Twilight Princess vs Wind Waker

[BreakABone]

I know many on these boards, and around the world, share the opinion that Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game of all time, I won't bother going down that path.

I'm curious as to what people's thoughts on the two Zelda games that followed in its wake. Granted, Majora's Mask is also in there, but since it was a direct sequel to OoT, and it had a completely different gimmick, I want to excuse it from this debate.

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/1/4/6/ZeldaTwilightPrincess.jpg
TP

http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Soundtracks/The%20Wind%20Waker%20Front%20Large.jpg
Wind Waker

[Jason1]

Twilight Princess is a better all around game, from nearly every standpoint. Of course its a matter of personal preference if you prefer a more realistic looking zelda or not. That matter being thrown aside, TP is still better in multiple ways, the biggest being more dungeons and the annoying fetch quest at the end was wayyyyyyy more bearable in Twilight Princess.

[Dyne]

Wind Waker was a great game that shook up the Zelda formula. However, I was disappointing by the serious lack of dungeons. But, the overworld made up for it. I loved the sailing and the feeling it gave me of conquest.

Twilight Princess was also a great game for different reasons. Since it had more dungeons, it definitely felt like a real sequel to Ocarina of Time. However, it didn't expand too much on the formula to be "next-gen" enough.

If anything, I would liken Wind Waker to Majora's Mask, and TP to OOT.

What's next after these two games? I hope it's a game that combines the innovation of Wind Waker and the expansiveness of Twilight Princess. Also, combining a huge ocean + a huge continent to explore would be heaven for me.

[magus113]

While I can say that I've completed both games (even if there was that really annoying quest to get the Triforce pieces in the middle of Wind Waker) both games really hit me and touched me with their endings and story all around. Each of the games had outstanding visuals in their own right, because Wind Waker was definitely a milestone in cel shading, and Twilight was just...good. Very very good.

Both had the Zelda gameplay we both know and love, each with their own different gameplay hitches, Wind Waker being the sailing across sunken Hyrule on the King of Red Lions, and Twilight Princess with Link's transformation to a wolf.

The plots? Each is great, although Wind Waker strays from the norm by not being a true ancestor of Link as I guess you could call it, but it does lead to some interesting plot twists regarding his sister Aryll, and Tetra. Midna's involvement in the plot for Twilight Princess was also interesting and I guess you could say humorous due to her..interesting personality.

Wind Waker kept it simpler with the gadgets, staying with the tried and true grappling hook, then later on hookshot, bows and arrows, etc. Twilight Princess upped the ante just a tad especially with the double hookshot (and although it isn't fair to compare the two because there was a version of Twilight Princess made for the Wii) the Wii controls made it a lot more interactive and precise. This I feel made puzzles more difficult (at points) and more complex to complete.

So what do I think? Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both have good plots, but the Wind Waker's gameplay hitch became much more annoying, especially in the middle of the game with the aforementioned fetch quest, and gameplay segments as the wolf added a more interesting aspect to the gameplay in my opinion. Newer, more useful weapons, in Twilight Princess, and a riveting ending + boss battle really just makes Twilight Princess take the cake for me. I've always said that it's pretty much on par with OoT, despite the place in my heart that the game holds after playing it when I was much younger, but Twilight Princess was a much more darker, and enjoyable gameplay experience that showed me that Zelda is ready to keep going as the years progress.

[GameMaster]

I loved Wind Waker, it was my first Zelda experience and I'll never forget that awesome sailing tune while riding the ocean.

I loved the art style too.

I almost want to replay that game now.

[Typhoid]

I've never played Wind Waker (Always wanted to, never found someone with it), and I've never fully beaten Twilight Princess.

[Angrist]

Although I've come to appreciate The Wind Waker after a few years, I like TP so much better. The realistic graphics made the world more capturing for me, even though the cartoon style of TWW got pretty nice after a while.

TWW just had so many annoyances:
Bad puzzles
Not enough dungeons
Slow travel
Boring items (who ever came up with that slow graple hook animation?? Why does the sail always stay a usable item instead of a standard feature of your boat??) (although the Deku Leaf and Pictobox are items I'd love to see again)
Bad gameplay choices, like when you fall down and have to walk all the way up again.

The story of Twilight Princess really moved me. At 3/4 it sududenly got boring... no more story elements between the last few dungeons.

If we're comparing steps forward in the genre, I guess TWW would win. TP didn't add that much, it was more of a perfection of past ideas.

[Fyacin]

I would say TP barely beats out WW. But it's close. The fetch quest in wind waker also annoyed me, as did that stupid sneaking around section at the beggining of the game. I also think TP's story was a wii (hehehehehe) bit better.

[thatmariolover]

I'm gonna start replaying Wind Waker when I get home from work. Is it snobbish that I'm bothered by the fact that the game has a progressive scan mode but no widescreen option? :p

[mickydaniels]

Wind Waker is a better all around game, from nearly every standpoint. Of course its a matter of personal preference if you prefer a more realistic looking zelda or not. That matter being thrown aside, TWW is still better in multiple ways, the biggest being more original dungeons and the annoying fetch quest at the end was wayyyyyyy more bearable in Wind Waker. At least they were marked on your map.
In TP, if you didn't do them all in one go, you were screwed.

[tornadothrasher]

My vote is for Wind Waker. Although I played through all of Wind Waker but only a few minutes of Twilight Princess, even after watching many of my friends play it and reading up on it, my vote stays the same. I went into the game a little 'shaky' because of the whole cell-shading controversy but it was a ton of fun and so unique.

[KillerGremlin]

As I griped to BaB, I cannot get sucked into TP. I've played through 10 hours or so of the game TWICE now, and I just keep getting bored.

I did beat Wind Waker twice, and while the fetch quests got boring at the end, I found if you balanced them with the rest of the gameplay they were not too bad.

Having said that, I REALLY enjoyed the art style and character development in Wind Waker. Had the game featured more dungeons, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more than OoT.

By default I think Wind Waker is better, more after I beat TP....

[Jonbo298]

Hard choice. TP was great since it was the first "realistic" zelda since OoT which made it refreshing and was decent even if it seemed slightly bland for some reason.

WW was great because of the art style, the way things blended. Downside was the gigantic ocean since it did get repetitive.

I can't choose!

[KillerGremlin]

Hard choice. TP was great since it was the first "realistic" zelda since OoT which made it refreshing and was decent even if it seemed slightly bland for some reason.

WW was great because of the art style, the way things blended. Downside was the gigantic ocean since it did get repetitive.

I can't choose!

You forgot Majora's Mask, the lost Zelda game.

I feel like Majora's Mask will be reflected on like Zelda II for NES.

It's a shame because both MM and Zelda II have a lot to offer.

Honestly though, I was initially put off by MM. In fact, I think I wrote up quite a few number of posts on this very forum about how I wasn't a fan. But I've gone back and played it recently, and in today's world of sequels and hard-to-find-innovation, it really is a breath of fresh air.

[thatmariolover]

The only issue I had with Majora's Mask was how long you had to initially play in order to be able to save. Sooooo annoying.

Aside from that, it was a fantastic game. From a technical standpoint it was one of the most impressive games on the N64. I think it would have found more success on the GC or Wii.

[Angrist]

Majora's Mask is one of my favorite Zeldas. And I don't think people look upon it as they look upon Zelda II. There are just too many people who haven't played MM.

Argh, all this talking about Zelda games makes me want to see the next one!! I'll start a topic where we can speculate about the next Zelda.

[Teuthida]

Wind Waker

...then again I never played Twilight Princess. Recently broke out the old cube again. Tempted to buy TP.

[DarkMaster]

Wind Waker is flawed, and is much better than Twilight Princess.

TP is trying to be Ocarina of Time so bad, but it's not even close to matching it. Wind Waker was refreshing, both because of its style and its overworld.

[magus113]

TP is trying to be Ocarina of Time so bad, but it's not even close to matching it. Wind Waker was refreshing, both because of its style and its overworld.

My only gripe with that, is that in an essence, any other Zelda game that isn't post- Wind Waker in the "Zelda timeline" (if you can call it that) is going to look like Ocarina of Time, because that's just the way the games need to be made. Wind Waker looked different not only because of it's art style and the overworld since it was all flooded, but Twilight Princess had beautiful environments that I could also say paid an homage to Ocarina of Time. Any other game in that same "time span" would have to stay the same way as well.

And in a sense, Twilight Princess did have more of a style change because it seemed much darker than previous Zeldas.

[Jonbo298]

You forgot Majora's Mask, the lost Zelda game.

I feel like Majora's Mask will be reflected on like Zelda II for NES.

It's a shame because both MM and Zelda II have a lot to offer.

Honestly though, I was initially put off by MM. In fact, I think I wrote up quite a few number of posts on this very forum about how I wasn't a fan. But I've gone back and played it recently, and in today's world of sequels and hard-to-find-innovation, it really is a breath of fresh air.

I should have said updated "realistic" Zelda game :p

Wind Waker and TP both had bits and pieces that paid homage to OoT. Then again, so did MM but that one was obvious. I think part of the issue why MM was largely "ignored" was that it came out the same day the PS2 did, and by that point, the N64 was on it's death bed. So it was difficult to rejuvenate a base that had likely moved on. OoT came out at the perfect moment.

[Null]

I loved Twilight Princess, infact, possibly more so than ocarina. (link to the past is the best)

liked it much more so than wind waker, i liked how wind waker looked. but the sailing was absolutely boring, and took out a lot of exploration... too much water not enough land. its like they cheaped out, and instead of filling the world with a beautiful environment, they put in the parts they needed and filled the rest with water. sailing was horrible, and annoying.

i thought TP brought in something different, i liked being the wolf and being able to do some different things. neat little twist on the dark/light world. coulda done more with it. but i really loved that game.

[Jason1]

Wind Waker is a better all around game, from nearly every standpoint. Of course its a matter of personal preference if you prefer a more realistic looking zelda or not. That matter being thrown aside, TWW is still better in multiple ways, the biggest being more original dungeons and the annoying fetch quest at the end was wayyyyyyy more bearable in Wind Waker. At least they were marked on your map.
In TP, if you didn't do them all in one go, you were screwed.

Haha, what did you just copy and paste my post then change it a little?

Here's what I said to compare...

"Twilight Princess is a better all around game, from nearly every standpoint. Of course its a matter of personal preference if you prefer a more realistic looking zelda or not. That matter being thrown aside, TP is still better in multiple ways, the biggest being more dungeons and the annoying fetch quest at the end was wayyyyyyy more bearable in Twilight Princess."

[DimHalo]

I think between the two, I liked Wind Waker better. However, I have not completely finished Twilight Princess. The story and worlds are more exciting in Twilight Princess. It is just so much darker that it seems to be taking me longer to play (or maybe I'm just getting old, haha)

[Ric]

This will rock the boat a little.

Personally I think Majoras Mask is better than OOT. If you sat me down in front of them and said play through one of those I would choose MM any day. I liked the fact that pretty much half the game had almost nothing to do with the main quest.

As for ''The Forgotten Zeldas'' What about The Oracle Of Ages and The Oracle Of Seasons. Granted they were made by capcom but there are sooooooooo many unique ideas that have never been used again.

Then there's The Minish Cap one of my favourite Zelda games and again, many forgotten ideas.

What was The Phantom Hourglass if not a sequel in some respect to The Wind Waker.

Now to the point. The graphics in TP were fantastic, everything every Zelda fan wanted since that E3 teaser video of Ganondorf and Link fighting. Large environments and as has been mentioned, a decent amount of dungeons. The trouble with TP was that although there were more dungeons, none of them were very challenging. In fact, they were easy, I didnt get stuck once through the whole game. And taking that spring water to the Goron so the lazy fat bastard would mend the bridge was just stupid. Aside from that there was not much else to the game, no real replay value.

Now for WW. I admit that when I first saw screenshots of this game I was miffed, what the fuck are Nintendo thinking I thought. But then I played the game and am happy to say 'That Is How To Do Cell Shading' fantastic.
There were less dungeons but at least they were challenging. For those bitching about crossing the oceans, what do you think the warp wirlwind things were for?? Duh!!
There was so much more to this game, so much more. You all seem to be forgetting, The trader quests, helping that eskimo dude build his shop then putting trophies on all the plinths around the game world. Then there was the Pictobox. You ever get a Colour PictoBox. Take the photos to the guy at the forest temple and make a statuette for the Nintendo Gallery.
Even more than that, wrig a gameboy advance up to the game and now you have Tingles shop at any time, he can bomb targets, find treasure. There are even unique golden Tingle statues to collect that you can only get this way. Not only that but you can make Tingles brother or cousin or whatever he is Knuckle appear.
Complete WW play through it again as Link with the clothes you start the game in, the Hero Clothes become invisible. every character in the game who speaks hylian then gets translated. Replay Value something TP sincerely lacked.

In conclusion, TP was great, dont get me wrong. But WW offered so much more when you look below the surface. My vote goes to The Wind Waker.

Theres so much more I want to say... meh!