After completing the Nintendo Gallery, Link returns to Hyrule and Ganon’s Tower to fight Puppet Ganon. It has three forms: the first is exactly what the name says, a giant puppet of Ganon’s pig demon form. Link needs to cut the puppet’s strings so he can reach the glowing blue tail, and shoot it with a light arrow three times. Victorious, Link goes into his happy dance, only to stop as the puppet reforms into a giant spider. The spider repeatedly drops from the ceiling, giving Link a chance to position himself to shoot the blue sphere again. Throughout the first two phases, Keese sometimes appeared, and would usually drop useful items like magic refills or arrows or hearts. That all stops with the third phase, a giant Moldorm. If there’s a way to refill Link’s magic during this phase, I didn’t find it. Once again, the sphere is at the tail, and the Moldorm moves so fast it’s not easy to hit. Link can briefly stop the Moldorm from moving, but I was not really able to parlay that into hitting the tail with an arrow. All I could really do against this last form is hope for the best. Three more hits kills the puppet, but Link’s exhausted and still has to deal with Ganon himself.
Ganon challenges Link to come face him and takes Tetra to the roof of the tower. Link can’t fly, so he has to climb, first up the puppet’s core string, then using the grappling hook, and finally the hookshot. When Link finally makes it to the roof, Ganon talks about how the desert winds in the Gerudo lands only brought death, but the winds elsewhere in Hyrule were different. He charges Link, beats the crap out of him (knocking the Master Sword away), and holds him up to summon the Triforce from all bearers. With the Triforce reunited, he makes his wish to bring Hyrule back to the surface, under his dominion, and goes to touch it…
But before he can, Daphnes comes out of nowhere and gets there first. He makes his wishes: For Link and Tetra to have a future. For Hyrule to be forever drowned – and Ganon with it. Ganon can only stand in shock at first, but as the waters start pouring in, he begins laughing, and he decides if his wish is going to be denied, he’ll thwart as much of the King’s wish as he can, too. Tetra wakes up, gives Link back the Master Sword, and takes his bow to help by shooting light arrows at Ganon.
In the first phase of the Ganon fight, Link distracts Ganon for Tetra to hit him with an arrow, then hits him with the sword while he’s stunned. Ganon eventually recognizes he’s outmatched with both of them attacking, so he knocks Tetra out and focuses on Link. All Link can do during this phase is dodge and parry until Tetra comes to. She has the idea to reflect an arrow off Link’s shield to hit Ganon. Once this succeeds, the next time Link parries, he gets an opening and drives the Master Sword into Ganon’s forehead. Ganon dies with one last comment about the wind and turns to stone.
The King comes to Link and Tetra, saying that like Ganon, he’s bound to Hyrule and he intends to die with it. He apologizes that the world as it is is all he could give them, but encourages them to not give up hope. Tetra suggests that they could look for a new land, to be a new Hyrule, and he could come with them. He declines again, saying that it will be their land. As bubbles encase Link and Tetra to take them back to the surface, Link reaches out one last time, and the King seems to consider it, but ultimately remains in Hyrule as Link leaves. “I have scattered the seeds of the future,” he says. The music for this sequence is a sad piano arrangement of the Hyrule Castle theme, which, okay, game, that’s not fair.
Link and Tetra – now back to looking like a pirate captain instead of a princess – float on the Great Sea, and are rescued by Komali and Tetra’s ship, with Aryll, Makar, and Medli aboard. The credits display pictures of the cast in bubbles as the title theme plays (with echoes of the series’ main theme and Zelda’s theme). The final two bubbles are Link and Tetra. Then a post-credits scene sees Tetra sailing her ship from Outset Island, with Link tagging along in his now-lifeless boat, as the people of Outset wave them goodbye.
In the end, I have very mixed feelings about Wind Waker. There are things I love very much: the story and connection to Ocarina of Time, the characters, the art, the music, most of the dungeons and bosses. The Great Sea setting is wonderful, and exploring is so much fun. And yet… I don’t love this game as much as my favorites in the series, and I’m not sure why. I have a list of annoyances, but I could compile similar lists for other games. I don’t know. I’ve started playing again, to see if a second playthrough clarifies my opinion as much as it did Link’s Awakening.
