so it didn't need one, but it GOT one SOONER than the ones that did? am i hearing you right?
"the others feel empty in comparison"
the other games are packed so tightly you can't throw a deku nut without hitting a side quest, Windwaker has ACTUAL NAUTICAL MILES OF EMPTY SPACE IN IT.
you can't be serious "empty" let's look at what empty is
each of the islands is 11 in sectors that are 55, and that's being generous since most of the islands don't occupy the entire 11 square they are given so if 1 square out of 25 are occupied in each sector and there are 49 sectors (77) that means we've got 49 squares of land (being generous) and 1225 (49*25) total squares in the all of the map. That means there are 1176 EMPTY SQUARES. You could fit the ENTIRE GAME in TWO SECTORS.
The entirety of Windwaker fits in the upper left corner of that map WITH ROOM TO SPARE, leaving the rest of the planet unoccupied.
here's another guy that broke up the maps using pixels and the 3d models as his units of measure
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/the-size-of-hyrule-area-comparison.188648711/
he uses these measurements to compare the size of the landmasses, which turn out, in the relevant games to be
OoT: 9866 km2 WindWaker: 835 km2 TP: 9555 km2
that's Ocarina and Twilight Princess are bigger by a factor of 10 SQUARED they are over a HUNDRED TIMES LARGER
you want to say, "yeah, I said that was the problem because they didn't fill it with anything" except that they did, they filled the difference with enemies and collectables and side quests in OoT and TP while in Windwaker they filled it with EMPTY FUCKING WATER!
don't tell me how they "feel" to you in comparison, not when we can actually compare them. They didn't just add a better shader, they also added the Swift Sail, which is them acknowledging that the distances are TOO BIG.
Here's the video interview with one of the creators
http://kotaku.com/heres-why-sailing-took-so-damn-long-in-legend-of-zelda-513171965
in it he, and i quote, says "It's as if it has become more real now that it's in HD. Even though it's animated and not real, I think there's a a surreal sense of realism." He is praising the game because it is now MORE REAL. He sets up realistic graphics there as a positive quality over unrealistic ones. So which games have more realistic graphics? Twilight Princess and Ocarina? or Windwaker? note again, he is praising realistic graphics in the above quote.
So what Nintendo wanted, after they already released Windwaker, was to give it more realistic graphics, and make it smaller.
You cannot then claim that Windwaker has better graphics and has a world that is less empty than the other ones.
It is, in every quantifiable quality the WORST three dimensional Zelda game we have. The actual game is shorter, the filler is ungodly, the graphics are cheap, the narrative breaks suspension of disbelief and ping pongs over thematic elements in ways that shame Zelda's previous and later narratives.
Windwaker blows.
