Editor’s note: This review was written by Jamie Schott, a student at Full Sail University. Jamie is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in game design to put herself on the path she strives for. Jamie grew up with pretty much every North American videogame console available to her, and she fell in love. The stories and adventures these game designers told to her were incredible and made her realize what amazing new worlds could be created through videogames. Better yet, these worlds could not only be created, but they could be explored and changed by the player! Before Jamie knew anything about computers, she started simple and created lots of different RPG board games for herself. Now, she’s ready to take on the videogame industry.

“This is but one of the legends of which the people speak ...”

“The great evil that all thought had been forever sealed away by the hero ... once again crept forth from the depths of the earth, eager to resume its dark designs. The people believed that the Hero of Time would again come to save them. ... But the hero did not appear. Faced by an onslaught of evil, the people could do nothing but appeal to the gods.”

“What became of that kingdom ...? None remain who know.”

Upon first watching this beautifully accompanied introduction to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, I had chills. The dramatic, yet lovely music and the mysterious story being told were an outstanding combination to drag me into the game very early on. I was actually left wondering if the people in the story had been saved, or did they perish, all the while hoping for their savior? After delving further into the game, the story continued to not disappoint.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakeris the adventure of a young boy named Link (although you can name him whatever you like; my character was named Jamie) who was thrust into a role he didn’t seek. On his special birthday, the birthday he dons the hero of legend’s clothes and is considered a man, a strange bird is seen flying above the island with a young girl in its massive talons. Sailing toward his island and chasing this bird is a bombarding pirate ship, trying to shoot the bird down. The ship gets a direct hit, and the bird drops its young girl prey onto the top of the mountain of Link’s island. With his sister’s influence, Link obtains a sword and climbs to the top to rescue this girl. After he battles the forest of the mountaintop and reaches the girl, however, he is forced to watch helplessly as his sister is snatched up by the giant bird. The monster bird flies off, with Link’s sister screaming out for him.

After this action-filled start, the story unfolds to this amazing adventure of legends past. What started out as a mission to save Link’s sister reveals itself to be a story to save the world, too.

I was immediately impressed with the depth of the characters in The Wind Waker. Every character you run across has life and personality to it that you rarely see in most videogames. Link’s sweet, caring grandmother cries after realizing that Link’s sister was taken, and she is also seen sadly watching Link leave with the pirates to go rescue her. I actually felt ... awful this poor grandmother was left alone and crying for her grandchildren. For me to have a connection like that to a fictional character was absolutely great. I thought, “Oh man, I’m going to smack that bird extra hard for putting my grandmother through that!” From there, we have an enormous array of characters, ranging from goofy to motivating and everything in between. Whichever designers who wrote the story and whichever ones designed the facial expressions of the characters should be very proud.

The controls and graphics of The Wind Waker were very good in my opinion. The controls were just complex enough to make combat active and fun. When I thrust my sword forward (B) while tilting up on the joystick, Link would do a quick jab forward. If I locked onto my target and hit (A) quickly before my enemy finished their attack, Link would barrel roll behind them and land a parry attack. The variety of attacks were very impressive to me given the limited amount of buttons.

The graphics, if I recall, were not widely accepted at first. Although I don’t understand what some people saw was wrong with them, I personally loved the graphics. Somehow they managed to be serious and colorful at the same time. I believe it was a smart move by the designers, as the graphics could appeal to both casual gamers and long-time Zelda fans.

A unique gameplay component to this game was the vast ocean the player was given to explore. I believe a few people called this addition “tedious” and “boring.” Although I can’t speak for them, I must say I didn’t have time to be aggravated or bored during my sailing. Between enemies popping out of the water, sharks chasing and knocking you out of the boat, discovering new islands and hauling up treasure from the bottom of the sea, my journeys were fairly busy. There were a few moments in which I had a second to breathe and sail for a moment before diving into one of the above-mentioned activities, but these were few and far between and did nothing but add to my wonderful experience. It was nice to stare across the horizon for a few uninterrupted seconds and enjoy the view.

The islands and dungeons alternated appropriately between challenging puzzles and engaging combat. The game, for me, wasn’t exactly oh-my-god-I-can’t-do-this hard, and it wasn’t “Yawn” easy either. I’d say the developers found a good balance between the two. Although I don’t want to give away key spoilers, I feel the need to mention that there were a few shocking moments during the adventure that really helped to keep me interested.

One feature I really liked was exploring and collecting in between my dungeons. After you reach a certain point in the story, you can pretty much sail wherever you like. This to me was very fun. I liked coming up to a new island, slaying all the monsters guarding the place and then seeing what secrets lied inside. There were always plenty of treasures waiting for me.

Overall, I loved this game immensely, and it’s a great thing it can be played on the Wii with the GameCube disc. I would recommend anyone with a Wii who loves a good RPG and adventure to go out and pick up The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.