My overall exposure to the Zelda series has been pretty weird. Growing up I knew about them and I’ll even play some of the games like Majora’s Mask or Wind Waker; but I never really understood what I needed to do so I mostly just fucked around for 30 minutes got bored and then turned it off. I don’t remember why but for years I never bothered to get into this series because in my mind the series was about on par with really long RPGs that range from 20 to 50+ hour long stories. Eventually I played BOTW and got super sucked into the game, for almost 2 years I would play that game on and off to where I have like 200+ hours in just that game. While I didn’t really care for the story or characters I always thought it sacrificed that for the sake of its much more open-ended world design, I then played the Link's Awakening remake and I was hooked. The map layout was ingeniously designed, the progression was so solid and all of the islanders are all so memorable and charming. I loved every second of it; after that I was determined to play every single Zelda game, and then I sat on them for two years waiting to get around to them. I figured starting with Wind Waker was a smart move since I have found memories just fucking around in the Forsaken Fortress on that Zelda Gamecube demo disk; also it’s open sea map felt kinda close to what BOTW did and I figured it’d be a good jumping off point. (also it’s summer and I thought it’d get me in the mood) What I got was something I did not expect, don’t get me wrong I really liked it but it took awhile

I guess starting off I should say I had very high expectations going in since almost all of my friends who like Zelda say this is the best one. So let me just say for the first few hours of the game, I didn’t like it. None of the characters really stuck out to me, the combat felt really automated and easy, and everytime I tried going out of my way to explore the great sea the red lion would just say “oh don’t go that way you need to go over here and do this” even when I was going that way. The early dungeons were honestly really easy and short with very little puzzle solving, and all in all I wasn’t having much fun. When I played BOTW I thought the lack of real character depth was just a BOTW thing but after playing this I’ve now realized that it might just be a thing with the whole series. Zelda in the game is charming when she’s in her pirate persona but after she discovers that is the reincarnation of Zelda she does nothing for the last few hours other than get kidnapped and have a somewhat weird 180 personality change. I was also shocked at how fast I was going through the game without any real care towards the story or any real feeling of threat outside of a few enemies. That was until I unlocked the tower of the gods and was finally able to go out exploring.

Once I finally got the ability to explore the great sea and find heart pieces and meet new characters something clicked in my brain. The characters I met in Windfall started to feel charming, from the humble shopkeep, to the greedy oldman now living in the big mansion, that weird group of kids that follow you around, the eccentric photography shop owner, to even the weird guy dancing at the gravestone outside of town. They don’t have a lot of depth as characters but as charming NPCs that I remember fondly for their weird eccentricities that was enough for me, hell that can pretty much be said for every single character in the whole game not just in Windfall. On the Story front I found Ganondorf to be really intriguing, I don’t have that firm of an understanding of the characters yet since the only other version I’ve seen in a Zelda game was when he’s just an incomprehensible evil force with no character or personality. Here he’s very soft spoken and imposing force, his towering stature is so imposing yet his somewhat calm and collective appearance make it all the more intimidating, and then the mask slips off for a single second and you see a beast of raging power, hate, and wrath hiding behind that facade. For the very little screen time Ganondorf has he leaves such a lasting impact on me I have no idea how any other interpretation of the character could compare. The finale confrontation with him will probably go down as one of the most hype moments I’ve felt in a game ever, I’m serious I was at the edge of my seat the whole time

Finally I wanna talk about the overall exploration and the tone. When I found out that the very last section of the game was just “Go search the whole map for the Triforce pieces” I felt so happy, mostly because exploring this whole sea to find treasure and fight Ganondorf’s forces was for the most part the best aspect of the game for me. While I found the later dungeons fun nothing could scratch that itch that the great sea gave me; the wide open sea with seemingly an endless amount of islands with new fun characters to find and treasure to plunder I couldn’t get enough of it; I could go five plus hours just exploring the map before moving on to the next dungeon. From finding larger than life squids to fight to small ship on ship battles to even accidentally stumbling across a ghost pirate ship it felt like no matter where I went there was always something new to find or someone new to fight and even if I did think the combat is kinda eh that still didn’t stop me from searching every inch of the map for every heart piece and ruby. Oh and the music doesn't even get me started on the music, every track in the game perfectly matches up with its accompanying area and action and then some. The battle theme has this over the top bombastic sound that sets the mood perfectly or in the case of a smaller scale fight it can give it a very frantic feeling to it, the music that plays in Windfall is so peaceful and calming it just give a cozy feel to the whole town, a small little oasis to contrast with the great open sea. Still my favorite track in the whole game is sailing music, it’s over the top bombastic sound mixed with it’s serene tone make way for something I can only describe as swashbuckling; it perfectly sets the mood of your adventure and then some always getting you excited for whatever lays on the other side of the horizon, it’s just perfect.

I’m sorry if this reads like I’m all over the place more so than normal but the roller coaster of emotions I had with this game was insane. Going from mildly annoyed, to enjoying, to then more mild annoyance, to just flatout loving every second of it. I can’t think of another game that has taken me on such a ride before and honestly I wish I could go on it again. (I wonder if this is what it’s like to be a One Piece fan?) I could honestly go on and on about how much fun I had and all the memorial moments I had while playing, moments that will stick with me for a long time; but my fingers are starting to hurt from typing and I don’t wants this to sounds more incoherent then it already is so I’ll just leave it here. As to which game I like more between this or BOTW, I honestly can’t say, from everything I love about BOTW Wind Waker does it just as well if not better; but I have a stupid amount of love and fond memories of playing BOTW in high school so really we’ll have to see if anything changes going forward.