Wind Waker Water

A while ago, some hackers unlocked some test area's for the Wind Waker that you can play yourself
(see this link The Wind Waker Test Maps (Im dammed sure you wanna read this) )
These are area's the makers of tWW used to test some things, like jumping and using all kind of objects, one of the test-area's contains a lake (see screenshot) where you can obviously swim. But as you see the lake contains normal water instead of the dark-blue water in the official version of tWW. This means the makers wanted this water first, but for some reason cut the whole idea.
I think this is because with that water you could dive, and if you could dive everywhere in the great sea, that just would take to long to make, and the whole " Hyrule lies on the bottom of the ocean " would be destroyed, or they should make it like you could dive yourself to Hyrule. But actually i think this change is real small.
Or maybe the idea was like: The Ocean has Dark blue water (Salt Water) and small lakes etc normal water. But that doesnt seem any logically at all as there arent any small lakes at all (at least i think)
Or maybe it was like when they made this water they didnt know they were gonna make a great ocean, and thought they were gonna make a Hyrule Field, when they came up with the ocean idea they cut the normal water and made the dark blue water. But my feeling says it isnt that eather, as sailing and the great sea is the basis of tWW, and they already knew it before anything else

I think it is my first suggestion, but if its that..why did they made that water in the test versions instead of making dark blue water in the first place. What do you think and do you have any other suggestions?

through the course of the game there are several areas with clear water instead of the oceans dark blue. I had no idea about that being left in the game though.

This test area was probably used to test the programing of linkactually swimming in the water, creating ripples and apear to be swimming. The fact he is wearing regular close show that the programers atleast knew the storyline before this demo was made, and know the design of the charactor and cloths he would be wearing. This is probably a later made demo again for testing the swimming effect of the charactors.

Originally Posted by Abner

I think this is because with that water you could dive, and if you could dive everywhere in the great sea, that just would take to long to make, and the whole " Hyrule lies on the bottom of the ocean " would be destroyed, or they should make it like you could dive yourself to Hyrule.

As I understand this, the reason the ocean water isn't as clear as the water in the picture is because the Gamecube simply could not handle to information needed to process a clear span of water as large as tWW's. Even if it was clear only to a certain depth (still retaining the story of Hyrule being consumed by the ocean).

Also, if it were so, Link couldn't well hold his breath long enough to dive to the bottom now could he?

~ Adhamh.

I dont mean only Hyrule Castle, all the island are mountaintops from Hyrule, so if you dive you should see mountains and stuff, get it?

It isn't in the game now! What can you do about it? Through your GC through your window?

It would of been cool to sail in clear water, they would of had to add fishing aswell then!

Originally Posted by Abner

I dont mean only Hyrule Castle, all the island are mountaintops from Hyrule, so if you dive you should see mountains and stuff, get it?

Obviously. But in such a case, you would only get a view of large brown plains of sheer rock face.

That would be cool to have clear water
Too bad they cut it

Yea it would have been awsome to have clear water. Would have made the game more interesting.

What annoys me about the water in tWW, is that you cant even dive... i mean in other zelda games you could dive for a couple of seconds why not in tWW? i mean after all you are surrounded by water and nothing else for a good portion of the game.

Anyways, would have been nice to beable to sail in clear water like that.

The thing about the water in WW is that--in it's being solid blue--creates a feeling of isolation, like everyone above is trapped on the surface. Hyrule has become and ocean, and what's left in the depths of that ocean is to be left there for good. The only way to find what's "down below" is to use the portal at the temple of the gods, and even that is left only for great hereos. Otherwise, the ocean cannot be transcended, and signifies the barrier between the people and their past.

Even with that said, clear water would definitely have looked pretty good in WW. But, since it wasn't really necessary, as the outcome was just fine with solid blue water, I can look past "what could have been."

Originally Posted by Link HeroOfTime

through the course of the game there are several areas with clear water instead of the oceans dark blue.
The fact he is wearing regular close show that the programers atleast knew the storyline before this demo was made, and know the design of the charactor and cloths he would be wearing.

I've never seen anywhere in Wind Waker with clear water, apart from the test level. Sure, the water does change to different shades of blue depending on where you are and what time of day it is, but there are no places where you can actually see what's underwater.

With the EU codes at least, Link can go to the test levels whenever you hold a button combination while going through a door. I'm guessing whoever took that shot started a brand new game and made Link start in the test level, with the blue clothes and without sword/shield etc. These shots aren't from some elusive 'demo' or 'beta' version only available to testers, they're available to everyone (with an AR) in the final game.

While we're on the subject, here's a fun little glitch. Go to any island, and make Link walk into the water. Find the point at which he stops walking and starts swimming, and stand right there. Then, take out the Wind Waker. The camera will be VERY close to Link's head (which will be partially submerged). If you then play something like the Wind's Requiem, you'll actually see below the surface of the water during the wind-change cut scene! Sadly though, there's nothing there... only blue. Still, interesting to see the 'waves' on the water without a surface

I agree with everyone here it would be cool with clear water but the idea was cut if you want to do something about contact Nintendo and ask them to see if they could put this in Twilight Princess if you really like this feature very much

Clear water is in Twilight Princess. That's been confirmed in at least one of the trailers.

Considering that the beta testing of that game had a breath-gauge, I don't think Link would have been able to dive down that far (unless he had an item for that occasion). If not diving, I think Ninty should have created more portals to the underwater world of Hyrule. Ok, they had Hyrule Castle....couldn't they have added at least two more?

I agree with AdamH. You would only see large, undetailed section of rock underwater. So it would look ugly. And don't go saying that Nintendo could have put detail into it. Because if they did the game would lag like HELL!

Now... About the diving thing... there would be no point. So Nintendo did what they should have.

The game didn't suffer from a lack of diving puzzles, so I am not disappointed in any way. Besides, the opaque blue water added a bit of cartooniness to the game, so in a way, it enhanced the immersion. At least, that's the way I feel.

That's not true at all.

As some others mentioned, they did add clear water to forest haven, the clear water may only be for shallow places as well. I do wish they made a diving ability like in the gb games where you can get rupees. The ocean is just too big, so they have the crane on the boat instead which by the way is a pain in the arse... the music drives me crazy X(