Is the reliance on Cel Shading dampening series sales?

[Djinn]

It's weird when they take something like cell shading, which is intended to be a relatively simple and easy method of adding graphics that speed up production, and it still takes 7-8 years between games. Sort of seems like some wasted effort at that point.

 

[Spamomanospam]

It's weird when they take something like cell shading, which is intended to be a relatively simple and easy method of adding graphics that speed up production, and it still takes 7-8 years between games. Sort of seems like some wasted effort at that point.

In the case of Zelda, I think it's less a production speed thing and more a style thing. It began with Wind Waker because the technical limitations of the GameCube made rendering water textures in a more realistic style incredibly difficult to program. After that, the tech improved by such leaps that at this point, they could probably do whatever they want with the timeframe of one "Zelda production cycle." That in mind, they create what they believe fits the theme, environment, and story of the game best.

 

[Djinn]

In the case of Zelda, I think it's less a production speed thing and more a style thing. It began with Wind Waker because the technical limitations of the GameCube made rendering water textures in a more realistic style incredibly difficult to program. After that, the tech improved by such leaps that at this point, they could probably do whatever they want with the timeframe of one "Zelda production cycle." That in mind, they create what they believe fits the theme, environment, and story of the game best.

I remember reading about how they loved it since they could include things like lots of expressions for Link's face so they added in puzzles that depended on what Link was looking at, or the player is meant to go in the direction of Link's attention. In 03' Cell shading was the best device for that.

Cell shading never bothered me, the overly simplistic art style is what I never liked. The gigantic head, nonexistent feet, borderline creepy cat eyes, and just abstract shapes for the bodies. It just looked ugly to me. Skyward Sword was cell shaded and that never bothered me.

 

[Salem]

The cell shading is only incidental, it has nothing to do with anything.

 

[CrimsonCavalier]

Cell shading never bothered me, the overly simplistic art style is what I never liked. The gigantic head, nonexistent feet, borderline creepy cat eyes, and just abstract shapes for the bodies. It just looked ugly to me. Skyward Sword was cell shaded and that never bothered me.

Well it doesn't have to be that way. If you remember, Killer 7 and No More Heroes both used cel-shading to good effect, and both of those games were "mature" games.

 

[Sheiken]

This is a tough topic. I think cell shaded graphics look great and they make the game age better. However due to the mentality of certain gamers, a realistic tone could generate more interest in the short term.

I think for Nintendo though, cell shaded graphics are the way to go as they always seem to be behind in console power. If they went with realistic, people would just complain that it does not look as good as Witcher 3 or Skyrim.

BotW is a beautiful game to the point where people don't seem to worry that it is cell shaded. This is possible on the WiiU because of how well cell shading ages in the first place. As far as I am concerned, this allows BotW to look every bit as good as Witcher 3 on weaker hardware, and that is the key to why they should keep using it given the circumstances. The last realistic styke release was on the GameCube, which was Nintendo's last powerful home console for its time. I think that this is no coincidence.

And Skyward Sword had its flaws, but it was a GREAT game!