WW-Wii U The Problem With Treasure Charts

[Garo]

Let me preface this by saying that I do genuinely adore The Wind Waker, and do not find the Great Sea aspect to be poorly designed or annoying in any way.

The issue, for me, with Treasure Charts is that they postpone the sense of reward. In most Zelda games, you complete a puzzle or a sidequest, and you are instantly rewarded - a Piece of Heart, a special item, a giant rupee - something fun right away. In the Wind Waker, however, more often than not you receive a Treasure Chart, which is little more than a "Sorry adventurer but your reward is in another castle" slip. You've already solved one puzzle, and your reward makes you go and solve a different one by figuring out which island it is on, sailing up to it and using the Grappling Hook. Further, the Treasure Charts don't tell you what your reward even is. You can go spend 10 minutes working out where the chart refers to, go and pull it up - and get a purple rupee. Worth all that trouble? Probably not.

You solve the puzzle now, but you don't get the reward until later. That bugs me, and makes the game more tedious than it should be, and a lot less rewarding.

Your thoughts?

 

[YoshiFlame]

I personally like the idea of treasure charts. Most of the time they lead to 100 rupees, which really helped me fill up my wallet so I could afford the triforce charts.

 

[Mickaroo]

The Treasure charts were cool at first but after awhile got a little boring. Like you said, you would go through this great puzzle or secret and lo and behold you get....a treasure chart. It WAS a little disappointing, except when you actually find one of the treasures. Then you get all excited again!

 

[Xinnamin]

If for no other reason than I simply adore sailing around the Great Sea and salvaging treasures, I loved getting Treasure Charts as a reward. For some reason, the charts always seemed worth more to me than the rupees they often led to. Maybe it was the fact that it was something different. Instead of sticking rupees in treasure chests like every other Zelda game, they rewarded you with items unique to WW's gameplay, and something about that uniqueness gave the charts value to me. It doesn't make much sense, especially since rupees are so crucial to WW due to Tingle, but that's how I tend to feel about it. It also made the whole salvaging aspect (which I already enjoyed greatly) more fun, being able to pull up giant rupees or even Pieces of Heart in place of the red and purple rupees that normally come from the scattered rings of light.

The only points were I felt the Treasure Charts delayed my reward was when dealing with the Reef islands. I hated the Reefs, mostly cus I'm a terrible shot with the cannon, but the special charts the Reefs lead to were something I really wanted. After all the effort of crusing around the inside of the Reefs, struggling to hit all the pirates and mounted cannons amidst heavy enemy fire, the Treasure Chart reward felt seriously disappointing.

 

[Ventus]

What you said about the treasure chests postponing reward IS true, but it also adds the aspect of fun into getting that reward. Now I agree that some puzzles that may have caused you to sweat (either from being tired or maybe you were working out prior to playing; TWW puzzles aren't really hard) shouldn't but still DO give you a mere treasure chart that incidentally leads to a red rupee rather than say, those extra 10 bombs you needed for Savage Labyrinth, but that's still part of the 'fun'. Is it tedious? Yes. Is it fun? Varies among the person. Can it be fun? Undoubtedly YES.

The big problem is just the majority of treasure charts have a mediocre reward, I even consider pieces of heart to be mediocre when the treasure could *potentially* be a quiver upgrade or the like.