From what I've seen, aren't LARGE sectors of Windwaker devoted to:
1. Playing a song to summon winds and/or the boat.
2. Sailing the stinkin' boat.
3. Fighting up a hundred-story tower.
"How do they manage" Um, except for the game sets that are obviously one right after the other (OOT/MM, LOZ/AL, LTTP/FS, etc.), aren't the sets themselves hundreds of years apart?
For that matter, I'm led to believe that the only "Child Link returned to Hyrule" post-OOT games are MM and OOA/OOS. Everything else is "Adult Link survives OOT," right?
Don't worry about spoilers. Remember that I bought the MM manual before I even owned or played the game. Still don't own it, I borrowed it from a friend, he was even nice enough to give me my own Expansion Pak. I tiptoed through MM and still found it challenging.
I suppose that's one handy reason to have Navi. After about the twentieth time through, I started listening to her again and she was always there to prod me in the right direction in case it was my first time and didn't know already. Seriously, Kaepora Gaebora sends you to Zelda, who sends you to Impa, who sends you to Kakariko and up Death Mountain, who sends you on a "green song" quest back to the Lost Woods to meet Saria. Darunia sends you up Death Mountain, Navi tells you to call Saria, who says that King Zora has the Sapphire. The only thing you can do is dive, you find the hole, find the bottle, everyone's prattling about Jabu-Jabu, etc. etc. You grow up, Sheik sends you to Kakariko, everyone's prattling how Dampe is haunting everyone, beat Dampe, beat the Forest Temple, Navi sees dark clouds over Death Mountain, feels an icy wind from Zora's Domain (sensitive fairy
), reminds you about Impa and Kakariko, practically screams at you to visit the desert, yada yada.
Kinda sad, though, how you still don't know the central thrust yet. In OOT it was:
1. Save the Deku Tree.
2. Visit Zelda.
3. Get the stones.
4. Open the Door of Time.
5. Get the medallions.
6. Beat Ganon.
You always knew what the end goal was, beyond just "beat Ganondorf."
I gave up on the LOZ GBA because of that problem: where's the temple? You can reach all eight in any order, right? But you can't BEAT all eight in any order. You can't even FIND all eight in the right order. That stinks.