I'm not going to say I was completely disappointed, but... I was close to it, I hate to say.
We don't have a whole lot to go on here, but overall, I just didn't get the giddy with excitement sense of "Oh wow!" that I was genuinely expecting. The only time I heard the audience cheer was during the visual recap of games past at the beginning and the end with the title screen...Which is a sad prospect when you think about the awe-inspiring crowd reaction from the TP trailer...The cel shading was hardly a surprise. Numerous people predicted that outcome, even if the concept art was seriously misleading, so that's nothing to be too shocked over. I simply wasn't impressed, and believe me, I hope that changes as we're fed more bits of information.
Now... Everyone's favorite subject for the day. Graphics, graphics, graphics.
Let me begin by shielding myself first. The graphics are NO implication of gameplay and I certainly don't buy games based on visuals alone. I'm sure any legitimate gamer does the same, and I'm sure that this game, like the others, will have great gameplay and plot accompanying it. But from what I've seen, I don't really agree with the graphical route Nintendo has taken. The watercolor-inspired style is very pretty, but I really think they missed the mark with Link's character design and his transition into it. I kind of wish they would just redo his adult character to make him fit better into this new environment rather than push TP Link into a style for which he wasn't made. The parts of the trailer with Link standing in an open area showing off some moves and items worried me; his character looks lifeless and stale, much unlike the two Links that he's basically a hybrid of.
The landscape was not on par with what Nintendo could do; the trees looked just silly, with flat planes comprised of leaves sticking out of the branches. A lot of the ground textures reminded me of Animal Crossing.Cel shading is fine by me, but what we saw today is the kind I would expect of a Mario game, and while both that franchise and Zelda encompass the same wide demographic of players, I really think it's important that Nintendo identify them as very different games in this regard. When I think of adult Link and cel shading, I personally envision a much more detailed, stylized rendering, akin to something like Red Steel 2, but with that Zelda element of fantasy. And while the scenes we were shown sure do look bright and fantastical, they don't seem at all medieval-inspired, which was a reason I enjoyed TP's graphics. Of course this is personal preference, but I do believe that it is an influence of the series that shouldn't be forgotten, hopefully we'll see it around later on.
I'm not asking for hyper-realism or realism (even though it would be nice down the road) or "WHOA SWEET GRAFICS, DUDE!!11!", but I would like to see a beautiful world and characters that mesh well, that exceed my expectations, and that have a distinct visual identity, cel shaded or not. I really think Nintendo could do a lot better, so even if "graphics don't make the game" I don't see why that should keep them at GC level. (By the way, when people say they had hoped for TP's graphics to return, they could easily mean the realism aspect, and not necessarily the darkness. imo, the darkness of that game was a byproduct of the storyline, so those two elements of that style don't really have to go hand in hand when referring to it.)
That said, I'm VERY curious to how how this turns out plot-wise. If I remember correct, there was talk a while ago about this Link being more mature... His model, the style, the music all lead me to believe otherwise. Again, I have nothing to go on, and either way, I'll be playing this game, but it sure leaves me scratching my head... Other than that, the gameplay looks neat, having to actually plan out how to beat such minor enemies instead of just going slashy-slashy mindlessly sounds great. I honestly believe there will be more items, so I won't gripe about that... Dashing looks really handy, but I still hope there's a primary mode or numerous modes of transportation. Lastly, let's all pray together at once: MAGIC!! This style begs for it, I really hope they use it this time. In all, we only got a taste; there's definitely a ton more things to come, things can be tweaked, I'm personally crossing my fingers for refined graphics, but let's be realistic; they've got their art style down at this point, that style probably won't change. Here's to patiently waiting for more info in the coming months.