Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker's Folly

I consider Wind Waker to be one of the best games in the franchise. It is, by far, the most stylish of the Zelda franchise boasting a beautiful cell shaded art style, improved flowing battle system, and tremendous soundtrack. But for all its strengths there are glaring issues that have made me less bullish about the game.

The game, at its core, is structurally flawed and the missing pieces were replaced with content designed to artificially add game length. Clearly was content removed from the game due to deadlines. After the initial 3 artifacts are found, the game fizzles out into 2 more dungeons and a horrendous fetch quest. I would have preferred them to just do the two dungeons and then have you face Ganondorf. Instead, the designers wanted to add some more meat to the game in the shape of this bullshit fetch quest. While I found the places where the charts fun, the tedious nature of changing wind directions was really exasperated by this ordeal. Once you have the charts, you have to go to Tingle and pay him an outrageous fee of 600 rupees per chart to get them translated so you have can go out into the ocean and recover them from the ocean floor. 

Additionally, the pursuit of a grand adventure that Zelda games feel like they need to have has proven to be a detriment to many of the modern games. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, etc. are filled with grand areas you need to traverse. It is especially offensive in Wind Waker's wide empty ocean that is often devoid of anything and minutes are spent inactive and just waiting to arrive at an island. I did enjoy the sailing mechanic but the wind direction facet was more bothersome than immersive and the shear size of it was too much. 

There is so much to love about Wind Waker but I always got the feeling I was only playing a part of a bigger game. I think it is a testament to everything else about this game that still makes me love it. I was hoping that the HD remake would allow the creators to insert the cut content but unfortunately that is not the case and is a massive missed opportunity.

Photo credits:
http://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/wind_waker_reborn_link.jpg
http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Nintendo-Dolphin-1080p-Wallpaper-012-Zelda-Wind-Waker-Link-Outset-Island.png