Nintendo Best in the Zelda: Wind Waker Trilogy?

[Cecil Strife]

I just started playing through The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and suddenly just thought, "Hey, this is a really great game!". It focused on exploration more than any other zelda game, giving you the entire Great Sea to explore, and nearly 50 islands to discover, not to mention the dozens of sidequests to do on the open sea. The art style was new and creative, and the storyline even had a few major twists to it. You had treasure to collect from fallen enemies, legendary pictures to take with the Picto Box, and the mysterious, "Tri-Forks"...

These are a few reasons why Wind Waker has taken it's place of possibly my favorite Zelda game.

But it's sequels? Not so good to me.

I own Phantom Hourglass, and to tbh, it's one of my least played DS games. The only character remotely intresting was Linebeck. The sailing is etremely limited compared to WW. The game is a little fun during your first playthough, but after that it falls flat to me. Wind Waker was still fun after your 100th time playing! (actually, I only beat it twice, so I wouldn't know that.)

Same with Spirit Tracks. The exploration is limited, characters are boring, both PH and ST are short, boring after first playthrough. I rented it for ten days, nearly finished the game, and was still tired of it.

Now give me your opinion. What's your favorite? Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, or Spirit Tracks?

 

[Meds]

The Wind Waker for sure. I got Phantom Hourglass for the DS, it wasn't bad really.. kind of hard, but also satisfyingly long, the items are great, the bosses were fun, and the ocean map was huge. However, the final boss was really strange, the ending felt like it came a bit out of nowhere, and it always had me very anxious and stressed when I had to beat levels of that main temple (forget the name) in a set period of time; the hourglass gimmick, not working for me.

Oh, and I haven't played Spirit Tracks but it looks underwhelming so I'm gonna go ahead and say Wind Waker anyway, it's pretty much my favourite of all the Zelda games.

 

[Martel]

I'm not sure I'd classify Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks as a trilogy, given that Spirit Tracks is set about a century after Phantom Hourglass, but...eh.

My favourite of the three is probably Wind Waker, although I didn't like the sailing mechanic at all, it bored the hell out of me. It wasn't much better in Phantom Hourglass, either. Spirit Tracks is definetely the best for novelty transport...driving a train was epic win. The Tower of Spirits gimmick got fixed in Spirit Tracks as well, and actually getting to use Zelda for once was a nice touch, as well. Of the three, I think Spirit Tracks is the most well designed.

I suppose the only reason I'd say Wind Waker is my favourite is because the concluding battle was so satisfying. It was a short, boring and ridiculously easy game, but that ending...

 

[Jquestionmark]

I haven't played Spirit Tracks yet (not sure I ever will), but I have to tip my hat to Phantom Hourglass. Normally, I hate games that include a time limit mechanic, but the way it was done in PH, forcing economy of motion instead of having a clock ticking down with genuinely no way to stop it, was excellent. The recurring central dungeon with new ways to get through it and farther to get every time was an innovative and enjoyable mechanic, making me puzzle and test ideas as much as just kill monsters and move from room to room.

I will say two things about Wind Waker, though:
1. Best combat mechanics in a Zelda so far. The gameplay was unbelievably good, and the final battle, how fluidly the combat flowed was like a dream come true. Other game makers could learn a lot from the combat in Wind Waker.
2. It's not a finished game. There are far too many islands and locations that were obviously supposed to contain a sidequest or puzzle, but instead just sit there sad and empty. The Triforce quest was incredibly dissatisfying, and the last time I went back and played it the only thing that got me through was thinking about that sweet sweet final battle looming not too far in the distance. Shame on whoever decided that fishing for Triforce bits was okay in a series where the first game had you clearing dungeons and beating bosses for each chunk of the Triforce.