Do Looks Matter?

[Bob Majinki]

I was playing Wind Waker again recently, after a bunch of Twilight Princess playing, and noticed something significantly different in the way Link looked, aside from the graphics being completely different. Link, in Wind Waker, actually looks like a Pacific Asian.

I don't know if you guys are getting the vibe I'm getting from this or not. So from this I thought that maybe looks matter, and that similar-looking Links are possibly connected. From this, I came to the following:

* WW, MC, PH, ST, FS, and FSA Link have the "Asian" look.
* TP and Wii Link all have the "Half-Asian" look.
* LoZ, AoL, LttP, LA, OoT, MM, and OoX Link have the "European" look.

Now this could mean a number of things. Most obvious, a style change, which I think is correct since what I see as the clearly European Link ends after the first eight games. But two styles emerged after this, the more frequent Asian one, and then this new, only once used so far, Half-Asian one.

Now it's clear that games like TP had a completely different style to fit the mood, but the cartoony ones like WW are of an entirely other race. They could have kept going with European Link just fine, and just had the art style be cartoony. So why? Why did this suddenly happen? And is there a connection between this to a storyline?

My guess is probably not, but there's things that match up between the races and the stories.
* WW Link (Asian) is not related to the Hero of Time, OoT Link (European)
* WW, PH, and ST Link (all Asian) are all correlated
* TP Link (Half-Asian) is in no way related to WW Link (Asian) and actually have their stories occur on opposite parallel timelines

So just from the fact that different art styles were used, leading to different races, is possibly a hint at connections between Links in the sense of a larger, all-encompassing storyline. But of course don't forget the differences between European Links, namely hair color and style. That also should tell us about the story. So:

Do these looks actually matter for the story or am I just being a silly dude?

 

[Zeruda]

In Zelda, it really boils down the artist trying to make the style fit the game. I doubt they really put effort into making the main characters look any certain race. So yes, looks matter for the game(s).

None of the Links are related- this has already been confirmed. And even if they were, the way they are drawn and converted to 3D models really hasn't anything to do with the timeline or relationship to other characters. It's just a way to keep things fresh and experiment with new styles.

 

[Darknut]

Wow, you realize details...well a lot of them. Personally, I just think every Link can't look the same, so they add details like those, nothing big. :tektite:

 

[Smertios]

I do believe that overall art styles matter to the storyline (I put games with the same art style together in the timeline -- not only for that reason though, before someone starts arguing).

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8594/coisahy0.jpg
click to open, it's a huge image

 

[MrMosley]

As I have said before, its all about where you place the games on your timeline. I believe that in most cases, styles (looks) do matter. For instance:

My Timeline

............/--WW/PH--ST
MC--OoT
............\MM--TP--FS/FSA--ALttP/LA--OoX--LoZ/AoL

Chronologically, Zelda's art style didn't really matter much; But neither did the timeline concept itself. LoZ had a very basic art style in its manual and many of the guides for it. AoL upgraded its art with more "anime" type characters. However, these two are direct sequels of one another.

One of the bigger examples is the cell-shaded style. It started with WW, a game that takes place on the AT, right after OoT. MC also had this style in its artwork and gameplay. FS, FSA, PH, and ST follow the cell-shaded mold as well, but you can see above where these games all fit on the timeline. Aside from WW, PH, and now ST, the other three titles that have used cell-shading-like art are in different spots. FS and FSA would be an exception, where I believe they are sequels. However, MC is believed by most to take place way at the beginning, which separates it from the rest.

The last well known art style is the one that began with ALttP. It was somewhat like the style used in AoL, but noticeably different as well. ALttP's art style is the same used for LA and OoX, where those all fall next to each other on the timeline.

 

[Skull_Kid]

I don't think that the artstyle is going to help anyone deciphering the timeline, but that's my opinion.
The Three games confirmed to be on the AT(WW, PH and ST) all use the toon link version, but, TMC, wich is very debatable, also uses the same style.
Probably because the game that was released before it was WW(well, FS was, but it also used the Toon Link art), and FSA also used it, because, wich is the most probable reason, they were trying to make people accostumed to the Toon Link, not to give secret subliminar Timeline hints