:: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 ::

Iwrotetheseimpressionsreallyfastwhileatingpizza by James Freeman

My hands still have that tingly feeling. After spending about 3 straight hours with Wind Waker, I can honestly dispell any doubts to be had with this game.
What were all these shaky feelings about cell shading? Gameplay might suffer from a "childish" approach? Far, far from it. I can't imagine playing my new zelda any other way.

Whether for good or bad, the graphics in this game are what always come up first in discussion. Up until this point I had sheltered myself from any store demos of any kind in order to soak Zelda in all at once. After about the first 15 minutes, the cell shaded cartoon world blended into reality, and strangely enough every cell-shaded rock, tree, and person didn't appear odd at all; this could have been a real, living, breathing world on my television and I couldn't have told the difference. This isn't any form of a cartoon - this is a form of reality. The way the style is pulled off is honestly that incredible.

How does Koji Kondo's latest offering stack up to others in the Zelda series? To put it simply it's the cleanest, moodiest, freshest, and yet familiar music ever to grace the gamecube. As a raging moblin leaps out from behind a pot, the music quickly changes pace from eery dungeon crawl to a startling fast paced orchestral melee. It's also helpful to hear this climactic music reach an end; since you know you can take a deep breath and lower your weapons to regain composure.
All characters including link still use bits and pieces of short syllables to compliment text on the screen, but this shouldn't be taken as a bad thing. Reading the story to yourself keeps you bound to the storyline and giving a more personal touch to how it's narrarated. I can't explain it, but somehow the lack of speech makes is even more epic.

Gameplay? Incredible. It's ocarina of time on steroids which cause severe bloating and intoxicating fun levels. I'm not quite sure how many dungeons there are, but those feelings of sheer vastness are already showing their true colors; bobbing in the middle of the ocean while take a 360 degree look around conveys this best. At the heart of Zelda gameplay obviously lies its dungeons, and I have nothing but praise. Sure, if the game is taken straighforwardly, its actually relatively easy to figure out these puzzles.
It's the secret holes, passageways, balconies, and whatever else I have yet to discover which keeps it truly fresh. I've already ran into literally about 10 sidequests, some with the familiarity of OoT and some pushing the envelope even more for creativity. From errands to hide-and-go-seek to games akin to the rupee shooting game in Kakairiko village, each seaside town has it all. Its easy to get lost on islands hoarding rupees and helping what seems to be every single person that has a personal task for Link for hours. The one boss fight I have encountered should be incredibly familiar to any Zelda afficionado, I hope Miyamoto and his team mixed it up a bit further along in the game. One small complaint I have, and have heard rumblings from others as well, is how monotonous sailing can be. Maybe it's simply the fact I have been pampered with Waverace: Blue Storm water effects for some time now. Still, there could be more churning and splashing in my opinion instead of seeing simply solid blue.

I've pulled myself away from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker just long enough to deliver a taste of what it offers. If you will excuse me, dinner is now being served.

:: Floydthebarber 3/26/2003 07:01:00 PM [+] ::
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