The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

"This is but one of the legends of which the people speak..."

- Prologue

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, released worldwide throughout 2003, was the first in the series to use the 'Cel-Shaded' style, a more cartoon look that allowed the game to stand out from other games on the market at the time. However, This change came under huge criticism from both fans and Videogame publications alike. Despite this the game was still very well received and at the time of its release was the best selling Zelda to date, however, this was clear part achieve by the Wind Waker being bundled with a limited edition special disc featuring The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Master Quest is a reworking of the original Ocarina game, only made slightly more challenging for hard-core Zelda fans. the Wind Waker eventually became the first of two Zelda games for the GameCube, followed by Twilight Princess, although it is official that the events in Twilight Princess happen long before those of Wind Waker.

Nintendo still chooses to use the cel-shaded style for its newer handheld Zelda games as well as the Game Cube edition of Four Swords, the Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures. A sequel to Wind Waker is planned for released in late 2007, entitled the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, for the Nintendo DS.

Story
Based up to one hundread years after the events of Ocarina of Time, the Wind Waker begins in a world entirely filled with water, and rather than taking place in Hyrule, the setting is the Great Sea. A Legend of a great hero has been past down though generations, who survived a great flood that was caused by the Gods eons ago, when a great evil was spreading across the land. the story begins creating ambiguity around the whereabouts of the Hero of Time, but it is soon revealed that, Link, the descendent of the Heroes bloodline is alive and well.

Starting out, on Outset Island, a young Link goes in search of his kidnapped sister, Aryll, who is taken by a monstrous bird who mistakes her for a female pirate captain named Tetra. Link leaves his home and his Grandmother behind, travelling wiht the pirates to find his sister. It isn't long before event spiral out of control, and Link's fate falls into the hands of a wise talking boat with a Dragon shaped head, the King of Red Lions. The King of Red Lions informs Link that many young girls have been kidnapped from all over the Great Sea, and that in saving his sister, Link would also be in a good position to find out about and save the other maidens. Using the Wind Waker, Link manipulates the Winds so that he can ravel at will to anywhere on the Great Sea map, this allows him to complete his quest.

The plot then follows a similar trail to Ocarina of Time, and in reference, Link retrieves three orbs, which are similar to the Sacred Stones found by the Hero of Time. These stones open a gate way to the Gods, allowing Link to use the Triforce of Courage and the Master sword to defeat the evil conjurer kidnapping the young ladies. Inevitably, the evil is uncovered to be Ganondorf, who has been counting the days until he can once again attempt to find and use the Triforce for his own means. His reason for capturing so many young maidens is to find the one who’s secret identity is Princess Zelda. Finally, the one who Ganondorf is searching for turns out to be Tetra, the pirate captain, who is then taken by Ganondorf once she ahs been found out, although not even Tetra herself was aware of her heritage until she was informed by the King of Red Lions, who also reveals his secret identity as, the Ancient King of Hyrule. From this point on, it is the quest of Link and the King of Red Lions to rescue Tetra (Princess Zelda) and stop Ganondorf from ruling the Triforce.

Timeline Placement
It is noteworthy that the Wind Waker, more than any other game in the series, attempts to establish a sense of temporal continuity. The Wind Waker directly references places and events from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and gives some indication of what happened between the two games. In Timeline Theory, Wind Waker can be placed just about anywhere. This is due to its content concerning the Great Sea and the flooding of Hyrule. How this took place is unclear still, and whether or not the world some how become sun flooded is also untold. This means that Wind Waker can sit logically in the middle or right at the end of the timeline. Most popularly, Wind Waker occupies fourth position in events, this is supported by the character Tetra's name being derived from the Latin for fourth, suggesting she could be the fourth Zelda in the family blood line, meaning Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and A Link to the Past could all occur before hand (Majora's Maks also occours prior to these events, but doesn't feature a new Zelda, only showing a flashback of the Princess featured in Ocarina of Time).

As well as this, the opening to Link's Awakening shows Link's arravel by boat, its debatable wheaher of not this bares significence to the Wind Waker storyline, as so few Zelda's feature a sea or shore location for a seperate link to set out from. It is also debatable that all events in the cel-shaded style could take place in a different era to realistic Zeldas and that the two seperate styles infact split the series in to two seperate stories, connected soley by Wind Waker to Ocarina of Time.