This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

I don't know whether starting with a disclaimer is a bad omen or not, but here we go. I didn't grow up with a Gamecube, I never owned one in College or beyond. It wasn't until I decided to embrace this awful existence as a fan of video games, that I decided to buy a lot on ebay which came with a few games that I got my first taste with the system. The reason I bought this lot in particular, was because it had a little known game that I always wanted to play. No, I'm not talking about Pac-Man World Rally, but rather The Wind Waker.

I know some people are already trying to tell their computer, "no not the gamecube version, play the superior Wii-U version," but here we are. Now despite never having a gamecube, I do remember the fervor that was caused when this game was shown to the public initially, and how cutesy cartoon Link was bad, and only realistic Link is good. This is an argument I didn't understand at the time, in a sea of brown shooters and gritty realism, this seemed like a breath of fresh air. It wasn't until I started actually thinking about the issue recently and realized that Gamecube owners were scared that their console of choice was potentially going to be seen as childish, while your xboxs and playstations were the consoles of adults, not wanting to be left behind they clamored for various browns and "realistic" visuals. Then they could show they were adult gamers. It is an argument that I think, now looks incredibly foolish in hindsight. No one would dare say those early brown shooters are nearly as good looking and have stood the test of time like Wind Waker, this is a game that visually holds up better because of its art style.

Anyway, with all that said.. lets get on to the main attraction. The Wind Waker (lets just say WW for short) is a game in the Zelda franchise, where you are once again tasked with being the hero of the world and fighting off the ultimate "evil" in Gannon. Since you are just a nobody kid from a small town, you must travel far and wide, growing in strength, by visiting dungeons... acquiring items... and then using those items to defeat bosses, etc. etc. The main formula has not changed for this Zelda, but our locales have changed, focusing on a vast ocean with small islands, and a greater emphasis on exploration then I would say existed in OoT our last review. Like in my previous review, I think we should keep the categories the same here for WW. We will talk about the beginning, the dungeons, the adventuring, and then whatever Misc topic I want to bring up, before we ultimately rank it.

Now, this if you are a fan of the WW, then you might want to cover your ears for this part. This game has one of the worst beginnings of any Zelda game I have played. Now before someone shouts in the comments "if you hated this, then play X" and list another Zelda game. You are absolutely right, I haven't played every Zelda game, and hopefully through this series I will right that wrong, but I feel I have played a lot. I've played both NES games, the SNES game, OoT, WW, Links Awakening, Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild, and I stand by my assertation that this game has a terrible intro. Again, I'm not talking about whatever pre-roll cutscene that tells you the story of the world, but what I consider the beginning moments of the game. For OoT I consider the beginning the opening village and the Deku Tree dungeon, and if you want to throw in meeting of Zelda for the first time. Even before meeting Zelda, you are given some freedom of control about exploring the world, and seeing its sights. In Wind Waker the beginning is painfully slow. For justification I am including the following: Opening village, Dungeon with no sword, 2nd Village, Dragon Roost Island, and realistically Forest Haven, but I'll leave that off for now. In order for this game to open up and feel like a Zelda game, where you are exploring, finding secrets and just taking in the sights is roughly a 3rd of the game. Hell I truly didn't feel the game let me have control until I got the Bombs, and at that point we are about halfway into the game.

Now, I'll talk about the dungeons in a later topic, so don't worry, but this time frame was not only multiple hours for me, but multiple play sessions. For longtime fans of the game, you might fly through this part, to get to the actual good parts of the game, but as a first time player I am talking to everyone, trying to solve town problems like taking 3 pictures of townsfolks, playing hide and seek, playing battleship, etc. and while the WW doesn't have an hour count I was definitely 5+ hours in before I was probably even in the Dragon roost dungeon. In hindsight, I certainly wouldn't spend time doing that stuff upfront, especially the camera, but it is still a beginning that will stay in my mind as an obstacle to get over, should I ever want to start the game over in the future.

Alright now lets talk about the dungeons in WW, a part that is actually surprisingly minor to the game. In reality there are 6 proper dungeons in total. If you wanted you could include Gannon's Island, but it never felt like a dungeon either time through. You have Dragon roost, and Forest Haven, then your two temples, Temple of the Gods and then the final Gannon's Tower. For the amount of time I spent playing the game, not a lot of it was taken up by doing traditional dungeons. I keep using the word "traditional" or "proper" because there are little caves and dungeons that pop up from exploring islands, but I'll save those for the next topic. I'm also going to say I was a little let down in the traditional dungeons. I liked the boss of Dragon Roost island, I always like Gannon's Tower in nearly all Zelda because you have all your items and wits and its just fitting the pieces together, but outside of those two I didn't really care for the dungeons. Forest Haven is alright, it has its unique moments (like cutting down the big flower to use as a boat is cool), but I hate those purple plants that shoot you in the sky, and I felt its final boss design was weak. Oh a big flower that we have to cut down the vines to? so something we just did two rooms ago? great. Temple of the Gods is fine, outside of the rising and lowering water in the beginning area, I already can't remember anything about it, so I guess it wasn't memorable. The two temples are probably the most interesting design choices, but boil down to escort missions that bored me due to the amount of times I constantly had to keep switching to my flute to control the other character for some small reason. Like, don't get me wrong, the first one was fine and a neat little gimmick of switching control, but I didn't need two temples with the same trick. Now, for longtime fans of the series, they might not have felt the need to escort the optional characters into each room as they progress, but as a first time player, I always felt I should bring them along, because I didn't know what room I would need them and I didn't want to constantly backtrack to find them. Could you argue that for Story reasons there is a need to escort these characters through each room of a dungeon, sure I guess, but when has anyone ever cared about a story in Zelda.

Gannon's Tower is of course the shining standout. The puzzles involving the hilt of the sword from defeated enemies, the throwing of the sword at the door, and even the final boss fights are all what make me like Zelda games. I might have thought the final final boss fight was a little easy, but it felt like a good conclusion to the game. It also gives Gannon some character that I feel like he is missing throughout a lot of the series. Now he gets that character 5 minutes before you finally face him and kill him, but its a good 2 minute pop where you think for a second maybe you should sympathize with this character.

Of course the actual standout for this game is the exploration aspect. The open seas, the thirst for adventure, the not knowing what the next island is going to hold mystery. This is where this games focus was clearly on and it was good until the twist at the end. Now I will only briefly mention that the sailing is too slow in the GC version, everyone knows it even Nintendo knew it that they had to create a faster sailing option in the updated version. I won't hammer on that dead horse, but it was an incredibly huge bummer to know you have to sail to one island, before you get the teleport, and you just put your controller down and wait 10 minutes until you get there. That aside, the most fun I had with this game was exploring the islands before the late game. I would pop out of a dungeon (after getting bombs), and decide that I was just going to kill some time and sail through 5 or 6 sectors, complete them on the map, and see what the islands have to offer. Sometimes it was just the promise of finding something that was enough, and even the times those ended up pretty empty it was still something to check off my exploration list. What's this? A treasure map, that promises me something if I go to this very specific place and use my grappling hook.. let's go.... Oh its just rupees. However, stumble upon an island with a puzzle and I was ecstatic. The island where you are playing some form of golf with big pine cones, or an island where I used a pear to have a seagull hit a bunch of switches surrounded by the angry buzzards. Yeah I felt great doing those things without a guide, and feeling like I solved them "before" I was supposed to (obviously this is nonsense, of course I was able to solve them even if I didn't do it the most efficient way). For my "meh" feelings on the dungeons, I knew I could still get some enjoyment hitting a couple islands. Where I lost some of that joy is when the game then decided to make that exploring required.

For some this won't be a big issue, but I didn't have intention of finding everything on every island. I liked filling out my map and seeing what the fish had to say, stumbling across these dungeons seemingly at random and seeing if I had the tools to complete them. When I was then tasked with finding and digging up 8 pieces of the Tri-force, it just felt a little forced. Like the game was trying to get you to explore, if you hadn't actually done a lot of exploring before this part. I can hear people getting mad, Yes there is a map that shows where all the Tri-force specific maps are, and you can just do those quadrants, blah blah. I know, but that still entailed going to those 8 specific locations.. doing the mini dungeon... taking them back to Tingle to decipher.. then going back out on the ocean to dig up the pieces, it felt a bit excessive. I would maybe take out the Tingle has to decipher and you have to dig this up piece, and just grant you a piece of the Tri-force after you beat the mini dungeon, but I'm not a game designer.

Despite exploring what felt like every island and digging up a ton of treasures including some truly useless other maps, there still felt like I left a lot on the table in that game. I finished maybe 3 full hearts away from being maxed health, which shocked me simply because I can't believe there are 12 more heart pieces out there, but I never bothered turning in Golden Feathers, Necklaces or Championship belts to those that collected them. I didn't take a single photo after getting it colorized, didn't rescue all the Deku trees with magic water, and I didn't even complete the flying challenge from the Dragons. In fact I still don't know what the endgame was for the travelling merchants, because despite selling a handful of items and getting the magic spell (which I never used) I don't know what I was supposed to gain there. I am sure the answers to all of these questions are more heart pieces, and really only exist for people who truly want to complete everything. I did far more then I did in OoT and felt like I was pretty satisfied with my completion level when credits rolled.

Overall, I didn't hate my time with WW, but I must say that I am a little confused by a lot of the hype that this game is a contender for greatest Zelda game or even greatest game of all time. This game definitely shook up the formula, by making it less dungeon focused and more exploratory, it influenced Breath of the Wild probably more then Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword did. I think its legacy is important, for sure, but I don't think it is as good of a game as OoT. Maybe that is some bias coming in, because OoT was the revolutionary Zelda game more in my timeline then WW. I can also see the argument on the other side of the aisle, OoT was the big 3D follow the Zelda formula game and WW tries to gently nudge that formula in different directions. #Gamerz may have complained, and forced Zelda to go back to the formula until BotW, but ultimately WW started it on that path which is the right one. However, when I stack them up next to each other, for as much as I prefer the exploration of WW and it's visuals, I like the other components of OoT better. The beginning, the Main dungeons, the instrument you play, and even the bosses. That's not to say that WW is not a good game, maybe even a great game, but it is not the greatest game of all time, and won't even be the highest Zelda game currently on this list.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: I am going to say "no"

Where does it rank: I think WW and OoT may be the two most important games of the Zelda franchise outside of the OG. (BotW is still too early to tell), but while I can champion WW for being important to the franchise, I also have to admit that I didn't care for it nearly as much as OoT. I have it as the 20th greatest game of all time out of 86 total games. It sits above "Yakuza Kiwami 2" (21st) and below "Griftlands" (19th). I'll still be a sucker and buy a re-release on Switch if they make one, so I'm not completely down on the game. I even probably had it jump up a few points just based on its importance and legacy, because I think Kiwami 2 is a more "Fun" game to play, so don't hate me too much.

* I am going to attempt to outline the next 3-4 games that I will talk about in case anyone is interested in playing along. Now granted these aren't released once a week, as I might do two write-ups in a single week of smaller games, but giving people an idea of what's to come.

Up Next: 1. Blood will be Spilled (Switch)

2. Stardew Valley (PC)

3. All Walls Must Fall (Switch)

4. Pokemon Shield (Switch)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for Listening.

This will always be my favorite Zelda purely because of the world and exploration. Even on the original version, I never minded the sailing portions because I enjoy the atmosphere so much. Doing quests for NPCs, seeing the detail in their homes, and learning more about them from turning in their picture, it all makes this setting feel more lived-in than almost any other in the series. For people who love dungeons, I understand being let down by that aspect, but that is not usually my favorite part of Zelda games so it doesn't bother me much. I might be putting on some rosy glasses here because of the improvements in the HD version. Still, Wind Waker just hits a magic sweet spot for me and is in my top 5 games ever.

The music in this game fucking slaps.

@jeremyf: from what I gather, I think your sentiments will be pretty normal as I have heard a lot of people say this is their favorite zelda game of all time. It is definitely more lived in, I never felt the NPCs in other zelda games really had a life, and obviously in WW they have something close to personalities. However like you stated, if you are into the dungeons this is not the zelda for you. Sure it has the minor island dungeons that can be a blast, but the big ones are nothing to write home about.

By far the sailing is the best part of the game and they leaned into it, it's also how this game lives and dies. If you hate the sailing, you can't just stomach through it and enjoy the rest of the game. Personally, I liked the sailing alright, but it wasn't enough to make up for other issues I had.

@eddiephlash: thanks for the read.. yeah that's what I hear.. I think the opening theme is good, but I'll have to listen to an OST later because that's the only theme that sticks out to me.

In some ways, Twilight Princess feels like an answer to the complaints around this game. You want dark "realistic" Zelda? Here you go! You want more dungeons? Here's more than you could ask for?

I still enjoyed Twilight Princess more than Wind Waker... but I didn't finish it because that game is absurdly long.

@justin258: 100% it was an overreaction to fans being upset. It took awhile but Nintendo eventually re-broke the formula with BotW.. one day I'll tackle Twilight princess and rank it, but I need a little Zelda break first.

Thanks for the read

I have very mixed feelings on Wind Waker. On the one hand, I think it has an underrated soundtrack, and I absolutely love the art style and 100% think Nintendo should go back to it in future Zelda games. I can also at least appreciate them trying something a little different with the world design and exploration.

But man, does that exploration suck. As you pointed out, sailing is tedious and the conductor's baton is crap. I've never been the biggest fan of the musical instrument motif Nintendo sometimes forces into these games, but at least in something like Ocarina, you could just pound out a song as quickly as you could press the buttons. In Wind Waker, you actually need to keep time, which sucks. And it sucks even more, because the Song of the Wind, which you need to use freaking constantly because the effect lasts all of 15 seconds, is ridiculously slow to use.

It might be OK if it ever felt like there was anything interesting to explore, but I got sick of endless stretches of ocean real quick. It's a corollary to the idea that underwater levels are always the worst part of any game they're in - sailing (and fishing) is an activity that has never been fun in any video game. Rarely finding anything except Rupees when you dredge stuff up really limited any incentive go out and fill in the map.

@therealturk: thanks for the read.. This game lives and dies by that sailing exploration and I totally get why it's divisive. There are moments where it can be peaceful and fun to come upon an unexplored island and solve its puzzle, but it can also be frustrating that you have to spend ten minutes sailing with the controller down to get to where you are going.

It's why I was bothered when they forced exploration into the end in digging up 8 triforce pieces.. I liked occasionally sailing to 3-4 islands after a main mission and seeing if I could solve their puzzles. When I had to spend a full play session just sailing looking for these pieces I lost that enjoyment.

However, if you don't like any part of the sailing, then this game doesn't hold enough "other" stuff to be worth your while.