Impressionism: Should It Stay Or Should It Go?

[Ronin]

Over the course of Skyward Sword's development, Nintendo's president, Shigeru Miyamoto, told his head developer of the Legend of Zelda, Eiji Aonuma, to find a new aesthetic style. Aonuma-San did a check on several artstyles and found one that tickled his fancy for their current project. This artstyle is known as Impressionism, which generally employs abstract brush strokes to bring out a blurry yet coherent and exquisite illustration.

When Skyward Sword was first shown at 2010's E3 (if I remember correctly), many of the fans were surprised, even shocked to see yet another colorful exhibition of Hyrule. They'd hoped to see something like Ocarina of Time's and Majora's Mask's realism reintroduced to the series. But in time they, including myself, came to realize that the impressionism was really a pristine blend of both Wind Waker's cel-shaded constitution and Twilight Princess' gritty lifelikeness.

These two styles interfused together to form a beautiful and vivid world, while still retaining the ample environments reminiscent of those in Wind Waker over TP's. It somehow brought forth the life from the game and personified each province as if they were natural, real-world habitats. Additionally objects or landmarks seen in the distance were distinct yet could still clearly be made out, thanks to the impressionistic framework of Skyward Sword. I'd argue that this is probably the closest visual approach that Zelda's undergone so far, or at least in terms of color, contour, and atmosphere.

My question is threefold:

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?
2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?
3. Would you want impressionism to return?

 

[Ventus]

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?
I wasn't impressed per se but I did find the art style to be rather beautiful. Fits Skyward Sword in every way I could imagine.

2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?
Nope! Hate me for it, but I prefer the more realistic style used in Twilight Princess. Yeah, could use more blues and reds and maybe less greens/greys, but think about it: in REAL LIFE which is what the style is meaning to portray, the world is seriously a bunch of greens/greys/browns, with some blues here and there from the water and maybe pink from Aquarius life. Only iwth manmade stuff do we get neons and all that.

3. Would you want impressionism to return?
Yes, but not any time soon. Give it a rest, maybe a two or three game rest, then have it return for Skyward Sword:Redux.

 

[Koosholts]

Was I impressed with the graphics?
For the Wii, absolutley.

Is this my favorite art style?
No. I liked The Wind Waker's art style the best, although I doubt it could be pulled off again. This is a nice balance, but I think we're due for a TP graphical rework in the next 3D installment.

Would you want this art style to return?
Sure.

 

[A Link In Time]

I was a fan of the impressionist art style Nintendo used with Skyward Sword. By shunning attention to detail and instead focusing on alluring the player's senses to the diverse environment Nintendo was able to transcend the limits of the Wii's hardware. The company pursued a similar strategy with the Super Mario Galaxy games and proved that lightning strikes twice.

Skyward Sword doesn't boast the greatest art style I've ever seen in a Zelda game but I accustomed myself to it. With the more powerful 3DS and Wii U systems I'd prefer if Nintendo followed an increasingly realistic approach along the lines of Twilight Princess. Not only would it provide a superb second outing for the juxtaposition of grittiness and fantasy but also avoid the pixelated aesthetic plaguing TP.

Impressionism definitely should return some time in the future but as mentioned earlier, I'd prefer if we saw a different style on the 3DS and Wii U. Nintendo has the potential to craft a plethora of dynamic realms. I want to be surprised by the next Zelda world I trek through much like the initial five installments featured drastically differing art directions and perspectives.

 

[JuicieJ]

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?

Absolutely. I've rarely been impressed by an art style as much as I was with Skyward Sword's. I don't even think Okami's art style impressed me as much, and that's really saying something.

2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?

In some ways yes, in some ways no. I can't exactly explain it, but there are some things I like about this style better and there are some things I like about OoT 3D's style better, so it's basically a toss up between those two for me.

3. Would you want impressionism to return?

Yes, but not any time soon. It's a gorgeous art style, but it's not one that should become a mainstay and definitely not one that should be used twice in a row. Nintendo needs to experiment with more art styles so that each new game can have its own feel. By all means, re-use an art style eventually, but never immediately. It just ruins the vibe and limits creativity.

 

[Spirit]

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?
I've played it and even when the trailer first popped up i think it was the art style itself that denied me any kind of excitement towards the game. I love Wind Waker and i think the visual style there was much braver and better realised than Skyward Sword. I don't have anything against the art style of Skyward Sword, it looked nice, it was colourful, clear and crisp but it just didn't thrill me. Perhaps it is my preference to Wind Waker that stops me liking SS's art style, the chibi style of WW, the expressionist islands rather than impressionist stylings of SS were more impressive to me and showed more imagination. I also know that Nintendo wanted to use the impressionist style to better help characters portray emotion but again, i think WW did it better and WW was also able to pull off a darker, deeper and sadder story and it was the visuals that made me believe that these characters were feeling their pains and struggles, SS never made me feel that way and i also can't help but feel that Link's face isn't quite right, and i've thought that ever since the first SS trailer. The impressionist style just didn't work for me to help me connect with it on any level.

2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?
Not even close. As i said before there in nothing wrong with the impressionist style it just failed to thrill or entice me on any level. When Eldin erupted it should have looked wonderful, but the ash floating around in Dragon Roost at the entrance to the dungeon in WW was much more visually pleasing and fitting of the mood in the sense of expansive danger. My favourite style is still TP's, even though TP utilised traditional graphics the art style was still very far from realistic, but even then the art style of TP did very well to make me believe Link's emotion more than SS's, brilliant scenes like when Link first meets Ooccoo and he holds it up with wonderfully confused and unsure expression, later on at Lake Hylia where Link is shown the Interloper's story his expressions there are top notch and of course his expressions around Midna really make me believe him. It isn't down to expressionist or impressionist srtyle that Link can show emotion through it is instead just perhaps easier for Nintendo to knock out a celshaded game like SS especially when you consider its length...

3. Would you want impressionism to return?
There are a lot of different kinds of impressionism just like expressionism but if we're talking about SS's style coming back, then no. I wouldn't like to see it again. This is only because the art style itself doesn't seem to speak to me on any level at all, so if there were to be another home console or handheld release that used SS's art style i doubt i'd be excited. I'd rather have OoT3D or WW, but without the mockeries to the WW's art style that were PH and ST.

 

[Wolf Sage]

1. I was highly impressed by the graphical direction of the game. There's something about combining the realistic graphical elements of Twilight Princess with the cel-shaded, cartoon-like colors of The Wind Waker and stirring in elements of Impressionism that struck a nerve with me. I must admit, however, that I was not too fond of Link's face first. I found it to be far too feminine, reminiscent of Peter Pan. To be honest, I initially found all the character designs a tad off-putting. Despite of this, I got over it and the character designs grew on me after only a short time. Regarding the physical locations themselves, I'd say they were quite beautiful - full of vividness and wonderment, a stark contrast to the pallid, dreary tone of TP. Although it would have been nice to see a vibrant, grassland-like area the likes of Hyrule Field, or even and ice area, to show off SS's full graphical/artistic potential...

2. Bar none. In fact, it's my first and only favorite [in terms of artistic direction]. This may be hard to believe, but I've never really compared the graphic/artistic direction of the games on this level. And it has never made much sense to do so until now. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the other games suffer in the graphics department; it's just that I've always been indifferent to each one's overall artistic direction. I've always felt as though Nintendo began to explore different avenues [in artstyle] around the time of The Wind Waker. Up until then, art direction seemed to be the last thing Nintendo cared about; the same can be said for me in a sense. For some reason... SS' artstyle and graphics were the first to really strike a nerve and appeal to my senses so profoundly.

3. You know, in spite of what I've said, I don't think the Impressionist art direction should make a return. While the Impressionism was great, I find it more suiting for Nintendo to further the advancement of the series' graphic potential by introducing new artstyles - advanced shading techniques and even full-on realism a la the recent e3 tech demo. In a nutshell, it is because the Impressionism was that awesome that I deem it best to continue the trend of experimentation with new graphical/artistic concepts. Even moreso, given the fact that, since WW, Nintendo has never used to the exact same style two times in a row [from console to console, barring handhelds]...

 

[Troubadour]

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?
I liked the graphical style personally, I think the combination of TP's relatively realistic body proportions and TWW's colorful palette was pulled off well.

2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?
Not really, it's a tie between Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess for me because I'm not a huge fan of cel-shaded graphics but Twilight Princess was too dull. It had too much brown.
However, the I would love to see the Zelda Wii U tech demo graphics used in a game because they were closer to Twilight Princess's style but more colorful, not to mention that it looked gorgeous in HD. It seems like a perfect fit for Nintendo's first HD system and I hope it shows up in an actual game. If they don't, they would be missing a great opportunity.

3. Would you want impressionism to return?
I'm kind of on the fence about this. I do like it, but I think cel-shading is going to start to fade, at least for awhile. Maybe on a future handheld console or even possibly the 3DS. The 3DS is supposedly stronger than the PS2, which means it could run TP's graphics easily, and in turn, probably Skyward Sword's as well.

 

[bunny]

Personally, I loved the Skyward Sword art style. I love love love love LOVE the painting look, however, I'm an artist and I like almost anything that goes with the word 'artistic.' But I still think it worked out great for SS.

 

[Cfrock]

1. If you've played the game, were you impressed by this graphical concept?

I loved the graphical style in Skyward Sword. Beyond the aesthetic aspect of it, I loved how it was the perfect blend of Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker. Another thing I liked was how it was used in a technical sense. Rather than have a short draw distance or simply not have distant objects appear, the 'living painting' style meant distant areas could just seamlessly blend in with the background, coming into focus as you got nearer in a very natural feeling manner.
It reminds me of how Silent Hill had a terrible draw distance and so the developers decided to make that an actual feature. Skyward Sword's art style helped mask some of the limitations of the Wii to ensure that graphically the game never tripped up.

2. Is this your favorite style the series has utilized thus far?

No it's not but it is up there. My favourite has (and probably will remain) The Wind Waker's style. I'm a sucker for cel-shading and The Wind Waker pulled it off like no other. Skyward Sword merged that style with the more mature style of Twilight Princess with spectacular results, but ultimately I just adore the vibrance of The Wind Waker more.

3. Would you want impressionism to return?

I wouldn't be against it but I wouldn't want it back anytime soon. I'd prefer if Zelda for Wii U either used a HD version of the more realistic style (similar to that tech demo with Armogohma) or a brand new style altogether. Perhaps Impressionism could be used again on the 3DS. I'd be very interested to see what that would look like.

 

[Ouroboros]

1) Yes, I was very impressed. In fact, I think Skyward Sword is the epitome of implementing a true artistic vision/style into a game. I believe that no other game in the series has done so so successfully, I would possibly say tWW is close behind, but in my opinion, Skyward Sword demonstrates true art within a game. The use of atmospheric perspective to create depth by making distant objects or scenery 'hazy' works beautifully with the watercolor type art; together, these two techniques give SS the appearance and feeling of a beautiful painting.

2) I think my statement basically gave my answer: yes. Skyward Sword by far is my favorite style thus far. As much as I love realism in games, it doesn't give me the feeling that the game is unique. Every game developing company strives for realism in graphics, but it is the games that provide a unique style in graphics that truly are unique; you can use Okami, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, or several other examples. These games truly look like, and are masterpieces in not only
gameplay, but visuals as well.

3) Yes, and no. While I love this style, I would want it to return, but I wouldn't want it to be the same, nor would I want it to be a copy of SS. I think reusing this style would chip away at SS's uniqueness. I would prefer Nintendo to use the WiiU's HD capabilities to construct something totally new, fresh, and breathtaking. They've done it multiple times, I'm sure they will again. I just hope they don't solely focus on realism, as they did in TP.