The Wind Waker HD Triforce Quest changes detailed

One of the most common complaints levied at The Wind Waker is its late-game quest to gather the fragments of the Triforce of Courage. Even many supporters of the cel-shaded GameCube adventure  dislike  this portion of the game, calling it a poorly-paced, repetitive fetch quest. Aware of it’s critics, Nintendo had already stated that an overhaul of the hunt for the Triforce Shards would be a key change in The Wind Waker HD. Now we finally know how the quest will differ on Wii U.

Hit the jump to find out how the hunt for the Triforce will play out in The Wind Waker’s HD remake.

Nintendo has taken a balanced approach  to revamping the Triforce Quest that addresses widespread criticism, while still remaining faithful to the original. On GameCube the hunt for Triforce’s scattered shards was a three-step process. Players had to locate and decipher eight hidden Triforce Charts, paying the whimsical Tingle a hefty sum of 398 Ruppes to translate each one. With a readable map in hand, they would then set out to the site of the shard, using the Salvage Arm to raise it from the seafloor. Nintendo has greatly reduced this time-consuming process in the upcoming remake. Only three out of the eight pieces of the Triforce of Courage will require translated charts, according to a Nintendo representative. The remaining five can now be grabbed directly, greatly reducing the busy work involved in completing the quest.

I personally didn’t find the original Triforce Quest unduly tedious. It was the ultimate high seas treasure hunt, an adventure of impressive scale that encouraged exploration of The Wind Waker’s massive world. Nonetheless, the changes Nintendo has made to this section of the game have done nothing but improve it. Only the most monotonous parts of the original quest have been cut, allowing the true grit of its content to shine through. Obtaining the Triforce Charts from their hiding places was always my favorite part, and I suspect the same is true for most people who played The Wind Waker. The variety of challenges Link had to complete to retrieve them, such as exploring a maze beneath his cabana oasis and tracking down the ominous Ghost Ship, were consistently fun and rewarding. Now that five of the charts formerly located in these micro-dungeons are being replaced with actual Triforce pieces, they should be even more satisfying to complete.

Another complaint about the Triforce Quest is the gracious amount of sailing it required. People who already disliked The Wind Waker‘s sailboat gameplay were aggravated even further when they were forced to set sail on an extended fetch quest. Part of this problem had already been fixed in the Wii U version of the game with the inclusion of a super speed sail. On its own, this would have cut down the length of the quest considerably. Now that the retrieval of many Triforce Shards has been streamlined, the amount of sailing needed will be decreased even more. All these changes will hopefully allow more people to enjoy the hunt for the legendary Triumph Forks Triforce this time around.

I for one am glad Nintendo was able to enhance the Triforce Quest without cutting Tingle from the process entirely. Translating Triforce Charts was Tingle’s main contribution to The Wind Waker’s narrative, and served as an effective use of his map-making skills carried over from Majora’s Mask. Cutting the charts out entirely would have greatly diminished his role in the game, which had already taken a hit with the removal of the Tingle Tuner. Love him or hate him, Tingle was one of The Wind Waker’s most memorable key characters. By preserving his role in Link’s quest, Nintendo is keeping The Wind Waker HD faithful to the original. Furthermore, all you Tingle-haters out there will still be able to hold his status as a greedy chart-translating con-artist against him.

Streamlining the Triforce Quest isn’t the first time Nintendo has owned up to fan complaints and done something about them. Eiji Aonuma went out of his way to apologize for Ocarina of Time‘s infamously difficult Water Temple, before making sure its issues were addressed in the game’s enhanced 3DS port. Cases like these show how much Nintendo devs care about their games. They want them to be as close to perfect as possible, in both their eyes and the opinion of Zelda fans everywhere. At the same time, they have always been careful to remain faithful to what originally made them great. This has helped them avoid the kind of controversy George Lucas has garnered from his many ill-advised tweaks to the first three Star Wars films. Instead, the good folks at Nintendo has focused on making surgical improvements in their Zelda remakes, showing a keen understanding and respect for their games.

What do you think of the changes made to The Wind Waker‘s Triforce Quest? Were you one of the original critics of the drawn-out hunt for the Triforce Shards? Do you think Nintendo has gone far enough to update this controversial section of the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Source: IGN