No hot air blowing here
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GameCube | 9.99 | 8.00 | 9.00 | 9.95 | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.65 |
| Presentation | 9.99 |
| Basically, this is the most beautiful game I've ever seen. Absolutely incredible cel-shaded graphics that excel in the area that other cel-shaded games falter -- expression. Other cel-shaded games that I've seen have had blurred or unclear faces and stiff animation, while The Wind Waker has the truest conveyance of emotion I've seen outside of television and movies. Animations are equally smooth and appropriate. The .01 is taken away for the ocassional clipping in the water where the water seems to cut through the bottom of the boat; I didn't even notice this until half-way through the game, though, so it's hardly an issue. | |
| Controls | 8.00 |
| The controls in The Wind Waker feel just a bit loose throughout the game. First person controls feel a bit touchy, and the camera just doesn't control quite right. You need to use the C-stick control of the camera constantly, because the automatic camera doesn't follow you quickly enough. The game also fails to implement digital navigation of inventory, which I find a bother in every game. Take the near perfect controls of the N64 games and subtract these problems, and you have Wind Waker. It's not that there's anything particular bothersome; the controls just never feel quite right. | |
| Variety | 9.00 |
| A relaxed play through the game will probably result in 25 hours of gameplay, with a quicker play resulting closer to 20 hours. This is already a little short for Zelda at this point, but the fact that it takes so long to sail everywhere rather distorts that figure further (more on that in Replay). Aside from that, the enemies are varied, although they get repetitive down the stretch. The NPCs are certainly unique, and all the quirky sidetrack quests you've come to expect from Zelda all come into play. The PictoBox to take pictures was a particularly nice touch. Overall, the game feels big, aside from feeling short. | |
| Audio | 9.95 |
| Some of the best music this generation, The Wind Waker lives up to the musical inspirations in the game. The playing of the Earth God's Lyric by Medli and the guardian is the highlight of the game as far as I'm concerned. There is also a very fresh take on the Kakariko Village song (so much so that I didn't even notice it was the same song very quickly). The only detracting factor is indeed the lack of true voice acting. While the pseudo voice acting works, there are lulls in the text leaves an odd feeling quiet. | |
| Depth | 8.00 |
| The bosses are just as quirky and imaginative as ever, and the puzzles are interesting and at times challenging. The enemies can't entirely be button mashed away, but most of the time that will do. It's really in the bosses that The Wind Waker doesn't lose serious marks in Depth, which would be ironic for a game with so much sailing. | |
| Value & Fun | 8.00 |
| You'll have fun playing through the game, perhaps you'll love it, but balancing it all out, it doesn't feel particularly special. As a Zelda game, The Wind Waker leaves much to be desired, it's just fortunate Zelda is the best franchise in gaming. The ocean is vast, but the islands are tiny. While the game seems to expect you to explore, there's no incentive to do so when all you get is an island you can cross in under 5 seconds. You fill out your map by leaving bait for fish who then fill in a section of the map; the bait costs money, though so I didn't bother as it never says you need to, and all the important places are already on the map. For more than half the game (and even the whole game if you don't figure out what to do to get the Song of Gales) you have to sail the entire way to wherever you need to go; and that takes upwards of 10 minutes. You also can't switch away from the game and wait it out, as sharks will bump your boat and knock you out, which is neither, fun or interesting. But if there's a detracting factor, it's the difficulty -- I went start to finish without dying, and I've never done that in a Zelda game the first time through. There weren't even any close calls. What was particularly bothersome was a couple of things with the Triforce collecting. One, if you didn't explore earlier, you have to in order to find the ghost ship chart. Also, translating the Triforce charts cost nearly 400 rupees EACH. That's 3200 rupees you need, which takes a long while to collect, on top of the 200 you need for the In-credible chart to find the Triforce charts in the first place. Again, it's a fun and interesting game, with plenty to see -- as is the way of Zelda games -- but as a Zelda game, The Wind Waker feels a little sub-par. | |
| Overall | 8.65 |
| What is particularly strange about The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is that the game seems to be more concerned with the presentation and art direction than gameplay. For the first time ever, I've actually noticed how well the direction in the game is done and have been wowed by it, however this seems to be the focus as there was plenty to improve upon throughout the game. What's also strange is that I was unable to tell what defeating Ganondorf really accomplishes, as I thought it was to remove the ocean, which turned out not to be the case. As it is, Zelda fans can pick this up and be contented, but will probably find the title a bit disappointing. | |
Posted by Ellyoda Sat, 04 Feb 2006 00:00:00
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