Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD (Wii U) Review | Video Game Thoughts.

"There may be nothing left for you. But despite that, you must look forward and walk a path of hope, trusting that it will sustain you when darkness comes." King of Red Lions Wind Waker was a frustrating game for me. This was because I had a problem with my Wii U's external hard drive, lost all the memory, and therefore my progress in Wind Waker. It was annoying to have to replay. I mention this because it very well could affect how I approach this game. Let me start by saying that in terms of design this game is one of my favorites. I can appreciate games like Majora's Mask, but--and this is just personal preference--I can enjoy games like Wind Waker. I love the bright colors and overall optimistic tone. The combat is fantastic. The dungeons are wonderful. The Great Sea is .

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. problematic. Not a problem, but problematic. I love how the world feels so vast and how you can go along discovering islands. There's such a sense of adventure whenever you get to an island, fight a Big Octo, etc etc. The problems come with the moments of tedium inevitable in traveling across such a big world. I also personally prefer a stronger narrative thread. Lots of people, perhaps most people, play Zelda for the sense of adventure, to explore. But I'm a person who gets invested for the story. For me, no game can ever be truly open. Every action you take, those actions are never truly free in a game. All those actions were foreseen and planned for by the designers, and nothing that they didn't foresee can be part of a game. Because if it were, by the very nature of the medium, the game would have issues. There'd be bugs if you could do things the developers hadn't planned for. So any sense of freedom can't be complete, only as complete as possible for the given project. In that sense, developers might need to plan for a huge number of possibilities, none of which would necessarily happen to every player but some of which would depending on their choices. Or the developers, if the project needed, could limit the player's choice. This tends to happen when a game needs to follow a narrative. And for me, if the story is told well and the gameplay is competent, I don't mind. I especially prefer it when the story is being told through the gameplay, since that's a special type of story-telling only video games can do. But if the gameplay is more restricted because that is what this project called for, then I don't mind. Like I said, I prefer stronger narratives in games. But I don't think a stronger narrative automatically makes a game better just like I don't think adding my favorite color to a painting automatically makes it better. It's just a design I prefer. And for me, it was really easy to put this game down because of how open it was. Sometimes, especially towards the end, there was so much to do and the narrative facilitated letting you do your exploring without pulling you too much in a single direction often enough. So I sometimes didn't feel compelled to push forward. That said, there were a lot of things about the story I thought were great. For instance, I liked how the wind seemed to be a metaphor for fate and for the future. And that ties into the ending of this game, which is just amazing. There's this theme of needing to move on, accept and deal with the future, not necessarily accept it as good but not to try to cling to something that isn't, whether because that thing is the past or because it is a present that isn't .

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. The last scene really cements this idea that we should work toward a better future, in doing so we should always make sure we are moving forward and not getting stuck. I liked how Ganondorf was wrong but so was the King of Red Lions, so much so that in trying to cling to old Hyrule the King let Ganondorf be reborn. And then there's the reason why Ganondorf's upset by Zelda and Link's attachment to the ocean--the way he describes the ocean, it's just a deserted place. Like his homeland, in a desert, a fact that he couldn't make peace with. He seems to both be angered with them for preferring their deserted ocean world to the Hyrule below and to be saddened for them, again because he only sees the ocean as a negative. And the scene with the King facing off against Ganondorf! There are so many good things in the story, but there are some negative parts. For instance, how Tetra or Zelda is locked away after she's revealed to have the Triforce. To me it was only a matter of common sense. In stories where she doesn't have any combat ability, then it makes sense to protect her, but in this story she's shown to be equal to Link. So then, if Link can wander around Hyrule safely, it doesn't make sense to lock away her and not him. At least, it's a story point I dislike because it undermines the fact that Tetra was fully capable of contributing. It's also worth pointing out that her true form as Zelda made her turn pale--I say pale because the sense I get is that she is only tanned from being under the ocean sun. But it still doesn't make any sense that her skin had to turn paler. She could have just worn her royal outfit; it doesn't make her any less of a princess if her skin is darker. All of the above said, I appreciated that she was again necessary to defeat Ganondorf. It fits the story: Link has not been portrayed as someone capable of fixing everything alone. He gets help from others to fix things, and Tetra's been helping him since the beginning, so it's only fitting she helps him finish things now. As a final note, there's on-going problem with Zelda games because of Ganondorf, and that's that we have this recurring myth of good versus evil, and yet in so many incarnations, good is the white and blonde Link and evil is the dark skinned Ganondorf. Why couldn't it switched around, even for one game? Why couldn't Link be dark skinned and Ganondorf be light skinned? I don't know, I find this racial dynamic really problematic in the Zelda games, and for as much as I love how Ganondorf's characterization works in this game, the racial aspect does damage to an otherwise really good game. It was really interesting to play this game right before starting Majora's Mask and right after finishing Twilight Princess. Between those two games with very different tones, Wind Waker really stood out to me. There was such magic in the story. I'll admit I wish the narrative thread was stronger so I didn't feel like I was wandering at parts in the game, but at the same time the story moments that were there were wonderful. It really was a deep story with strong messages, but told in a very upbeat way. I generally prefer an optimistic tone but I get upset when I feel something is unrealistically optimistic, because then it seems like we're ignoring real issues. Wind Waker isn't like that. Wind Waker is optimistic while being honest: people suffer in the game. Ganondorf and the King of Red Lions especially, but also Tetra. Link suffers by losing his sister and seeing his grandmother grieve. His grandmother of course also suffers. Aryll, though she was eventually rescued. The game acknowledges that the suffering is real, and in doing so, the game's message of being strong, working toward a better future while always facing the world as it is with all its suffering, stands out all the more.