I ended the last part of my journey through The Wind Waker on a cliffhanger, with me and the King of Red Lions descending towards the bottom of the ocean. Needless to say, I was surprised to learn that a castle had been hiding beneath the waves this entire time! The castle was completely grey, and as we descended, I could hear the familiar theme song from The Legend of Zelda, but slower and more beautiful. Surely this had to be Hyrule Castle, completely drowned just like the rest of the old kingdom. What would I find in this time capsule seemingly preserved by ocean water?
In the middle of the colorless corridor was a towering statue depicting a triumphant Link. Strangely, our Link did not seem to recognize himself, nor did he seem interested in investigating why he had been immortalized in this secret castle. Not that he really had time to ponder this, since the King of Red Lions was nagging him to complete a block puzzle in the middle of the room. Once the puzzle was completed, a door opened up at the base of the statue with stairs leading down below. I found myself in a chamber full of knight statues and stained glass windows, and at the center of the room was none other than the Master Sword! I wasn’t really surprised, since every Zelda game I have played thus far has had some kind of grand sword you need to grab. Surely this sword, like all the others, will give me true power for the difficult trials I am about to endure.
When I first entered the castle, I noticed that there were a bunch of enemies frozen in place. My spider senses told me that these enemies would awaken soon enough, and I was going to have to use my newly-acquired Master Sword to defeat them all. After pulling the sword from the pedestal, the color returned back to the castle! It was a neat visual that tied in well with the music that was playing. And would you look at that, the enemies also sprung back to life! Luckily, the power of the Master Sword had now transformed me into an incredible beast, so the Darknuts and Moblins posed little threat. I quickly dispatched them and returned to the King of the Red Lions, so we could head back up to the surface.
My trusty vessel informed me that I was now ready to rescue my sister Aryll. Oh, that’s right: the whole reason I got into this mess was because I wanted to save my sister! With everything that I had done thus far — sailing across the sea, helping Medli and Makar, tracking down the pirates, and overcoming trials — I had actually forgotten about her. Fortunately, thanks to modern technology and guides, I knew a secret that would help me along the way. Sailing across the ocean is fun and relaxing, but of course this Zelda game had to have some kind of fast travel mechanic, right? Sure enough, I was able to track down the wind god Cyclos, and as a reward for nailing him with arrows while swirling around in a cyclone, he taught me how to play the Ballad of the Gales. Now I can warp across the ocean using the power of whirlwinds, which is sure to save me a lot of time as I complete the rest of the game.
Before heading towards the Forsaken Fortress, I decided to use this new warp ability to complete some sidequests. Earlier on in my playthrough, a merchant named Zunari gave me the Town Flower, explaining that he wanted to expand his business and needed me to recruit other merchants to trade wares with. This reminded me of how, in Pokémon Gold and Silver, you are given a bicycle to ride in order to drum up business for the cycle shop. So, once again relying on guides to point me in the right direction, I warped across the Great Sea and tracked down the three Goron merchants who would help Zunari’s dream of being a successful businessman come true. Unlike the trading sequence in Link’s Awakening, where trades were completed throughout the course of the game and actually advanced the storyline, the point of this fetch quest is simply to get a prize: the Magic Armor. It’s a pretty amazing reward, though, since it makes me immune to all attacks in battle as long as I can keep my Magic Meter from emptying. I still prefer to use combat skills instead of magic to dodge attacks, so I doubt this will ever be a problem.
In part two of the sidequest bonanza, I was tasked with reviving all the withered Deku trees scattered throughout the Great Sea. This task was both tedious and stressful, as it required me to quickly warp to eight different locations and pour a bottle of Forest Water on all the trees before the water expired. I can understand the gameplay mechanic of quickly navigating the map in order to beat a time limit, but having to save eight withered trees seemed a bit much to me. If you ask me, four or five would have been perfect for this task. And what did I get for all my hard work? A single Piece of Heart. Given how much of a slog this sidequest was, I feel like I should have at least received a second reward, like a Treasure Chart or something. I usually dislike fetch quests in the games I play, whether they involve locating a Machamp to trade for an Arbok in a Pokémon game or gathering three mushrooms in Monster Hunter. But at least those games only ask you to gather a small number of items or objects most times, and they can often be completed while working on the main campaigns. These excessive Wind Waker fetch quests, on the other hand, left me drained and completely fetched out, so I decided to finally move on to the sibling rescue mission.
When I landed back at the Forsaken Fortress, I was greeted by the shadowy figure of Phantom Ganon. It wasn’t too difficult of a miniboss battle, but I did have some trouble lining up the camera angle perfectly to swat the energy balls back at him. My reward for defeating him was the Skull Hammer, a.k.a. my new favorite weapon in the game. Not only does it look cool, but I feel like I am playing Whack-a-Mole everytime I use it.
Then, when I reached the top of the fortress where Aryll was being held, I got treated to a rather long cutscene. Link and Aryll weren’t given much time for a reunion before Tetra and her pirates burst into the scene and cut the moment short. After Tetra ordered her underlings to unlock the cell holding Aryll and two other girls hostage, she noticed the new sword and immediately started questioning why Link had it in his possession. I wondered what this could mean and ultimately decided that she must be connected to Zelda somehow. I mean, she already looks like a small pirate version of the princess, so even before this plot point unfolded, it had crossed my mind that the two might be connected. It was really nice to see Aryll again, too. I finally got to rescue her, but before we could even celebrate, the pirates whisked her away to safety. I hope that I can truly trust Tetra here, because it took a long time to rescue Aryll and I don’t want to have to do it all over again. Link just kind of stands there, weakly waving as his sister calls out to him, which doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that she’ll be okay.
After putting the hammer down on the nasty Helmaroc King who kicked off this entire journey, I finally got to meet Ganondorf (through yet another long cutscene) and see what his evil form looks like. I found his outfit to be rather dapper, and his large stature was quite impressive. It intrigued me that he seemed to know Link already, as he said “It’s been a while, boy.” What could that mean? I know that some Zelda games often have a cycle or history of a previous battle between Link and Ganondorf, so maybe this is foreshadowing a revelation to come later on? It’s funny how Ganondorf is just so large and powerful that he isn’t the least bit afraid of this tiny little guy carrying a sword and shield. In fact, he calls our sword useless and says it no longer contains the power to defeat him. Well, I guess I now know what my next big mission will be…
At that moment, Tetra bolts into the room and tries to attack Ganondorf, but he quickly overpowers her. Then he notices the necklace she is wearing and deduces that she must be Princess Zelda! So my suspicions about her were right all along. I wonder why she picked the name Tetra? Is her spirit possessing the pirate girl’s body? All of this is making my head spin! The length of these cutscenes seemed a little excessive, but they proved extremely integral to the plot and heightened the tension of the story considerably. I ended this play session feeling like I had accomplished quite a bit, and that I had gotten to the “meaty” part of the game. I assume that my next task will involve strengthening the Master Sword enough to repel Ganondorf’s evil. I am looking forward to that leg of the journey now, especially with Princess Zelda by my side.
Catch up on the previous chapters in this series with the links below!
