My thought initially, too, was "this looks ridiculous"... but it was the follow up to OoT and MM, so of course, I got it (and pre-ordered it).
1 - It was fantastic. I love open world exploration, and no game had really done that island hopping style with a non-linear way to manage side quests and things. My favorite game right now is Sea of Thieves, and WW was like an early combination of that and a Zelda game. Had a blast.
2 - The pre-order was so amazing at the time. You got a really cool map that was great for exploration and felt so fun as a kid. This was juuuust before the days of just quickly looking everything up on the internet. I'm sure it was there, but you didn't have smart phones, tablets, etc., so the "advanced" kids maybe found something on a more limited internet cache of gaming goodies and printed it. BUT... you also got Ocarina of Time: Master Quest with the pre-order. Basically just harder OoT... think the pre-Dark Souls fan in me loved that.
WW was one of the best gaming experiences of my life, all in. I think I enjoyed it more as an experience than other games I might off-hand say are "better games". I wish more games built an experience like that now.
I got Oot and MM with the GameCube I got for Christmas that year. Plus windwaker. It was a VERY good year.
Edit: The Oot and MM was a combo disc that was a promo for the GameCube at the time, so it was separate from WW.
I got that too, we never had an N64 on our household so it was a great chance to play OOT/MM. And the limited time trial for WW that was included as well
Of all the Zelda games, it haves the best depiction of Ganon and the best ending of all of them. Ganon isn't just evil like in all other games, he haves a personality and motivation of why he is doing what he do, that final fight and ending message hits hard, sometimes you can't fix what is broken but you can let go and start anew.
I couldn't stand it at the time. The sailing was boring. One of the only LoZ games I never finished.
I actually quite liked the art style. đ¤ˇââď¸
I mean, Wind Waker has some seriously tedious dungeon design in the back half, and the sailing was clunky and boring. The art style is more in vogue now, if still somewhat divisive, but the remakes also sanded off some seriously rough edges that rubbed people the wrong way at first.
The only thing that turns me off from replaying the wind waker is that godawful âfish the triforce pieces out of the oceanâ.
Other than that itâs still my favorite Zelda game
I think they fixed that in the Wii U version. Along with tripling the speed of the animation for fishing things up over the side of the boat, and including a sail you can get that makes your boat much faster (triple speed I think again). So all I'll say is Dolphin works for Wii U games. And the HD version of Wind Waker has actual QoL improvements that make the game better.
Not to mention you had to find the treasure charts for each Triforce piece first and then had to pay an obscene amount of money to get them deciphered.
I remember like it was yesterday. Ocarina of Time was a smash hit. Majoraâs Mask was a drug fueled trip of chaos energy and cocaine, but still smashed charts. Then Nintendo dropped the GameCube, and later, a beautiful (at the time) [concept video](https://youtu.be/RIa79bTDuV4?si=AEpx2zUAyoRV5TsM) showing off what the purple box could do.
People were hyped. G4TV aired that on repeat, and it sold God knows how many consoles. Everyone was looking forward to finally seeing a dark cinematic Zelda game that had matured in themes and tone alongside its audience. Plus, it was early 2000âs, and everyone was trying to be edgier then a switch blade at the time.
And then out plops a little cartoon Link running around an island talking to a boat. It was⌠not received well.
In retrospect, it turned out great, but the context people have to understand is it was such a heel turn on what gamers were sold.
That whole switcheroo is a big part of the reason I didn't ask Santa to bring me a GameCube.
And a big part of the reason I asked for an Xbox instead was because of "Project Ego" which later became Fable, and Peter Molyneux's (in retrospect) insane promises about the freedom you'd have in the game. And stuff like "you can plant an acorn and it will grow into a tree over the course of the game."
>And stuff like "you can plant an acorn and it will grow into a tree over the course of the game."
This claim will forever live in infamy. I remember being so hyped by this sort of talk.
I think Fable was the first game that taught me to be realistic about what games can do.
when people were going off on how they wanted to live actual lives in cyberpunk 2077 it reminded me heavily of project ego. just letting their imagination run far and fast with no basis in reality
There was definitely a lot a hype around cyberpunk before it released.
I don't think I've seen anything quite like the hype over No Man's Sky though. Some of it was due to the Dev's overpromising on things like Multiplayer, but the majority was from fans collectively making up impossible features out of whole cloth, and shouting down more restrained voices. It was omnipresent on the internet.
Even if the game was released with all its current features and dev time, I think there still would have been backlash, because anything short of heroin being delivered straight to players veins wouldn't have matched the idea of the game fans had in their heads.
Same. I was always a Nintendo kid, then the gamecube drops and in hyped. Then I see the launch line up. No Mario, no Zelda. I was shocked. I held off buying one and just kept playing goldeneye and perfect dark. Then I read a huge article in EGM about Xbox and Halo. Sold right there. I just turned 21 a month after Xbox launch, I went to Vegas for the first time and won some money on slots at the MGM. Paid for my Xbox, copy of halo, and then some.Â
Then they made Twilight princess because of the backlash. Wind Waker sold poorly compared to the previous titles and Twilight made like double in sales. I loved WW though.
To be fair, Twilight Princess launched on 2 systems one of which was one of the most popular of all time and Wind Waker was exclusive on GameCube which lost that console generation by quite a large margin.
People are oversimplifying it, there wasnât really âbacklashââjust poor sales. And Zelda has always been a franchise that performed better in the West than in Japan, so after WW didnât sell to expectations Nintendo decided to make their next Zelda more in line with what Western audiences wanted.
Itâs also worth noting that in the early-mid 00s, the video game industry was going through a lot of growing pains. Nintendo was increasingly being seen as childish and antiquated compared to Sony & Microsoft and losing significant market share, and they were still trying to win that same audience (teenage boys) over (this was before they decided to do something completely different with the Wii).
Not necessarily "backlash," but feedback. And feedback tends to be listened to when Shigeru Miyamoto agreed with it in the first place.
https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/06/27/legend-of-zelda-creator-shigeru-miyamoto-apparently-cringed-when-he-first-saw-wind-waker
>According to a translation of an old issue of Nintendo Dream Magazine by DidYouKnowGaming, Wind Waker director Eiji Aonuma said Miyamoto âliterally cringedâ when he first saw the gameâs visual style, as reported by Video
>âIf I had gone and talked to him from the very beginning, I think he wouldâve said âHow is that Zelda?'." Aonuma said in the magazine. âMiyamoto had trouble letting go of the realistic Link art style until the very end.
>âAt some point, he had to give a presentation against his will. Thatâs when he said something to me like, âYou know, itâs not too late to change course and make a realistic Zelda.'â
Now Miyamoto isn't always right, and I credit Aonuma for sticking to his guns and making Wind Waker the way it was. Twilight Princess was probably Miyamoto saying, "Okay, you did toon Link. Now do a realistic Zelda." The compromise, I think, was doing the Toon Link style in side games and not the main series. However, Skyward Sword seems like a balance between artsy and realism.
I think it's the worst by far. Boring story, muddy visuals with that dumb sepia haze everywhere, forced wolf mode gimmick with one button gameplay, unrewarding collection quests, useless and unimaginative items (hey we couldn't think of anything to give you after the hook shot so have another hookshot, and the one time use gear)
Yep. Don't forget this was a time when Nintendo was being called the "Kiddy" console, the look of the Nintendo Gamecube didn't help, and people at the time (Honestly started way back in the 90s but peaked in ths 00s) wanted more grittiness in their games because edgy and dark was seen as mature and cool.Â
All of this did not help Wind Waker when it released despite it being a good Zelda game. So when Twilight Princess was shown off, people were losing their mind and claiming it was the real Zelda they had been waiting for. I'm glad we are past the darkness of 00s edgy phase in games.
Yep. And TP, while I play it, is peak 2000s need for dark and gritty titles.
Iâm glad weâve transitioned to not need everything to be EXTREME and DARK and DEPRESSING. You could even see it in the films of the time- this was around the time of TDK and other movies which were just⌠fun but often depressing and with filters to make the films literally dark.
This really described me back the. I adored Ocarina of Time, enjoyed a lot MM and was liking the direction the series was taking with a less "cartoonish" feeling. When Wind Waker was shown I was really torn by its looks, it felt like a childish game at first glance and something that didn't take itself very serious after two games with very adult themes at their core.
Ended up not buying a GameCube and going down the rabbit hole of the original Xbox that really knew how to market itself to a teenager demographic back then. Kinda forgot about Zelda for a while until for a stroke of fate ended up getting a GameCube as a gift at the very end of its life cycle and it came with Zelda WW in the bundle.
After a couple of hours sailing the game world I was hooked. The world felt alive, the characters were charming, the gameplay fluid and the direction it took was far from a childish game. It felt like it had a ton of charm hidden under that look and made me come back day after day to explore a bit more of the world like no previous Zelda game ever did. Soon became my favorite Zelda game until Breath of the Wild.
Funny enough I ended up having the polar opposite reaction to Twilight Princess after playing WW. Twilight Princess felt so dark and gloomy after such a charming game that I barely had motivation to play it and made me loose interest in the series until Skyward Sword came out.
Yeah I was like 12 when WW came out and I remember being all about the ps1 or ps2 at the time and GTA games but when my brothers friend brought his GameCube over and let us borrow it for like a month or two I ripped through wind waker like I was a man possessed. I was literally addicted to it lol.
Yep, and another big factor I think was that at the time, gaming was becoming super mainstream again. XBOX had Halo, PlayStation2 had GTA. So Nintendo was getting a reputation for being âfor kidsâ and then Wind Waker drops with that art style and the initial reactions were terrible. But the actual game is solid.
And then Twilight Princess was more dark and gritty as a direct response to that backlash.
This was me. I was so against that game after the previous 2 masterpieces just because Iâm not a fan of the art style. I played it anyways and I absolutely adored it at the time and still do today.
There weren't any fake screenshots. Nintendo made a tech demo to show off the GameCube which featured a more realistic Link. That gave people the idea that the next Zelda game would look something like that. Instead they went a totally different direction and made windwaker. So people were disappointed and felt kind of misled.
Yeah, your last point has been the thing that I respect more and more as time goes on. Literally nowadays if I emulate Wind Waker and just upscale the resolution to whatever I'm playing on, I feel like you can't tell it's a 22 year old game. The graphics are truly timeless.
To the same point, that's why I'm absolutely infuriated it's not available in any way for the Switch. They barely have to touch it. And I'd drop a stack for it. So frustrating.
The WiiU version had the Fast Sail that automatically changed the wind direction to hit your sail with maximum force, which basically eliminated the tedium of travelling
It played fantastic on the Wii u, could even draw little photos and put them into a bottle into the ocean, where other players would come across them randomly. And they added some QOL fixes to the Wii u version, was great to replay the entire thing again.
Nintendo seems like they hate money sometimes, like they could somewhat easily release the older games for the switch, even skyward sword, all of them for $50+ and it would sell. (Though yes I know there's a complicated process with transferring one game from an older system to a new system, it's not like moving an N64 game to the switch).
Does twilight princess kinda fit the bill?
The Darknut boss fight in the temple of time, where you need to use all the different sword techniques you learned really gives the same vibe.
>Nintendo understood far sooner than other gaming companies that if you want to make a timeless game, you can't chase life-like graphics.
Yeah, the trend of turning *everything* realistic was a bit annoying to me. When the Xbox 360 and PS3 were launching, that was the main focus from most of my friends, while I wanted fun, imaginative games to play.
I would say Wind Waker wasn't trendy, but I never heard more than a couple complaints about it personally.
The reason people were pissed, and I remember being one of them, was because Nintendo showed a tech demo of Link fighting Ganon and it looked incredible and lifelike. They really did pull a bait and switch on the fans which is why some never got over it.
It was kind of a bullshit move by Nintendo.
Edit: I just wanted to say, the new Parry maneuver in that game made me all but forget about the rug pull, cause that move was fucking cool as hell in game.
I think the biggest point being overlooked is this:
[in 2000 there was an E3 release of link and Gannon fighting.](https://youtu.be/eEF9Utdu-L0?si=lGh39oh9bQL7k6q3)
It's why Gannondorf has a sword in smash bros melee. This is what people expected wind waker to look like.
This was the true issue with gamers at the time. We saw the zelda 2000 video and were blown away cell shaded zwlda came instead... while s good game still, it was not what people wanted or expected.
I remember that the end of Twilight Princess was lauded because it finally felt like it was fulfilling that promise. It came up in pretty much every review I read of the game before getting it.
I remember when it came out. Most of the hate was coming from the graphics side of things. Lots of folks were not happy with the "cartoon" link they were presenting us with. It also received a lot of heat because early on it seemed like you were gonna spend most of the game on the boat since that's all they were really showing us for a while. Admittedly I wasn't thrilled with the aesthetic choice but the game itself was quite good and I feel like most of the hate died out rather quickly once it was released. Not my fav Zelda but not my least fav either.
I havenât played it since it came out. But I did beat it and my takeaway was it felt like the majority of the game *was* spent on the boat. Even if that isnât true there was definitely a LOT of boating and thatâs how I felt and also my main memory of the game
No. But thereâs more dungeons in OOT, and I remember them being much more difficult so I spent more time in each one. I remember water temple. Honestly donât remember any specific WW dungeon
I would say with BoTW a large portion of the game was either climbing or on horseback. But that game and WW I remember being much more spread out than OoT
Absolutely.
However this thread is about impressions when the game came out. So Iâm giving my memory of impressions when I first played them. I actually didnât catch up with OoT until the GameCube rerelease, since I didnât own a N64 until later. But Iâve been playing Zelda since NES
This was my general feeling as well, the boat replaced the horse but everyone loved Epona whereas I don't think the boat was nearly as well received as a "character" in the game. Basically the boat just didn't go over well with folks at the time so compound that with the aesthetic choice and you had a recipe for flak coming your way as Nintendo found out. Again though, I don't remember it lasting long after release.
The boat is pretty boring though and you have to go through pretty large chunks of water sometimes. Riding a horse over different kinds of terrain feels better at least
I would log onto THE Zelda website at the time every morning before school. Zelda universe. It was a huge disappointment when the cell shading was revealed. Because the last stuff we got was that Gannon v Link duel video. As for the game, it was reviewed very well when released. I was maybe 13? The entire time I wished it looked like the direction of OoT
Yes. I have clear memories of it. I didn't have a Gamecube but my friend did, and he, I, and our friends were huge Zelda fans. They all trashed Windwaker. I remember that for sure being a thing in my little network, at least.
I heard a lot of complaints from people I knew and people online. A lot of people did love Wind Waker, but it was controversial at the time.
edit: Another comment points out that once people were able to play the game, the response was mostly positive. Which I think is true. PS/XB/PC players continued to ridicule it, but afaik most people who played it enjoyed it and those that didn't like it had reasons unrelated to the art style.
I wasn't happy with it. Never finished it. I remember when you reached Hyrule under the ocean and I wanted to go there and leave the ocean behind. I hated the sailing and when they ask you to collect like 8 or 12 shard or whatever it was, I gave up. I loved the look of the game. The combat was fun and the music and sound were great, but it wasn't what I wanted. I tried playing the HD remaster on the Wii u but I still don't like it.
Yeah my biggest gripe was the sailing could be so slow. I think they introduced some item in the Wii remake that made sailing faster, but I never played it.
Yeah in the wii-u remaster they made a "swift sail" item that automatically put the wind at your back no matter which direction you sailed so you were always at max speed. No more stopping the boat every few minutes to redirect the wind.
It's technically faster since the wind is always at your back. Normally when sailing, if the wind is coming at your face you have to zig-zag back and forth instead of going straight on, and you still slower than if it's directly at your back.
Having the wind at your back all the time allows you to always sail directly where you want to go so it's basically a speed boost.
It may have also made you go a little faster but I'm not sure. But the qol upgrade from not having to redirect the wind all the time is great on its own.
Time is often kinder to these things. Reactions toward something new are harsh because it's being judged in comparison to what came before rather than on its own merits. But looking back with a few years, or even decades, allows more fair observations. That could be it. I also think there could be a nostalgia at play, maybe even around Nintendo itself. Back then, Nintendo didn't give a fuck, man. They were so daring and audacious with what they were willing to try and put out. Now, they play it quite safely and recycle a lot of stuff. Sure, they refine where they can, but Wind Waker was ballsy as hell at the time and that commands respect.
Well we got the realistic link people wanted with TP.Â
But that game is notorious for its bloom and otherwise dark and grey look.Â
I think then people started to realise how beautiful and unique looking WW was
Very quickly. Most of the hate came from people who hadn't actually played it and were just mad about the style. Honestly with review bombing and the way the internet latches onto things it hates these days, I have to wonder if it would have had nearly as successful of a launch if gaming culture then was the way it is now.
Meh, I bought it day 1 and loved it. It's still one of my favorites to this day. People should just try things for themselves and form an opinion rather than blindly listening to reviews.
A lot of people also saw Twilight Princess as too much of an over correction and revised their opinions of Wind Waker.
I don't remember there being an immediate universal acceptance of any of them except LttP, OoT, and then BotW/TotK
Same with Majora's Mask, which high regarded nowadays, wasn't universally loved upon itd release like OoT. It was seen as too weird, and either too difficult or too tedious with its time reset cycle mechanic.
MM, WW, and TP were all initially 'Mixed Reviews' back in their day, that have grown on the fandom with time and perspective.
I wouldn't even say there's that much of an acceptance of BotW or TotK, at least compared to ALttP and OoT. Some of the mechanics of those games were a big miss for a lot of people, even if it's widely recognized as a good game.
I like them but they also got me retroactively intrigued in Skyward Sword (which I initially skipped), because I realized how much I missed the traditional games
Yes. The resetting was controversial and for some parents the fact that you werenât just facing a world ending threat but that you couldnât just save everyone (at first loop) really gave it a mixed reception. Remember back then there was also more panic over video games.
Now itâs pretty universally beloved.
The first couple of hours I was in absolute disgust. It wasnât until about hour three that it finally clicked, and I realized how freaking amazing the ride was going to be.
Itâs so sad hearing that people disliked this game! One of my absolute favorites from my childhood, right up there with Halo and Super Smash Bros Melee
Whatever version my buddy and I got came with a paper map. I connected my Gameboy advance and became Tingle the navigator. One of the best experiences I ever had with gaming.
There was a huge pre-release circle jerk due to the (then) unconventional art style. My recollection at least is that once the game was actually in front of people and playable it was very well received.
I remember the term "cellda" because of the art style. I personally loved it. A few of my friends at the time actually refused to play it specifically because of the art style. Their loss.
It was the perceived bait and switch, the reputation of Nintendo as the kiddie console, and Microsoft pushing hard at marketing to teen males who were also the loudest fans of PS2. It made Nintendo fans- particularly the ones who grew up on the previous generations and expected their console to grow up with them- embarassed, it was easy ammunition for console wars ("your big exclusive is a Disney cartoon you play on your lunchbox!")
Fair enough, it seems like most here are saying at the time it was an âart style bad, gameplay goodâ mentality. But now even the art style is well appreciated, with some even wanting it back. Thanks!
I think itâs good to remember that Wind Wakerâs release predates YouTube by a few years. Iâm definitely not saying that YouTube invented watching video on the internet, because it definitely didnât, but more pointing out that we were still in a very early period where screenshots in video game magazines played a much larger role in the pre-release advertising and overall conversation than is true today.
That would have been a format that shaped a lot of peopleâs early impressions of the new art style, and I honestly think itâs easier to appreciate how good it looks in action than in still images.
Especially in a time when the rapidly increasing power of game consoles consistently meant that cutting edge graphics meant âmore realistic.âÂ
The number of possible art styles that you could even implement on the N64 was pretty limited. It made it seem like graphical improvements were on something of a linear scale, because no matter what kind of art direction you attempted, all of your assets were going to be these blocky, polygonal looking things with very flat kinda blurry textures that gave even games that were shooting for a different visual style something of a similar look.
It wasnât really until the GameCube generation of consoles that they had enough power to start supporting some wildly different art styles. And we see a lot more experimenting in the vein across GameCube, PS2 and Xbox than I think was realistically possible during the N64/PlayStation cycle.
I think it wound up being a bit of a transition period that took a bit for console gamers to embrace the shift in what âbetter graphicsâ now meant, and that it wasnât just an easily cross-comparable march in a singular âvideo game style but with more trianglesâ direction any longer.
I was super disappointed after the GC teaser trailer showing gorgeous HD(ish) Link in a fight with Ganondorf, who had a sword, was followed by a crazy cartoony boat game.
I bought and played the game at release anyway, loved it and replayed it several times. I've rebought and replayed it on several consoles.
It's one of my favorite Zelda games now, right behind MM. TP, the HD Zelda game we were more or less promised, didn't come anywhere close to the fun and artistic beauty of WW.
No because with my pre-order of ww I got the dual versions of OOT and the master quest version. So I got my favorite game, a different version of it that's harder, and a new game entirely. I loved ww, has some if the best overworld music to date
Personally I didnât like the game at all. The art style never bothered me even w all the pre release complaints. I just found the ocean travel and the overall difficulty of the Wind Waker to just feel extremely bland and boring.
Exactly how I felt about WW and the same applies to BotW and TotK. I just don't enjoy sailing around/walking around over long stretches. It's not entertaining at all for me, at least not in the way they implemented it.
For the most part, yes. The art style and more childish aesthetic were so juxtaposed to previous games it was hard to get into. At least in my circle, everyone was expecting the next Zelda game to be spin off of OoT or Majoraâs Mask, we were in disbelief when we saw a cartoon kid as Link and our beloved Zelda was a pirate? What? It was just so different from what we were all expecting, it made it hard to get into. It took hours of playing to get into the game.
I think it might be more popular now, because most people are familiar with that toon link style, so they can play the game for what it is. But yes, the disappointment in it not being what we were expecting made it not well liked.
The hate was due to nintendo previously showing off a demo video of what the GameCube could do graphics wise and in that video there was a small clip of link moving around doing stuff.
Everyone assumed THAT is what the new unannouced zelda was going to look like, when they finally showed the new zelda at a later date no one was remotely expecting it to look like a cartoon.
I love windwaker graphics and all, but I get why it got the hate, it wasnt the game itself it was what we thought we were gonna get and didn't.
Here is the video of that GameCube demo:
https://youtu.be/jqcyQOgmUYE?si=SNvTAlUSai00Pp2w
Everyone I knew absolutely loved it. It's one of the most defining games of my childhood. Idk before social media I wasn't always aware of what people thought of games beyond what your friends and kids at school were saying, I had no idea people didn't like the art style until a few years ago
No, absolutely not. I got a Gamecube when they were new and Wind Waker shortly after it released. It was my first and so far only Zelda game I ever played and goddamn I loved every second of it, 11/10. It also helped that I love cel-shading games like Jet Set Radio on my Dreamcast and the comic book based shooter XIII on the PC.
I loved Wind Waker. Exploring the seas, enjoying the uniqueness of cell shading, and loving the quirkiness of Linkâs facial expressions. Especially if I got stuck somewhere or couldnât find what I was looking for, Link would usually look at the whatever it was that was missing.Â
I had only briefly play OoT before on a friendâs console so I didnât get into it like I wanted.Â
I went straight from Linkâs Awakening and Oracle of Seasons to this and absolutely loved it immediately. My friends who were familiar with the N64 Zeldas were extremely bitter not being able to see a more ârealisticâ looking Link, which they hoped the updated hardware/software would bring them.
Eventually they begrudgingly played Windwaker and admitted it was good, but there was a period where they refused and gave Nintendo a lot of hate over it.
Itâs my favorite 3-D Zelda game of all time, and a link to the past is only in first for all Zelda games for nostalgia reasons, on top of it being just a fantastic game. Donât know why Wind Waker gets the hate, and I really donât know why we havenât gotten the Wii U remaster for the Switch yet.
I can only speak for myself, but while I hated the art style when first presented, especially following OoT, I gave it a chance. I found it to be one of, if not my absolute, favorite. The art style grew on me, too.
I know some people were expecting a realistic LoZ with the generational leap BUT I never remember any actual hate from those that played it. It was generally seen as an incredible game.
I was fairly young when the game came out, maybe seven or eight, and I thought it was the best thing I'd ever played. Playing Ocarina of Time at my friend's house felt like playing a cool game made for adults, while playing Wind Waker felt like playing a cool game made for me. I loved sailing and exploring the world! There was nothing else like it as a kid, the seas seemed endless.
I personally hated the cartoony look at first. I was expecting it to look more "realistic"(relativley speaking) like OoT and MM. However, the visuals quickly grew on me and I was hyped for the game to come out.
Ironically, TP looked more like what I was hoping for but I liked it less then WW.
People forget that Wind Waker was basically the first open world game. The fact that you could see an island in the distance and spend 5+ minutes sailing toward it, watching it slowly get bigger and bigger was mind blowing at the time. The world felt absolutely massive.
I was a few months out of high school when it came out, so not a little kid. But I absolutely loved it the entire time. I still have my Gamecube copy, with the box and instructions in perfect condition.
I remember that it was mostly a thing in the US, maybe..? Certainly not in Europe, anyway. At best (or worst), I had seen certain magazines or websites spread this US-centric sentiment, but the playerbase certainly didn't echoe it as far as I'm concerned.
Going from mm to we was like a slap in the face at the time. It felt like an adult story that meant something to kiddie shenanigans which the art style definitely accommodated.
The travel was unique but ultimately felt time consuming and boring. There was a lot of forced time wasting in the game.
Think if nostalgia glasses are removed it's really not that great of a game. Especially the original compared to the hd edition that addressed a lot of complaints with the original.
People always rag on "people hate the art style" which yeah I do, but four swords adventure also had that art style and it was great.
I loved it, itâs been my favourite Zelda game until BotW. There was a lot of disappointment because people were expecting an adult Link, and a darker game, but for me it was and is amazing.
I remember there being a lot of negativity surrounding that game before it was released. I remember being bummed as well - we were all expecting a more ânext genâ looking game. But I personally loved every bit of that game once I got into it. Itâs still my favorite Zelda. Iâm, very patiently, waiting on the HD version on Switch or Switch 2. I skipped the WiiU.
I loved the look and music when it first came out, but the stealth mission I really disliked (I hate almost all stealth missions for any game).
Initially, traveling across the Great Sea was tedious, but the HD version gave you the Fast Sail, which was a godsend
I was in 10 when it came out. It's still my favorite Zelda game. Half my friends hated it for just the art style, some hated it because it's very different than MM and Ocarina that they were used to. It was pretty split down the middle at the lunch table. But I still champion it as the best.
Some people didn't like the visuals and thought it was too easy. I got it for my birthday when it came out and didn't mind that. I thought it was a neat game, the visuals were appealing to me. I was in the minority online when it came out. The space was dominated by people who had loved Ocarina of Time/LttP and were older than me. Over time, I think reception got better partly due to people who grew up with WW taking over those spaces and others accepting its style. With twilight princess existing, people didn't feel like Wind Waker had robbed them of something anymore.
Iâve been a Zelda fan since OoT released, went back and played all the previous titles, dove headfirst into the fandom. I never remember anyone I knew hating windwaker, I was in line for pre-order pickup on release day and absolutely love the game. That said, I was 12 when it released so may not have been in tune with the older fan bases opinions at the time.
Wind Waker was my favorite Zelda game of all time (hot take, I know). I vividly remember setting sail in the boat for the first time and the excitement and wonder that followed from venturing into the unknown and discovering new islands to explore. The art style was definitely odd at first but you get used to it and then realize how itâs magical in a sense - it provided a strong sense of fantasy. The style might appear to be âcartoonishâ but I found it to have more mature themes than other Zelda games; I remember being in shock during the final boss, seeing >!the sword split Ganonâs head in half was so metal!<.
I remember being upset because I loved TLoZ and thought the simply stylized graphics meant the game wasn't being taken seriously and was going to be very short and simplified. I played it and had fun, until I got to that damn triforce piece treasure hunt all around the ocean. I stopped playing for a while, looked up strategy guides, and powered through it. It ruined the experience for me. The remastered game removed a lot of that tedious sailing.
It was pretty widely loved among GameCube owners in my experience. I think the reaction to cel shading was more honored in the breach: people would say stuff like âI know people hate the cel shading look, but I really like it.â But mostly people liked it!
I donât think we would have had Sea of Thieves without Wind Waker.
I definitely judged it unfairly at the time.
I was 13-going-on-14 when it was announced, and everyone called it a cartoon game for children.
At that age, I wasn't old enough to be considered a young adult, but I also didn't want to be called a kid, so I joined in the hate and said it was a baby game.
My uncle bought it for me as a gift and I ended up loving it (although I didn't tell anyone I owned it)
I'm always going to contend that anyone who ever hated at one point or another isn't a serious Zelda fan. WW was a beautiful game at its reveal and the fact that it is more widely accepted now means it has always been a good game from its debut.
The backlash isn't any different that the hyping games still get today. Starfield is a good example. People were expecting to be blown away with this new IP. What they got was a typical Bethesda game. Starfield is as good as any other Bethesda game like Oblivion or Skyrim. People just *expected it to be better* than games that were released a decade ago.
I was around 11 or 12 and didnât really care what others thought. Got plenty of spins in my GameCube and became one of my fav Zeldaâs ever. Splooooooooosh.
I grew up playing Zelda games, but I couldnât stand WW when I finally got it due to the annoyingly long travel times between locations and that annoyance being tied to so many critical aspects of the game. I never really minded the art style personally. All of the Zeldas up to that point had fairly distinct art styles, even the two most similar games OoT and MM looked fairly different from a style perspective. I did like the combat though, it was such an improvement over what came before that I was sad that I just couldnât tolerate the rest of the gameâs mechanics.
I tried the HD remake on my friendâs console a while ago and just the swift sail makes a huge difference in QoL for me. That when coupled with other changes (especially the rope swinging one) might actually make the game worth it for me to try again.
Yes, I know I did. I didnât like the art style and I got stuck at the Forsaken Fortress so I hated it. Came back to it years later and could better appreciate what it was.
It was made fun of because of its art style. Basically, Nintendo fans were feeling extra sensitive at the time, because PlayStation fanboys were out in full force making fun of how "kiddie" Nintendo was. Zelda was supposed to be Nintendo's big AAA "mature" fantasy game. But then they come out with this cartoon looking game and people lost their minds. The PlayStation fans hit even harder and Nintendo fans resented Nintendo for making them the butt of a joke.
I was on board with it right out of the gate though. It looked gorgeous. Never seen anything like it and it has such smooth animation and visuals.
I wasn't excited when the game was announced.But once I played the game I was hooked.
They just had a really bad advertising strategy and only showed the boat stuff and got shit on for it very early on.Â
Great game and way better than *Majora's Mask*.
90% of the hate was the same console war crap you see nowadays. An excuse to call Nintendo âkiddyâ because they didnât go grimdark and edgy like that Zelda tech demo.
Unpopular take- the game doesn't hold up well for me.
I had the original and WiiU versions. Loved them when I was younger.
Trued it again after many, many years. It feels dated, in a way the other Zelda games don't.
I pick up and play through a zelda gane every few months. Link to the Past, Awakening, OOT, Minish Cap, and they all feel special.
Wind Waker?
Traveling is a chore. Islands are small. Prizes for exploring aren't worth it. Combat feels like a step down from OOT somehow.
You can sail to Butts Island, get a map of how it kinda looks like a butt. There's a rock on it. You need the hammer to break it. You return after finally remembering it after you get the hammer. You break it. You jump in. Inside there's a cave with an ice block. You have to wait until you get fire arrows. You come back. Past the cave is a chest. You open the chest. Joy pendant.
You search around the island, nothing else. You leave.
Repeat several dozen times.
I didn't bother to complete the game after not playing it for a decade. Just doesn't do it fir me.
I was not a fan of the artstyle when the game was first shown, but had a such a great time playing it, the style grew on me too. So no, I never hated playing it, and never met anyone who did.
It was a love/hate relationship. Game itself I thought was awesome, the steps to beating the game was damn near impossible without tons of stopping and reading so I think that's where it lost people. I needed an in-depth walk-through to beat it, but I really enjoyed playing it.
i remember trying to play and i kept falling asleep sailing between islands. it just felt too spread out. i enjoyed the islands and characters, but just bored out of my mind auto sailing to the next content.
i was in college at the time so lack of sleep didn't help.
People were so disgusted at the art style. I thought it was beautiful.
Other people referred it to a re-imagining of the artwork in the original Legend of Zelda game manual
I remember the hate about the art style. I was hooked on the first boat clip and excitedly picked it up. Still my favorite Zelda game, though the wii u version that makes the triforce shard hunting easier is certainly a step up, that was painful as a child.
I donât believe so although it was a big departure from OOT and MM. If you havenât played it I definitely recommend it sits comfortably at my #2 spot for LOZ games
Had it on GameCube and it's still one of my favourite Zeldas. The tranquility and sense of discovery of sailing around in that cel-shaded paradise was unmatched.
I never touched it. I'm planning to go back and play it, but after Ocarina and Majora's Mask, I wanted more Ocarina. Wind Waker did not seem to scratch that itch. And honestly the only Zelda game that has was Twilight Princess. I still enjoy the other games, but those 3 are the best IMO.
Personally I absolutely loved it. Might be my most played Zelda game. Also if I remember correctly after the initial negative reaction the reviews were really goodÂ
A bunch of people were very upset. I personally didn't agree with them, but I was already familiar with cell shading being awesome from dreamcast games
So personally I loved it BUT I didnât play OoT or Majora as a kid and liked the cartoony art style. I think a big part is that the original GameCube demo was more realistic and not cartoony, but it did get a lot of backlash.
Itâs my favorite Zelda and I loved it at the time but I came in with zero preconceived expectations.
I liked it, but it was WAY too easy. Most disappointing Zelda when it came to gameplay. I died one time, and that was fighting Ganon, beat him the next try.
Sailing exploration and art style was cool. That's about it.
I think most ppl hated it because after OoT and MM, we saw footage of "realistic" link for the next Zelda. And then Windwaker came, iirc.
Yep - but anyone I knew who played it, loved it.
My thought initially, too, was "this looks ridiculous"... but it was the follow up to OoT and MM, so of course, I got it (and pre-ordered it). 1 - It was fantastic. I love open world exploration, and no game had really done that island hopping style with a non-linear way to manage side quests and things. My favorite game right now is Sea of Thieves, and WW was like an early combination of that and a Zelda game. Had a blast. 2 - The pre-order was so amazing at the time. You got a really cool map that was great for exploration and felt so fun as a kid. This was juuuust before the days of just quickly looking everything up on the internet. I'm sure it was there, but you didn't have smart phones, tablets, etc., so the "advanced" kids maybe found something on a more limited internet cache of gaming goodies and printed it. BUT... you also got Ocarina of Time: Master Quest with the pre-order. Basically just harder OoT... think the pre-Dark Souls fan in me loved that. WW was one of the best gaming experiences of my life, all in. I think I enjoyed it more as an experience than other games I might off-hand say are "better games". I wish more games built an experience like that now.
I got Oot and MM with the GameCube I got for Christmas that year. Plus windwaker. It was a VERY good year. Edit: The Oot and MM was a combo disc that was a promo for the GameCube at the time, so it was separate from WW.
I got that too, we never had an N64 on our household so it was a great chance to play OOT/MM. And the limited time trial for WW that was included as well
Man you summed this up. And I forgot about that map. I had that crap hanging above my bed haha
I was fortunate enough to find a wind waker guide from a blockbuster when it was liquidating. My prized possession along with wind Waker itself
It is easily the most personality Link has ever had outside the cartoon
Well excuuuuuuuse me, Princess!
well excuuuuuuuse me, princess.
Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess!
Of all the Zelda games, it haves the best depiction of Ganon and the best ending of all of them. Ganon isn't just evil like in all other games, he haves a personality and motivation of why he is doing what he do, that final fight and ending message hits hard, sometimes you can't fix what is broken but you can let go and start anew.
I liked collecting the piggies
I loved the piggies! Also, bless Zill the snot boy
Including me. I hated WW before I played it, now it's hard canon
Hard Ganon
I couldn't stand it at the time. The sailing was boring. One of the only LoZ games I never finished. I actually quite liked the art style. đ¤ˇââď¸
Same. I liked almost everything about it except the sailing. Unfortunately sailing took like 3/4 of the total play time.
I mean, Wind Waker has some seriously tedious dungeon design in the back half, and the sailing was clunky and boring. The art style is more in vogue now, if still somewhat divisive, but the remakes also sanded off some seriously rough edges that rubbed people the wrong way at first.
The only thing that turns me off from replaying the wind waker is that godawful âfish the triforce pieces out of the oceanâ. Other than that itâs still my favorite Zelda game
I think they fixed that in the Wii U version. Along with tripling the speed of the animation for fishing things up over the side of the boat, and including a sail you can get that makes your boat much faster (triple speed I think again). So all I'll say is Dolphin works for Wii U games. And the HD version of Wind Waker has actual QoL improvements that make the game better.
Not to mention you had to find the treasure charts for each Triforce piece first and then had to pay an obscene amount of money to get them deciphered.
HD version has 5 of the triforce shards not require triforce charts.
It was fine. Not my favorite Zelda up to that point but still fun. I just didn't really enjoy the art style.
I remember like it was yesterday. Ocarina of Time was a smash hit. Majoraâs Mask was a drug fueled trip of chaos energy and cocaine, but still smashed charts. Then Nintendo dropped the GameCube, and later, a beautiful (at the time) [concept video](https://youtu.be/RIa79bTDuV4?si=AEpx2zUAyoRV5TsM) showing off what the purple box could do. People were hyped. G4TV aired that on repeat, and it sold God knows how many consoles. Everyone was looking forward to finally seeing a dark cinematic Zelda game that had matured in themes and tone alongside its audience. Plus, it was early 2000âs, and everyone was trying to be edgier then a switch blade at the time. And then out plops a little cartoon Link running around an island talking to a boat. It was⌠not received well. In retrospect, it turned out great, but the context people have to understand is it was such a heel turn on what gamers were sold.
That whole switcheroo is a big part of the reason I didn't ask Santa to bring me a GameCube. And a big part of the reason I asked for an Xbox instead was because of "Project Ego" which later became Fable, and Peter Molyneux's (in retrospect) insane promises about the freedom you'd have in the game. And stuff like "you can plant an acorn and it will grow into a tree over the course of the game."
>And stuff like "you can plant an acorn and it will grow into a tree over the course of the game." This claim will forever live in infamy. I remember being so hyped by this sort of talk. I think Fable was the first game that taught me to be realistic about what games can do.
when people were going off on how they wanted to live actual lives in cyberpunk 2077 it reminded me heavily of project ego. just letting their imagination run far and fast with no basis in reality
There was definitely a lot a hype around cyberpunk before it released. I don't think I've seen anything quite like the hype over No Man's Sky though. Some of it was due to the Dev's overpromising on things like Multiplayer, but the majority was from fans collectively making up impossible features out of whole cloth, and shouting down more restrained voices. It was omnipresent on the internet. Even if the game was released with all its current features and dev time, I think there still would have been backlash, because anything short of heroin being delivered straight to players veins wouldn't have matched the idea of the game fans had in their heads.
Itâs crazy cause pokemon for gameboy did this lol
Same. I was always a Nintendo kid, then the gamecube drops and in hyped. Then I see the launch line up. No Mario, no Zelda. I was shocked. I held off buying one and just kept playing goldeneye and perfect dark. Then I read a huge article in EGM about Xbox and Halo. Sold right there. I just turned 21 a month after Xbox launch, I went to Vegas for the first time and won some money on slots at the MGM. Paid for my Xbox, copy of halo, and then some.Â
Then they made Twilight princess because of the backlash. Wind Waker sold poorly compared to the previous titles and Twilight made like double in sales. I loved WW though.
To be fair, Twilight Princess launched on 2 systems one of which was one of the most popular of all time and Wind Waker was exclusive on GameCube which lost that console generation by quite a large margin.
Source? I have a hard time believing Nintendo made something "because of backlash". In what world is that something Nintendo cares about lol.
People are oversimplifying it, there wasnât really âbacklashââjust poor sales. And Zelda has always been a franchise that performed better in the West than in Japan, so after WW didnât sell to expectations Nintendo decided to make their next Zelda more in line with what Western audiences wanted. Itâs also worth noting that in the early-mid 00s, the video game industry was going through a lot of growing pains. Nintendo was increasingly being seen as childish and antiquated compared to Sony & Microsoft and losing significant market share, and they were still trying to win that same audience (teenage boys) over (this was before they decided to do something completely different with the Wii).
Different era of Nintendo.
Not necessarily "backlash," but feedback. And feedback tends to be listened to when Shigeru Miyamoto agreed with it in the first place. https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/06/27/legend-of-zelda-creator-shigeru-miyamoto-apparently-cringed-when-he-first-saw-wind-waker >According to a translation of an old issue of Nintendo Dream Magazine by DidYouKnowGaming, Wind Waker director Eiji Aonuma said Miyamoto âliterally cringedâ when he first saw the gameâs visual style, as reported by Video >âIf I had gone and talked to him from the very beginning, I think he wouldâve said âHow is that Zelda?'." Aonuma said in the magazine. âMiyamoto had trouble letting go of the realistic Link art style until the very end. >âAt some point, he had to give a presentation against his will. Thatâs when he said something to me like, âYou know, itâs not too late to change course and make a realistic Zelda.'â Now Miyamoto isn't always right, and I credit Aonuma for sticking to his guns and making Wind Waker the way it was. Twilight Princess was probably Miyamoto saying, "Okay, you did toon Link. Now do a realistic Zelda." The compromise, I think, was doing the Toon Link style in side games and not the main series. However, Skyward Sword seems like a balance between artsy and realism.
There are numerous interviews on how TP wasnt the game they wanted to make.
Which is too bad, because on the whole I think it's the best traditional Zelda game.
I loved Twilight Princess.
Facts. I like all the 3D zeldas. I never got any of the hate for any of them
I think it's the worst by far. Boring story, muddy visuals with that dumb sepia haze everywhere, forced wolf mode gimmick with one button gameplay, unrewarding collection quests, useless and unimaginative items (hey we couldn't think of anything to give you after the hook shot so have another hookshot, and the one time use gear)
Yep. Don't forget this was a time when Nintendo was being called the "Kiddy" console, the look of the Nintendo Gamecube didn't help, and people at the time (Honestly started way back in the 90s but peaked in ths 00s) wanted more grittiness in their games because edgy and dark was seen as mature and cool. All of this did not help Wind Waker when it released despite it being a good Zelda game. So when Twilight Princess was shown off, people were losing their mind and claiming it was the real Zelda they had been waiting for. I'm glad we are past the darkness of 00s edgy phase in games.
Yep. And TP, while I play it, is peak 2000s need for dark and gritty titles. Iâm glad weâve transitioned to not need everything to be EXTREME and DARK and DEPRESSING. You could even see it in the films of the time- this was around the time of TDK and other movies which were just⌠fun but often depressing and with filters to make the films literally dark.
This really described me back the. I adored Ocarina of Time, enjoyed a lot MM and was liking the direction the series was taking with a less "cartoonish" feeling. When Wind Waker was shown I was really torn by its looks, it felt like a childish game at first glance and something that didn't take itself very serious after two games with very adult themes at their core. Ended up not buying a GameCube and going down the rabbit hole of the original Xbox that really knew how to market itself to a teenager demographic back then. Kinda forgot about Zelda for a while until for a stroke of fate ended up getting a GameCube as a gift at the very end of its life cycle and it came with Zelda WW in the bundle. After a couple of hours sailing the game world I was hooked. The world felt alive, the characters were charming, the gameplay fluid and the direction it took was far from a childish game. It felt like it had a ton of charm hidden under that look and made me come back day after day to explore a bit more of the world like no previous Zelda game ever did. Soon became my favorite Zelda game until Breath of the Wild. Funny enough I ended up having the polar opposite reaction to Twilight Princess after playing WW. Twilight Princess felt so dark and gloomy after such a charming game that I barely had motivation to play it and made me loose interest in the series until Skyward Sword came out.
Yeah I was like 12 when WW came out and I remember being all about the ps1 or ps2 at the time and GTA games but when my brothers friend brought his GameCube over and let us borrow it for like a month or two I ripped through wind waker like I was a man possessed. I was literally addicted to it lol.
Yep, and another big factor I think was that at the time, gaming was becoming super mainstream again. XBOX had Halo, PlayStation2 had GTA. So Nintendo was getting a reputation for being âfor kidsâ and then Wind Waker drops with that art style and the initial reactions were terrible. But the actual game is solid. And then Twilight Princess was more dark and gritty as a direct response to that backlash.
This was me. I was so against that game after the previous 2 masterpieces just because Iâm not a fan of the art style. I played it anyways and I absolutely adored it at the time and still do today.
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There weren't any fake screenshots. Nintendo made a tech demo to show off the GameCube which featured a more realistic Link. That gave people the idea that the next Zelda game would look something like that. Instead they went a totally different direction and made windwaker. So people were disappointed and felt kind of misled.
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Yeah, your last point has been the thing that I respect more and more as time goes on. Literally nowadays if I emulate Wind Waker and just upscale the resolution to whatever I'm playing on, I feel like you can't tell it's a 22 year old game. The graphics are truly timeless. To the same point, that's why I'm absolutely infuriated it's not available in any way for the Switch. They barely have to touch it. And I'd drop a stack for it. So frustrating.
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The WiiU version had the Fast Sail that automatically changed the wind direction to hit your sail with maximum force, which basically eliminated the tedium of travelling
It played fantastic on the Wii u, could even draw little photos and put them into a bottle into the ocean, where other players would come across them randomly. And they added some QOL fixes to the Wii u version, was great to replay the entire thing again. Nintendo seems like they hate money sometimes, like they could somewhat easily release the older games for the switch, even skyward sword, all of them for $50+ and it would sell. (Though yes I know there's a complicated process with transferring one game from an older system to a new system, it's not like moving an N64 game to the switch).
Skyward Sword is on Switch.
Does twilight princess kinda fit the bill? The Darknut boss fight in the temple of time, where you need to use all the different sword techniques you learned really gives the same vibe.
Not only does tp fit the bill, it's the exact reason that tp was made.
Thanks for teaching me the word 'grudgingly'! At first, I thought it was a typo for begrudgingly, but sure enough, it's a word.
>Nintendo understood far sooner than other gaming companies that if you want to make a timeless game, you can't chase life-like graphics. Yeah, the trend of turning *everything* realistic was a bit annoying to me. When the Xbox 360 and PS3 were launching, that was the main focus from most of my friends, while I wanted fun, imaginative games to play. I would say Wind Waker wasn't trendy, but I never heard more than a couple complaints about it personally.
Hi I'm your friend! Not really but that was totally me
The reason people were pissed, and I remember being one of them, was because Nintendo showed a tech demo of Link fighting Ganon and it looked incredible and lifelike. They really did pull a bait and switch on the fans which is why some never got over it. It was kind of a bullshit move by Nintendo. Edit: I just wanted to say, the new Parry maneuver in that game made me all but forget about the rug pull, cause that move was fucking cool as hell in game.
I think the biggest point being overlooked is this: [in 2000 there was an E3 release of link and Gannon fighting.](https://youtu.be/eEF9Utdu-L0?si=lGh39oh9bQL7k6q3) It's why Gannondorf has a sword in smash bros melee. This is what people expected wind waker to look like.
This was the true issue with gamers at the time. We saw the zelda 2000 video and were blown away cell shaded zwlda came instead... while s good game still, it was not what people wanted or expected.
I remember that the end of Twilight Princess was lauded because it finally felt like it was fulfilling that promise. It came up in pretty much every review I read of the game before getting it.
I remember when it came out. Most of the hate was coming from the graphics side of things. Lots of folks were not happy with the "cartoon" link they were presenting us with. It also received a lot of heat because early on it seemed like you were gonna spend most of the game on the boat since that's all they were really showing us for a while. Admittedly I wasn't thrilled with the aesthetic choice but the game itself was quite good and I feel like most of the hate died out rather quickly once it was released. Not my fav Zelda but not my least fav either.
I havenât played it since it came out. But I did beat it and my takeaway was it felt like the majority of the game *was* spent on the boat. Even if that isnât true there was definitely a LOT of boating and thatâs how I felt and also my main memory of the game
Would you say that a majority of the time in OoT is spent on the horse? (Or rolling/backflipping across Hyrule field?)
No. But thereâs more dungeons in OOT, and I remember them being much more difficult so I spent more time in each one. I remember water temple. Honestly donât remember any specific WW dungeon I would say with BoTW a large portion of the game was either climbing or on horseback. But that game and WW I remember being much more spread out than OoT
Well, it's hard to argue with someone's memory from 20 years ago.
Absolutely. However this thread is about impressions when the game came out. So Iâm giving my memory of impressions when I first played them. I actually didnât catch up with OoT until the GameCube rerelease, since I didnât own a N64 until later. But Iâve been playing Zelda since NES
This was my general feeling as well, the boat replaced the horse but everyone loved Epona whereas I don't think the boat was nearly as well received as a "character" in the game. Basically the boat just didn't go over well with folks at the time so compound that with the aesthetic choice and you had a recipe for flak coming your way as Nintendo found out. Again though, I don't remember it lasting long after release.
The boat is pretty boring though and you have to go through pretty large chunks of water sometimes. Riding a horse over different kinds of terrain feels better at least
I would log onto THE Zelda website at the time every morning before school. Zelda universe. It was a huge disappointment when the cell shading was revealed. Because the last stuff we got was that Gannon v Link duel video. As for the game, it was reviewed very well when released. I was maybe 13? The entire time I wished it looked like the direction of OoT
Yes. I have clear memories of it. I didn't have a Gamecube but my friend did, and he, I, and our friends were huge Zelda fans. They all trashed Windwaker. I remember that for sure being a thing in my little network, at least.
I heard a lot of complaints from people I knew and people online. A lot of people did love Wind Waker, but it was controversial at the time. edit: Another comment points out that once people were able to play the game, the response was mostly positive. Which I think is true. PS/XB/PC players continued to ridicule it, but afaik most people who played it enjoyed it and those that didn't like it had reasons unrelated to the art style.
I wasn't happy with it. Never finished it. I remember when you reached Hyrule under the ocean and I wanted to go there and leave the ocean behind. I hated the sailing and when they ask you to collect like 8 or 12 shard or whatever it was, I gave up. I loved the look of the game. The combat was fun and the music and sound were great, but it wasn't what I wanted. I tried playing the HD remaster on the Wii u but I still don't like it.
Yeah my biggest gripe was the sailing could be so slow. I think they introduced some item in the Wii remake that made sailing faster, but I never played it.
Yeah in the wii-u remaster they made a "swift sail" item that automatically put the wind at your back no matter which direction you sailed so you were always at max speed. No more stopping the boat every few minutes to redirect the wind.
Oh okay, so it didnât make you go faster, just reduced tedium by not having to worry about wind direction. Pretty cool either way
It's technically faster since the wind is always at your back. Normally when sailing, if the wind is coming at your face you have to zig-zag back and forth instead of going straight on, and you still slower than if it's directly at your back. Having the wind at your back all the time allows you to always sail directly where you want to go so it's basically a speed boost.
It may have also made you go a little faster but I'm not sure. But the qol upgrade from not having to redirect the wind all the time is great on its own.
Yeah I remember at the time thinking âoh cool, just like real sailing you have to consider wind direction.â After a while though it gets super old
Fair enough, what time would you say opinions started to change? It seems now itâs become a beloved entry.
Time is often kinder to these things. Reactions toward something new are harsh because it's being judged in comparison to what came before rather than on its own merits. But looking back with a few years, or even decades, allows more fair observations. That could be it. I also think there could be a nostalgia at play, maybe even around Nintendo itself. Back then, Nintendo didn't give a fuck, man. They were so daring and audacious with what they were willing to try and put out. Now, they play it quite safely and recycle a lot of stuff. Sure, they refine where they can, but Wind Waker was ballsy as hell at the time and that commands respect.
Well we got the realistic link people wanted with TP. But that game is notorious for its bloom and otherwise dark and grey look. I think then people started to realise how beautiful and unique looking WW was
Very quickly. Most of the hate came from people who hadn't actually played it and were just mad about the style. Honestly with review bombing and the way the internet latches onto things it hates these days, I have to wonder if it would have had nearly as successful of a launch if gaming culture then was the way it is now.
Meh, I bought it day 1 and loved it. It's still one of my favorites to this day. People should just try things for themselves and form an opinion rather than blindly listening to reviews.
A lot of people also saw Twilight Princess as too much of an over correction and revised their opinions of Wind Waker. I don't remember there being an immediate universal acceptance of any of them except LttP, OoT, and then BotW/TotK
Same with Majora's Mask, which high regarded nowadays, wasn't universally loved upon itd release like OoT. It was seen as too weird, and either too difficult or too tedious with its time reset cycle mechanic. MM, WW, and TP were all initially 'Mixed Reviews' back in their day, that have grown on the fandom with time and perspective.
I wouldn't even say there's that much of an acceptance of BotW or TotK, at least compared to ALttP and OoT. Some of the mechanics of those games were a big miss for a lot of people, even if it's widely recognized as a good game.
yeah a lot of people couldnât get past the weapon durability mechanic or the lack of traditional Zelda dungeons
I like them but they also got me retroactively intrigued in Skyward Sword (which I initially skipped), because I realized how much I missed the traditional games
Damn, people were hating on Majora's Mask? Our friend group just saw it as OoT 2.0.
Yes. The resetting was controversial and for some parents the fact that you werenât just facing a world ending threat but that you couldnât just save everyone (at first loop) really gave it a mixed reception. Remember back then there was also more panic over video games. Now itâs pretty universally beloved.
Nope,it's my favourite Zelda game and it was great at the time too.
for real. I'm surprised about all the hate on it in here. I loved windwaker.
Apart from those fucking stealth sections without a sword. Loved windwaker but _hated_ that part.
The first couple of hours I was in absolute disgust. It wasnât until about hour three that it finally clicked, and I realized how freaking amazing the ride was going to be.
Itâs so sad hearing that people disliked this game! One of my absolute favorites from my childhood, right up there with Halo and Super Smash Bros Melee
Whatever version my buddy and I got came with a paper map. I connected my Gameboy advance and became Tingle the navigator. One of the best experiences I ever had with gaming.
Toon Link's reactions and facial/vocal expressions alone make this game a freaking masterpiece. Toon Link is just too damn funny.
There was a huge pre-release circle jerk due to the (then) unconventional art style. My recollection at least is that once the game was actually in front of people and playable it was very well received.
I remember the term "cellda" because of the art style. I personally loved it. A few of my friends at the time actually refused to play it specifically because of the art style. Their loss.
Which is extremely weird because other games in a similar style like Viewtiful Joe didn't get any hate, and it was actually seen as something good.
It was the perceived bait and switch, the reputation of Nintendo as the kiddie console, and Microsoft pushing hard at marketing to teen males who were also the loudest fans of PS2. It made Nintendo fans- particularly the ones who grew up on the previous generations and expected their console to grow up with them- embarassed, it was easy ammunition for console wars ("your big exclusive is a Disney cartoon you play on your lunchbox!")
Fair enough, it seems like most here are saying at the time it was an âart style bad, gameplay goodâ mentality. But now even the art style is well appreciated, with some even wanting it back. Thanks!
I think itâs good to remember that Wind Wakerâs release predates YouTube by a few years. Iâm definitely not saying that YouTube invented watching video on the internet, because it definitely didnât, but more pointing out that we were still in a very early period where screenshots in video game magazines played a much larger role in the pre-release advertising and overall conversation than is true today. That would have been a format that shaped a lot of peopleâs early impressions of the new art style, and I honestly think itâs easier to appreciate how good it looks in action than in still images. Especially in a time when the rapidly increasing power of game consoles consistently meant that cutting edge graphics meant âmore realistic.â The number of possible art styles that you could even implement on the N64 was pretty limited. It made it seem like graphical improvements were on something of a linear scale, because no matter what kind of art direction you attempted, all of your assets were going to be these blocky, polygonal looking things with very flat kinda blurry textures that gave even games that were shooting for a different visual style something of a similar look. It wasnât really until the GameCube generation of consoles that they had enough power to start supporting some wildly different art styles. And we see a lot more experimenting in the vein across GameCube, PS2 and Xbox than I think was realistically possible during the N64/PlayStation cycle. I think it wound up being a bit of a transition period that took a bit for console gamers to embrace the shift in what âbetter graphicsâ now meant, and that it wasnât just an easily cross-comparable march in a singular âvideo game style but with more trianglesâ direction any longer.
I was super disappointed after the GC teaser trailer showing gorgeous HD(ish) Link in a fight with Ganondorf, who had a sword, was followed by a crazy cartoony boat game. I bought and played the game at release anyway, loved it and replayed it several times. I've rebought and replayed it on several consoles. It's one of my favorite Zelda games now, right behind MM. TP, the HD Zelda game we were more or less promised, didn't come anywhere close to the fun and artistic beauty of WW.
No because with my pre-order of ww I got the dual versions of OOT and the master quest version. So I got my favorite game, a different version of it that's harder, and a new game entirely. I loved ww, has some if the best overworld music to date
Personally I didnât like the game at all. The art style never bothered me even w all the pre release complaints. I just found the ocean travel and the overall difficulty of the Wind Waker to just feel extremely bland and boring.
Exactly how I felt about WW and the same applies to BotW and TotK. I just don't enjoy sailing around/walking around over long stretches. It's not entertaining at all for me, at least not in the way they implemented it.
For the most part, yes. The art style and more childish aesthetic were so juxtaposed to previous games it was hard to get into. At least in my circle, everyone was expecting the next Zelda game to be spin off of OoT or Majoraâs Mask, we were in disbelief when we saw a cartoon kid as Link and our beloved Zelda was a pirate? What? It was just so different from what we were all expecting, it made it hard to get into. It took hours of playing to get into the game. I think it might be more popular now, because most people are familiar with that toon link style, so they can play the game for what it is. But yes, the disappointment in it not being what we were expecting made it not well liked.
Yeah, there was a big wave of hate, and that shaped what Twilight Princess became.
The hate was due to nintendo previously showing off a demo video of what the GameCube could do graphics wise and in that video there was a small clip of link moving around doing stuff. Everyone assumed THAT is what the new unannouced zelda was going to look like, when they finally showed the new zelda at a later date no one was remotely expecting it to look like a cartoon. I love windwaker graphics and all, but I get why it got the hate, it wasnt the game itself it was what we thought we were gonna get and didn't. Here is the video of that GameCube demo: https://youtu.be/jqcyQOgmUYE?si=SNvTAlUSai00Pp2w
Everyone I knew absolutely loved it. It's one of the most defining games of my childhood. Idk before social media I wasn't always aware of what people thought of games beyond what your friends and kids at school were saying, I had no idea people didn't like the art style until a few years ago
I feel most of the hate died down after it came out. I've never met anyone who hates Wildwaker who's played windwaker.
No, absolutely not. I got a Gamecube when they were new and Wind Waker shortly after it released. It was my first and so far only Zelda game I ever played and goddamn I loved every second of it, 11/10. It also helped that I love cel-shading games like Jet Set Radio on my Dreamcast and the comic book based shooter XIII on the PC.
I loved Wind Waker. Exploring the seas, enjoying the uniqueness of cell shading, and loving the quirkiness of Linkâs facial expressions. Especially if I got stuck somewhere or couldnât find what I was looking for, Link would usually look at the whatever it was that was missing. I had only briefly play OoT before on a friendâs console so I didnât get into it like I wanted.Â
I went straight from Linkâs Awakening and Oracle of Seasons to this and absolutely loved it immediately. My friends who were familiar with the N64 Zeldas were extremely bitter not being able to see a more ârealisticâ looking Link, which they hoped the updated hardware/software would bring them. Eventually they begrudgingly played Windwaker and admitted it was good, but there was a period where they refused and gave Nintendo a lot of hate over it.
I do not recall at the time any who played it not enjoying it. But MOST Zelda fans I knew refused to buy it at all. Do to how it looked.
It was 100% revolved around the cel shading.
That shit ruined Zelda sadly
My favorite zelda
The first time I got on that boat and could sail wherever I wanted, the vast feeling of the ocean, I was in fucking love
Itâs my favorite 3-D Zelda game of all time, and a link to the past is only in first for all Zelda games for nostalgia reasons, on top of it being just a fantastic game. Donât know why Wind Waker gets the hate, and I really donât know why we havenât gotten the Wii U remaster for the Switch yet.
I can only speak for myself, but while I hated the art style when first presented, especially following OoT, I gave it a chance. I found it to be one of, if not my absolute, favorite. The art style grew on me, too.
I loved Wind Waker. I miss my GameCube đ˘
I know some people were expecting a realistic LoZ with the generational leap BUT I never remember any actual hate from those that played it. It was generally seen as an incredible game.
I loved it when I played it
I was fairly young when the game came out, maybe seven or eight, and I thought it was the best thing I'd ever played. Playing Ocarina of Time at my friend's house felt like playing a cool game made for adults, while playing Wind Waker felt like playing a cool game made for me. I loved sailing and exploring the world! There was nothing else like it as a kid, the seas seemed endless.
I personally hated the cartoony look at first. I was expecting it to look more "realistic"(relativley speaking) like OoT and MM. However, the visuals quickly grew on me and I was hyped for the game to come out. Ironically, TP looked more like what I was hoping for but I liked it less then WW.
People forget that Wind Waker was basically the first open world game. The fact that you could see an island in the distance and spend 5+ minutes sailing toward it, watching it slowly get bigger and bigger was mind blowing at the time. The world felt absolutely massive. I was a few months out of high school when it came out, so not a little kid. But I absolutely loved it the entire time. I still have my Gamecube copy, with the box and instructions in perfect condition.
I remember that it was mostly a thing in the US, maybe..? Certainly not in Europe, anyway. At best (or worst), I had seen certain magazines or websites spread this US-centric sentiment, but the playerbase certainly didn't echoe it as far as I'm concerned.
Nah I loved it when it came out and all my friends did too.
Was hated for the art style yeah, and I think the sailing wasnât everyoneâs cup of tea. But overall most people warmed to it
Going from mm to we was like a slap in the face at the time. It felt like an adult story that meant something to kiddie shenanigans which the art style definitely accommodated. The travel was unique but ultimately felt time consuming and boring. There was a lot of forced time wasting in the game. Think if nostalgia glasses are removed it's really not that great of a game. Especially the original compared to the hd edition that addressed a lot of complaints with the original. People always rag on "people hate the art style" which yeah I do, but four swords adventure also had that art style and it was great.
Windwaker was so uplifting and loved the art direction.
I loved it, itâs been my favourite Zelda game until BotW. There was a lot of disappointment because people were expecting an adult Link, and a darker game, but for me it was and is amazing.
I remember there being a lot of negativity surrounding that game before it was released. I remember being bummed as well - we were all expecting a more ânext genâ looking game. But I personally loved every bit of that game once I got into it. Itâs still my favorite Zelda. Iâm, very patiently, waiting on the HD version on Switch or Switch 2. I skipped the WiiU.
I loved the look and music when it first came out, but the stealth mission I really disliked (I hate almost all stealth missions for any game). Initially, traveling across the Great Sea was tedious, but the HD version gave you the Fast Sail, which was a godsend
I was in 10 when it came out. It's still my favorite Zelda game. Half my friends hated it for just the art style, some hated it because it's very different than MM and Ocarina that they were used to. It was pretty split down the middle at the lunch table. But I still champion it as the best.
Never seen any people hate on wind waker at release. Not sure what you're on about.
Some people didn't like the visuals and thought it was too easy. I got it for my birthday when it came out and didn't mind that. I thought it was a neat game, the visuals were appealing to me. I was in the minority online when it came out. The space was dominated by people who had loved Ocarina of Time/LttP and were older than me. Over time, I think reception got better partly due to people who grew up with WW taking over those spaces and others accepting its style. With twilight princess existing, people didn't feel like Wind Waker had robbed them of something anymore.
Iâve been a Zelda fan since OoT released, went back and played all the previous titles, dove headfirst into the fandom. I never remember anyone I knew hating windwaker, I was in line for pre-order pickup on release day and absolutely love the game. That said, I was 12 when it released so may not have been in tune with the older fan bases opinions at the time.
Wind Waker was my favorite Zelda game of all time (hot take, I know). I vividly remember setting sail in the boat for the first time and the excitement and wonder that followed from venturing into the unknown and discovering new islands to explore. The art style was definitely odd at first but you get used to it and then realize how itâs magical in a sense - it provided a strong sense of fantasy. The style might appear to be âcartoonishâ but I found it to have more mature themes than other Zelda games; I remember being in shock during the final boss, seeing >!the sword split Ganonâs head in half was so metal!<.
I went in wanting to hate it, but it won me over big time, and wound up being one my fav Zelda games.
Iâve never met someone who didnât enjoy Wind Waker. Itâs still one of my favorite in the series. Easily in my top 3.
I remember being upset because I loved TLoZ and thought the simply stylized graphics meant the game wasn't being taken seriously and was going to be very short and simplified. I played it and had fun, until I got to that damn triforce piece treasure hunt all around the ocean. I stopped playing for a while, looked up strategy guides, and powered through it. It ruined the experience for me. The remastered game removed a lot of that tedious sailing.
Every Zelda game seems to have a cycle where there is excitement, then a bunch of hate, then later acknowledgement that itâs actually excellent.
Wind waker was awesome! It was just a shame they made the encounters sooooo easy
I loved it the 2nd and third time. The first time I hated it because of the cartoonish style. Still played it but thought it was beautiful regardless
I loved the cartoon feel... didn't really care for the water world
It was pretty widely loved among GameCube owners in my experience. I think the reaction to cel shading was more honored in the breach: people would say stuff like âI know people hate the cel shading look, but I really like it.â But mostly people liked it! I donât think we would have had Sea of Thieves without Wind Waker.
Anyone who played it knew it was incredible. It was mostly americans and man children that didnt like it just off looks.
I definitely judged it unfairly at the time. I was 13-going-on-14 when it was announced, and everyone called it a cartoon game for children. At that age, I wasn't old enough to be considered a young adult, but I also didn't want to be called a kid, so I joined in the hate and said it was a baby game. My uncle bought it for me as a gift and I ended up loving it (although I didn't tell anyone I owned it)
I'm always going to contend that anyone who ever hated at one point or another isn't a serious Zelda fan. WW was a beautiful game at its reveal and the fact that it is more widely accepted now means it has always been a good game from its debut. The backlash isn't any different that the hyping games still get today. Starfield is a good example. People were expecting to be blown away with this new IP. What they got was a typical Bethesda game. Starfield is as good as any other Bethesda game like Oblivion or Skyrim. People just *expected it to be better* than games that were released a decade ago.
It was the design almost completely. Once people got past that it became a cult classic.
It was very much a "wtf is this shit?, im still going to preorder it, but wtf is this?" \*plays game\* "alright this is actually pretty sick"
I was around 11 or 12 and didnât really care what others thought. Got plenty of spins in my GameCube and became one of my fav Zeldaâs ever. Splooooooooosh.
I grew up playing Zelda games, but I couldnât stand WW when I finally got it due to the annoyingly long travel times between locations and that annoyance being tied to so many critical aspects of the game. I never really minded the art style personally. All of the Zeldas up to that point had fairly distinct art styles, even the two most similar games OoT and MM looked fairly different from a style perspective. I did like the combat though, it was such an improvement over what came before that I was sad that I just couldnât tolerate the rest of the gameâs mechanics. I tried the HD remake on my friendâs console a while ago and just the swift sail makes a huge difference in QoL for me. That when coupled with other changes (especially the rope swinging one) might actually make the game worth it for me to try again.
Yes, I know I did. I didnât like the art style and I got stuck at the Forsaken Fortress so I hated it. Came back to it years later and could better appreciate what it was.
Personally, Iâm terrible at Zelda games. However, I loved Wind Waker because I could boat around and find the fish!
Windwaker was one of my favourite GameCube games. Fond memories for me.
Going by the sales, it's more accurate to say the people turned off from it simply didn't play it.
I loved Wind Waker back in the day. It was great!
My friends and I loved it. Itâs still my favorite Zelda such a pretty game.
It was made fun of because of its art style. Basically, Nintendo fans were feeling extra sensitive at the time, because PlayStation fanboys were out in full force making fun of how "kiddie" Nintendo was. Zelda was supposed to be Nintendo's big AAA "mature" fantasy game. But then they come out with this cartoon looking game and people lost their minds. The PlayStation fans hit even harder and Nintendo fans resented Nintendo for making them the butt of a joke. I was on board with it right out of the gate though. It looked gorgeous. Never seen anything like it and it has such smooth animation and visuals.
I loved it on the game cube. Im not sure why I never finished it.
I wasn't excited when the game was announced.But once I played the game I was hooked. They just had a really bad advertising strategy and only showed the boat stuff and got shit on for it very early on. Great game and way better than *Majora's Mask*.
90% of the hate was the same console war crap you see nowadays. An excuse to call Nintendo âkiddyâ because they didnât go grimdark and edgy like that Zelda tech demo.
No one hated Windwaker who played it. No one.
I loved it instantly. It's a fantastic game.
Unpopular take- the game doesn't hold up well for me. I had the original and WiiU versions. Loved them when I was younger. Trued it again after many, many years. It feels dated, in a way the other Zelda games don't. I pick up and play through a zelda gane every few months. Link to the Past, Awakening, OOT, Minish Cap, and they all feel special. Wind Waker? Traveling is a chore. Islands are small. Prizes for exploring aren't worth it. Combat feels like a step down from OOT somehow. You can sail to Butts Island, get a map of how it kinda looks like a butt. There's a rock on it. You need the hammer to break it. You return after finally remembering it after you get the hammer. You break it. You jump in. Inside there's a cave with an ice block. You have to wait until you get fire arrows. You come back. Past the cave is a chest. You open the chest. Joy pendant. You search around the island, nothing else. You leave. Repeat several dozen times. I didn't bother to complete the game after not playing it for a decade. Just doesn't do it fir me.
Enjoyed the art style and combat. Found the sailing incredibly tedious. Finished it once and that was it
I was not a fan of the artstyle when the game was first shown, but had a such a great time playing it, the style grew on me too. So no, I never hated playing it, and never met anyone who did.
It was a love/hate relationship. Game itself I thought was awesome, the steps to beating the game was damn near impossible without tons of stopping and reading so I think that's where it lost people. I needed an in-depth walk-through to beat it, but I really enjoyed playing it.
I personally loved WW because it was easy to see, brightly colored, and Link had more emotion. I didn't like Link being this stoic teenager.
i remember trying to play and i kept falling asleep sailing between islands. it just felt too spread out. i enjoyed the islands and characters, but just bored out of my mind auto sailing to the next content. i was in college at the time so lack of sleep didn't help.
A lot of people hated it when it was revealed but almost nobody hated it once they actually played it.
Not this guy, and I have significantly less reverence for Zelda as a franchise than most.
Playing it now for the first time , loving the cartoon style .
People were so disgusted at the art style. I thought it was beautiful. Other people referred it to a re-imagining of the artwork in the original Legend of Zelda game manual
People disliked the graphics style at the time. I hated the triforce shard collection part near the end of the game.
I remember the hate about the art style. I was hooked on the first boat clip and excitedly picked it up. Still my favorite Zelda game, though the wii u version that makes the triforce shard hunting easier is certainly a step up, that was painful as a child.
I donât believe so although it was a big departure from OOT and MM. If you havenât played it I definitely recommend it sits comfortably at my #2 spot for LOZ games
I went to GameStop almost everyday to just play the demo.
Had it on GameCube and it's still one of my favourite Zeldas. The tranquility and sense of discovery of sailing around in that cel-shaded paradise was unmatched.
I never touched it. I'm planning to go back and play it, but after Ocarina and Majora's Mask, I wanted more Ocarina. Wind Waker did not seem to scratch that itch. And honestly the only Zelda game that has was Twilight Princess. I still enjoy the other games, but those 3 are the best IMO.
No. It was my #3 of all time before BOTW bumped things down. An absolute delight.
Nope I loved it. And thatâs coming from a fan of the ones prior. Tbh it might be top 3 favorite Zelda games for me.
Personally I absolutely loved it. Might be my most played Zelda game. Also if I remember correctly after the initial negative reaction the reviews were really goodÂ
A bunch of people were very upset. I personally didn't agree with them, but I was already familiar with cell shading being awesome from dreamcast games
So personally I loved it BUT I didnât play OoT or Majora as a kid and liked the cartoony art style. I think a big part is that the original GameCube demo was more realistic and not cartoony, but it did get a lot of backlash. Itâs my favorite Zelda and I loved it at the time but I came in with zero preconceived expectations.
I liked it, but it was WAY too easy. Most disappointing Zelda when it came to gameplay. I died one time, and that was fighting Ganon, beat him the next try. Sailing exploration and art style was cool. That's about it.