***Official Zelda:The Wind Waker - Your thoughts here... Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[BertFalasco]

Thank gooshness my Best Buy is getting 300 copies tomorrow (or are they in the back?..those bastards..). Ticks me off that I went to 2 stores with a friend and they retail them for reservers which I can understand but dayyaamm..Best Buy are the only schmucks who wait for official street date to drop them. I cannot wait until after track tomorrow !!

 

[Dome Vongvises]

My Wal-Mart has copies stocked up the wazoo. Should I get it now or wait on my tax returns?

 

[Graeme Clark]

The game is absolutely amazing. As someone who's loved the look of this game since the first time I laid eyes on it in motion (the crude handycam videos from Spaceworld), it's been wonderful playing through the game so far, and watching this fully realized (for the most part) "cartoon" world open up and offer me a visual splendor that I wish every game could achieve.

The worlds, the dungeons, the characters, the animation, and even little Link... it's all wonderful to look at.

The gameplay is very similar to N64 Zelda as I'm sure you're all aware, but it's been tweaked to make things even better. While playing through Ocarina, I noticed for the first time just how clumsy and inaccurate it's targeting system is. It was revolutionary at the time, but Metroid did it better, and Wind Waker improves on that even more. Getting a target on an enemy is almost too easy now, and if attack while targeted, it does actually swing for that enemy (Ocarina would routinely face Link in the wrong direction).

The camera system is improved, and using the C-Stick you can now swing it around to nearly any position you like, in the same way you could in Mario Sunshine... but not it doesn't get stuck on walls and objects nearly as much.

The nicest surprise so far has been the variety in the dungeons. My one issue with Ocarina's dungeons is that they mostly followed a very rigid pattern of get map, get compass, get keys, get gadget, get boss key, fight boss. For me, this got a wee bit tiring and was one of the contributing factors to never finishing it (whhaaattt?).

While the few dungeons I've played so far do not fall to far from this formula, there are enough small, or even just cosmetic changes which help to keep things a little bit fresher. The first semi-dungeon you encounter features a lot of sneaking around trying not to get caught, the 2nd fairly standard but has some nice outdoor sections to the dungeon to brighten it up, and features a side story of saving a captured character (who then gives you your gadget for the level), while the 3rd has plants covering the doors and some chests which you must figure out how to kill before you can get into them as an alternative to finding keys (it still does have some keys though).

It's not a huge difference from a locked door, or bars on the door, but it IS different and helps to keep things someone refreshing.

Another blockbuster game from Nintendo. It's amazing how they've released 2 games now which had A) A ton of hype and B) Some apprehension from gamers and have managed to completely pull it off and exceed nearly everyone's expectations.

My only slight nag is that Link seems to be near-sighted.

If you don't have a GC... RUN to EB, get Metroid Prime for free, and pick up a copy of Zelda while you're there. You can't possibly be disappointed.

I can't wait to see what's next.

 

[Dave.A.C]

Geez, you guys almost having me wanting to go buy a GC. Stop it.

 

[Kim D]

My copy finally left Oakland, California and is now somewhere in Chicago. I have to go into work for at least a couple of hours and then I'm coming home. I hope I don't miss the FedEx truck. That would totally suck.

- kim

 

[JustinCleveland]

Mine is in Appleton, WI as of 630am... I KNOW I'm going to miss the Fex Ex guy, since I'm going to be at work until 1pm. Dang it all! It's probably for the best, I don't have time to play it right now.

 

[Mike_G]

Ok, I'm a big Zelda fan, but apart from the graphics I find NOTHING, and I mean absolutely NOTHING "ground breaking" about this game. The cel shading is no longer original since it's been done to death in other games. The dungeons are the same as OoT. Go here, set that on fire, fight this, get map, get compass, get rupees, get something to carry bombs in, get letter, show it to a certain person, fight boss, be the hero. Blah blah blah. I'm enjoying it, but not NEARLY as much as when I first played OoT. That was the first 3D Zelda - THAT was groundbreaking and that I couldn't put down for hours at a time. If you take out the cel shading, I don't see what sets this apart from OoT/MM. For God's sake - it even uses some of the same music and sound effects from OoT!! Sailing isn't innovative - it's just a different way to get from point A to point B, but it's still standard transportation.

And don't get me started on Tingle.

I think if I didn't play Master Quest the last few weeks I'd enjoy WW more, but playing the two back to back really shows how unoriginal WW really is.

Mike

 

[Scott_W]

The graphics are good to very good. I like the look, but I'm not in awe yet. Maybe that'll come later, or maybe not. Splinter Cell impressed me more. I also don't like the haze effect in the background on the island, it bothers my eyes. That should go away in dungeons.

The gameplay looks fun. I'm looking forward to playing more when I can break myself away from Winning Eleven. Zelda looks like a good, quality game. I'll wait to see if its a 10/10.

 

[MikeAlletto]

I played it all last night, I'm currently at the boss for the dragon island thingy, big and annoying. I'm enjoying it though, I never finished OoT either but now that I've got it for gamecube maybe I'll go back when I finish windwaker. I'm having problems orientating myself. I have had that problem in all of Nintendo's 3d versions of their games. I don't know what it is about them that I find so confusing as far as controlling the characters. I do like little link. He's so small! You really get the feeling that he's a little kid. Some of the sound effects he makes are extremely annoying though.

 

[Eric Alderson]

Anyone notice how the game select screen changes depending on what time of day you play it? I thought that was kinda cool. Oh yeah, the game itself is a blast.

 

[Frederick]

Well, I put in about 3 hours last night (and yes, my son stayed up to watch me play ), and I must say that I'm impressed. I'm a big Zelda fan, and this game hasn't let me down so far. I spent a lot of time just getting the feel of the game, wandering around and such. I love the graphics. The very first battle with an enemy resulted in an explosion that had both my son and I going "woah". I'm sure the effect will wear off eventually, but until then we're loving it. I've only done the first castle, and then found the sail and went to the island with the dragon
, so I'm not too far into it. I'm tempted to get the link cable for the GameBoy Advanced, just to see what the deal is with it. My son would get a kick out of co-piloting. All in all, I'm pleased with my purchase thus far. Now if only GameStop would get my GB:SP in ...


Freddy C.

 

[Frederick]

And I also noticed that things that are off in the distance are a little hazy. Nothing too distracting, but it did appear as if Link was near-sighted from time to time ...


Freddy C.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I'm making this the official Zelda discussion thread. New threads opened discussing the game will get merged into this one or deleted.

As requested by one of our fine members I'm also going to activate a separate Zelda thread that will be specifically for spoilers. Enter at your own risk.

 

[Mark Evans]

Ah, it's mine!

Quick impressions:

- That intro is fabulous, when the strings broke into the Zelda theme I was muy impressed. And I'm interested to see where that story is going.

- Not outright amazing, but the game is very subtle in its effects. Of course it isn't going to be a revolution of design, you cannot be more revolutionary than going from 2D to 3D so it has to be evolutionary.

- That said, it's evolutionary in the best way possible. The graphics are so colored that it's really impressive. Maybe I'm easily amused, but when crossing a rickety rope bridge I noticed that it shifts position according to where you're standing.

So, started off slow, but is becoming increasingly more interesting. I'm really pleased with this one, and the music is great so far. I agree Graeme, for the price of a Cube and being able to get Metroid Prime for free with it, worth the price to play this game.

More later!

 

[Jordan_E]

The wife asked me if I wanted to buy Zelda, knowing I used to be a HUGE fan, but for some reason I am not hyped to get this title. Will rent it Friday, but I am at a loss for my apathy toward this title. I recently played Clocktower 3 and enjoyed it; perhaps too many M rated/survival horror games has dragged me to the Dark Side of gaming to enjoy something like Zelda right now. Will see Friday.

 

[JasonK]

Trust me on this, there is NO WAY IN HELL I'd get any of my work done if I had this game out with me, and I'd actually like to graduate reasonably on time (still have an internship and one class this summer though ).

Evan, I feel your pain. FedEx just dropped off my game a few minutes ago. But my spring break was just last week and now it's back to school, with graduation coming in the summer.

Last semester my grades suffered a smidge because of SOCOM online with the HTF gang. So ditching classes to play Zelda is not an option. (I know I know my priorities are all out of line.) .

In a week or two when I finally cave in I'm sure I'll be going on a major Zelda bender. I should be able to last that long. Maybe.

 

[Romier S]

Zelda theme I was muy impressed

Muy bueno mi amigo. Muy bueno

 

[Mark Evans]

See, I can be taught .

I can safely say after putting more time on it, the game so far is only getting more and more impressive as it goes on. Some neat little tricks and variations on the typical Zelda style too.

And somebody give Tetra her own game please .

 

[MikeAlletto]

I noticed a hilarious thing when I was playing last night. I'm in the volcano dragon dungeon (basically first one). I was standing on a ledge watching bats fly around in the distance. Every once in awhile a lava burst and the whole area would shake. This would cause rocks to fall from the ceiling. As I was watching a rock fell from the ceiling and smacked right into one of the bats just flying around killing it. Too funny.

I also managed to push a bad guy off a ledge, he reached out and grabbed on to the ledge looking up at me flailing away. I just stood there and he eventually let go falling to his death. Now thats cool

 

[Calvin Watts III]

And just how original is Master Quest???
Just wondering.

Calvin (who just beat M.Q last night...)