@Symbeline props to you man, Link to the Past was the game I bonded over with my father.
@Seek_Kolinahr Aw, but I loved the gameboy games, and Wind Waker was my favorite!
I go to school with a ton of video game design/programming majors, and this argument seems to come up all the time. And it’s always the same; everyone loves OoT and Majora because that was what my generation grew up with, and that’s what people are most nostalgic for. And nobody ever gives Wind Waker the time of day, because most of the fanbase took one look at the cel-shading and lost interest.
Personally, I loved what Miyamoto did with the Wind Waker (anyone interested should go read about the development on wikipedia). Sure, the gamecube could have made a more realistic Zelda game, but it would have been quickly out-dated, whereas the style inherent in the cel-shaded design will (in my opinion) forever stand out against the series. Yes, there was tedious amounts of sailing to be done, but forcing you to pass all the smaller, less significant islands that you wouldn’t necessary have gone to explore is the games way of tempting you to stray from the plot and adventure on your own for a bit.
But my favorite aspect of Wind Waker is that it’s the only Zelda game in which the final boss is not Gannon, but Gannondorf. In every other title where Gannon was the main villain it always boiled down to a man whose power would eventually consume him, turning him into a beast. And while that was cool and everything, but the best villains will always be those who believe what they’re doing is right. My favorite Zelda scene will always be (SPOILERS) at the top of Gannondorf’s tower at the end of Wind Waker. His dialogue always struck me as so devoted and so human that I still shiver when I play through it, because it’s so much more evil than a monster simply bent on destruction.