I resumed playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker recently. I had continued where I left off (that being near the end, just before the big fight with Ganon), beaten it, and continued onto the second quest (that being exactly like the first one with a few differences) and beaten that as well in a few days. My thoughts? I hear people complain about how easy this game is (true) and how crappy the graphics are (false). But one thing I've never heard is how powerful the game tells the story.

I guess I never realised it when I played it the first time, but the second time... man. For example, now being able to understand Hyrulian (one of the second quest changes) the scene where the Deku Tree talks to Link in Hyrulian is both cool and perhaps a little sad. As TWW is supposed to be set hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time, surely the Deku Tree would remember someone who wore a green tunic (let's face it, who else wears a green tunic?) and indeed he does express surprise at Link's outfit. That's great for continuity's sake, but it's also sad because at first he had thought the original Link (a.k.a. The Hero of Time) had come back.

But I do love how the game keeps referring to the original Link throughout the game. It's simply not a case of "There was this guy who saved us all hundreds of years ago, but forget about him, we got this new guy now!" Plus there's all kinds of throwbacks to OoT: The two sages of old (a Zora and Kokiri), a Rito who looks like he very well could be a descendant of the Running Man (or his Majora's Mask alter ego, the Postman), the stained glass windows of the OoT Sages in Hyrule Castle, plus the exact same music from OoT when Link pulls the Master Sword out is used in TWW for the exact same thing! It really does all help make you feel like this is more than just a sequel.

And then there's Ganondorf. Remember the big fight back in OoT? He had a brief Phantom of the Opera thing going, then he got right into the fighting, slinging energy balls at you. (I never get tired of that deadly game of tennis) Anyway, end result is, power-hungry guy who turns into a giant pig. But here, he's a bit more chatty (I guess being couped up all by yourself for hundreds of years would make you want to talk a bit more often when you get out...) and the end result is power-hungry guy who turns into a giant pig. Damn, I forgot what my point was.

But speaking of Ganondorf, I loved the end scenes of this game. Sure, you're Link the Hero of Winds, you've got the Master Sword, the Triforce of Courage, the green tunic... but you're still only twelve, whereas Ganondorf is a powerful wizard (who's quite handy with a sword too...) so as logic dictates, he's gonna overwhelm Link. And he does. With ease. And you can just see the look of hopelessness on Link's face when Ganondorf lifts him up.

That's one more thing, rarely have I seen a game that shows expressions when they're due. Oh sure, you've got the standard happy face when something good happens, sad face when something bad happens, but there are quite a number of instances when Link shows an expression that's used only once in the game. When he sees Puppet Ganon forming, his body actually wavers as he looks on in horror at the thing he's about to fight. When he obtains the Fire and Ice Arrows (by having fire and ice fairies fly into him...) he grimaces and looks concerned as both fairies set up home inside him. Then he does a twirl and the standard 'Look at what I got!" pose. Oh well.

But I'll leave you all now with one small rant, about the long trips between islands. Seriously Nintendo, if I can set sail from one point, leave the game to go to the toilet, wash up, go to the kitchen for a snack, and come back to find I'm still halfway to my destination... that's bad.