Comparing the Swift Sail and regular sail

Not only is it already well known that the sailing aspect of The Wind Waker was one of the most complained about aspects of the game but I’ve mentioned it several times already so I won’t bring it up this time. One of the new additions to the HD remake is the Swift Sail which has been put into the game to make the sailing less of a chore by giving you a higher top speed but also automatically changing the wind direction when you turn, taking out the need to the Wind’s Requiem every time. It sounds great in paper but how does it actually compare to the regular sail?

Take the jump to find out!

One thing the video tells us near the start is how the Swift Sail as obtained, through the auction on Windfall Island. I loved the auctions, it was one of my favourite mini games but once you obtained the heart piece, treasure chart and joy pendant there were no more auctions to take part in. I always wished there were more auctions, even if it just ends up randomly picks a skull necklace, feather or whatever as the prize each time, I would have been happy. Hopefully the Swift Sail will be an additional prize rather than a replacement for one of the others.

Anyway, once you’ve won the Swift Sail it looks as though you can switch between the two sails just by pressing the A button. In the comparison video, they test to see how long it takes to sail from as furthest west of the Great Sea you can go to the furtherest east you can go. This is gone using the remake and the original GameCube version. As you might expect using the Swift Sail does reach the finish line first taking a total of 3:50 to complete the journey. In the GameCube version it takes exactly 7 minutes.

That’s quite a big difference in time so, with the amount you have to do it during the game, it sounds like the Swift Sail will be well worth getting as soon as possible. Just the faster speed alone will be useful but not having to change the wind direction, too, will save even more time. I may have been OK with things the way they were but I’m certainly glad about this change.

What are your thoughts? Is the speed increase more than you thought it would be or were you expecting it to be faster? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: YouTube