General Zelda Which Graphics Extreme Do You Prefer?

[JuicieJ]

But for the ones that are trying to be more serious or more relating to OoT, definitely realistic.

If a game was trying to "relate to OoT", going with a "realistic" art style would go against that. OoT's art style isn't realistic. It's very colorful and saturated, especially in OoT 3D, and characters have anime features.

I'd say realistic is the right word, though detailed works fine too.

It's not the right word at all. Zelda's characters always have anime features, which make their faces and occasionally heads impossibly disproportionate to that of real life. The color pallets also never conform to that of real life. They're either too colorful (nearly every game) or too dark (Twilight Princess) to accurately depict realism. "Detailed" is the proper word on every level.

 

[Beauts]

I like Skyward Sword graphics the best. I like TP too even though it's a bit of a down in the dumps pallet. I really don't go for toon style at all. Ew.

 

[The Marshal]

Detailed. Not too realistic.
But if I had to choose it would be realistic.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I'm torn, I like cartoon style graphics because even though it's not very detailed it still looks decent. I also like realistic graphics because they are detailed and sometimes it looks gorgeous.

I guess I'm going with realistic.

 

[Mangachick14]

I really wasn't a fan of the cell-shaded graphics. If you are, then that's great, but they just really didn't do much for me. I liked the detailed style, but not the palette (If that makes any sense). It was kinda cool to be able to see every fiber on Link's tunic and all that jazz, but yeah, all the colours were muted and I wasn't to crazy about that either. That's why I really do enjoy SS or Oot graphics the best, they were a really nice in-between, in my opinion.

But yeah, if I had to choose, I'd probably go with detailed.

 

[Dio]

I prefer the darker more serious toned Zelda games such as OOT, MM, and TP. I'm really not a fan of the brighter cell shaded style of the WW. The WWHD remake actually looks beautiful to me, but it's certainly not the direction I'd like the series to go in in the future, as I said I prefer the darker toned games so I'd want them to use a less wacky art style. The Tech demo for Wii U was a perfect update to TP's style, much more realistic than what we have seen before, the shine on the polished floor was just amazing.

 

[Spirit]

I think WW should have been the only game to be Cel Shaded/'cartoony' it worked there with the chibi artstyle, whereas games like SS which used a cel-sheded-ish design just looked as if it was cutting corners (it was) but for a game like Zelda i think the traditonal/'realistic' graphics are what should be used to better help the immersion and serious fantasy, Zelda isn't usually as fantastical as most fantasy/adventure stories/franchises so i think the traditional/realistic way works best.

 

[misskitten]

"realistic" gets my vote, I'm fine with cartoon-y graphics if it offers enough details to make it come alive, but if it's too simplistic, then I don't like it all that much.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

I'm torn up right in the middle on this one. On one hand, I like TP's art style, but on the other hand, I like TWW and the DS games' artstyle. Overall, my favourite art style is Skyward Sword, which sort of combined the two styles. I went with realistic on the poll merely because SS is more "TP" than it is "TWW"

 

[Castle]

The "toon-shaded" graphics just don't lend the atmospheric ambiance to the lands of the Zelda series like the more "realistic" graphical portrayal does (mince words all you want i'll refer to it as i will).

Places seeped in impressive atmosphere like Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple or Twilight Princess's Ruins of the Temple of Time just don't convey the feels when they're blooming with outlandishly bright colors and ridiculously proportional characters. Wind Waker and Skyward Sword didn't have a hint of feeling in their environments, and in a series that places a central focus on exploration and discovery or for an adventure set firmly in the genre of fantasy where such a strong emphasis is placed on setting, then the places we visit and the lands we discover need to feel impressive and impart that feeling of wonder like the more believable graphical style does.

The toon graphics are not capable of that.

 

[DekuPrincess]

I actually don't like cel-shading at all (I think it is far too cartoony) but I had to vote for it over the TP style "realistic" graphics mainly on the basis of color. While I do think TP is stunning, I also find it to be washed out a lot of the time--there are notable exceptions, but much of the game feels subdued to me because of the relative homogeneity of the color and the blurry atmosphere. Cel-shading, on the other hand, always feels bright and alive, and even though it isn't really to my taste, I find the mood that it engenders to be preferable.

 

[Zylian]

Twilight princess is a very nice game, the graphics are amazing, but they do not fit the Loz style at all.
The whole mood you gained in the past games disappears thanks to the, kindof macabre setting in TP.
I know, Majora's mask is pretty macabre too but they used bright colors, and ofcourse it wasn't that detailed, so that lightened up the mood.
As for windwaker, the style they used for that game ( as well as in spirit tracks ), it doesn't fit loz really that good, but at the other hand, they've kept onto the idea of a magical game full of secrets. As well as for the music they used in WW, I think that windwaker fits the LOZ-mood alot more than TP

 

[Sir Quaffler]

I prefer the stylized look over the realistic look in almost every case. Their worlds are more whimsical and fantastical, it feels like an actual fantasy setting instead of something we'd see just walking down the street. Zelda is a fantasy series and it should take care to remember that. Personally I think the anime-esque look of OoT and MM, as well as the impressionist look of SS, fit the tone of the series best.

 

[Vampire Squid]

I enjoyed both graphical styles immensely, but realistic graphics are hard to say no to. My favorite art style was Skyward Swords however, it was a nice blend of the two.

 

[Maxxy]

I say realistic because I thinked they worked so well in TP. It really immersed me in the enviornment and I got more sense of feeling that Hyrule was a real place than with the cartoony cel-shaded style.