The Legend of Zelda
The Wind Waker

Reviewer Chi Phan	Story	6/10
	Characters	4/10
	Graphics	9/10
	Music	6/10
	Gameplay	8/10
	Extras	10/10
	Final Score	7.2/10

It is somewhat funny looking back at the first images of Wind Waker when it was announce for the Gamecube. Zelda fans all around the world were stunned at the new look of Zelda. The new and more cartoonish look had fans wanting to say, "What the hell was Nintendo thinking?" Well obviously, Nintendo thinking was to change the look of Zelda in order to try to market the series more to the younger generation. This of course had the older generation fans quite displeased to say the least. Still however after the shock and awe of the new look, some fans were saying let us wait and see how this new Zelda look plays out. Well that time has come and gone. Here at Rpg Dreamers, we are going to give the new Zelda look a quick run down review for you fans out there.

It's time to be a hero, Link Sword of a hero. Legend says that a long time ago, there was a kingdom called Hyrule. This kingdom fell to an evil being called Ganondorf. The people of Hyrule in their despair prayed to the Gods for help. The Gods in their weaken state could only do one thing to help the Hyrule Kingdom and that was to seal the kingdom and Ganondorf underwater for the rest of eternity with the help of a Hero dressed in Green. Thousands of years has passed since the time of the Hyrule Kingdom and Ganondorf, what was once real events became folk tales told through generations of families. Within each year, these families celebrate their freedom of the tales of the Legendary Hero by dressing young boys that have reached a certain age in green to celebrate and honor the Hero of the Legend. We move to present time on an island called Outset. We are introduce to a boy name Link who is coming of age on his birthday. As such it is his time to don the green outfit from the Legendary Hero. While out celebrating his birthday, Link witness a giant bird flying by with a girl in its grasp with a pirate ship following right behind the bird. Then suddenly the bird was shot out of the sky from a cannonball that came from the pirate ship. The girl fell out of the grasp of the bird into a forest on Outset Island. Link seeing this, has decided to go and rescue the girl that fell into the forest. Making his way into the forest, Link was able to meet the girl that fell into the forest and rescue her from some monsters. The girl introduces herself as Tetra, leader of a band of pirates. With the introduction out of the way, the two of them made their way out of the forest and back to the village. Before entering the village, Link to his horror witness the return of the giant bird only to see it kidnapped his baby sister, Aryll, away. With determination in his eyes, Link set sail to sea with the help of the pirates to rescue his sister. During his quest to find his sister, Link met a talking boat by the name of the King of Red Lions. This boat informs Link that girls from across the kingdom are being kidnapped by this bird and held captives by an evil being named Ganondorf, a great evil being from the past. In order for Link to free his sister, he must become the Hero of the Legend. A task that can only be accomplished by finding the Master Sword and being able to control the power of the wind. Such tasks cannot be so easily accomplished and will require Link to travel the Great Sea to various dangerous places. Dangerous or not, Link must rescue his sister and with that thought, he set forth on a journey of adventure. This of course concludes our plot summary of the story. As you can tell, this isn't what you would call an in-depth story or a complicated story. The basic of the story is very simple, in order to rescue Aryll from Ganondorf, he needs to find the tools that can help him fight Ganondorf first. Once that's done, then it's the final showdown with Ganondorf. The overall story or quest if you want to call it that is very short too. I guess Nintendo wanted it like that for the younger generation. I wouldn't say the story is bad but it's not great. It's just a light rpg story that rpg core fans may not like very much due to it's lightness. Does that even make sense? If you're okay with a light rpg story then this story is for you. However, if you're looking for a serious heavy rpg story then you're going to have to look else. Wind Waker does not provide that kind of story. From this reviewer's stand point, I just didn't find the story to be too interesting in the end. And that's the bottom line.

Relax man, we make a good team. Like with most action rpg game, Wind Waker doesn't possess a lot of key central story characters. You basically have the main character, which is controlled and played by the player. Then you have the secondary characters in the game. Secondary characters are very important in an action rpg game cause they are the only one outside of the main character that the story will focus on since there are no party members in most action rpg games. Secondary characters unfortunately in Wind Waker only have limited roles to play in this story. But let's look at the main character first. As with the previous Zelda games, the main character is none other than a hero name Link. Link doesn't talk in this game other than making some funny noise effects. There's not much background to his character as well since he's just a kid growing up and celebrating his birthday. So you can scratch out any major plotlines dedicated to Link other than the fact that he is the new Legendary Wind Hero. The next two major characters are Tetra and Link's talking boat, The King of Red Lions. These are secondary characters. There are other secondary characters in the story but most of them have little to no impact on the actual story. There's not much development in terms of Tetra other than the fact that she is the leader of a band of pirates. How she became the pirate's leader at nearly the same age as Link is unknown or where she is from is unknown. And just like Link, there's a hidden secret about her that will be revealed later on in terms of her destiny. The King of Red Lions is a little bit more developed in terms of overall presentation to a character since we will know who the King of the Red Lions is and how a boat can talk as the story progress down the road. One in which I can't explain without revealing major story spoilers. So you are basically looking at three key characters in this game, minus of course the main bad guy, Ganondorf. As you can see, story characters and the development of these characters are not a very strong point in this game at all.

I am everything and more. When word came out that Wind Waker was going to be using a new graphic technology called cel shading and that the whole game designs was going to be that of a cartoonish look with Link looking like a kid in diapers instead of a more adult approach, Zelda fans were very upset about this. Fans were thinking and screaming that Nintendo is now trying to market the Zelda series to the kiddie market. This reviewer has to admit that he was one of those that were saying, "Wind Waker, a kiddie game." But you know what? I take it back. After a further in-depth look into the graphics of this game, this game is very nice to look at. You just need to get pass the new look and look at the game for what it is. This game is one of the best-looking games around. It's not CGI or polygons but it still did an excellent job in what it was trying to do. So what is this game trying to do? Well for starters, yes it is now gear toward the younger audience with the cartoonish look in terms of the style in which the Wind Waker world and characters are designed. If you look at it from that concept, then you would notice that for a cartoonist style game, it's one of the best cartoonish style games around. The game literally looks like it's made from a cartoon. If you're trying to market a game for the younger generation that love to watch cartoon, then this game is it. It has the look and feel of a live interactive cartoon game. Everything is drawn and designed excellently from a cartoon point of view. In a 3-D cartoon world, everything looks very realistic, from trees blowing about to the ocean waves moving up and down. Surprisingly there's a lot of attention to details on each of these animation designs. What also makes this game looking very hot is the gorgeous use of colors in this game. This is one of the best looking displays of colors around using different types of colors making the game looking bright and beautiful during the daytime but dark and wet during the night time. I just love the use of colors in this game. If I were to guess, I would say the excellent use of colors made the graphics 30% more attractive to look at. For gamers out there, you just need to get by the cartoonish look of the game to realize its beauty and potential.

Let's make some music. To be blunt, musically speaking, it is just above average. The game does not contain a whole lot of musical score that will move gamers or impress anyone. If I were to highlight from what I can remember the most in terms of musical score from this game, then it would be the Wind's Requiem musical score and the sailing across the Overworld score. Why these two? Simple, it is because they are the ones I hear the most in this game. There are other musical scores of course but they are all lacking in a sense that you can't really remember any of them. Add in the fact that they all sound like music made for the midi audiences then the ones listening to the music from Dolby Pro Logic. That is the problem here. There maybe over 60 different tunes but all of them sound very plain and nothing special at all. The music doesn't break this game but it doesn't really help it. In terms of sound effects, it is good and bad. The good part is that the sound of sword clashing, enemies grunting, weapons dropping on the ground, birds flying overhead are all very good and realistic. However, the bad part is that the characters in this game are crying for sound to come out of their mouths. These characters, especially Link only make funny noises out of their mouths instead of actually words. They all look like a bunch of mute people trying to talk. The sad part is that you actually want to hear them speak instead of just making sound effects out of their mouths. This game is just crying to have voice actors in it and I believe it should. Too bad it doesn't. Average music and no voice acting make this reviewer an unhappy camper.

My ultimate attack will kill you. You're going down, Ganondorf. Game Information    Genre: Action Rpg    Publisher: Nintendo    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 12 Blocks    Players: 1 Player Mode    Progressive Scan: Yes    Gameboy Compatible: Yes    Rating: Everyone    Release: March 2003 Through the history of time, we know that one of the best features in the Zelda series is the gameplay. Zelda boost one of the best pure action rpg gameplay around. Wind Waker is no exception to this. If you look around in today's rpg games, there aren't many pure action rpg left. So those that are looking for a pure action rpg where you go to a dungeon, get the key tools or items that you need to help solve the puzzles in the dungeon then fight the dungeon boss, and move onto the next dungeon then Wind Waker is it. The strength of these kind of action rpg is the pure fact and enjoyment of exploring a dungeon and solving its riddle. Of course not everyone likes these kind of set up where you have to bash your brain in to solve a puzzle. This can explain why the pure action rpg game are a dying breed. Still we are fortunate enough to still have the Zelda series reminding us what pure action rpg is all about. The following is a list of the key features in this game that gamers should be aware of. Items:The main feature in this game. Your items are broken down into three groups: attack items, tool items, and bag items. Your bag will contain items for various miscellaneous usages such as baits, letters, and jewels that monsters drop. Attack items are items used in killing monsters outside of your main attack sword. These items include boomerang, bombs, arrows, and the deku leaf. Finally your tool items will include sail, telescope, picto box, wind waker, and iron boots. Of course there are other items available that we haven't mention. Charts:Charts are your map to everything. They come in three different groups, treasure charts, sea chart, and dungeon charts. Treasure charts are charts that show location of treasure in certain areas of the sea. There are over 40 different treasure charts so finding them can be quite time consuming but worth it in the end. You have only one sea chart which shows the entire area of the world. However you need to map out each area of the sea chart to unearth its information for each location in the sea chart. Dungeon charts are basically your dungeon map. Each dungeon contains one hidden dungeon map in a treasure chest. You need to find the treasure chest first in order to get that dungeon map. Tingle Tuner: This little item is what connects you to your Gameboy Advance. Once you access your Tingle Tuner, Tingle will come out to help you with your game. Tingle will either give you some game tips if you are stuck or tell you of secret locations that only you are able to access if you have a Gameboy Advance. In order to complete the game completely then one must have a Gameboy Advance to get hidden items that are only available to those that have a Gameboy Advance. Wind Waker: One of the most important tools and the key theme of this game. The Wind Waker is Link's baton that when he conducts it, it plays music to the point of controlling the wind. The power of the wind is very important in this game simply for the fact that the wind is your only key source of power when traveling across the sea. Of course the Wind Waker also has other uses other than just controlling the direction that the wind blows. You'll need your Wind Waker to help you teleport to warp points as well as open closed doors and gain entrance to Altars. Hearts:The building block of your life gauge. Link can hold up to 20 Heart containers. Each heart containers carry 4 heart pieces. Each time Link get hit, he loses one heart piece inside a heart container. You can increase your heart containers by finding more heart pieces. Link's Boat: Your only means of transportation around the world is by boat. However traveling by boat can be more annoying than fun. First there's the fact that the seas is very big and it really takes a long time to go from one area to the next area. But that's a minor problem. The major problem is when traveling by boat is that it's not very maneuverable in a sense that you can go and make turns in any direction. Your boat is limited to where it can go base on the wind direction. Whether it's making a right turn or a left turn or even backtracking, you have to constantly change the direction of the wind. This is really annoying. Go and stop then take out the Wind Waker and change the direction of the wind then go sail in the wind direction. Repeat the whole process over again if you need to make a turn somewhere down the line. Very tiresome process. Link's Action:Controlling Link is almost free style. You can basically do pretty much anything with Link. Run, walk, swim, swing, lift, grab, throw, crawl, crouch, climb, jump, roll, spin attack, ect. His sword techniques are kept to basic ones such as vertical and horizontal slashes. Of course if you do those attacks in about 2 or 3 times in a row, you get off a combo attack. But the controls of these attacks are very simple and basic for young gamers to understand. His special attack is a spin move where you basically hold down the B button and let go and Link will do a major spin attack. The theme here is to make things simple but yet done in a way that you get a full motion range of attacks available and the game does that quite well. You can't really complain about the movement and control of Link at all. Now that you have the list of key features in the game summed up. Let's summarize the gameplay up. Everything is good about the gameplay except for a few minor things that could've been done better. Things that could've been improved upon are, making more warp points in the Sea, making the boat more maneuverable instead of replying on the wind all the time whenever you need to make a turn here and there, and lastly the quest itself should be longer. There are a total of only really 6 dungeons that you need to explore before having to reach the final dungeon. That's a little too short for gamers. But the good news is that some of the side quests help cover up the short story quest to give you a full gaming experience. The last problem I have is that in order to get a full complete gaming experience, you need to have a Gameboy Advance. This to me is a cheap and dirty trick from Nintendo to make those of us who don't have a Gameboy Advance and don't really need one to go out and buy one just so we can play a game completely. I don't mind making a game with Gameboy Advance connectivity but don't make it so that you can't only get so and so stuff unless you have a Gameboy Advance. That is just not right. A game should be able to be played completely with or without a Gameboy Advance. That's all there is to it.

Score: 8/10

Check out my figurines collection. Flawless is a word that best can describe this section. Mini games, side quests, extras, and replay ability are all included in this game. All the elements that gamers can expect to see when hoping for some extra gameplay in an rpg game. Winning various mini games can net you rubies, heart pieces, and treasure charts. Doing side quests will involve you in acquiring certain key items for some of the villagers of Windfall Island in return for reward items. Other side quests will involve Link finding and attaining all the treasure charts and exploring all the islands around the Great Sea to find what treasures each area holds. One of the biggest quests is the Nintendo Gallery. This will involve Link taking images from all the characters and enemies in the game and using those images to produce figurines. A very time consuming quest that you won't be able to finish unless you play the game a second time cause only certain figurines can be obtained by playing the game a second time. This also adds to one of the reasons on why you should replay the game again. This brings us to the replay value. Naturally, once you finish the game the first time around and you enjoyed playing the game, you may want to take another crack at it. The game developers however have added certain incentives to make things more interesting this time around. Playing the game a second time around will unlock various figurines that you can buy to finish your figurines collection. It will also unlock special clothes that Link and his sister can wear that they did not have available in the first game. Finally, all the Hylian languages will be translated in the second game to English so you can understand what was said during some of the story cut scenes. So overall, this game pretty much covers all the basic elements needed in terms of having extras and replay value to it. I can guarantee that you will spend over 10 hours alone on completing these side quests and mini games. That is good value if you ask me.

To conclude this review let's look at the good and the bad. The good: gameplay and graphics. The bad: story and music. Is Wind Waker an rpg game that fans must get? No. Is Wind Waker a game that Zelda fans must get? No. However if you got some spare cash lying around and you see Wind Waker in a sale's bin at a cheap price then you just might want to pick it up. It can't hurt to get this game but there are definitely better rpg games out there. And that ladies and gentlemen is the bottomline from Rpg Dreamers. Final Score: 7.2/10 Time to complete: 50+ hours (including Side Quests) Difficulty: Medium Favorite story character: Link? Best item: Bombs Most useful weapon: Master Sword Best voice effect: Link screaming when falling in a hole. Best music theme: Earth Altar Best advice: Find treasure charts. Best Skill: Parry Attack Also try: Zelda Ocarina of Time Up next: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles