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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
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This article is a short summary of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Zelda Wiki features a more in-depth article. |
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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説 風のタクト Zelda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takt, literally, The Legend of Zelda: Baton of Wind) is the tenth game in the The Legend of Zelda, released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2003.
The Wind Waker represents a major departure from the style of the previous two games, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, which had realistic, if low-poly, graphics. The characters and world of The Wind Waker are instead rendered in a sort of super deformed, chibi style, with bright colors and cel-shaded graphics, making the world look as if it is a cartoon. This drew much criticism from fans, who initially referred to the game as "Cel-da", and likely resulted in the darker tone that Twilight Princess took afterward.
Blurb
Legend has it that whenever evil has appeared, a hero named Link has risen to defeat it. The legend continues on the surface of a great and mysterious sea as Link sets off on his most epic and awe-inspiring adventure yet. Aided by a magical conductor's baton called the Wind Waker, he will face unimaginable monsters, explore puzzling dungeons, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters as he searches for his kidnapped sister.
Story
The story of The Wind Waker begins with a short legend about the Hero of Time, a young man dressed in green who saved the kingdom of Hyrule from the powerful sorcerer Ganondorf, sealing him away in another dimension to bring peace to the land. This story recounts the adventure of Ocarina of Time, but continues that though the Hero of Time had sealed away Ganondorf, the sorcerer returned to once more take over Hyrule. Although the people prayed to the gods that the Hero of Time would return to save them, no hero appeared, and the kingdom itself vanished, lost to legend. On a small island in the south of the Great Sea, a tradition sprung up to dress boys in the green garb the Hero of Time wore when they had reached the age of 12, in order to inspire them to know courage like the hero did.
The game itself begins on the 12th birthday of Link himself, who wakes up to his sister, Aryll. She tells him to go see their grandmother, who will give him the clothes worn by the Hero of Time in accordance with tradition. Aryll lends him her telescope, and Link looks through it, surprised to find a gigantic bird carrying another girl flying over the island, being attacked by pirates with cannonballs from their ship. With a hit, the bird drops the girl into the forest on the island, and Link must go to rescue her. In the process, he discovers the girl's name, Tetra, and Aryll is kidnapped by the bird, who carries her off to its lair to the north, the Forsaken Fortress. With some convincing, Tetra and the pirates take Link along with him on a rescue mission, and though he reaches the room where his sister is held, the Helmaroc King swoops in and takes him away, showing the intruder to the master of the fortress, Ganondorf. The Helmaroc King then flings Link far away from the fortress, where he is discovered and saved by the King of Red Lions a talking boat. The boat tells him of Ganondorf's prior plot to take the Triforce and his failure, and commands Link to gather three pearls from several of the Great Sea's islands.
Journeying to the first island, after calming Valoo with Meldi's help and befriending the Rito tribe, Link receives the first pearl, while after saving Makar in the Forbidden Forest, Link claims the second. The third is held by Jabun, who originally lived on Greatfish Isle, but had to flee to Outset Island, Link's home, when Ganondorf destroyed the former. After all three of the pearls have been gathered by Link and placed in the respective idol statues on the Triangle Islands, the Tower of the Gods rises as a final test before the secret of the Great Sea can be revealed to him.
At the Tower, a magical portal is opened at the base when the bell atop is rung, which leads deep beneath the ocean to the lost kingdom of Hyrule. The kingdom is frozen in time, but the King of Red Lions commands Link to solve the puzzle inside to gain the object that will help him to strike down Ganondorf and save his sister: the Master Sword. On pulling it from its pedestal, the lost kingdom is brought back to life, and Link must defeat many enemies before he can escape back to the ocean above.
On returning to the Forsaken Fortress, Link must make his way back to the top, defeating Phantom Ganon along the way. Saving Aryll with the help of Tetra and the pirates and defeating the Helmaroc King, Link finally makes his way to Ganondorf, who awaits his arrival. Although Link tries desperately to beat Ganondorf, he is quickly put down. The Master Sword has lost the magic contained inside, and cannot even harm him, let alone destroy him. Tetra's quick arrival saves Link, but Ganondorf takes hold of her, and discovers that she has a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom, making him believe her to be Princess Zelda. His victory is short-lived, however, as Valoo and two Ritos arrive to save the two and defeat Ganondorf. The King of Red Lions brings Tetra and Link beneath the sea once more, revealing his true identity as Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, the king of the land, and to Tetra that she is in fact Zelda, the last in the royal family line, completing the Triforce of Wisdom. He commands Link to return to the sea above, to discover what happened to cause the Master Sword to lose its power.
Link soon discovers that the two templates in which sages prayed for the Master Sword's power had been invaded by Ganondorf before his conquest of Hyrule, filled with his monsters, and the sages praying for the sword had been killed, their spirits remaining. The two sages, Laruto and Fado, ask Link to find the two who carry on their bloodlines, having similar instruments. These sages teach Link melodies that will awaken the new sages, and Link discovers them to be his old friends, Medli and Makar.
Once the two have awakened their power and prayed for the Master Sword's strength to return, Link sets off to find the eight shards of the Triforce of Courage that was shattered and hidden when the Hero of Time did not appear again to save Hyrule. Finding them, and being given its power by the gods, Link sets off to Hyrule once more to defeat Ganondorf. When he arrives, however, the statue of the Hero of Time that marked the castle's secret chamber has been destroyed, and Zelda has been taken captive by Ganondorf. Link must go to Ganondorf's lair, face Phantom Ganon and the bosses he defeated previously, to finally face off against Ganondorf. Ganondorf, however, transforms himself into a puppet form to take down the hero, and when defeated, takes Zelda to the roof of the tower, issuing a challenge to Link to follow him. It is there that Ganondorf takes Zelda's Triforce of Wisdom and quickly dispatches of Link, taking his Triforce of Courage, combining them with his own Triforce of Power to again create the united Triforce. As he is about to wish for the gods to unseal Hyrule from its underwater hiding place and give it to him, King Daphnes arrives to wish Hyrule be washed away, and Link and Zelda to have a future. Ganondorf is not pleased by this, and fights Link and Zelda as the water barrier surrounding the kingdom collapses. He is finally defeated after Zelda stuns him with a Light Arrow and Link plunges the Master Sword into his head, killing him and at the same time turning him to stone.
King Daphnes gives a final point of advice, that Hyrule should have been let go, and that his clinging to it in the hope it would be revived was no better than Ganondorf's. He wishes for Link and Zelda to find a new land, which will be their own, and sends them away, drowning with Hyrule.
Gameplay
The gameplay mechanics of The Wind Waker are standard to the 3D Zelda series, with the controls being greatly similar to those of its predecessors, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Many of the items are standard to the series, though the vast ocean overworld is a great departure from the land-based overworlds of all Zelda games before it, and allows for different uses for some items between land and sea combat. The great size of the overworld is criticized by some as being counterproductive, as sailing between two distant islands can become somewhat tedious, especially late in the game due to Link having to change the wind's direction every time he changes direction.
Link's difference in style allowed the developers to make for easier hints in dungeons, as Link can be seen to look at objects around him that are intriguing, such as unlit torches and weapons dropped by enemies. This enhancement carried on into Twilight Princess, though it is far less noticeable with the more realistic graphics.
Replay Value
The replay value is often rated poorly due to the fact that the game has almost no new items. There are no items that are optional to get, such as Din's Fire, Nayru's Love, or Farore's Wind from Ocarina of Time. There are side quests that you can do, but most of them involve sailing form island to island or meaninglessly trying to find buried treasure in the ocean.
References
External Links
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