Zelda takes a new cel-shaded approach that makes, quite possibly, the best looking Zelda game yet. And it plays well too
The Bad: Triforce Quest is a bit too long, Tingle is a greedy jerk
I finally got my hands on this game a couple months ago, and I played it so much, I beat it in about a week. But I am far from completing it. The Heart Pieces are scattered all over the place all across the sea.
Wait a minute, did I say sea? Why yes I did. Wind Waker introduces a ground breaking new concept to the Zelda universe; the over world is now a vast ocean, called the great sea. As the story goes, ancient Hyrule was flooded long ago, and it is now deep on the bottom of the sea. And the tops of the mountains in ancient Hyrule are now various islands scattered all around in seperate sectors which your map is divided into. And while it may take some time to sail to different places early in the game, you can eventually learn a song on your wind waker that can warp you to certain spots, taking a chunk out of sailing time.
The core gameplay will involve you and your boat (The King of Red Lions) traveling across the ocean. You will be sent to different islands where different things are found. There is one island in every sector of the map, and you can explore these islands to complete your sea chart. The dungeon gameplay is basically the same, though there are some new things. They are basically a bunch of puzzles and monsters, big keys and little keys, and a kick butt weapon used to anihilate the final boss. And they are all really fun to face, though of course the first few are pretty easy, like always. Also, the dungeons themselves can be easy at times, though there are a lot of challenging parts.
While on different islands, treasure maps can be found. Once you get the grappling hook, all you have to do is sail to the spot and use your grapple to pull up the goodies. Most of the treasure is rupees and and heart pieces, but later in the game a required quest has you pulling up the eight shards of the Triforce of Courage. The treasure charts for these have to be located and obtained, and you can't just walk up to them and take them, either. You have to complete challenges to get it. Of course I would have liked an extra dungeon and less triforce shards, but it wasn't that bad. The bad part is having to pay a fortune to get your charts translated by Tingle (an annoying fairy wannabe) so you can read them. Of course you will hopefully have an updated wallet by now by visiting the various fairy islands scattered across the sea, and you will be able to afford it, but it takes a huge chunk out of your wallet.
The graphics in this game are, simply put, superb. The draw distance is immense. There are cool particle affects everywhere, and the characters all have big wide eyes and hilarious facial expressions. Cel-shading definitely allows for more graphical affects than realistic graphics.
There is a lot to do in this game. Almost every island has something to be explored, whether it is a Battle Tower, where you beat each room/level to advance, the most large of these being the Savage Labyinth, a fifty level fight for your life, where great riches and a bounty fit for ten kings awaits you. (lol, a line from a movie). There are also minigames on some, like a game where you sail a course on your boat and try to gain more rupees than what you paid to do the game. There is even a form of the game Battle Ship on Windfall Island where you must hit all of the hidden sea monsters (battle ships) that are threatening you and your crew.
Wind Waker is a masterpiece among Zelda games, and a phenomenal game in its own right. If you haven't played this game, get to your nearest used game store and buy it right now.