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Breath of the Wild Zelda Wii U Should Go for a Realistic Art Style!

Joined
Jun 25, 2013
I do feel that Ihave to say that Twilight Princess's art style was not de facto realism - it was still in the stylised world as evidenced by body proportions (especially the eyes) - but it is thus far the one style that leans closest to realism. Realism has a part in color palette as well. TESV: Skyrim with 100 mods shows a damn good realistic world imo:
ku-xlarge.jpg


But there's also a very important thing. If it's gonna have realistic art style, please make the geography realistic as well. Don't plop us in "Eldin Volcano" but really make it "Eldin Obstacle course with a Volcano in the background". The locations have to feel genuine, not saying it has to be 1:1 with real life geography but a mountain range needs to have many traversable irregularities, not some paved way for you to run through.

I agree, although Skyrim's environments look far more pretty than their characters. I think that the Tech Demo had a good balance.

And one more thing. Wouldn't you want a repeat of this:
[video=youtube;uXrsK8ICp8E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXrsK8ICp8E[/video]

?

As a company, you want fans to be uber excited about your product, no? Reaction to Skyward Sword was mixed upon its reveal, for two reasons: 1) that E3 fail lol 2) the art style was a huge betrayal to TP as well as the leaked artwork we got. We saw swordless Link in TP-esque art, but what we got was a TP-TWW hybrid. Disappointing, right? Indeed. ZeldaU Tech Demo art style is just the right way to go, but Nintendo is busy trying to find even more different styles. I can't blame them - imagination is a good thing - but I really just want to see my beautiful TP Link in action again.

Nintendo should know by now, that the spaceworld event will repeat itself is Zelda Wii U does not resemble the gorgeous Tech Demo.

I think it's good for Nintendo to vary artstyle.

For a company that claims to innovate consistently to spur player interest, it's been relying more and more on already established visuals like New Super Mario Bros. and cel-shaded Zelda. Although it opened to skeptical reception, a lot of people appreciate The Wind Waker for the change it brought, both graphic and story wise. Nintendo easily could have used its Spaceworld engine for the first Gamecube Zelda, but rater than continue the realistic trend, it chose a lighter, more whimsical style. Now it's time for the reverse. Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and The Wind Waker HD have rendered cel-shading boring and predictable. Heck, Nintendo's so infatuated with the look, it chose to adopt an altered version for Skyward Sword.

Looking back at Zelda's chronology, I consider three distinct art stlyes: Overhead, realistic 3D, and cel-shaded 3D. The first four Zelda games, the Oracles, and The Minish Cap fall into the first category; Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess belong to the second; the third is composed of The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Skyward Sword. We've seen a lot of the last recently, and a Link Between Worlds will revive overworld Zelda. Now it's time to focus on something more realistic. As HyainKnight pointed out, a lot of people incorrectly assume realistic means darker. Ocarina of Time is a realistic Zelda game, yet only in select locations like the Royal Family's Tomb and Shadow Temple is it "dark".

Crafting a more realistic Zelda world is sure to expand Nintendo's userbase. There are a lot of people who play games like Skyrim that would gladly return to the Action-Adventure front if it offered titles that closer resemble real life. Gameplay will always be the fundamental component of a videogame experience, but it's also nice to stop and take a gander at the environments on display. Some of the set pieces in modern phenomenons like The Last of Us are absolutely gorgeous, and I can spend over ten minutes taking them in. A lot of people ask what the next revolutionary phase for Zelda is. Nintendo needs to refine contemporary game settings. A large, detailed overworld complete with player interaction like destructible environments, day-night cycles, weather patterns, and Miiverse integration is the next logical step.

Well said, and it has been seven long years since we have seen the second art style (in respective order) that you mentioned. Even though it is unrelated to art style, I too would like to see a large Hyrule Field including all the locations in the kingdom along with the castle, in HD the size of Skyrim. If we will be seeing a world like this, a realistic art style would be a good choice to show all the detail this world has to offer. I feel that the Zelda Tech Demo's art style would look amazing when displaying an outdoor area.
 
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Joined
Jun 14, 2011
The thing is that a realistic Zelda would look better on the Wii U than a cartoon Zelda on the Wii U.

Well there is no argument there, but on the other hand, games don't need to have realistic graphics to look breath-taking. At first I doubted the Wind Waker HD's Graphics and wasn't really fascinated by the visuals, but once I watched the Gameplay footage of the game, my opinion on the matter completely changed. No doubt a realistic Zelda would look stunning, but the fact that this is pretty much the norm for most X-box and PlayStation games, this artstyle has turned stale for me, and would much preferred it if Nintendo did something completely different then jump on the realism bandwagon. Thankfully Eiji Aonuma has said that Zelda Wii U won't have a realistic artstyle, so it would be interesting to see what they come up with.
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Location
Sweden
All I hope is that it doesn't look like this again: http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/members/5375046-albums3224-picture29041.jpg

I really like how blurry everything in SS looks...lol.


OK, seriously, as you can tell that image looks much worse then it actually does in-game, but I just wanted to find something that sort of showed how I feel about the "art style" in SS - blurry and weird. I know it's supposed to be "impressionistic", but to me, some things really look terrible(thinking mostly of background mountains and things far away).


EDIT: OK, so I found this image, which demonstrates more of what I mean: http://www.paul-cezanne.org/83154/Mont-Sainte-Victoire9-large.jpg
And as you can tell, this is all entirely subjective. Some people LOVE this style... while others hate it(aka me lol).


EDIT2 OK, so I found the image I was searching for on my computer(seems I actually hadn't deleted it, which I thought I had). And, don't mind that "LOL" part, I was being kind of stupid when I made it lol... http://s20.postimg.org/ully4m52j/SS_Artstyle.png
 
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Ventus

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Just wanted to add this
AONUMA: Hmm… I think the project that reflects our reaction to fan opinion is probably Twilight Princess. The incentive for us to create that different version of the Zelda universe was certainly as a result of The Wind Waker criticism that we received. Fans were saying that it wasn’t what they were looking for, it wasn’t what they were hoping for, so that’s why we went with this different graphic presentation. So I think that’s probably the one, the biggest change that we made.

I still remember eight years ago at E3 when we ran that first video of Twilight Princess. It was received very well; there was a standing ovation! So I still remember that moment very well.

Source: 30 minutes with Eiji Aonuma: The Zelda series director on building and shipping one of gaming’s biggest franchises - Zelda Universe

Just remember that reception, Aonuma, and apply that to ZeldaU...
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
I feel like this point is outdated. Toward the middle-to-end of last gen consoles, more artistic and whimsical styles (and comic-book-ish) have been preferred over realistic styles, and often they are artistic models merged with realistic surroundings. Borderlands, Bayonetta, Enslaved, Bioshock Infinite, Darksiders/II, Okami, Muramasa, Persona, Prince of Persia, Final Fantasy 13, No More Heroes/II, Catherine, and so on are only a FEW of the examples. Realistic styles seem to be reserved for shooters in most cases, and more and more games are taking to the artistic trend.

Final Fantasy, along with alot of those games you listed have a semi-realistic art style, just like TP. The faces may be animeish but the proportions are realistic, and the environments are realistic. Just like the Zelda Tech Demo, that's the art style that I'm hoping for. I'd be happy with either realism or semi-realism for Zelda Wii U. And I wouldn't consider Prince of Persia semi-realism, it leans more to realism.

Twilight Princess didn't sell soley because it was "realistic" (which is really isn't realistic aside from some architectural designs), it's biggest selling point was that it was OoT 2.0, and TWW and SS clearly aren't. OoT is very, very anime styled, not realistic. TP is anime-styled with realistic (somewhat) textures and lighting. OoT is quite vibrant, and visually, the only things they really have in common are character models styles (OoT not having melon-headed NPCs). That said, I feel like "Western gamers liek teh realz bro" is a terrible excuse to adopt realistic styles. Zelda may sell more in the west, but that doesn't warrant abandoning or stifling creativity to conform to what is currently popular. Zelda's unique styles have always been and should always be timeless.

Twilight Princess did sell well because of it's realism, the crowd at E3 went wild after seeing it. Wikipedia has mentioned the development of Twilight Princess and it was given a realistic art style to increase sales, my source is here:

In 2003, Nintendo announced that a new Zelda game was underway for the GameCube,[29] developed by the same team that created the cel-shaded The Wind Waker.[30] A presentation by director Eiji Aonuma contained a reference to the working title The Wind Waker 2,[31] and it was said to use a similar graphical style.[32] Nintendo of America told Aonuma that North American sales of The Wind Waker were sluggish because the cartoon appearance created the impression that the game was designed for a young audience. Concerned that the sequel would have the same problem, Aonuma expressed to fellow designer Shigeru Miyamoto that he wanted to create a realistic Zelda game that would appeal to the North American market. In turn, Miyamoto was concerned about merely changing the presentation instead of coming up with new gameplay ideas. He told Aonuma that he should start by doing what could not be done in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, particularly horseback combat.[33]
In four months, Aonuma's team managed to present realistic-looking horseback riding,[33] which Nintendo later revealed to the public with a trailer at E3 2004. The game was scheduled to be released in 2005 and was no longer a sequel to The Wind Waker.[34] Miyamoto explained in interviews that the graphical style was chosen to satisfy demand

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


About your comment about Zelda being "timeless". The thing with cartoony art styles is that they look good when they come out, and after a decade they still look good. With realistic art styles when they come out they look AMAZING, but after a decade they don't look nearly as amazing. You are right, the cartoony art style is timeless, but with this new console why not release an art style that looks more than just plain good, release an art style that makes the game look AMAZING.


I can't disagree with you here, however, I wouldn't say SS is cartoony. The Wind Waker is cartoony, and Skyward Sword is more anime-meets-classical art. The styles are vastly different and lumping them together in one "cartoony" category is an injustice to the series and the creativity of the designers.

Skyward Sword was very cartoony, perhaps the environments were more like classical art, but the character proportions and faces were just as cartoony as wind waker if not more:

150px-BertieSS.png


Twilight Princess and Ocarina may have had animeish eyes but they still maintained realistic proportions and facial features, like hair.

Again, TP wasn't realistic aside from a few textures and lighting (and SOME architecture), but the realistic-meets-anime style is something Nintendo could definitely revisit and improve on. The tech demo is a clear example of how this can be done. In it, Link looks far more "cartoony" than he did in Twilight Princess, but the realistic textures with the more artistic colors are pleasing to the eye. Not much can be said for the world design since all we saw was the cathedral-like setting, but it was designed to look "realistic", and it was pretty. It was another example of how realism and artistic styles can be refreshing and beautiful when merged together.

Both Twilight Princess and the Tech Demo were semi realistic. The environments were very realistic, the proportions of the characters were very realistic, but the faces (well even the faces looked realistic, but mostly the eyes) were cartoon. That is semi-realism, wich is what I'm hoping Zelda Wii U will look like.

And I agree, artisticness and realism look nice together, a perfect example of this is Halo's art style:
Tk6uU2u.jpg



I cannot agree with you. Realistic style ≠ more or less detail. Artistic styles can have just as much, more, or less detail depending on the designers' choices. There is a ton of realistic art that is simplistic and lacking in detail, and there is a ton of whimsical/fantasy art that is overflowing with detail. To say that detail is dependent on the level of realism is a laughable statement. To imply that embracing a more artistic style over a realistic one is a "waste" of HD capabilities is an ignorant and crude statement, and Bioshock Infinite is a visually-great game to support my point.

The cartoony art style has less detail than a realistic one. Look at WW Link's hair, it's one big clump of yellow, it's an easy texture for the Wii U to create. If you compare it to TP Link's hair (wich uses a more realistic art style), the Wii U would have to render each individual strand of hair for that texture. As you can see, realism allows for more detail. And the more detail shown, the more impressive the game will look overall. I think that the cartoon art style should be left for the 3DS, a cartoon art style on the Wii U won't look all that much better than it would on the 3DS/Gamecube/Wii (I bunched these 3 consoles together cause they all have the same graphical capabilities) other than a better resolution perhaps. But a realistic art style on the Wii U would look far better than a realistic art style on the 3DS/Gamecube/Wii.

The Wii U should use an art style that the 3DS/Gamecube/Wii can't handle as well. Wich is the realistic art style, have a look at this comparison here:

WIP_Zelda_Wii_U.png



The great thing about Nintendo is that they have always been able to make up for what they lack in power with creative presentation. Just because they now have a console capable of HD graphics doesn't mean that they should abandon that creative design. The Wind Waker would have been a miserable failure of a game if it had "realistic" styles, because TEH FEELZ of the game couldn't be expressed in any other style, not even SS's style.

Twilight Princess was still a creative design and it was a very artistic looking game, but it still had realism, and demonstrated the consoles graphical capabilities well. Visuals can be realistic, while being artistic and colourful at the same time, refer back to my post about Halo's art style.


Despite my arguments against these points, I am not against a realistic style. I just feel the reasons listed were ridiculous for a Zelda game. I would prefer to see an artistic/realistic hybrid like the tech demo that leans more toward realism or OoT3D that leans more toward anime, but complete realism could also be captivating.

My OP just said that I'm hoping for the game to look like the tech demo, and then you said that your hoping it to look like the tech demo too. I'm not trying to be rude, and I apologize if I am, but I think you should read over my OP again.

Nintendo is creative, and their designers' creativity is not limited to cartoony styles. Adapting such a style for any of the reasons the OP listed is not acceptable. There needs to be an inherent need for it. Aonuma's statement in a recent interview is something I think more fans need to think about:[/QUOTE]

I feel that my reasons are very acceptable.
1. If Nintendo does give Zelda Wii U a realistic or semi-realistic art style, they will be benefiting them selves by increasing sales, and benefiting the fans who have waited 7+ years for the art style to return.
2. It's been 7 years so far since the art style has been used, there should be balance, It's not really creativity if all the games look cartoony.
3. It's the Wii U, why make a game that looks less visually impressive than the tech demo shown, I just feel it's a waste of the console. They should flesh out it's power and graphical capabilities.

"The thing about Zelda is we want everything to be unique, whether it’s the graphical presentation or the gameplay. It has to be something you can’t see anywhere else. We wouldn’t want it to be ultra-realistic because you can see that elsewhere. But I can’t say that it’s going to be cartoony-realistic like you mentioned, the fantastic presentation that we’ve already done in the past. It will be something new." -Eiji Aonuma

It's not really unique if every single game since TP that came out (with the exception of OoT's remake) had a cartoony art style.

I think they should give the cartoon art style a break for at least just this ONE game and try to push the Wii U's hardware and graphical capabilities, and show a stunning graphically impresive Zelda (like the tech demo) by going with a realistic / semi realistic art style. Fans of the Realistic art style have been patient and waiting 7 years (8 or 9 by the time Zelda Wii U comes out) for another realistic / semi realistic looking Zelda. It's only fair to create at least one more, and with this new generation in gaming for Nintendo, with the Wii U, this is the perfect opertunity. I like both art styles, but I think it's time that the cartoony art style had a break and sat out this one game.
 

Ventus

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Yes please can we get Wii U Tech Demo-esque graphics. Not only does it show the capbilities of the Wii U more, it demonstrates that Nintendo simply isn't playing around - that they take Zelda seriously. I'm sorry but what percentage of the CoD fanbase would exist if CoD's art style changed from release to release - with the gravitas of a Zelda artstyle change? I daresay a meager 4% or less.

So please Nintendo. Do what looks greatest, not what may possibly be timeless. TWW's timelessness doesn't mean it sold great - and it didn't.
 

Blue Canary

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I think it should be realistic. My reason being that with realistic graphics, you can capture the landscape better, and I think that is very important to a game.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
I think it should be realistic. My reason being that with realistic graphics, you can capture the landscape better, and I think that is very important to a game.

I agree, If we see Hyrule Field in HD, it should make the best of the situation by filling the environment with detail.
 

Deku-Jack

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Jun 16, 2010
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I think in the end the art style should be based upon whatever the game's feeling is going for. If it's a more serious game, go for a realistic art style and if it is a more light-hearted adventure, go for a cartoonish style. Based on personal preference, however, I would very much like to see a game with the color palette of Skyward Sword, the environment designs of Twilight Princess, and the character designs of Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask. A perfect blend that will really make the game feel like Zelda and not too experimental, which will in-turn cause less controversy within the fanbase.

Not too cartoony of course, but also not too realistic. I don't want it to look like Skyrim, however, because I just can't see that style working for a Zelda game due to Zelda's more fantasy-based atmosphere. Skyrim's art style is too serious and rigid, I want my Zelda art style to feel magical.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2013
the tech demo looks good but I want the more SS type style because they're video games they're meant to take you to different worlds not just plop you down in the same one
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
I'm going to start off saying I'm not opposed to a realistic(ish) styled Zelda game, just I don't agree with a lot of the reasoning's for a realistic Zelda game.

Nintendo really should make the upcoming Zelda Wii U should go for a realistic (or semi realistic) art style, similar to the 2011 tech demo, and these four reasons explain why:

1. Nintendo specifically said that they want Zelda Wii U to bring Zelda too a big audience. Zelda games sell the most in North America (NA). NA gamers tend to like games with realistic graphics opposed to cartoony graphics, hence why Twilight Princess (TP) sold a lot more than Skyward Sword (SS). If they want the game to sell well, they should make NA the targeted audience, and make the graphics realistic or semi realistic.

I guess I agree with you there, if Nintendo wants to bring more sells to NA, I guess its a good idea. But the problem is we might get TP again, and Nintendo's big thing is innovation. Not repetition.

2. It been 7 years since a realistic looking Zelda, It’s time for a change and to go back to a more realistic looking Zelda style. I don’t mind the cartoony art style (I loved the way Wind Waker looked), but do you really want the Zelda franchize to stay cartoony forever? Plus, Wind Waker (WW) is being remade on the Wii U, so why have two cartoony Zelda games on the Wii U? Why not mix it up a bit, and give Zelda Wii U a more realistic and darker art style to contrast WW Wii U. Every Zelda game released after TP has been cartoony, that is three original games over 7 years. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with the cartoony art style, but it’s time for change. It’s only fair to go back to a more realistic looking Zelda, and the Wii U is the perfect opportunity for this. There should be balance.

Why realistic? There is so many other art styles they can try instead of going to realism. They can even make it darker with other art styles if they wanted to

3. Zelda Wii U is on the Wii U, a next gen console, it has the power to run games with HD and really good graphics, it would be a waste of the console not to push the next Zelda game with a more realistic art style. This is the perfect opportunity for them to make a Zelda game with really really good graphics. SS and WW’s art style had smoothe textures while TP's art style on the other hand, allowed for far more detail in it’s textures and allows for the lighting to be more dynamic. Overall TP’s art style allows for better graphics, and more detail than art style’s from the cell shaded Zelda games. With the Wii U, if they went with a cartoony art style, that would be holding the console back and not allowing it to demonstrate it’s potential. Realistic art styles tend to demonstrate graphics better than cartoony ones. It would be rather lazy of them to give Zelda Wii U a cartoony art style opposed to challenging/utilizing the console with a more realistic one. The Wii U's graphical capabilities shouldn't be wasted.

Again, although realism would look pretty on this consul, other styles could look just as beautiful. Just think how beautiful SS could be, with its impressionistic style, being able to see every brush stroke? Not saying that I want SS graphics-I don't- I'm just saying there are more opportunities then realism

4. The reason SS had a cartoony art style was because TP’s realistic graphics pushed the GC/Wii to the limit, Nintendo couldn’t make a Zelda with better graphics than TP on the Wii. So instead of them giving SS realistic graphics, they decided to take it’s visuals in a different direction, giving it a more cartoony look (they also said they used this to emphasize enemies weak spots to help with the motion control). Now with the Wii U, Nintendo actually has the graphical power to make a Zelda game that looks better than TP, so why use SS’s art style on the Wii U?

SS wasn't necessarily cartoony, the only thing I found cartoony were the proportions of some of the characters, which in my opinion, I find those people to be hidous. Everything else was stylistic, not cartoony

And one more thing, isn't 'anime' just a cartoon? Just a different style? TP was anime styled, all the characters had eyes to large for their heads, and Malo isn't quite proportioned right (*shivers* Malo creeped me out 0_o)

After listing these four reasons, it would not be very smart of Nintendo not to grant Zelda Wii U a realistic (or semi realistic) art style. An art style similar (or the same as) to the E3 2011 Tech Demo.

WIP_Zelda_Wii_U.png

Well, the pictures here didn't give TWWHD justice at all. Not only are those earlier pictures of Link, TWWHD has very beautiful scenery. I wasn't a huge fan of it at first until Miyamoto mentioned how you can just feel the temperture. I hadn't noticed before, but then I really saw how beautiful it was, how I could just feel like I was there. I watched the trailer and it was just gorgeous.

And one of the reasons why they brought TWW to WiiU was because it was such a surprise how beautiful it really was, you would expect something beautiful from the other games, but TWW? Who knew!

The thing is, it is sort of a reason to go for a realistic art style. Skyward Sword and Wind Waker's art style's were created to look good on the hardware, which is why Twilight Princess looks dated already. The Wii U has more power and has better capabilities, and it's also what fans want. If they're not going for a realistic look, then that's a shame. There still hasn't been a game on Wii U that shows it's full power quite like the Zelda Tech Demo did.

Yes, the tech demo looked beautiful, but the actual game play won't be as great, and it probably will last only a couple more years the TP did. Even then, that doesn't mean realism is the way to go.

FFXIII? LOL everyone hated the gameplay. People certainly didn't buy the game for music. The story was often cited as crappy. So...? GRAFIX.
Battlefield and CoD are generic shooters. People don't get them for story or for gameplay mechanics; they get them for TEH GRAFIX!1EON.
RDR has great everything, so I concede for that game.
MGS4 has great everything as well, so I concede for that game.

You sound like your trying to give Nintendo advice, NINTENDO advice. A company that has been in the video game market LONGER then ANY OTHER VIDEO GAME COMPANY. I think they know what they are doing with there precious Zelda. They are going to go with the graphics they find suit the Zelda universe and specific game the best. if thats realistic, we are going to get realistic, and the COD players can play some Zelda(Although I think Zelda, being a puzzle game, might be to complicated for some of them)

Nintendo knows how to look at statistics to ya know, they just know if they make a game they don't want to make, just because the majority of North America would like it, they won't be proud of it. Why not make a game a lot of people will enjoy(maybe not right away) instead of a game most people will enjoy for a short time, then get lost with all the other realistically looking games?

Yes please can we get Wii U Tech Demo-esque graphics. Not only does it show the capbilities of the Wii U more, it demonstrates that Nintendo simply isn't playing around - that they take Zelda seriously. I'm sorry but what percentage of the CoD fanbase would exist if CoD's art style changed from release to release - with the gravitas of a Zelda artstyle change? I daresay a meager 4% or less.

So please Nintendo. Do what looks greatest, not what may possibly be timeless. TWW's timelessness doesn't mean it sold great - and it didn't.

Nintendo is taking Zelda seriously. Why are the graphics in SS so flexible? With the ability to go from light and dandy, to dark and creepy? Why are the words of Ganondorf from TWW so poetic? Bringing such depth to a once thought mindless evil doer? Or Zant and Midna have such complex character development? Why on earth would the world of majoras mask be filled with so many in depth characters?

So how about this, have Nintendo do what they believe is great for the next Zelda. I'm not saying they ALWAYS know what to do, but I don't think the graphics are the problem.

I think it's good for Nintendo to vary artstyle.

For a company that claims to innovate consistently to spur player interest, it's been relying more and more on already established visuals like New Super Mario Bros. and cel-shaded Zelda. Although it opened to skeptical reception, a lot of people appreciate The Wind Waker for the change it brought, both graphic and story wise. Nintendo easily could have used its Spaceworld engine for the first Gamecube Zelda, but rater than continue the realistic trend, it chose a lighter, more whimsical style. Now it's time for the reverse. Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and The Wind Waker HD have rendered cel-shading boring and predictable. Heck, Nintendo's so infatuated with the look, it chose to adopt an altered version for Skyward Sword.

Looking back at Zelda's chronology, I consider three distinct art stlyes: Overhead, realistic 3D, and cel-shaded 3D. The first four Zelda games, the Oracles, and The Minish Cap fall into the first category; Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess belong to the second; the third is composed of The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Skyward Sword. We've seen a lot of the last recently, and a Link Between Worlds will revive overworld Zelda. Now it's time to focus on something more realistic. As HyainKnight pointed out, a lot of people incorrectly assume realistic means darker. Ocarina of Time is a realistic Zelda game, yet only in select locations like the Royal Family's Tomb and Shadow Temple is it "dark".

Crafting a more realistic Zelda world is sure to expand Nintendo's userbase. There are a lot of people who play games like Skyrim that would gladly return to the Action-Adventure front if it offered titles that closer resemble real life. Gameplay will always be the fundamental component of a videogame experience, but it's also nice to stop and take a gander at the environments on display. Some of the set pieces in modern phenomenons like The Last of Us are absolutely gorgeous, and I can spend over ten minutes taking them in. A lot of people ask what the next revolutionary phase for Zelda is. Nintendo needs to refine contemporary game settings. A large, detailed overworld complete with player interaction like destructible environments, day-night cycles, weather patterns, and Miiverse integration is the next logical step.

I agree, it is good for Nintendo to vary in art style, and so far, you are the best argument for a realistic Zelda game. But if it were to become to realistic, then wouldn't resemble more of Skyrim then Zelda? I don't mind the TP style, but I know I don't want something was realistic as Skyrim

Well there is no argument there, but on the other hand, games don't need to have realistic graphics to look breath-taking. At first I doubted the Wind Waker HD's Graphics and wasn't really fascinated by the visuals, but once I watched the Gameplay footage of the game, my opinion on the matter completely changed. No doubt a realistic Zelda would look stunning, but the fact that this is pretty much the norm for most X-box and PlayStation games, this artstyle has turned stale for me, and would much preferred it if Nintendo did something completely different then jump on the realism bandwagon. Thankfully Eiji Aonuma has said that Zelda Wii U won't have a realistic artstyle, so it would be interesting to see what they come up with.

I also agree with this, I don't want Zelda to be overly realistic because it would be to much of a look alike to other games. I don't necessarily mean I'm not open to a Zelda game that looks like TP, I think that would look beautiful on this consul, I just think that there might be something that could be even more stunning.

I think it should be realistic. My reason being that with realistic graphics, you can capture the landscape better, and I think that is very important to a game.

I disagree. I found SS's landscape to be beautiful and captured perfectly, and the same with TWW.

I think in the end the art style should be based upon whatever the game's feeling is going for. If it's a more serious game, go for a realistic art style and if it is a more light-hearted adventure, go for a cartoonish style. Based on personal preference, however, I would very much like to see a game with the color palette of Skyward Sword, the environment designs of Twilight Princess, and the character designs of Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask. A perfect blend that will really make the game feel like Zelda and not too experimental, which will in-turn cause less controversy within the fanbase.

Not too cartoony of course, but also not too realistic. I don't want it to look like Skyrim, however, because I just can't see that style working for a Zelda game due to Zelda's more fantasy-based atmosphere. Skyrim's art style is too serious and rigid, I want my Zelda art style to feel magical.

Exactly my thoughts, whatever the style is, I want it to match the feel of the game. I don't want it to be 'realistic' just because a whole bunch of twelve year old boys are like "omg ittzz so realz yo". If its gonna be realistic, its going to seem realistic. I don't want that at all. I want magical and whimsical, or maybe darker. I just want it to be a world filled with magic and wonder, not just the real world with magic in it. That would be boring.

To be honest, I really like the E3 WiiU demo, and if they went that way, I would be happy. It felt magical, it was beautiful, and it looked like it could be a lot of fun. But my point is that Zelda doesn't have to be realistic. It doesn't have to have realistic colors, or realistic proportions, it just has to feel right. THAT'S what I want.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Two things I want to say on this...

1) I don't mind a cartoony style...but I don't want it to be like Wind Waker's. It's not that Wind Waker was too cartoony...my issue is that it wasn't cartoony enough. The reason games like Okami look so amazing is because they go ALL the way. Wind Waker only went halfway with some cell shaded parts and some realistic looking parts and it made a bunch of bad decisions on what was to be realistic and what was to be cartoony. Some say we never had an actual realistic looking Zelda game...but I say we never really had a cartoony looking Zelda game. I don't care if they go realistic or cartoony, but I do NOT want them to go in between. And this is solely about graphical style, I don't mind the oddly proportioned characters.

2) I still prefer the realistic style. I know this sounds weird after I just said I don't prefer either style, but that's on a personal level. I don't mind the cartoon style and I don't mind motion controls, but it's obvious that neither of these are popular. The fans want traditional controls and a realistic style and honestly, it doesn't bother me if we get both, so I say go for it. Why? Because I want Zelda to be successful. If Zelda continues to displease the general public, it can end up like F-Zero or Star Fox. In contrast, if it pleases the general public and demand for it goes up, Nintendo will give Zelda more focus, which is good for us fans.
 

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