The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sold 4.6 million copies on the GameCube. That sounds like a triumph until it is set beside the 7.6 million copies that Ocarina of Time had sold. Nintendo released this 2002 adventure to enormous critical praise, yet its early years were shadowed by disappointment. Today it ranks among the most admired games ever made. How does a game critics loved end up as a commercial letdown? What made so many fans recoil at its look before they came to cherish it? And what does a talking boat, a conductor's baton and an ocean of islands have to do with it? The answers begin with a drawing of a cartoon boy that nobody on the team planned to make.

  891825

• 2. A Cartoon Link

  ›

  In 2000, Nintendo announced the GameCube at the Space World exposition, and the Zelda team hastily put together a short clip of Link fighting Ganondorf to show there. Fans and commentators cheered. They hoped it previewed the next Zelda game. Director Eiji Aonuma, who had also directed Majora's Mask, hated it. He found the clip derivative of earlier Zelda games, and his team had run out of ideas for that style and format.

  The way out came from designer Yoshiki Haruhana, who sketched a cartoonish drawing of a young Link that caught everyone's eye. Design manager Satoru Takizawa followed with an enemy Moblin drawn in a similar spirit. The team saw fresh gameplay and combat possibilities in the look. To get it onto the screen, they applied cel shading to 3D models, which gave the game the appearance of an interactive cartoon. They built it with Alias/Wavefront's Maya 3D tool and a custom game engine.

  Aonuma kept the project quiet at first because he feared that Shigeru Miyamoto would object to the cartoon style. Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, the creators of the series, were serving as producers. They did have questions. They asked why the characters needed such enormous eyes. Aonuma's team joked about having Link shoot beams from his eyes. They settled on something gentler: Link fixes his gaze on important objects nearby, quietly hinting to observant players what to do next.

  Miyamoto stayed doubtful and reminded Aonuma that it was not too late to change course. In the end he relented. The team's enthusiasm won him over, and he accepted that a more realistic Zelda might have taken a decade to make with their resources. Whether the public would be as forgiving was about to be tested.

  1314151181

• 3. Sea of Islands

  ›

  The Great Sea is divided into 49 gridded sections, and each one contains an island or a chain of islands. Some must be visited to move the story forward, while others are optional. The team chose this setting almost as soon as the cartoon style was settled, judging that an ocean of islands would give them interesting visuals and mechanics. That choice in turn produced the game's central feature, sailing.

  Link crosses the water aboard a boat called the King of Red Lions. Its sail is driven by wind that blows in one of eight directions. A tailwind gives the boat its top speed, while sailing against the wind is hard. Link tracks his progress on a sea chart that fills in as he explores, and extra charts point toward treasure chests and significant places. Even familiar tools change their purpose at sea. The grappling hook, for example, becomes a crane for raising sunken treasure.

  Early in the adventure, Link receives the Wind Waker itself, a baton that lets him conduct melodies to control the wind and call on other powers. The player waves the joypads to set pitch and time signature. The first melody, the Wind's Requiem, lets Link turn the wind to any direction, so he can sail anywhere. Five more tunes bring abilities such as warping to other regions and turning night into day.

  On land, the game keeps the third-person sword-and-shield action of its predecessors, with a lock-on targeting system and, for the first time, a camera that the player can swing around Link. Dungeons end in boss battles, and a camera item called the Picto Box can complete sidequests. One special item, the Tingle Tuner, let a second player control the character Tingle through a Game Boy Advance connected by a link cable. A later remake would replace it.

  574526

• 4. Hyrule Beneath the Waves

  ›

  On Outset Island, boys put on green clothes when they come of age, echoing the legendary Hero of Time. According to Nintendo's official chronology, the Hyrule Historia, this game follows the timeline in which the Hero of Time defeats Ganon and travels back to his childhood. Ganon then returns, but the hero does not. Centuries later, people live on scattered islands and remember Link only as a legend. The young Link who celebrates his coming of age is a different boy with the same name.

  On that very day, a gigantic bird drops the pirate captain Tetra into the island's forest. Link rescues her from monsters, but the bird, the Helmaroc King, carries off his sister Aryll. It has been taking girls with long ears. Link and Tetra sail to the Forsaken Fortress, where Link finds his sister. The bird captures him anyway, and a man in black orders him thrown into the sea.

  A sentient sailboat, the King of Red Lions, rescues Link at Windfall Island and names the bird's master as a returned Ganon. To stand against him, Link needs the three Pearls of the Goddesses. Din's Pearl waits on Dragon Roost Island, home of the avian Rito and the dragon Valoo. Farore's Pearl lies in Forest Haven, home of the Great Deku Tree and the plant-like Koroks. Nayru's Pearl is with the water spirit Jabun on Outset Island. After trials in the Tower of the Gods, Link descends to a castle suspended in time beneath the ocean and takes the Master Sword.

  The sword, however, has lost its power. Ganon overpowers Link and Tetra at the fortress, then spots Tetra's Triforce necklace and realizes that she is the incarnation of Princess Zelda. The King of Red Lions takes them to the underwater castle and explains that it is the legendary kingdom of Hyrule. Long ago the goddesses flooded it to contain Ganon, while its people fled to the mountaintops. The boat reveals that he is Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, the last King of Hyrule, and that Tetra is his heir, Zelda, keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom.

  The two sages who once empowered the Master Sword turn out to have been murdered by Ganon's forces. Link must awaken new ones, the Rito Medli and the Korok Makar, and guide them through the Earth and Wind Temples. He then hunts down eight shards of the missing Triforce of Courage, and the gods recognize him as the Hero of Winds. Ganon, meanwhile, captures Tetra and joins her Triforce piece and Link's with his own Triforce of Power. The complete Triforce would grant his wish to rule the world.

  Before he can speak it, the King of Hyrule appears and makes a wish of his own. He asks the goddesses to wash away Ganon and Hyrule, and to give Link and Tetra hope for a future. Water pours around them as Link and Tetra fight with the Master Sword and magical arrows. The final blow turns Ganon to stone. The kingdom sinks beneath the waves with its king, and the two heroes rise to the surface and sail off to find a new land.

  5258

• 5. Showfloor Backlash

  ›

  At the 2001 Space World, Nintendo showed a demo clip of the new game, and the response split the audience. Some attendees enjoyed the fresh look. Others were openly disappointed, because they had hoped for the more realistic Zelda promised by the previous year's clip. Critics derisively nicknamed the game "Celda". Miyamoto was surprised by the reaction. He decided to hold back further information until the team had a playable demonstration, hoping to move the conversation from graphics to gameplay.

  That demonstration arrived at the next year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, alongside another upcoming GameCube title, Four Swords Adventures. Miyamoto ran into glitches while showing off Link's new ability to use weapons dropped by enemies. Even so, the reception was warmer than at Space World. The game won the 2002 Game Critics Awards for Best Console Game at the show. IGN editor Fran Mirabella said the cartoon look "works very nicely" and that "it feels very much like Zelda". Observers compared its whimsy to A Link to the Past and to promotional artwork from earlier Zelda games. Still, the art direction kept dividing audiences.

  The final months of development brought cuts. Two dungeons fell behind schedule and were dropped, replaced by a quest to recover Triforce pieces around the Great Sea. Elements of those dungeons were recycled in later Zelda games. On the 15th of October 2002, Nintendo revealed the Japanese subtitle, Kaze no Takuto, which means Wind Baton, to stress the role of wind. The English title, The Wind Waker, followed on the 2nd of December that year.

  Between the Japanese and North American releases, the designers reworked several segments. Their biggest change was shortening the lengthy Triforce quest. Reviewers would still find that stretch of the game a chore.

  1719202482

• 6. Music and Bonus Discs

  ›

  Four composers shared the score: Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo. The sound team was significantly larger than on other projects of the day, because Nintendo wanted high-caliber work despite a rushed schedule. Kondo, the primary composer for the series, contributed but was not the sound director. He reworked some of his pieces from older Zelda games to suggest the time that had passed between the stories.

  The soundtrack shifts between tracks depending on location, time and other conditions. Much of it draws on traditional Irish music, and it is lighter and more upbeat than earlier scores in the series. Advances in MIDI technology let it come closer to the sound of real instruments. It uses strings, winds, brass, percussion and wordless vocals. The voices are most prominent in the tunes Link conducts with the Wind Waker, which are sung in D major. Miyamoto reportedly played the mandolin in the Title Theme. On the 19th of March 2003, Scitron Digital Content released a two-disc, 133-track soundtrack album.

  The game reached Japan on the 13th of December 2002, North America in March 2003, and Europe on the 2nd of May 2003. To drive pre-orders, Nintendo offered a bonus disc with a GameCube port of Ocarina of Time. It also carried Ura Zelda, an expansion that had been planned for the Nintendo 64's 64DD peripheral and shelved when that system failed. Outside Japan it was called Ocarina of Time Master Quest. In North America, some customers made pre-orders and then cancelled them just to get the disc. To head off the same trick, Nintendo sold it in Europe only in two-disc packages with The Wind Waker.

  More promotions followed. In May 2003, limited edition GameCubes were bundled with the game in North America and Europe. On the 17th of November 2003, Nintendo launched The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition, a compilation of the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, plus a Wind Waker demo and two featurettes. It was never sold in stores. Owners could get it by registering their system or subscribing to Nintendo Power. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, all 1000 allotted copies were claimed within minutes, so Nintendo offered extras to buyers of select GameCube games.

  3228293738

• 7. Critics and Sales

  ›

  Metacritic calculated a score of 96 out of 100 from 80 reviews, a level it labels universal acclaim. The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game a perfect score, only the fourth it had ever awarded. Computer and Video Games, Game Informer, Game Pro, Nintendo Power and Planet GameCube also gave perfect scores. Even so, it did not reach the heights of acclaim that had greeted Ocarina of Time.

  Reviewers who knew about the fan skepticism praised the visuals anyway. Several compared the animation to the films of Disney and Hayao Miyazaki. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot called the doubts about the look "unfounded" and said the character design "adds emotional weight" to the story. Steve Thomason of Nintendo Power admitted he had been skeptical, then wrote that the visuals worked "brilliantly". Nintendo Power's Steven Grimm called the whole game "a masterpiece of style and storytelling". Critics also admired the responsive controls, fluid combat and puzzles, and some noted the lack of voice acting.

  The sailing drew the sharpest complaints, especially late in the game, when Link must travel the ocean to gather Triforce pieces. Gerstmann found that stretch "pretty tedious". Matt Casamassina of IGN called the repeated use of the Wind Waker to change wind direction "a tedious nuisance". Critics also found the game easy. Once Link had enough hearts, Casamassina wrote, "he becomes nearly invincible". Awards still piled up. Several publications named it Game of the Year, and it won the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction award at the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

  Sales told a different story. The game had generated the most successful pre-order campaign in Nintendo history up to that point, yet Aonuma called purchases disappointing in both Japan and North America. In Japan, a general decline in the video game market, a phenomenon called "gamer drift", played a part. North American sales were slow and had declined markedly by the time they reached one million. Nintendo of America blamed the cel-shaded graphics, which turned off older teenagers, the traditional Zelda audience. Miyamoto added that the game had not introduced major innovations to excite established players or attract new ones.

  Reception was comparatively warm in Japan, where anime aesthetics are common across media. In North America, some players found the look childish. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku traced much of the backlash to a worry that Nintendo was losing its edge by making games for children while rivals made more mature, realistic ones. That worry shaped Nintendo's next move.

  5461626582

• 8. A Long Afterlife

  ›

  Aonuma had originally planned a direct GameCube sequel under the working title Wind Waker 2. The weak North American reception, together with the Japanese market downturn, convinced him that success lay with a more realistic Zelda. He persuaded Miyamoto, who authorized Twilight Princess, built on The Wind Waker's engine. It became a major success for the GameCube and the newly released Wii.

  The cartoon Link did not vanish. Known as Toon Link, he returned in Four Swords Adventures in 2004, The Minish Cap in 2005, and Tri Force Heroes in 2015, and he became a playable fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series. The story itself continued on the Nintendo DS. Aonuma produced Phantom Hourglass in 2007, following Link and Tetra across new reaches of the Great Sea. Spirit Tracks in 2009 is set roughly a century later, with a new Link and a Zelda who descends from Tetra, traveling New Hyrule by magical train. Conductors of the Symphony of the Goddesses concert tour have used custom-made Wind Waker batons. In 2017, Breath of the Wild adopted a stylized look with more realistic proportions and borrowed species from The Wind Waker.

  In 2013, Nintendo staff exploring the Wii U's capabilities while planning Breath of the Wild found that The Wind Waker translated into high definition especially well. Aonuma faced considerable reluctance from management, who remembered the mixed response of 2003. Miyamoto approved the project because opinion of the game had warmed over the years. The Wind Waker HD took six months to develop. It added a Swift Sail for faster travel, shortened the Triforce quest and replaced the Tingle Tuner with a Tingle Bottle that connected to the Miiverse service. The remaster earned a Metacritic score of 90 out of 100, and in the week after its release, Wii U console sales in the United Kingdom rose by 685 percent.

  Meanwhile, the original's standing kept rising. Nintendo Power ranked it the fourth best game on any Nintendo console and the second best on the GameCube, behind only Resident Evil 4. Writers observed that its stylized look aged well, while games chasing realism often looked dated. Some former skeptics wrote about changing their minds. Nintendo representatives call this pattern the "Zelda cycle", in which negative fan reactions to a Zelda game improve over time. In 2013, Keza MacDonald of IGN wrote that the game had outlived its first reception and become "popularly considered among the very best Zeldas".

  On the 5th of June 2025, the original GameCube version returned as one of the first three GameCube games on Nintendo Classics, launching with the Nintendo Switch 2. It is available only through the premium Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack tier.

  91981005385