The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker/YMMV


 * Alas, Poor Villain: Ganondorf's sendoff is surprisingly depressing, especially since this is the game where it was explained that his lust for power stemmed from living a hellish life in the desert and for envying the prosperous kingdom of Hyrule.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Ganondorf: Irredeemable monster or Well-Intentioned Extremist? King Daphnes: The Atoner or a Jerkass using innocent children to restore his own honor? You decide.
 * Art Style Dissonance: Undoubtedly, the art style is Lighter and Softer. However, it's debatable if every other aspect of the game is this. For one, all of Hyrule was flooded, leaving few survivors and only the tallest mountains as islands. Two, . Three,.
 * Breather Boss: Gohdan, the guardian of the Tower of the Gods. For a mid-game boss he's very easy to begin with, only having one real attack that you get plenty of warning of in advance and is fairly easy to avoid. Plus, he'll even snort out extra arrows and bombs from his nostrils if you run out of them during the fight. Makes sense, seeing as how he's meant to test Link's skills.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Let's see the Zelda-plot-checklist: Does Link defeat Ganon(dorf)? Is he saving Hyrule?  Does he Save the Princess?
 * Gets even more bittersweet when you remember that
 * Contested Sequel: Given it's very different from the previous 3D Zelda games (The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time in particular).
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: See here. It is probably THE best Zelda soundtrack ever.
 * Disappointing Last Level: The quest for the Triforce shards. Specially if you are already bored of sailing.
 * Freud Was Right: The stick Makar uses to play his leaf cello conveniently has two berries dangling from it, and not at the end.
 * Hate Dumb: The lead-up to this game's release brought out the very worst in the fandom. Infamously, one letter published in the Player's Pulse section of Nintendo Power had a list of reasons as to why the game would be terrible, chief among them that it was "a baby easy kiddy game". Most of all because of the new Link's character design. This was of course published a year before the game's release. This attitude was parodied in the fan-comic "Hyrularity" in an issue where Link has to fight the annoying "Boys of Phan."
 * It Was His Sled:.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Ganondorf again.
 * Memetic Badass: Link.
 * Memetic Mutation: For obvious reasons, there's a lot of Videos on YouTube, featuring this game and The Lonely Island's 2009 song "I'm On a Boat".
 * And now there's a t-shirt courtesy of Ninja Bot.
 * The King of Hyrule is a Jerk
 * Moe: Aryll, Link, and Tetra, among other examples.
 * Most Annoying Sound: The Miniblins and the Wizzrobes when they teletransport.
 * Link's scream when he jumps into a secret cave. Get ready to hear it a lot when you take on the Savage Labyrinth.
 * Most Wonderful Sound: The melodic choir that sings whenever Link uses the titular Wind Waker.
 * Motive Decay: Nothing of what originally motivated Ganondorf is really at play anymore, but he still won't give up on ruling Hyrule, even though it's flooded. Though he does say he only supposes that's what originally motivated him.
 * Tainted by the Preview: Following a 3D demo featuring a realistic Link, cue an announcement of... a cel-shaded Zelda! The Fan Dumb entry above shows how bad the reaction was.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The biggest fan complaint about the game is that it was too much of a departure from Ocarina of Time.
 * Vindicated by History: Upon release, this game was instantly lost to the tides of Ocarina of Time nostalgia and complaints about the cel-shaded graphical style being N64 level. In recent years, popularity polls frequently place it among the top five favorite games in the franchise, and the art style has been hailed as a refreshing experience from other "brown" games like its successor Twilight Princess.
 * Wasted Song: Maritime Battle and Jabuns Theme. The first one is only heard during battles while sailing, and the second one is played once during a cutscene largely consisting of text, where the player might mash the A-button, as most of the text is in an ancient language and thus unreadable. Now, why is Maritime Battle in here? Simple, because of how combat on your boat works (quite frankly, not that good, as your only means of attack are bombs and arrows), the average player might just ignore the enemies, missing out on a pretty good tone which gets better after time.
 * The Woobie: Link's sweet old Grandma. Poor lady breaks down sobbing after her granddaughter is kidnapped, and when you come back to Outset Island, she's literally sick with worry over Link and Aryll. Just the music that plays in these scenes could qualify as a Tear Jerker. You cure her with a fairy, after which she realizes how brave Link is for going out to save his sister, and decides she's going to be strong just like her grandchildren.
 * The Elixir Soup she starts making (for free!) after you cure her, which is the most powerful healing item in the game with added Quad Damage effects, doesn't hurt either.
 * Link, really, if you think about it long enough.
 * On the flip side, he's the only Link in the series that comes out of the game with an intact family, a near and dear, and a whole ship load of new pirate buddies to boot. Little wonder he's one of the most cheerful and expressive heroes yet.
 * Link, really, if you think about it long enough.
 * On the flip side, he's the only Link in the series that comes out of the game with an intact family, a near and dear, and a whole ship load of new pirate buddies to boot. Little wonder he's one of the most cheerful and expressive heroes yet.