My least-favorite has recently become The Wind Waker. It was previously A Link to the Past, but I'm kind of glad it isn't anymore, since it's such a great game. The Wind Waker... Oh, boy, where do I begin?
The Overworld
I guess I'll start with the most obvious issue, the overworld. I have no idea why any of the developers thought the Great Sea was a good idea, but apparently they did. Now, on paper, it seems pretty novel. You have lots of open space and you can go pretty much anywhere you like. Only... it's boring to do so. See, there's nothing stimulating about the Great Sea from a gameplay standpoint. There's very little atmosphere due to the lack of diverse scenery and we, as players, literally sit there and do nothing while the boat travels across the Sea. MAYBE once in a while an enemy will show up, but it never matters unless it's a Gyorg, because you can just sail right past them without every worrying about being hit. Even if you want to fight them, though, you have to stop, since you can't sail and use an item at once. With the cannon, okay, that makes sense. But the
boomerang and bow???? Quite obviously, sailing ends up being more like a long loading screen than an epic journey as a result.
I so wish that was it. But there's more.
"Oh, look at that island over there! I bet it's fun to explore!" Yeah, good luck doing that without the necessary item to do so. Even then, it rarely matters. It's generally slim stretch of land or a small circle-ish location with one thing to find.
Oh, did you miss the island you were trying to go to? No worries, just pull out dat Wind Waker and play a song to change the wind direction and watch a cutscene of the wind changing directions, in which you then have to slowly turn around until you have the wind behind your back.
Yay, I can warp. Now only takes me two minutes to get somewhere while doing a whole lot of nothing instead of five.
No. No, you're joking. A quest to find Triforce shards? LORD, KILL ME NOW!!!1!
To even the playing field -- implying this redeems the Great Sea's faults (lol) -- I actually really like the islands for what they are. (Key words, there.) They're small, yeah, but that's legitimately my only problem with them. Other than that, they're expertly crafted and feature nifty little puzzles to find what's hidden on/inside them. Windfall Island is also
easily one of the best hub areas in the entire fricken' franchise. Seriously, if you don't like that place, what's wrong with you? It's like Skyloft had a kid and it grew up to be Windfall! And, like I said in
So, yeah, I was being cynical with The Wind Waker's overworld, but I wasn't overexaggerating. The only redeeming quality about it is that the islands are pretty cool for what they are. They should have been much bigger -- I'm talking some of them covering multiple squares -- but other than their size, they're extremely well-designed. Still, as a whole, the overworld is a mess.
Combat
Not much to say here other than make the enemies and bosses actually stimulating, and take out those stupid parry moves. Hidden Skills are the way to go.
Dungeons
If I were to get into detail with this one, I'd have to go over the dungeons individually, so I'm going to be brief. 2 of the dungeons in this game are really good: Dragon Roost Cavern and the Earth Temple. 3 of the dungeons are bad: the Forbidden Woods, Tower of the Gods, and the Wind Temple. 1 of the dungeons is okay: Ganon's Castle. Even the good dungeons in this game have generally easy puzzles, though. Oddly enough, the only one with a good boss is the Forbidden Woods (Kalle Demos). Others, already covered that in the combat part.
Wrap-Up
-Allow us to change the wind's direction at will without having to stop
-Add more dangers and enemies during the sailing portions
-Allow us to attack enemies while in motion on the Sea
-Make most of the islands much larger to reduce sailing time
-Add warp points in more efficient locations
-Make enemies, bosses, and dungeons more stimulating and challenging
There you go.
3) Overworld - make it less of a LEVEL and more of a WORLD
There are many facets to this problem, but I think the two biggest facets are the following:
- Unnatural geography
- Provinces being disconnected and wholly unrelated
...
The provinces being disconnected and wholly unrelated is a VERY easy fix. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that there should be land that leads from desert to volcano to forest and back around, and this is easy considering the same thing was done in Twilight Princess among other Zelda titles.
While I agree with the disconnected province thing, there's a serious issue with your argument about unnatural geography. Literally every Zelda game has this. Even A Link to the Past. Surely you didn't forget that its volcanic/mountainous area has a bridge and that many areas have mild dungeon-like portions? Surely you didn't forget that Ocarina of Time's overworld has a hub with hallway branch-offs? Surely you didn't forget that Majora's Mask has areas that require items to be used to reach the new areas? Surely you didn't forget that The Wind Waker's islands are designed like miniature puzzles? Surely you didn't forget how Twilight Princess's provinces are connected by lengthy hallways? Etc. etc.
Again, I agree with the disconnected province thing, but Zelda's worlds having unnatural geography is a staple idea. It's been around since pretty much the beginning.