The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker.svg
Logo of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Original title ゼ ル ダ の 伝 説 風 の タ ク ト
transcription Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto
Studio
Publisher Nintendo
Senior Developer
  • Shigeru Miyamoto , Takashi Tezuka (producers)
  • Eiji Aonuma (director)
  • Tadashi Sugiyama , Hideki Konno , Toshihiko Nakagō (Supervisor)
    		•
    composer Kenta Nagata , Hajimi Wakai , Tōru Minegishi , Kōji Kondō
    Erstveröffent-
    lichung    		 JapanJapanDecember 13, 2002 March 24, 2003 May 3, 2003
    North AmericaNorth America
    EuropeEurope
    platform Nintendo GameCube
    genre Action adventure
    Subject Fantasy
    Game mode Single player
    control Nintendo GameCube controller
    medium MiniDVD
    language including German, English
    Age rating
    USK released from 0
    PEGI recommended for ages 7+
    PEGI content
    rating
    Game contains violence

    The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker ( Japanese ゼ ル ダ の 伝 説 風 の タ ク ト , Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto , literally: The Legend of Zelda: Baton of the Wind ) is a video game in the The Legend of Zelda series by Nintendo , which was originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan in 2002 . The release in Europe followed on May 3, 2003. In October 2013, a new edition of the game for the Wii U was released .

    action

    After the events of Ocarina of Time , the then Princess Zelda sent the hero of the time (Japanese 時 の 勇者, Toki no Yūsha) back in time. This step resulted in two timelines that were separated from each other: In one timeline, the hero of time returned to stop Ganondorf before he could touch the triforce of the gods. In the other timeline, the events of Ocarina of Time actually took place, and Zelda sent Link to the other timeline.

    The Wind Waker takes place in the latter timeline: The hero of time disappeared through Zelda's work. So when Ganondorf returned to terrorize Hyrule again, there was no one to stop him. Eventually the goddesses of Hyrule intervened: Din, Nayru and Farore ordered some of the inhabitants of Hyrule to seek refuge on the highest mountain peaks. Then they petrified the kingdom, surrounded it with a force field and had it covered by a sea in a deluge. The mountain peaks of Hyrules thus became islands in a sea on which the people could continue to live. Ganondorf was banned together with Hyrule.

    The game plot begins centuries later: the pirate Tetra is pursued by a giant bird, the Mask King, and ends up on the island of Preludes. This is where the game's protagonist, Link, lives with his grandmother and sister Aril. Instead of Tetra, Aril is finally kidnapped by the giant bird. Tetra enables Link to attempt a rescue in the haunted bastion, where Aril and other Hylian girls are held captive. The rescue attempt fails, but it becomes clear that the ban seal around Ganondorf must have failed because it commands the giant bird and the enchanted bastion. Link is thrown out into the open sea, where he, unconscious, is fished out of the sea by the Red Leuenkönig (Japanese 赤 獅子 の 王, Aka Shishi no Ō; Eng. King of the Red Lions ), a talking boat, and taken to the island of Port Monee is brought.

    After he has informed Link about Ganondorf and the ban seal, he tells him to find the three sacred spheres ("Deamonts") in order to gain access to the sunken Hyrule. There Link finds the master sword , which acted as a ban seal for Hyrule: Due to its removal, time in Hyrule is normal again, but the kingdom remains sunk under the force field in the sea. After an unsuccessful fight against Ganondorf it becomes clear that the master sword must first be brought to its old strength with the help of two sages . The Red Leu King turns out to be the last king of Hyrule, who has survived the centuries since Hyrule's fall, to find a hero. He also reveals Tetra's identity: She is the direct descendant of Princess Zelda, who Ganondorf is desperately looking for because he desires her Triforce part (Triforce of Wisdom). Link reassembles the eight splinters of the Triforce of Courage, then he faces the fight against Ganondorf and his Triforce part (Triforce of Power) in the sunken Hyrule. In the course of the fight, Ganondorf manages to steal their parts from Zelda and Link and to unite the three Triforce parts. The combined Triforce fulfills all the wishes expressed by its wearer. However, the King of Hyrule manages to touch the Triforce in front of Ganondorf and express his wish: The force field around Hyrule should fall so that Ganondorf and the kingdom are destroyed by the falling floods and Link and Zelda have a future. The wish is granted, and Ganondorf and the king die in the now destroyed Hyrule. Only Link and Zelda return to the surface. You set out to find a new home for the people of Hyrule, which is not just made up of small islands.

    background

    • The Wind Waker was released in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube and presented itself in the guise of Cel Shading graphics. "Cel-Shading" means that the graphics engine visualizes the 3D graphics of the game in a comic-like style. Among other things, the color contrasts are increased and a reduced color palette without flowing transitions is used. At the same time, minimalized textures are used. The developers opted for this graphic style to try something new and to make the protagonist more lively. However, there are no contours, i.e. the border with black lines (inverse backface culling ).
    • Link explores the upper world here with a sailing boat and has control over the wind with the wind baton (Japanese j の タ ク ト, Kaze no Takuto or Kaze no Takt ), which can be used in many ways. With a grab hook, Link can also lift treasures from a boat. The game is also one of the first to offer more extensive connectivity support, i.e. a Game Boy Advance can be connected to the GameCube so that a map and helpful hints can be displayed on the Game Boy Advance screen.

    development

    It became known that the game's development process was stopped at a certain point in order to be able to publish the game in time. This was a novelty in the Zelda series and led to The Wind Waker, with only five main dungeons, being the second-shortest 3D Zelda part to date, undercut only by the predecessor Majora's Mask with four main dungeons, whose development time was from the beginning Was measured for almost a year and whose main dungeons require an extensive pre-quest. The decision to cut The Wind Waker was retrospectively regretted by the producer and director. The latter founded - also through the cuts in Super Mario Sunshine - a liberal policy of postponement in Nintendo's development processes:

    "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

    "A postponed game may be good in the end, but an unfinished game is forever bad."

    - Shigeru Miyamoto

    reception

    The Wind Waker caused controversy due to the cel-shading graphic style used, as some fans had hoped for a game with realistic graphics because of a Zelda demo video shown at the Space World 2000 trade fair . Many fans dislike the toon shading graphics (a nickname for the game is Celda ) because they look too childish. Ultimately, The Wind Waker was accepted by the fans and developed into a success with around 4.3 million copies sold.

    The Wind Waker was very well received by the trade press . Gamespot rated the game with 93% and named it "Game of the Year". IGN gave The Wind Waker a 96% rating . It received 9 out of 10 points from Eurogamer . The German magazine GamePro rated The Wind Waker with 93%, 4Players with 91%. The game's metascore is 96 out of 100 possible points.

    The Wind Waker won the 2003 Game Developers Choice Award in the Visual Design category .

    The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

    Eiji Aonuma introduces The Wind Waker HD at E3 2013.

    On January 23, 2013, Satoru Iwata announced in a Nintendo Direct that the title for the home console Wii U would be reissued. The Wind Waker HD was released in Japan on September 26, 2013 and in Europe on October 4, 2013. It was also sold as a bundle with the Wii U.

    literature

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ IGN interview with Shigeru Miyamoto on August 16, 2002
    2. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news250705zelda
    3. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27/shigeru-miyamoto-rushed-game-forever-bad
    4. ↑ Jeff Gerstmann: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Review (March 21, 2003) on GameSpot.com (accessed March 27, 2020)
    5. ↑ GameSpot's 2003 Game of the Year on GameSpot.com (accessed March 27, 2020)
    6. ↑ Matt Casamassina: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Review (March 21, 2003) on IGN.com (accessed March 27, 2020)
    7. ↑ The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (March 1, 2003) on Eurogamer.net (accessed March 27, 2020)
    8. ↑ Kai Schmidt: Rating: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (08/28/2006) on GamePro.de (accessed on March 27, 2020)
    9. ↑ Jörg Luibl: Test: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on 4Players.de (accessed on March 27, 2020)
    10. ↑ The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube) on Metacritic.com (accessed March 27, 2020)