Breath of the Wild What Happened to the Realistic Art Style Fans / "celda" Haters?

[HyainKnight]

In the early years of gamecube, a Zelda tech demo was shown. It was known as the Spaceworld 2000 Zelda Tech Demo. It showed a realistic art styled Link. Fans were excited. When Wind Waker was revealed, there was a huge backlash from the North American (NA) Zelda fanbase. at least 1/2 of the NA fanbase was upset with the art style of Wind Waker as it was cartoony instead of realistic like the Spaceworld 2000 Zelda Tech Demo. Wind Waker sold poorly in NA.

Years later, Nintendo wanted to bring back the Zelda NA fanbase, so they gave their next game a realistic
art style similar to the Spaceworld 2000 Tech demo. This game was Twilight Princess. The NA Zelda fans were thrilled:

[video=youtube;zwMdcESljqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwMdcESljqg[/video]

Aonuma himself said that he would never forget the positive feedback (quote: "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."). Twilight Princess sold very well, while Wind Waker sold poorly. It is clear that a fair ammount of NA Zelda Fans feel Zelda is better with a realistic art style than a cartoony or cell shaded one. For the sake of keeping this article simple we will refer to these NA fans who were angered at Wind Waker's reveal for differing from the Spaceworld 2000 Zelda Tech Demo, the realismphiles. We will call these fans realismphiles(not to be derogatory, I am not for or against them).

It is clear that Zelda Realismphiles made up a big part of the Zelda NA fanbase back then, but what happened too them?


Many years later, when the Wii U was announced, a tech demo was shown. It was called the E3 2011 Zelda HD Experience Tech Demo. It showed, once again, a realistic looking Link. The art style was realistic and the feedback from the NA Zelda fans was positive. Everyone loved the look of the E3 2011 Zelda HD Experience Tech Demo. Years later, Zelda Wii U was shown at E3 2014. It had a cartoony cell shaded art style, just like the Wind Waker. Noticing a pattern yet? Odly enough, the feedback from NA Zelda Fans was mostly positive, even after being shown a realistic tech demo before hand. Why is this?

In the gamecube era, the following events occured:
-realistic art style Zelda tech demo shown
-NA fans hyped
-the actual Zelda game on the console is cartoony art style
-NA fans are upset

In the Wii U era, the following events occured:
-realistic art style Zelda tech demo shown
-NA fans hyped
-the actual Zelda game on the console is cartoony art style
-NA fans are hyped


This can only mean one thing. The realismphiles in the Zelda NA fanbase (who hated the change of art style in the gamecube era) have disapeared.
But where did they go?

These are the two only posibilities I can think of are the following:
-The realismphiles got fed up and left the Zelda fan base long time ago, hence the lack of complaints from them regarding Zelda Wii U.
-The realismphiles have changed their attitude and have come to accept the cartoony art style in Zelda.


My stance on weather I prefer realism or cartoonyness in Zelda is irrelvant to this article, for it is not about wich is better for the series. It's about
what happened to the fans of the realistic art style? Why did they mysteriously dissapear? You would think that they would be upset for waiting 8 years since Twilight Princess for another realistic Zelda game, only to be neglected at E3 2014 and potentially never see a return of their favorite art style again. Not to mention NA generally prefers realistic graphics in video games.

What do you think happened to them? Were you one of the realismphiles a decade ago during the events of the spaceworld 2000 gamecube Zelda tech demo incident? Discus.

 

[A Link In Time]

I prefer the realistic art style, but I also appreciate the work Nintendo has done with cel-shading. The cel-shaded Zelda games have aged better, and they're arguably better at conveying emotions through scenery and facial expressions.

With HD, I think we've reached a point where older games will still be looked at as "pretty good" unlike something along the lines of Twilight Princess, which fans complain has muddy textures and a dull color palette.

Starting with Skyward Sword, Nintendo has been experimenting with a style that combines the more vivid color palette and landscapes of the cel-shaded games with the more plausible body proportions of the realistic games. I think this compromise is what Nintendo has always been aiming for and even the 3DS N64 remakes lighten things up a bit. Zelda Wii U, of course, is the "Skyward Sword HD" that some fans were imagining, and the superior visual quality of the Wii U does it justice.

I still want to see a future Zelda game with the tech demo graphics; however, I'll settle for what we got for now. The stunning mountain sunset from the Game Awards footage showcased that this art style can make great use of the Wii U's hardware.

 

[Dio]

I dislike the WW's look and it's due to the proportions of the characters and overly simplistic appearance of everything in the game. SS just looks like a horrible mess to me, the style does not look nice to me, there is not really a point in SS where I would actually admire the scenery.
I am really liking the Zelda U look though because it actually does look pretty, it looks like an anime come to life, there are beautiful vistas, the lighting effects look well done. I don't have a legitimate complaint about the way it is looking.

Zelda used to be more mainstream which is why OOT and TP were so popular, but the people that wanted more of that sort of thing would have gone over to the 360 which provides more of those kind of fantasy games. I am a Zelda fan and I buy Nintendo consoles just to play Zelda, but if you look at the type of games I play other than that, none of those experiences are on Nintendo consoles. I would not be surprised if many of the fans simply moved on to another console where they can get the games they normally like to play.

 

[Snow Queen]

The thing about realistic graphics is that the more realistic it is, the less charm it has. That was the issue Twilight Princess had. Realistic graphics also become very dated much easier than more artistic graphics.

 

[Salem]

Third possibility:
The realismphiles died.

It might be because a lot of them are actually mislead, I mean a lot of Zelda fans are lead to be believe that OoT/MM is even realistic and it's "different" from WW, well yeah it is different but OoT is not even realistic.

What actually annoys about the whole discussion is that OoT/MM/TP is what Zelda is supposed to look like. It's not.

WW, at least seems to have a closer colour pallet to alttp For example, if alttp was the las Zelda game made, and then in the GCN era they decide to "revive" Zelda, WW would seem to be a more logical "revival" in terms of art style.

So, what I'm trying to say is, neither "version" of Zelda art styles is wrong.

Also, TP's "realistic" artstyle has nothing to do with that game's success. It was simply released at the right time and the right console.

 

[Djinn]

After Nintendo pulled the realistic-Wind Waker bait and switch on the general public twice. For the Gamecube they teased with a short clip of a realistic Link then rolled out Wind Waker. Years later with the WiiU they teased with a HD rendered version of the fight with Armagohma fight from TP them rolled out WW HD.

But in recent years I think things have stabilized some in keeping the more cartoon art style to the handheld with the more normal art style to consoles. It seems to work out a little better that way with few complaints on either side.

 

[Terminus]

Because we got sick of being flamed for not liking the cartoon style. Also, TWW looks a lot sillier than the SS-esque footage we got.

 

[Salem]

Because we got sick of being flamed for not liking the cartoon style. Also, TWW looks a lot sillier than the SS-esque footage we got.

Everyone gets flamed for liking/disliking any art style.

 

[HyainKnight]

After Nintendo pulled the realistic-Wind Waker bait and switch on the general public twice. For the Gamecube they teased with a short clip of a realistic Link then rolled out Wind Waker. Years later with the WiiU they teased with a HD rendered version of the fight with Armagohma fight from TP them rolled out WW HD.

But in recent years I think things have stabilized some in keeping the more cartoon art style to the handheld with the more normal art style to consoles. It seems to work out a little better that way with few complaints on either side.

Interesting, I guess thats why smash bros has realistic Link and Toon Link.

 

[Kybyrian]

Maybe they realized it doesn't really matter.

Spoiler

Nintendo fans would be the first to tell you that graphics don't define a game.

 

[Ventus]

Maybe they realized it doesn't really matter.

Spoiler

Nintendo fans would be the first to tell you that graphics don't define a game.

A damn good response, I think what happened is that people grew up overtime and realized that their petty opinions regarding the art style of the meat they want really doesn't matter. That seems to have been the case for a lot of things that occurred in the past but have parallels in the present.

 

[DarkestLink]

What really appalls me is that Wind Waker's sales set off a red alarm...I mean if you compare game sales, it didn't really do that badly. It did better than both MM and SS. As to what happened to them...they got TP and left. This fanbase is constantly changing and, unfortunately, a very good portions of its members come to complain or hate on the series.

Honestly, you really don't see Zelda fanboys that often. Wind Waker fanboys, yes. OoT fanboys yes. MM fanboys? God yes. But not too many fans who are happy with the current series (current being last few games to be released)...not online anyway. The real world fanbase is a different story.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

I'm guessing they just got used to the cartoony art style ever since WW was first revealed. Zelda U looks like it has a mix of WW's & SS's graphics with a hint of TP's graphics, but without the realism. That's probably why the reception for the game was better compared to back then. It's something that many Zelda fans wanted.

Zelda U's graphics looked alright, tbh. I mean, it does look better than TP's graphics, but I still stand that Link looks way too weird from the first teaser trailer. There's just something about his design that looks off to me.

 

[Dukusword]

Easy.

People were mad because they felt Nintendo "promised" them that artstyle for the first Zelda GameCube game, and Wind Waker was shown and had that cartoony art style people went crazy because they felt "lied" to and that Zelda would stick to that art style forever.

When Twilight Princess was announced, people were back super hyped because they got the Zelda they were dreaming of and people started to realize Wind Waker was an actual good game.

When the Zelda Wii U tech demo was shown with it's "realistic art style" people were hyped because the TP style as of now is the most popular, when Zelda Wii U was officially shown people were already used to Wind Waker and loved it and people knew not to expect the TP style again just because it was in the tech demo.

And not only that, the Zelda Wii U style isn't nearly as cartoony as Wind Waker, it's actually a whole lot more realistic and I think in some ways more realistic then Skyward Sword.

Here's a comparison.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U - Realistic style with a hint of celshaded

The Legend of Zelda Wii U Tech Demo - Twilight Princess Style (Realistic)

The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker - Celshaded

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword - Water color style with a mixture of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess

 

[Iridescence]

The people who prefer realistic Zelda and don't care for games like TWW are still there.

They just stopped getting angry about it and moved on to play games like Skyrim and Dark Souls.