Earlier this week, I ventured down to Nintendo's Bay Area heqadquarters to spend an hour of
play-time with the THe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker...HD.
And that last part is key, because this is still very much the same Wind Waker you know--and
maybe love--only with a fresh coat of paint and some small, but smart improvements.
Now while I have tried the game before at E3, I was actually able to play through a
section far later in the game, starting from Hyrule Castle.
But unfortunately, I don't actually have footage or screenshots of everything I saw, so please
just keep in mind that the visuals may not always match up perfectly
Okay, so let me get it out of the way...I'm not the biggest Wind Waker fan...whoa, whoa,
okay, okay...is anyone still watching?
I won't get into all the reasons, but sailing was definitely pretty high up on my list.
It was slow, it broke up the pace of the game, and having to change the wind direction with
the the Wind Waker constantly annoyed me to no end.
Basically, sailing felt like the longest loading screen I'd ever experienced in a game
Which is why I was very happy during my play-time with the Wind Waker HD becasause it improves
on this in almost every imaginable way...and more.
The biggest change is that you'll now gain access to a Swift Sail, which true to its
name, allows you to sail around the ocean at a far brisker pace.
And not only does it increase your overall top-speed, but the wind's direction will actually
change automatically to match whichever direction you're heading, which reduced the amount of
times you'll have to use the Wind Waker by at least a thousand.
Okay, so maybe it only felt like a thousand.
Now for you purists out there, don't worry, you can still access the slower, wind-dependent
sail from before too...but why would you
So so far, I'm feeling pretty good.
But then I noticed that the GamePad can now display your Sea Chart, instead of having
to access it from the pause screen like in the original.
Which is a really nice addition, as you can now chart your course as you're set sail.
Taken altogether, these small changes greatly improve and streamline the sailing process.
Now I can't say for sure whether I'll actually enjoy sailing this time around, but it'll
certainly annoy me far less.
Now that's not the only benefit the GamePad provides.
In addition to displaying a map of your current area, it's also used for inventory management,
allowing you easily equip items in real-time simply by dragging and dropping them onto
3 any of three button slots.
And the GamePad even improves using some of those items, allowing you to use the GamePad's
gyroscope to quickly--and accurately-aim any of the first-person perspectiveitems, such
as the hookshot.
Oh, and you can even walk around and aim while in in the first-person too.
Then there's Link's camera, the Pictograph Box, which has seen some major improvements.
Such as how it can now save 12 pictures instead of just 3, and they're also in glorious full-color
instead of the black & white originals.
Oh, and you can even now take slfies too--and you can even change Link's expression.
But what good is a selfie if you can't share it, and luckily, you can do just that thanks
to Miiverse support.
Another new feature enabled by Miiverse are Tingle bottles, which you'll gain access to
once ytou rescue Tingle--which by the way, is no longer optional.
These allow you drop bottled messages into the ocean where they'll then wash-up on the
shore of someone else playing the game.
We weren't able to see this in action, but we imagine it could be useful for providing
gameplay tips to whomever may encounter the bottle.
Unfortunately, this does come at the expense of the Tingle Tuner option from the original
game, which is unfortunate as it would have been a perfect fit for the Gamepad.
Now perhaps one of the biggest gripes people had about Wind Waker was the infamous Triforce
Hunt.
You know, the one where you had to sail around looking for sea charts that you then had to
have deciphered for 300 rupees a pop in order to then seek out the 8 different pieces of
the Triforce?
Well, that too has been greatly improved.
Now I wasn't able to try it myself, but according to the Nintendo rep, you'll still have to
hunt down all 8, but this time only 3 of them require Sea Charts, which should greatly simplify
and shorten the amount of time it takes.
Really, Wind Waker has received nips and tucks in all kinds of ways.
Some animations have been shortened, it's now faster to pull up sunken treasure, and
even the using the Wind Waker has been tweaked, now allowing you to start conducting at any
time.
And of course, the entire thing looks gorgous, especially with its improved lightning models
all running at 1080p,.
Now as far as I could tell, the raw assets themselves--such as the character models--are
all identical to before, so you'll still see some blocky polkygons here and there.
But the otherwise the fantastic visuals really make them a non-issue.
And there are several ways to play the game too, as the game supports the Pro Controller
in addition to the GamePad, as well as Off-Screen Play.
And for you more experienced Wind Waker fans, there is a new Hero mode available from the
start that not only doubles the amount of damage you'll take, but also removes all health-restoring
hearts from the adventure--nasty!
But this game has plenty of heart to be found in all the right places, with some very smart
tweaks that improve what many already consider to be Link's finest adventure.
And you won't have much longer before you can try it for yourself, as it launch in the
United States this October at $59.99.
Thanks for watching and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain.com for more on The Legend
of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and other things gaming too.