Wind Waker HD Faced Internal "Pushback" at Nintendo

[Roxas1359]

I wasn't a Nintendo kid growing up, my first Nintendo console was the Gamecube. I got the special addition version of Wind Waker, the one that came with OOT on a disc, so I played both around the same time.


I played the crap out of Wind Waker, never actually completed OOT.

I know, I know, shoot me now.

*raises hand*
Hi-five, as I was exactly the same when it came to this. Wind Waker was my first ever console LoZ, my first LoZ game was Oracle of Seasons, and I love WW to death. Honestly the cel-shaded graphics have stood the test of time, the world felt huge and expansive, and it is great to replay. For me, OoT is good but it's not the best out of the entire series, heck I love MM and TP way more. But hearing this news makes me sad because if WW HD were to never be released then my chances of getting a Wii U would diminish.

Now if only Nintendo would remake Majoras Mask because MM deserves a remake for how awesome it was! >.<

 

[Chaosian]

I'm going to be the odd man out I guess and say I still don't like the style of Wind Waker - or pretty much all Zelda games after it. I played through the game three times, yeah, and found it quite good - on par with Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in terms of quality (the over-world made the whole deal worth it), but I'm still really unsatisfied with how it looks.
I'm a bit of a horror and depression junkie, and for me as a kid, Ocarina of Time actually made me tear up in fear for the first time - and, older, Majora's Mask gave me a first good taste of what dread and dissonance can feel like in a game.
There is no fear in a game that looks like Wind Waker, and there is certainly no dread in it. There is no way you can present it as dark, serious, meaningful, or even very heroic when everyone walking around is a chibi caricature (which, I still find hard to believe anyone thought was in need of HD - or... sharper lines and bloom...?).
Sure I thought Twilight Princess was great, but I'm pretty sure that was just Nintendo's last response to get people like me to shut up.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Wind Waker was the best LoZ in the franchise because it didn't try to be a copy clone of Ocarina of Time.

It also didn't follow the usual LoZ snoozefest formula of:
Get 3 jewels
Get Master Sword
Get 6 Medallions
Kill Ganon

It also was mechanically better as a game than Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. That's mostly due to not jamming in a not so accurate motion control scheme into it.

So yeah:

Get 3 pearls
Get Master Sword
Get 8 Triforce pieces
Kill Ganon

Much better formula.

I still have to give Wind Waker credit for breaking up the monotony with actual exploration. Also, the items you find in every other Zelda only see use in the dungeon its found within and very few occasions outside the dungeons(if at all). Wind Waker didn't have those issues in such a repetitive manner.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I never hated toon link visually. I didn't like his vocalizations, which found their way into the port of Link to the Past and most of the future games. Swing your sword and you sound like you are "pushing a mess" to quote Venture Brothers.

I had no problem with Wind Waker's visuals, but I did have a problem with its lackluster gameplay, dungeon design, overworld with 80% wasted space, and the Tingle cash grab at the end.

The best part of the game was the final battle, and I kinda liked puppet Ganon too.

The HD version from the limited screens/vids I've seen makes it look...different. I wouldn't say better. Its like going from them looking like cartoons/woodblock prints to them looking like they are made out of fondant and aggressive bloom effects.

In the screen above, Link looks like an edible cake topper.

I know it will get polished up, but it just seems like a weird project to put a dev team on when they could literally be doing anything else.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

It also was mechanically better as a game than Twilight Princess. That's mostly due to not jamming in a not so accurate motion control scheme into it.

What about Twilight Princess on the GameCube? I haven't seen how the gameplay works with a controller but I was just curious if that critique holds up for it.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Wind Waker was the best LoZ in the franchise because it didn't try to be a copy clone of Ocarina of Time.

It also didn't follow the usual LoZ snoozefest formula of:
Get 3 jewels
Get Master Sword
Get 6 Medallions
Kill Ganon

It also was mechanically better as a game than Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. That's mostly due to not jamming in a not so accurate motion control scheme into it.

So yeah:

Get 3 pearls
Get Master Sword
Get 8 Triforce pieces
Kill Ganon

Much better formula.

I honestly don't understand whats wrong with doing something again when it works. I don't play games for innovation, I play to have fun. "Fun" isn't something that necessarily has to be fresh, just like beauty is more or less defined for every individual's perception. At one point boys used to play with wooden guns and pretend to be coybows. Now they play with plastic guns that have lights and pretend to be space marines or whateves. A shiny new coat on something old is sometimes all we need. If it's fun, it's fun, so let it be.

If anything, it's all the new crap and absence of old things that has made recent Zelda's unbearable to play. I couldn't even get past the first 40 minutes of Skyward Sword, so I never even got to see all the other infamous horrors of that game.

 

[major_chaos]

maybe I'll give this one another chance, but I'm not optimistic. Not only did WW do the typical "dick around in you home village until shit hits the fan" padding, it launched straight from that into a horrible dungeon that mixed terrible forced stealth sections with combat where your only weapon was a stick, killing my interest in the game.

 

[Zer0Saber]

There are a lot of things I did not like about the look of Wind Waker, but still I think it is one of the best Zelda games. Even with an art style I didn't care for the level of detail of even the smallest things like eye movement, lighting/shadows, and just the general animation of characters was impressive. Plus the gameplay was amazing to boot.

 

[Kipenz]

The fan disappointment and outrage was less to do with people simply 'not being ready' for toon-shading or whatnot, but rather much more to do with Nintendo releasing this little tech demo during their Gamecube hype train, http://youtu.be/c7tlPCULkG0

For Zelda fans having just come out of the N64 golden age, this was about the most amazing thing and solidified the expectations that the eventual Gamecube Zelda title would be even better than our OoT golden-god. But then Wind Waker was announced with a more or less complete 180 in art style and tone, and many fans felt like they had been bait-and-switched.

The game eventually found it's own merit for most players of course, but the launch remained a colossal failure on Nintendo's part in recognition and guidance of fan expectations.