The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Wind Waker
Full Title	Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Gamecube
Release Date	JP December 13, 2002 US March 24, 2003 EU May 3, 2003 AU May 7, 2003
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the tenth game in the The Legend of Zelda series. The game is known for its cel-shaded art style, which is a departure from the relatively realistic approach of the earlier 3-D games.

Story

Several hundred years after the events of Ocarina of Time, Link is a young boy living on Outset Island with his grandmother and sister, Aryll. The legends of the people tell of a prosperous kingdom that housed a golden power. An evil man stole the power and used it to conquer the kingdom until a young hero wearing green sealed him away. He became known as the Hero of Time. The evil returned, but the Hero of Time did not reappear. No one knows what became of the kingdom.

When boys on Outset Island, they are given clothes like the one the hero wore. As the game starts, Link has come of age. Shortly, Link spots a giant bird taking a girl to the forest at the top of the island. Link goes to rescue her, but Aryll winds up being captured by the bird in her place. Link is forced to team up with the coarse pirate Tetra to find his sister and winds up being caught in a larger plot involving the golden power and the lost land of legend.

Gameplay

The game follows the basic gameplay of the previous 3-D games such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The control scheme remains largely the same, including the ability to lock-on to enemies. There are a variety of dungeons (but less than usual) as well as a variety of sidequests that could be taken on. The combat system is also modified with the ability to counterattack by following visual cues during battles. This usually allows the player to avoid an attack and attack an enemy at the same time.

One of the biggest differences from the traditional Zelda games is the fact the game takes place in a sea. Because of this, Link has a boat to travel in and gains the ability to control the direction the wind is blowing through the titular Wind Waker. The Wind Waker replaces the ocarina from previous games as a musical instrument that can be used in a variety of contexts, and the ability to control wind also has several other applications.

This game also has an optional feature called the Tingle Tuner. By connecting a Game Boy Advance to the Gamecube, the player can control Tingle. Tingle has a more detailed map, and he can sell the player goods and services quickly. There are also some small sidequests which can be pulled off using it.

Continuity Notes

• The game is explicitly set several hundred years after Ocarina of Time, and the backstory seems to be constructed in a way that no other games could take place between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. Eiji Aonuma has elaborated that the ending of Ocarina of Time, in which Princess Zelda sends Link back in time, caused two parallel timelines to form, with The Wind Waker being set in the timeline which Link disappeared from (the "adult timeline") when he was sent back to the other timeline (the "child timeline"), implying that most other Zelda games occur within the child timeline. This has been reaffirmed by the Hyrule Historia's official timeline, which places all of the other Hyrule-set Zelda games in the child timeline or a new third branch of the timeline in which Link is killed by Ganon at the climax of Ocarina of Time. The Wind Waker is the first game taking place in the adult timeline and is followed by Phantom Hourglass.
• The Hero of Time is mentioned at various points in the game, and is immortalized with a statue in Hyrule Castle. Stained glass windows in Hyrule Castle depict the seven sages from Ocarina of Time as well as Link's battle with Ganon from the game's climax. Some characters from Ocarina's timeframe, particularly Ganondorf and the Deku Tree, appear within this time. The deceased sages (Fado and Laruto) also both belong to species from Ocarina that do not appear within this game.
• One of the Tingle Tuner sidequests contains "The Legend of the Fairy", which describes Tingle's meeting with the Hero of Time. This seems to accurately describes Tingle's role in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and sets the foundation for the existence of multiple Tingles, despite the fact that Majora's Mask apparently took place in the other timeline as well as in a parallel world. There is another Majora's Mask reference in that Phantom Ganon's sword is inscribed with the names of the swordsmiths from Majora's Mask in Ancient Hylian.
• The three pearls of the goddesses bear the same symbols that were used to represent the three songs of the Harp of Ages during Oracle of Ages. These symbols have since become the official symbols of the three goddesses.

Legacy

Although its quality was debated, the cel-shaded style for The Wind Waker was popular enough to be utilized for most of the handheld games and Four Swords games which followed. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword would later use a cel-shaded style (but mixed with the realism of Twilight Princess) as well as a flying system that is inspired by the sailing in The Wind Waker.

Sequels

The next Legend of Zelda game was Four Swords Adventures, while the next major console game was Twilight Princess, which returned to a realistic style due to criticism of the cel-shaded graphics. Phantom Hourglass was later made as a direct sequel to The Wind Waker both in story and gameplay (complete with a modified version of the sailing system).