to others in the series too. Cool artstyle though.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this.

I couldn't believe such a brilliant visual aesthetic was shoehorned into the worst traditional Zelda by a large margin. Game balance was terrible, zero satisfaction in the exploration and the dungeons were straightforward and lacking in much visual identity.
 
V

VDenter

Banned
Assuming you are playing the HD version get the Swift sail on Windfall it makes sailing 2X faster and you wont have to change the Wind Direction. Its in the auction house. Now the items you can get are randomized there if it does not appear quit the mini game and come back in until it appears trust me that makes sailing much faster and easier. After Tower of Gods also get the Ballad of Gales song that lets you warp.
 
V

Vampirolol

Member
Wind Waker has this great world but should still be played following the story, because exploration doesn't pay that much in the game if you do it randomly.
I think that gameplay, artstyle and story are still very good for the series, but man, those dungeons were so bad.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
dLMN8R said:
Look, I love open-ended exploration, and I did a lot of it in Wind Waker so far. But like I mentioned, I already had a maxed-out wallet, I did a ton of exploration, and every single thing I found was more rupees I couldn't use.

There was nothing else on Windfall Island. It was dark and stormy, the pirate ship was there, everything was closed, and there was nothing to find. No "Swift Sail", no new songs for the wind waker, nothing else.

I never found any sort of "auction house", maybe I missed it on Windfall Island? All I know is that I explored around for a while and didn't find anything else to do.




Well, that's pretty dumb.
Click to expand...

It works the same as oot, approach the towns/islands in day time if you want to see it in day time. I haven't played for 15 years so can't remember if you can sleep there.
 
P

Phediuk

Member
Yeah, I'm always confused by why people said that the series went to shit with Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword.

All of the bad things about those games are already in Wind Waker and arguably even worse.
 
V

VDenter

Banned
Graphics Horse said:
It works the same as oot, approach the towns/islands in day time if you want to see it in day time. I haven't played for 15 years so can't remember if you can sleep there.
Click to expand...

No you have to wait till night time but you can learn the Song of passing at windfall to change the time from day to night at any point in the game. The auction house is only open at night time necessary to get the swift sail.
 
W

Wanderer5

Member
I been going through it too recently, even through I probably won't finish once BotW takes me away.XD

I don't mind the sailing that much, which I think offers to an interesting open world of sort and a bit unique kind of adventure that can feel pretty good, while also having the swift sail and Ballad of Gales to get to places faster if desired.

Dungeon wise so far is meh beside Tower of the Gods which I enjoyed quite a bit for its setting alongside some interesting mechanics.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
VDenter said:
No you have to wait till night time but you can learn the Song of passing at windfall to change the time from day to night at any point in the game. The auction house is only open at night time necessary to get the swift sail.
Click to expand...

Ah ok, I had forgotten it opened at night 😃
But there's people who talk about it in the day time, iirc
 
T

taa0098

Neo Member
DownGrader said:
So I guess we all now dislike The Wind Waker again 🤷
Click to expand...

The community has spoken!


Wind waker was and still is my favorite 3d zelda. The characters are so charming and full of personality, doing side quests is fun, finding all the great faries, the giant octoroks, all the little islands...I really enjoyed it. But I also enjoyed sailing, I always liked the atmosphere and the sense of adventure, and that's even without the swift sail on the original release. I guess if you really really don't like sailing then you'd find the game overall boring.

Still best ganon and best zelda though.
 
M

maxcriden

Member
This goes without saying, but when you play MM, be sure to complete all of the sidequests, much of the specialness and fun of the game is in that portion of the game. The 3DS version makes this aspect more doable than the N64 version without overly dumbing it down, IMO. I hope you love the game. It's truly unique and special.
 
T

TheBrainninja

Member
bomblord1 said:
Sailing was my favorite part of the Wind Waker ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...

It was so beautiful and relaxing. Even without the HD upgrade, it made my heart swell as the King of Red Lions soared across the waves.

Honestly I think many of OP's concerns come down to wanting to finish it before Breath of the Wild comes out. I'm having a similar issue with Skyward Sword, though that game has very serious problems even if you aren't trying to rush through it. I took my time with Wind Waker years ago, and was totally into it the whole way. I looked at a guide for some stuff to make sure I'd explored every cell on the map, but otherwise just enveloped myself in its sun-drenched ocean.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
I loved the sailing, changing wind directions and everything. Wind Waker always had some big issues, but sailing was not one of them. The swift sail was an addition that catered to the wrong people imo.
 
S

Starsunder

Member
Probably tied with Skyward Sword as my least favorite Zelda by a large margin.

Fuck all of that sailing and changing wind direction and shit
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
Sailing in Wind Waker is one of my favorite experiences in gaming. It's so calm, so fun, and I love seeing the landmarks in the horizon and wanting to just "go there!". I can see how people can be annoyed by it if they're just playing to beat the game, but for me, when I played the original, was one of the highlights of the generation.
 
Cramoss

Cramoss

Member
FunkyPajamas said:
Sailing in Wind Waker is one of my favorite experiences in gaming. It's so calm, so fun, and I love seeing the landmarks in the horizon and wanting to just "go there!". I can see how people can be annoyed by it if they're just playing to beat the game, but for me, when I played the original, was one of the highlights of the generation.
Click to expand...

Are you me, bro?
 
G

gcncontroller

Member
The sailing really makes or breaks the game for a lot of people and that's understandable. If it doesn't make you feel good to hear that swelling music and rush of water as you bounce over the waves then a lot of the traversal is going to feel really boring and it's going to wear you out. The Swift Sail alleviates this a bit, as does the streamlining of the massive hunt late game, but it's still largely a preference thing because it's such an integral part of the game. I think it's fantastic and adds to the sweeping sense of adventure... but that's just me.

After Tower of the Gods (which is the beginning of the good imo) you'll get the Ballad of the Gales and it'll cut down on your sailing time a lot. And I think we can pretty much agree that the later dungeons are the best ones (not god-tier or anything, they're still fairly easy... but better), so I think you should see the game through if only to try and redeem the experience. I like Wind Waker a lot so I'm sorry to hear it's not doing much for you! :(
 
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