After enduring the trials and tribulations of hectic gameplay and awkward controls, I felt like I needed to recalibrate myself to the tune of The Wind Waker. After rescuing Makar and returning him to the Great Deku Tree, the game sets you on a course across the open seas, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. The King of Red Lions informed me that my next destination was Greatfish Isle, but I decided to delay that mission for a little while in order to relax and explore the ocean in search of Pieces of Heart and items.
Sailing around the Forest Haven, I could see very few islands scattered across the open sea that lay before me. I should have been disappointed by this, but to be honest, I was just happy to sail along and listen to the waves crash against my talking boat. It healed my soul and helped reconnect me to what I love most about Zelda games: free exploration. I sunk many hours into Breath of the Wild because of how fun it was to just casually poke around in Hyrule, and even though I’m not climbing up cliffsides or soaring around great towers in this game, I find that cruising around the Great Sea can just be as relaxing.
Eventually I did make landfall on an unknown island, and after walking to the island’s peak and dropping into a small hole, I found myself in some sort of lair with alternating paths. The tricky part was that I couldn’t just walk anywhere I wanted; if I took certain pathes, vines would rise up from the ground and block my way. I had to use the element of fire to overcome all the obstacles, and when I saw that a treasure chest awaited me at the end of the lair, I felt excitement bubble up inside me. Surely a Piece of Heart would be inside! But alas, it was only a Joy Pendant. My first exploratory outing in the game, and all I get for my troubles is a Joy Pendant? Ugh.
I decided to start drifting towards Greatfish Isle, and if I happened to see anything of interest along the way, then I would stop again. And as it happened, I did see something intriguing: an island with a circular walkway, which I was able to scale in order to reach the top. There I found a wall that I thought I could latch onto with my Grappling Hook, but when I tried to equip the tool and test it out, I accidentally opened up the Bait Bag that I had set to the Y button. In response to the command, Link grabbed something from the bag and placed it on the top on his head, and the next thing I knew, a seagull swooped down and snatched the item! Now I could actually control the critter and fly around the island! But since I had no idea what to do, I didn’t find any treasure or make any new discoveries; I basically just button-mashed until I was back in Link’s body. Though this was a cool surprise, I’m still not sure why it happened. Maybe this is just how things play out if I use the Bait Bag on land?
After a while, I finally found my way to Greatfish Isle, where I was greeted by the Rito postman Quill. Apparently I was late to the party, as he informed me that Jabun was long gone and that I should head back to Windfall Island. Some troublesome pirates were up to no good, and, of course, it was up to me to send them packing. Before setting out again, I gave the island a quick search to see if I could find anything useful or valuable, but I ultimately came up empty. By this point, the dark, gloomy night was starting to spook me a bit, so I figured it was time to hightail it out of there. Perhaps Windfall Island would yield some positive results.
When I arrived at Windfall, I found the Pirate Ship conveniently docked in the harbor. What luck! The game strongly hinted that I needed to head to the Bomb Shop, but when I scoped the place out, I discovered that the door was locked. Since I was too polite to just kick it down (and the game probably wouldn’t have let me do that anyway), I sneaked around to the back of the shop and crawled through the small hole. The pirates who came to Outset Island at the beginning were making a racket inside, having tied up the shop owner and robbed him of his wares. They kept complaining that they wanted to head out for a night on the town, but Tetra, the voice of reason, ordered them to shut up and focus on the task at hand.
Then, all of a sudden, she spied the green cap atop my head just as I was trying to shift out of sight. I held my breath, convinced that this was the end. Surely I was done for. Tetra and her merry band of pirates were probably going to tie me up and use me as shark bait. But to my surprise, the pirate girl didn’t turn me in or even say anything. Instead, she just winked at me. What could this mean? Is Tetra secretly my ally? Or is this some kind of trap? Whatever it is, I will need to keep my wits about me going forward.
In the end, Tetra relented and allowed her rowdy minions to go out and have some fun. But before they left the shop, one of the underlings mentioned using the word “chummily” as some sort of password. I’m guessing that this is an important piece of information that I will need to remember for the near future.
All things considered, I’m pretty happy with how things are progressing at this moment. I may not have unearthed any valuable treasure, but I feel refreshed after taking a leisurely sail across the sea, and the story’s mystery and intrigue have recaptured my interest. I’m now hopeful that I can leave my past gameplay struggles behind for good and just concentrate on enjoying the ride. So let us go forth and be “chummy.”
Catch up on the previous chapters in this series with the links below!
The Wind Waker is 20 years old on December 13, 2022! We’re celebrating with dedicated articles throughout the first two weeks of December!
