As long as you don't feel like you've been waiting forever by the time you get to the first dungeon, you're good.
Except that during my previous playthrough, I
did feel like I was waiting forever. Here's all the filler I had to trudge through just to get to the first dungeon:
- Herd goats with Epona
- Solve several puzzles in Ordon Village:
- Take down the bee's nest with a hawk
- Grab a cradle with a hawk
- Appease the cat by going fishing, catching a bite, then having the cat steal the fish from you
- Buy the slingshot and play through a mandatory tutorial
- Play through a mandatory sword tutorial
- Enter the woods to get the Lantern
- Take the Lantern through the cave, then traverse N. Faron Woods
- Break the cage to save Talo (and a monkey)
- Herd goats AGAIN (argh)
- Ilia decides to be a flat, obnoxious and stereotypical female character and then steals Epona from you ("Oh no! Epona got a really teeny tiny splinter! You're a horrible person, Link! I'm stealing Epona from you despite the fact that you need her for an important delivery!")
- Ilia changes her mind
- Enter the Twilight and become a wolf, then get transported into the Hyrule Castle dungeon
- Play through the dungeon...
- Pull open some floodgate handles in order to open up the different routes throughout the dungeon
- Go up the stairs and then across some rooftops.
- At the end, get transported back into the light world, but still remain a wolf (argh, how long is this going to take)
- Enter Ordon Village again and get attacked by a hawk
- Raid the houses to obtain a shield...
- And then a sword.
- Enter the Twilight again, except this time in Faron Woods
- Get penned up and fight the Twilight monsters
- Go to the spring to hear the spirit exposit about light and dark and all that
- Hunt for the bugs and defeat them to snatch the tears.
- Traverse through N. Faron Woods again
- Play through the exact same Twilight monster fight again
- Light gets returned to the area
- Go into N. Faron Woods yet again (grrr)
- Tip-toe along as you wait for the monkey to slowly transport you across the fog
- Get taught the Ending Blow
- Finally enter the Forest Temple.
This is what I'm referring to when I'm talking about filler. Not only do I have to traverse through the same regions multiple times, but I have to deal with numerous story scenes (the vast majority of which I didn't even mention here, to try and be fair by keeping the list as short as I can), training exercises, puzzles, and item hunts before I can get into the heart of gameplay.
Compare with Wind Waker:
- Climb down from the observation post and head to your grandmother's house to get your new clothes
- Optionally explore the area and learn the controls and gameplay basics (picking up pots, crawling, plus the series of written tutorials)
- Climb back up and get the telescope from your sister and enter a very brief mini-"tutorial" on using the telescope.
- Go to Orca to play through a mandatory tutorial on using the sword, and then obtain said sword.
- Go up to the top of the island and cross the bridge into the forest.
- Run through the forest, killing the enemies to rescue Tetra.
- Back at ground, visit your grandmother's to obtain the shield.
- On the pirate ship, complete a rope swinging minigame.
- Play through the Forsaken Fortress (could this be considered the first dungeon? It has a map and stuff, but it's not exactly the "staple" dungeon you typically play through)
- You've lost your sword, so you have to use stealth (barrel sneaking).
- Get thrown in jail for a free trip to the second floor.
- Reach the top to regain your sword, then get thrown out into the ocean.
- Wake up at Windfall, where you much purchase a sail.
- With the sail, travel a few blocks to Dragon Roost.
- Receive a mandatory tutorial on using the Wind Waker.
- Inside the island, hear the plight of the Rito people and deliver a message to Komali.
- Fly Medli up to the top of a bridge
- Bomb a rock to fill the dried up lake with water and swim into Dragon Roost Cavern (the first "canonical" dungeon)
Yes, Wind Waker has filler, but the start-to-dungeon is a lot less painful than with Twilight Princess. Also, part of it involves some dungeon-like gameplay, and the only area you
have to travel to twice is your grandmother's house. It's also worth noting that after the first dungeon in Wind Waker, you can head straight to the second dungeon with very minimal downtime (sail to the Forest Haven, kill some enemies, watch a story scene, bounce and fly up to the top, and then into the Forbidden Forest where you enter the second dungeon). Twilight Princess, on the other hand, seriously pads out the time spent doing mandatory errands before the second dungeon in much the same way as the first.
Hopefully I have now made clear what I am referring to when I mention "filler".