The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Review: A pirate's life for you and me

The Legend of Zelda series is renowned for its ability to reinvent itself while maintaining the core elements that make it beloved by fans. Among its many iterations, The Wind Waker stands out with its distinctive cel-shaded art style and seafaring adventure. While it departed from the more realistic graphics of its predecessors, this 2002 title offered a fresh take on the Zelda formula with a sprawling oceanic world and a charming, albeit controversial, visual aesthetic. In this review, I, Brighton Nelson, will dive into the various aspects of The Wind Waker, evaluating its combat, story, theming, music, items, and more, to determine how well it holds up in the grand tapestry of Zelda's storied history. Now without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Review: A pirate's life for you and me.

Combat - 6

My score of six here is probably a flaming hot take that will piss off Zelda fans, but, to me, this is one of the most average Zelda games in terms of combat. While Link's innate combos are distinct and flashy, the moves aren't really different in terms of functionality, yet they do boast more variety than previous games in the series. This game also grants Link the ability to pick up enemy weapons for temporary use, which, while unadvisably underwhelming, is welcome for the sake of gratification. While this game's combat isn't awful, it pales in comparison to games like The Adventure of Link, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, and Tears of the Kingdom in terms of its combat.

Story - 6.5

While Zelda doesn't have the greatest stories of all time (and I'd usually consider them well below average), this title tells one of the better narratives of the series. While nothing is too outstanding, there's one reason the story is able to stand out amidst the crowd: its personal stakes. Link is just a young boy living on an island with his family, and, in an unfortunate turn of events, his sister is snatched up, and Link has to go on an adventure to save her. The Wind Waker's story is quite a warm-hearted tale as the motivation of saving your sister feels so much more intense than saving the world. Most Zelda games don't even show the description the villain causes, which makes the story ring a little hollow. However, with an ever-looming goal, this game's narrative is able to be much more special. Another minute detail that goes a long way is that Link doesn't start as some chosen hero or village idol but as a nobody who climbs a tower and is anointed by the gods as the world's hero. While the actual plot is undeniably mediocre, the emotions it makes you feel along the way make it a surprisingly good story.

Theming - 9

This game's premise was incredible: a catastrophic event led to Hyrule flooding and splitting the world into a multitude of islands! The game uses this to make Link into a pseudo-pirate who gets to explore the world and find tons of unique treasures, and, frankly, it is a very satisfying formula for a Zelda game. While it is a simple gimmick compared to many Zelda games, it is highly effective, making it one of the absolute best-themed games of the series.

Music - 8

The Wind Waker has one of the best soundtracks of the entire series—it is so beautiful. Every song perfectly exemplifies the heart and soul of the game, and every song is either brilliant or iconic. Dragon Roost Island has one of the catchiest melodies in the series; the ocean theme is stunning and perfectly sets the tone, the opening theme is fun and pretty, and every other track stands out in one way or another. This soundtrack is one of the best Zelda soundtracks, no doubt. Nevertheless, some games have far better soundtracks than this, making it not quite deserve a higher score.

Items - 9

This game might not have my #1 favorite item lineup of the series, but this game still has one of the best lineups of the series! We've got the traditional dungeon items such as the Bow (and its various arrows), Bombs, Boomerang, Hookshot, Iron Boots, and equipment upgrades. But it's the exclusive items that make this game's item lineup unique! There's a Grappling Hook, which is excellently realized and brilliant in tandem with the classic Hookshot! There's the Deku Leaf, which is practically the prototype for the paraglider in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. There's the Mirror Shield, which is utilized much better in this title than in any other game. There's also the Picto Box and Skull Hammer, which aren't strictly exclusive to this game, though they do function quite differently from the other games' iterations of the items. Last but not least is the eponymous Wind Waker, which allows you to control the seas with music, which is literally so incredibly epic.

Art & Graphics - 10

I know this is about to be completely unoriginal, but this game is one of the best and most timeless-looking games of all time! Even the original Game Cube release looks incredible, and the HD version is scintillatingly stunning. While some argue the characters themselves look ugly compared to the world, I've never felt that way. While I do appreciate some of the more realistic graphics of many titles, I'm a massive fan of this beautiful Toon Link art style, and I've never entirely understood the hate this game's graphics received upon release.

Dungeons - 6

As much as I hate to say it, this game's dungeons are so middling. While I adore the items you get in the dungeons, the dungeons themselves aren't the major highlight of this game—the exploration is. While I loved Dragon Roost Island, the Tower of the Gods, and the two temples, they weren't even amongst the best of the series. And the other couple of dungeons are okay but not spectacular. Sure, this game has four great dungeons, but I don't even think any of them are top-tier in terms of the series. So, unfortunately, this category gets a lower score.

Sidequests - 8.5

The world of The Wind Waker is full of islands and random things to explore, making it one of the most fun and memorable worlds to explore and collect stuff for. This game is always full of fun things to do and obtain, and it is more fun to collect Heart Pieces here than in most Zelda games. So, for that, it deserves a high score.

Quality of Life - 6.5

This game has some issues that hold it back from pure greatness. Sometimes, the sailing is so slow and tedious for no good reason, which is quite sad. That's my only real issue with the game, but even with the Swift Sail, this game can be obnoxious sometimes. Regardless, it doesn't ruin the game for me.

The Verdict

Fun Factor: 7.5
Overall Score: 75%
Letter Rating: A

The Wind Waker is really good in many ways that some Zelda games aren't, but it also suffers in a few ways that make it one of my favorite Zelda experiences. It has great exploration, a solid story, a beautiful world, and an array of fun items. However, with subpar dungeons, combat, and quality-of-life features, I can't quite say this is a legendary Zelda game.

Primary Version: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U)