While the Nintendo Switch 2`s GameCube library is still modest, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker undeniably stands out. Link`s seafaring adventure was a daring and imaginative entry upon its initial release. Although it later received an updated version for the Wii U, this marks its first re-release in original form in over two decades. Revisiting the game today, its sense of boundless freedom is particularly striking, foreshadowing the open-world direction the Zelda series would embrace with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Although now widely recognized as a classic, The Wind Waker sparked heated debate upon its 2003 release. Its bright, cartoonish visuals, in particular, drew significant criticism for diverging so dramatically from the 2000 Zelda tech demo. However, the final game proved not to be as radical a departure as initially perceived. Beneath its unconventional aesthetic, The Wind Waker remained firmly rooted in series traditions, adhering to the fundamental formula established by A Link to the Past and later solidified by Ocarina of Time. Yet, it managed to implement notable alterations within this template, completely transforming the gameplay experience.
The most daring change was the setting. The Wind Waker traded the rolling fields and misty forests of Hyrule for the boundless blue waves and sun-drenched islands of the Great Sea. Your journey still adheres to the familiar progression of previous games: you`ll explore distant corners of the world, collecting three magical artifacts, acquiring the Master Sword, and traversing several dungeons before finally confronting the evil Ganon. However, the alluring, high-seas backdrop evokes a sense of mystique and adventure that no other Zelda title before it could achieve.
It is within this vast seascape that early traces of the series` eventual open-world direction can be discerned. Previous Zelda overworlds were similarly expansive and perhaps even more varied, yet they all felt deliberately curated to some extent. Hyrule in Ocarina of Time, as awe-inspiring as it was in 1998, was less a world and more a meticulously manicured garden, guiding Link along a carefully laid path through interconnected but discrete environments. The game offered sufficient agency to explore for treasure chests and optional rewards, but it dictated main quest progression by gating access to specific areas of Hyrule until a certain story point was reached or a particular item acquired.
The Great Sea imposes no such confining barriers on players. While the initial leg of your journey is deliberately paced, with progression from island to island guided rather strictly by plot demands, the game opens up considerably once you retrieve the Master Sword. A clear narrative thread still leads you to the climactic confrontation with Ganon, and many islands en route to the final battle cannot be thoroughly explored until you return with the proper tool. However, ample freedom is granted to roam as you please. Once fully accustomed to the rhythms of sea travel – plotting a course, controlling the wind, raising your sail, and setting off – the game truly liberates you, allowing you to indulge your curiosity and explore the Great Sea at your leisure.
This game is far more open-ended than other Zelda titles of its era, and the designers skillfully leverage this looser structure, encouraging players to venture off the beaten path with a myriad of enticing diversions. Beyond the main storyline, your journey is largely guided by whispers and rumors overheard during your travels—tales of invaluable treasure hidden on a frozen island, an unusual traveling merchant spotted near a remote islet, or a cursed ship that haunts the seas when the moon is in a specific phase.
Rather than explicitly directing you to these points of interest, The Wind Waker piques your curiosity with vague tidbits and hearsay, much like Breath of the Wild would later present its side quests—not as a series of tasks to tick off, but as small mysteries awaiting investigation. Many of these threads ultimately prove vital to completing the game, yet you never feel you`re being herded along a predetermined course by the developers; you seek them out because you`re intrigued, and you experience a genuine sense of discovery when following a breadcrumb trail of rumors to its source.
Thanks to this boundless freedom, every voyage across the Great Sea evokes a sense of wonder and adventure, especially in the early stages. Aside from a small handful of pre-marked islands, your sea chart is completely blank at the start of your journey, and you must gradually fill it in, square by square, as you travel between destinations. However, the act of mapping the sea, far from being busywork, further accentuates the feeling of being an explorer. Setting off into uncharted waters and discovering what unusual sights lie beyond the horizon is one of the game`s most thrilling aspects, and the hints and tidbits you gather from the unsettling fish-men dwelling beneath the waves add even more flavor to the world.
The same applies to the multitude of islands scattered across the sea. Each map square contains some form of landmass to visit, from small reefs to bustling settlements. While some of these are little more than scenery, many house some kind of treasure or self-contained challenge to overcome, be it a small puzzle to unravel or a gauntlet of enemies to defeat. The unpredictability of what you`ll encounter when you set sail makes each island you stumble upon feel like a discovery in itself, and they are a clear inspiration for the floating sky islands of Skyward Sword and especially Tears of the Kingdom, which similarly beckon players with enticing challenges to complete or treasures to uncover.
It is in these broad strokes that Wind Waker`s influence on future titles is most clearly felt, but the game also foreshadows Breath of the Wild in several subtler ways. While its exaggerated cartoon aesthetic was only revisited by a few handheld entries and spin-offs, cel-shading became a continuing part of the series` visual identity, allowing for an even greater degree of expressiveness—particularly in enemy interactions.
Up until this point in the series, the monsters encountered in Zelda behaved quite primitively, patrolling set paths and single-mindedly pursuing Link. In developing The Wind Waker, designers harnessed the GameCube`s additional power to make foes not only more intelligent but also more expressive. Enemies in this game behave in surprising and often humorous ways, which in turn makes them feel more alive. The moment of panic that flashes across a Moblin`s face when it drops its weapon in the middle of a fight and quickly scrambles to find another remains a delight, and Nintendo would further build upon this dynamism with the expressive and resourceful monsters that roam the fields in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
For all its bold ideas, The Wind Waker didn`t always fully live up to its ambitions. As alluring as the Great Sea often was, it could sometimes feel sparse and repetitive, with the sense of adventure occasionally diminished by too many moments of empty downtime. Nintendo eventually brought the series back to the familiar, verdant confines of Hyrule, making the Great Sea an outlier among Zelda settings, only revisited in the DS sequel Phantom Hourglass. However, its freeform spirit survives in the sprawling, open-ended design of Breath of the Wild`s Hyrule, which channels the same sense of wonder and discovery that made Link`s high-seas adventure such a memorable experience.