it was good
you thought this was gonna be long but its not
i really like how the Triforce quest opened up the world to you and gave you the vague goal of “just go explore now” because it gave you a natural point in the story to do sidequests
in OOT i always had trouble doing sidequests as a kid because the main plot felt more pressing than any of the sidequests
like, why would Link stop his quest to get the seven sage medallions or whatever to trade masks? the threat of ganon is looming. this shits urgent.
in wind waker the narrative gives you permission to do sidequests. it gives you a vague lead and says “go tug at whatever strings you can pull, see what happens”
i really liked that. you didnt get that weird immersion-breaking feeling by doing sidequests because everything had the potential to lead you to a triforce piece. it set you free for a little bit. I really liked that.
That’s fine and all but GCN Windwaker you had to grind for 999 rupees to decipher 2.5 maps which meant you had to do that like 5 times