31 July 2026
by rawmeatcowboy0
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a much-loved entry in the Zelda franchise nowadays, but that certainly wasn’t always the case. Back when the game originally launched, there was a serious amount of pushback on the game that all stemmed from the cel-shaded visuals. This led to lower-than-expected sales, and forced Nintendo to change course when going forward with the franchise.
Thanks to a new video from Did You Know Gaming, we get more insight than ever into the situation surrounding Wind Waker, and specifically a sequel that Nintendo decided to step away from due to the intense blowback from gamers.
In a classic GDC speech from 2007, Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma opened up about the original plans to go ahead with a sequel to Wind Waker, which would then be scrapped because of slower-than-anticipated sales of the GameCube title.
“At one point, I had heard that even Wind Waker, which had reached the million mark in sales, was quickly losing steam, and that things were sluggish even in North America, where the market was much healthier than in Japan. I asked [Nintendo of America] why this was. What I was told was that the toon-shading technique was in fact giving the impression that this Zelda was for a younger audience, and that for this reason, it alienated the upper-teen audience that had represented the typical Zelda player.
(The Wind Waker 2 was set to use) a similar presentation (but there was worry if this) was something that would actually sell. That’s when I decided that if we didn’t have an effective and immediate solution, the only thing that we could do was to give the healthier North American market the Zelda that they wanted.”
Wondering what Wind Waker 2 would have been like? Thankfully we get even more insight thanks to Twilight Princess art director Satoru Takizawa, who shared the following tidbits in the Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts book.
“The proposed setting for The Wind Waker 2 was not on sea, but on land. The desire to depict Toon Link on a horse riding around the great plains was great; however, with his small stature and short arms and legs, it would have been difficult to make him look good on a horse. It wasn’t like we could create an adult version of Toon Link. And that was about the time we heard that people were waiting on a realistic-looking Zelda game again.”
Nintendo pivoted away from Wind Waker 2 in order to make a more realistic Zelda title. This shift happened when Aonuma went to Shigeru Miyamoto to discuss the idea, to which Miyamoto said it should only happen if it could realize something that wasn’t possible in Ocarina of Time; Link fighting enemies while on horseback. Aonuma clearly took that to heart, as combat on horseback ended up being a notable part of what Wind Waker 2 eventually became, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
With all this said, it’s worth noting that cel-shaded Link eventually got his time in the sun once again, as Nintendo returned to the style to create two DS Zelda entries, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
You can hear more about the cancelled Wind Waker 2 and other squashed Zelda projects in the video below.
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