January Modern Community Playthrough - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

[Fleach]

Welcome to 2014 fellow RF Gentlemen! It is the first anniversary of the RF Generation Community Playthrough so naturally a big thank you to Crabmaster is in order for laying the foundation for such a great community activity.

To pay homage to the Community Playthrough's origin GrayGhost and I thought it would be appropriate to play an action or RPG game this month. Since a Zelda game has not come up yet, and knowing how much this community loves Link, we decided to sail the open seas with the classic GameCube title The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Without further ado, let's get to some gaming!

Overview
Legend has it that whenever evil has appeared, a hero named Link as risen to defeat it. That legend continues on the surface of a great and mysterious sea as Link sets of on his most epic and awe-inspiring adventure yet. Aided by a magical conductor's baton called the Wind Waker , he will face unimaginable monsters, explore puzzling dungeons, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters as he searches for his kidnapped sister.

Platforms
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo Wii U

Checkpoints
Considering Wind Waker's open-world mechanic this month will not feature weekly checkpoints. Instead, participants are asked to check in at least once per week with updates on their progress and game/plot/dungeon discussion. If you want to discuss major events the use of spoiler tags are recommended.

The game has 14 significant locations so completing 4 of them each week will keep on track to finish in the one month time frame.
Walkthrough

Achievements (Include a pic with your user name)
1. Message in a bottle - Leave a message using the Tingle Bottle (Write a letter and stick it in a bottle)
2. Selfie! - Take a selfie using the Picto Box (Or take a physical picture of yourself with Link on the TV)
3. Hardware upgrade - Acquire the Deluxe Picto Box
4. Eat my aqua dust! - Acquire the Swift Sail
5. You sunk my battleship - Set the high score for the Battleship mini-game on Windfall Island
6. Take a little piece of my heart - Find all heart pieces and containers
7. Not even a scratch - Complete a dungeon without taking any damage (Honour system please)
8. Self improvement - Receive all upgrades from the Great Fairies (8 in total)
9. Big Octo slayer - Defeat all Big Octos (6 in total)
10. Deep sea treasure - Claim the treasure from all submarines (7 in total)
11. Oooohhh... Shiny - Locate all Rings of Light (5 in total)
12. ChuChu slayer - Defeat all Blue ChuChus (19 in total)
13. Green thumb - Water all Withered Deku Trees (8 in total)
14. Tingle immortalized - Collect all Tingle Statues (5 in total)


Analysis
The Philosophy of the Wind Waker

Participants
Disposed Hero (Finished 1/25/2014)
EngineerMike (4)
Fleach (Finished 1/19/2014)
GrayGhost81 (Finished 1/19/2014)
MrUnoriginal (5)
Raidou (2, 4, 5, 13, Finished 1/20/2014)

Updates
Jan 5: GameCube players can now attempt the the "Message in a bottle" and "Selfie!" achievements. See Achievements list for more details.

Jan 6: Big thanks for Disposed Hero! More achievements added. They are accessible to either version of the game.

[GrayGhost81]

I'm in of course. I'll be playing the original GameCube version. Provided I get through it, this will be the first time I complete a Zelda game. I'm excited for this one.

[singlebanana]

I would like to play this if I can find a cheap enough copy local.

[Disposed Hero]

Count me in!  I bought the Wind Waker Wii U bundle back in September, so it's about time I finally played through this one.

[MrUnoriginal]

I'm in. I got a Wii U and Wind Waker HD for Christmas so this will be a good excuse to experience this gem again. Easily my favorite 3d Zelda game.

[Fleach]

Happy to see lots of excitement in here. This will be my first Zelda game since Oracle of Seasons which I never finished.

The adventure begins tomorrow so don't party too hard tonight.

[GrayGhost81]

The adventure begins tomorrow so don't party too hard tonight.

TOO LATE

[MaterialHandlerMike]

If you hadn't already seen my Small Scores post, count me in!

[Fleach]

Glad to have you aboard!

Just thought I should say that if anyone's having a really boring New Year's Eve party they can sneak away and start playing in 35 minutes.

[Fleach]

If anyone can think of some achievements that would be a huge help.

[GrayGhost81]

Just saw this on IGN and thought it might be useful to those playing on WiiU

http://www.ign.com/wikis/...lda-wind-waker/Swift_Sail

[Disposed Hero]

Just saw this on IGN and thought it might be useful to those playing on WiiU

http://www.ign.com/wikis/...lda-wind-waker/Swift_Sail

Ah, that'll be helpful.  I think the sailing was my least favorite part of this game back when I played it 10 years ago

[MaterialHandlerMike]

If anyone can think of some achievements that would be a huge help.

Maybe points based on how many hours it takes to complete?

Just saw this on IGN and thought it might be useful to those playing on WiiU

http://www.ign.com/wikis/...lda-wind-waker/Swift_Sail

I heard about this and I am looking forward to this improvement on the WiiU version

[Disposed Hero]

Collecting all heart pieces/containers should make for a nice achievement.

[Fleach]

All those suggestions have been added to the Achievements list. It's got more that can only be done on the Wii U remake, so if anyone has ideas for Game Cube achievements just speak up.

Last night I got up to Dragon Roost Island, but I feel like I missed a bunch of stuff on Windfall, so I'll backtrack after I finish the first dungeon.