I kind of have this love-hate relationship with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. On the one hand, even in its original 4:3 format from 2003 on the GameCube, it’s a stunningly beautiful game. The gameplay is fun, the sailing is a unique add-on, the story is compelling, and the world presented is entertaining and fun to explore. Yet, on the other hand, I found the way the game ends rather upsetting. Minor spoiler: the King of Hyrule could have literally wished for anything, yet what he chose instead was probably the worst thing he could have done!
But…life goes on! Still, I think the way the game ended is the reason that I hadn’t revisited it in over a decade, but, in deciding to take another look at it, I figured that doing so with the Dolphin emulator would be a fun way to do it!
I recently picked up a brand new large format LG monitor that uses ultra-wide HD with a 21:9 aspect ratio. This gives a much larger field of vision in games and even lets you watch movies in their true cinematic format with no more letterboxing. Dolphin actually handles this format well, and when it renders games it actually does widen the field of vision so that more is seen on screen. Sure, some of the UI gets stretched a bit and looks slightly funky, but overall, the picture is super crisp and wonderful looking. In many ways, I’d say it’s better than what Nintendo actually produced themselves in Wind Waker HD on the Wii U!
If you enjoy this video, let me know – I’d be more than happy to continue it and turn it into a larger series! And, if you enjoy this, check out my channel for more awesome content!
21:9 sounds awesome! I’ll have to get a new super widescreen monitor one of theses days!
My biggest gripe with the Wind Waker was the really long travel times sailing across the massive map. Even when you get fast travel it’s a nightmare!
Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one. In fact, in my little Zelda fan-game I’ve been working on, the overworld is massive and spread over several 8×16 grids, but I had to come up with a means to quickly backtrack because I hate games where you spend 30 minutes going back for something and it’s all just dead travel time.
21:9 monitors are fantastic. I love my new LG one =)