Honestly, that's the best I can say about Wind Waker. It's a shame too. There was potential here, but none of it ever amounted to anything. I've never been a fan of 3D Zelda, but I wanted to like this game very badly and it let me down.
What drew me in here was the presentation. I absolutely loved the art style and the atmosphere the game went with. Zelda games are fairly low key, so the bright, vibrant world was exactly what I needed to get me interested. The Forsaken Fortress and Dragon's peak were great introductory dungeons that got me excited for the rest of the game.
The problems, however, began to become apparent as soon as I finished that second dungeon. Yes, the sailing is padding in its purest form, somehow even more blatantly so than other 3D Zelda overworlds. But more than that, I noticed that the game's locales were... lacking, shall we say. Most islands just didn't seem to have any identity to me, whether it was because they were too small, they weren't unique, they had no interesting (or logical) context, and/or there were no landmarks. For as much ocean as there was, there sure wasn't much to see on land.
And the same could be said of the plot as well. I wasn't expecting anything interesting or complex, but I was at least expecting more to do. I could sum up the game's story in less than a paragraph. Most of the play time is spent on sailing and sidequests. I'd be fine with that - having a more atmospheric type of experience - if it were not for the above issue of many of the islands being indistinct. And it was all the more frustrating because the game actually did hint towards some form of continuity, gave us the most expressive Link yet and actually tried to give Ganon some sort of motivation and depth. There could have been so much more. And yet, there wasn't.
Other than that, I had some minor issues like the occasional Moon Logic Puzzle, an environment or two not fitting in with the theme and the lack of soundtrack in some areas. The game also had some other good things as well in its charming characters and the continued usefulness of the tools throughout the game, but much like the rest game, it wasn't enough.
The first Zelda game I completed
Honestly, that's the best I can say about Wind Waker. It's a shame too. There was potential here, but none of it ever amounted to anything. I've never been a fan of 3D Zelda, but I wanted to like this game very badly and it let me down.
What drew me in here was the presentation. I absolutely loved the art style and the atmosphere the game went with. Zelda games are fairly low key, so the bright, vibrant world was exactly what I needed to get me interested. The Forsaken Fortress and Dragon's peak were great introductory dungeons that got me excited for the rest of the game.
The problems, however, began to become apparent as soon as I finished that second dungeon. Yes, the sailing is padding in its purest form, somehow even more blatantly so than other 3D Zelda overworlds. But more than that, I noticed that the game's locales were... lacking, shall we say. Most islands just didn't seem to have any identity to me, whether it was because they were too small, they weren't unique, they had no interesting (or logical) context, and/or there were no landmarks. For as much ocean as there was, there sure wasn't much to see on land.
And the same could be said of the plot as well. I wasn't expecting anything interesting or complex, but I was at least expecting more to do. I could sum up the game's story in less than a paragraph. Most of the play time is spent on sailing and sidequests. I'd be fine with that - having a more atmospheric type of experience - if it were not for the above issue of many of the islands being indistinct. And it was all the more frustrating because the game actually did hint towards some form of continuity, gave us the most expressive Link yet and actually tried to give Ganon some sort of motivation and depth. There could have been so much more. And yet, there wasn't.
Other than that, I had some minor issues like the occasional Moon Logic Puzzle, an environment or two not fitting in with the theme and the lack of soundtrack in some areas. The game also had some other good things as well in its charming characters and the continued usefulness of the tools throughout the game, but much like the rest game, it wasn't enough.