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The Wind Waker, Part Five - Sailing Is Boring
I'm still playing Wind Waker. Really, I am.
After the player rescues Makar from the Forbidden Woods and receives Farore's Pearl from the Great Deku Tree, the game opens up. This openness is not initially pleasant, however. Until Nayru's Pearl is recovered from Jabun on Outset Island, the Great Sea is stuck in an unending storm, which the King of Red Lions blames on Ganondorf.
[ Because of course he does; the King of Red Lions blames everything on Ganondorf. If I could actually draw, I would totally make a comic about this. "Valoo is upset and no one can calm him down!" "This must be the work of the evil Ganon." "Monsters have appeared in the Forbidden Woods!" "Ganon's influence is spreading." "Something terrible happened to this island!" "It seems we were too late to stop Ganon." "I locked my keys in my car!" "Ganon has surely been here." "Some asshole at Panera Bread burned my panini!" "Ganon must be defeated." ]
I'm fairly certain that the responsible party for the storm is actually Jabun; but, in my imagination, it's Ganondorf's way of saying, FUCK SAILING, ADMIT IT, SAILING IS BORING.
Sailing really is boring. My theory on game design is that, if an element of gameplay allows the player to press a button and then get up to make a sandwich while the game is doing its thing, then that element of gameplay probably sucks.
I put together a checklist of sidequests that are available at this point. My goal was to knock off two or three items a day, and I'm still not done. This is partially a matter of me being an insane Zelda completionist, but also these little missions are supposed to be fun? I think??
I had forgotten how tedious sections of Wind Waker can be. Shigeru Miyamoto has been famously quoted as saying, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." During this interview he was talking about one of the Star Fox titles, but people have speculated that he was specifically referring to Wind Waker, whose release got pushed through despite the protests of just about everyone on the staff. Perhaps as a result, Wind Waker ended up feeling very open yet very empty.
After the player rescues Makar from the Forbidden Woods and receives Farore's Pearl from the Great Deku Tree, the game opens up. This openness is not initially pleasant, however. Until Nayru's Pearl is recovered from Jabun on Outset Island, the Great Sea is stuck in an unending storm, which the King of Red Lions blames on Ganondorf.
[ Because of course he does; the King of Red Lions blames everything on Ganondorf. If I could actually draw, I would totally make a comic about this. "Valoo is upset and no one can calm him down!" "This must be the work of the evil Ganon." "Monsters have appeared in the Forbidden Woods!" "Ganon's influence is spreading." "Something terrible happened to this island!" "It seems we were too late to stop Ganon." "I locked my keys in my car!" "Ganon has surely been here." "Some asshole at Panera Bread burned my panini!" "Ganon must be defeated." ]
I'm fairly certain that the responsible party for the storm is actually Jabun; but, in my imagination, it's Ganondorf's way of saying, FUCK SAILING, ADMIT IT, SAILING IS BORING.
Sailing really is boring. My theory on game design is that, if an element of gameplay allows the player to press a button and then get up to make a sandwich while the game is doing its thing, then that element of gameplay probably sucks.
I put together a checklist of sidequests that are available at this point. My goal was to knock off two or three items a day, and I'm still not done. This is partially a matter of me being an insane Zelda completionist, but also these little missions are supposed to be fun? I think??
I had forgotten how tedious sections of Wind Waker can be. Shigeru Miyamoto has been famously quoted as saying, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." During this interview he was talking about one of the Star Fox titles, but people have speculated that he was specifically referring to Wind Waker, whose release got pushed through despite the protests of just about everyone on the staff. Perhaps as a result, Wind Waker ended up feeling very open yet very empty.
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EITHER WAY I've always wanted to try it again. I think I was actually at the start of the last dungeon.
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This is probably tmi, but that winter (2013/14) I was going through a rough period in my life. I didn't think I could afford a Wii U, and in fact I couldn't, but sailing around with the splashing waves and cawing seagulls and creaking tiller was so therapeutic. During this playthrough I'm actually getting into a routine of exploring islands and salvaging treasure chests, and sitting down with the game is something I look forward to every evening.
There are a lot of surprisingly relaxing games on the system, and I'm starting to get into Yoshi's Woolly World, which is super-chill and so gorgeous that it makes me happy to be alive during this generation of game consoles.
TLDR: DOOOOOOO IT AND WE CAN TALK ABOUT WIND WAKER FOREVER.