Remember that the original soundtrack release had over 130 tracks spread across two discs, while the HD Sound Selection only has 50 tracks on one disc. The HD Sound Selection tries its best to trim out some of these unnecessary musical moments, but it also cuts out a lot of great location-based motifs, and a lot of music that is necessary to fully understand the story from a musical perspective. Additionally, with a larger focus on cutscenes and storytelling, The Wind Waker has a large number of incidental pieces, which although effective in the game, fall largely flat as a standalone listening experience. The Wind Waker, like Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask before it, features short melodies that players had to memorize, but Waker downplayed the majority of them to the point where most were little more than fanfares. Overall, it was a great soundtrack, but one that had its issues due to being taken out of its game’s context. Wind Waker’s music has been released before, commercially to boot, in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Original Soundtracks, published by Scitron Digital Contents. There are numerous problems with The Wind Waker HD Sound Selection right from the start, but the most glaring is the fact that it is largely incomplete. With an all-star team of composers, including Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo, Asuka Hayazaki, and Atsuko Asahi is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Sound Selection worth tracking down? Body Not long after its release, Club Nintendo of Japan also released a remastered soundtrack, exclusive to its members, making it a valuable collector’s item for some. Its success was enough to warrant Nintendo to remake it for the Wii U in 2013, in an attempt to both experiment with Wii U’s HD graphics, and (along with Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors) create a stopgap for fans, as they eagerly await the new console entry in the series. Still another was its score, which provided quite a few references to older games, while introducing a very Irish inspired theme that was all at once memorable, sprightly, and sweetly innocent. Another was the refined gameplay, which proved to be a worthy successor to the monumental Ocarina of Time, while pushing an emphasis on exploration which Zelda is originally known for. Part of the reason for its success was actually its look and feel, which breathed a whole new life into Link, his companions, and the world around them.
The Legend of Zelda -The Wind Waker HD- Sound Selectionĭespite its initial controversy over the use of cel-shaded, cartoon-esque graphics, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker quickly became a beloved entry in the series after its release in 2003, and was hailed by fans and critics alike.