Daily Debate: Did Favoritism Towards The Wind Waker Happen Because of a Generation Shift, or Because Older Fans Changed Their Opinions?

I didn’t realize The Wind Waker was a controversial game back in 2003. Once I began to get online years later, fans of the series that were older than me told me that they actually hated The Wind Waker‘s art style, and when I researched further, I found that a lot of fans and journalists in their age range felt similarly. I was quite shocked at that revelation, because I had nothing but praise for the game and its art style.

Since learning that history of fan reception to the game, I’ve had a burning question: how did such a divisive game end up being ranked so high among personal lists of favorite Zelda games? More importantly, what caused the deviation from negative outlooks to positives?

Looking at previous iterations of our very own Best Zelda Ever ranking, which only polls among our writing team, The Wind Waker has been in the Top 5 of that list, or at least made the sixth spot, for a majority of the seven years we’ve been doing these rankings. Meanwhile, in our Definitive Ranking series (which polled all staff, as well as offering a community poll that typically got 100-300 responses), The Wind Waker was in the Top 5 of both the staff and community polls and got really high marks with its art style specifically. Numerous rankings of Zelda games across the web also place The Wind Waker solidly within the Top 5 of all Zelda games, which further corroborates that a lot of people seem to have a positive opinion of the game currently.

How did this shift occur, and when did it start happening? Did the fans who disliked The Wind Waker at first change their minds on the game? Perhaps it was due to younger generations who grew up with The Wind Waker, like my own, beginning to have an online presence and tipping the scales in favor of it?

I’m really not sure what the answer is – whether it’s one or the other, or maybe a combination of both things? Maybe none. Perhaps The Wind Waker was never as disliked as people thought to begin with? It’s art style may have put off some, but it looks like from most critic reviews of the time, it was still generally regarded as an extremely good Zelda game.

Did you dislike The Wind Waker‘s art when it released in 2003? Do you still dislike it, and has that deterred your enjoyment of the game? Did you grow up with The Wind Waker like I did, and have you also wondered whether positivity of the game is due to our generation’s influence? Let us know in the comments below!

Charles Xavier

Charles is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. He is a Visual Development artist focused on enviroments and pitch paintings. Check out his Instagram and Twitter to see his latest artworks, a lot of which is Zelda fan art! His favorite candy is Skittles – he feels the world should know this.