Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Editor review
My highest score given up until now
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After the incredible success of The legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time, the Zelda series' popularity increased with rapid speed. The transformation of the 2D graphics of the first Zelda games, to the 3D graphics that now the Zelda games show us. After the first Zelda game for the Nintendo 64, the games became more of an evolution, instead of a revolution, which was said quite a lot. Now, for the newest console Nintendo made, the Gamecube, a new Zelda has been released to expand the series. Many reviewers give The legend of Zelda-The Wind Waker a nine or higher, and I can only agree with them. The story must be the best story the Zelda series has ever had, for now, at least. You start your journey on your very birthday, when your little sister gets kidnapped by a bird the size of a building, and is then taken off to the most dangerous island in the sea, called the forsaken Fortress. Ahh...what a great present for your birthday. his is one of the first games where plot twists occur and the story isn't told to you right from the start. The story is made clear with bits and pieces of information given to you by cutscenes. So if you want to know how the story goes you'll have to beat the dungeons and progress through the game. I must admit that the graphics are astounding. From the grass that stirs in the direction the wind blows, to the gulls that slowly fly above the watchtower on Outset Island, everything looks beautiful. The houses, the characters' models, the animations, the enemies, everything looks incredibly detailed and fluid. Nothing, and I want that to be very clear, looks static. Not even that big ocean you'll be sailing half the game looks static. The waves your boat creates and the clouds that float by as you cross huge laps of sea all look realistic, as long as you keep in mind that everything is cel-shaded. The sounds are of great quality. All sound effects help give the game a fantasy feeling, which entwines with the spirit of the game series. Link hasn't lost his battle cry when he swings his sword, and about his sword; it's sound effects when it hits a rock instead of air or enemy flesh are real spectacular. The tunes are memorable, as it has been in all of the Zelda games. Even the very first theme of the game, that of the title screen, is great to listen to. Does the sound department have any flaws? Yes. Ummm..I'm sorry, no, it hasn't. It just seems as if half of the effort that went into the game was spent on the audio. It might come as a surprise to players that many of the tunes used in the other Zelda games aren't used in this one. The gameplay is one of the points where the game truly shines. The controls haven't changed much from the previous games, namely Zelda-OOT and Zelda-MM, but this is a good thing, since the controls at that time were nearly perfect as well. Zelda-WW is full of visually little perfections. Whenever there's an important object lying somewhere close or an event happening, Link will automatically look in that direction. One time, Link is surrounded by a couple of kids, and Link will follow each and everyone of them, each time they cross his line of sight. When you finally obtain a sail for your boat, and you hoist it, you'll sail the sea, and a beautiful soundtrack pops up and then -really magnificent- several gulls come and fly with you for a bit. This is really a great moment, one you'll experience quite a lot, and that's the main flaw of this game. Where you could walk to other parts of the land, without using your horse, you can get to other parts of the land only by boat in Zelda-TWW. And it can get quite boring after a while, sailing all the time. Fortunately, you get the possibility to warp half through the game. Fighting has been expanded in this game as well. Besides your normal sword swings and thrusts and jump attacks, you are able to use a parry attack. With this one you can dodge an enemy attack and then counter it with one of yours. This does make fighting more fun, and lets the fun of it last longer. The boss fights are once again very good, and so are some of the puzzles, although there aren't many of them. The game counts about 6 different dungeons in total. Compare this to the amount in, say, Zelda-OOT, this game seems to fall a bit short. I do want to add that I find that Zelda-TWW has the best final boss fight of all the Zelda games yet released. After completing the main quest, there is still plenty to do for all the die-hard gamers who want to complete this game completely. Every one of the 49 islands holds a secret, a treasure or something like that, and each island is a little puzzle in itself. Besides that, you can also try and collect all of the figurines of all the characters in the game by taking photos of them and then bringing those to someone who can make figurines out of them. | |||||||||
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