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WW-Wii U Why Do Some People Hate Wind Waker Because of the Graphics?

Joined
May 21, 2012
Location
The Netherlands
How can you even dislike the graphics? It simply makes the world a more fun and innocent place. And everything's really cute, that's a plus too. =p

And like Spiritofzant said; the graphics seem to be timeless...
 

ShadowDiety

Nanomachines, son.
Joined
Apr 12, 2012
Location
Michigan
Graphics mean almost nothing to me. But I think Wind Waker looked a little too cartoonish. I think Skyward Sword got it just right with the cartoon look. I still love Wind Waker though :)
 

Djinn

and Tonic
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Location
The Flying Mobile Opression fortress
By comparison Wind Waker looked like an incredible step back in appearance. When we look at each game before it, it went as far as the console it was played on could go visually. The original LoZ look as good as any 8bit NES game and did not really stand out as really impressive or lacking. Graphics were not as big an issue then. When the 16 bit SNES came out ALTTP was just as visually stunning as every other SNES era game, Nintendo perfectly kept up with the competition. The N64 era they went even further to make a game that actually immerse the player into a 3D experience and even tried to go beyond their competition the PSX in graphical capability. They even took it a step further with MM requiring the expansion pack for that game.

Then when the next generation of consoles came out everyone again upgraded everything to be a top quality as possible to really show off the graphics of the current games. Fans were especially into graphics at this point and were expecting any and all games to be a visually amazing as the gameplay itself. This was a step above the PSX/N64 era and everything coming out had to show it. But, instead Nintendo backpeddled and went with cell shaded graphics which looked overly colorful to a fault with in come cases. And on top of that radically changed the character design to very abstract big headded, and tiny feet caricatures of people. Often with overexaggerated expressions and oddly designed features which have only been seen in some cartoons. Meanwhile everyone else is showing off crushing realism and dynamic features on their characters and landscapes. WW settled for lots and lots of solid color blue for an ocean. This also caused an amazing amount of disappointment since just two years earlier at the Spaceworld convention Nintendo showed off the amazing graphics capabilities of their upcoming console the Gamecube with a demo of Link fighting a Lizalfos. This caused everyone to think that this would be the next Zelda game and it would be ten times more beautiful to look at than the last one. So this really made a couple levels of disappointment on part of the fans when they finally did see the first few pics of WW. To many people it looked like Nintendo was not even trying to compete with other game companies at all. They had decided to attempt to be different again by going the artistic expression route instead of trying to remain on the cutting edge with their peers. And this hurt them with a lot of people at the time.

Taken out of context today many people do not really see that because there are so many other games of superior graphics now that make everything on the gamecube seem less anyway. Much like a latecomer playing OoT or ALTTP today, of course it would look bad because it is old. But current fans play them anyway knowing it is old but do not care because they know they are playing a dated game and they want the gameplay not the look. But before the Gamecube era Nintendo actively tried to compete with their competition and produce something that was equal to or superior for each console. Until the Gamecube, Sony/Squaresoft was rolling out FFX with huge visual cinematics mean to attract more fans to the series. WW seemed incredibly weak when compared at the time. So this has caused people to later view WW and Nintendo as either fumbling or simply not even trying. Which has slowly evolved into just not at all liking cell shading in general because it brings up memories of small, big headed characters with overexaggerated features roaming around in a brightly colored cartoon landscape. Even if that memory to a lot of people is an overembellished exaggerated memory of what they did see at the time.
 

Awesome

The Creepy Uncle
Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Location
Swaggin Roost Island
When I first saw the Wind Waker, I had only ever played Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. I was appalled that Nintendo would ruin my favorite series with these stupid childish visuals. I played the game for a few minutes and saw the little kid with snot coming out of his nose and thought that Zelda was gone forever. My way of thinking didn't change later till I realized that I didn't care about graphics. They were the least important aspect of a game in my opinion now.

By now I had played most of the other Zelda games and decided to give Wind Waker a try. This time I loved the visuals! They could do what no other Zelda could and that's because it's style was unique. Basically what I'm saying is that people either hate The Wind Waker for its graphics because they are ignorant (like I was) or they value graphics way too highly and don't know that a quality game with excellent gameplay is always better than a pretty game with terrible gameplay
 
Djinn said:
Taken out of context today many people do not really see that because there are so many other games of superior graphics now that make everything on the gamecube seem less anyway. Much like a latecomer playing OoT or ALTTP today, of course it would look bad because it is old. But current fans play them anyway knowing it is old but do not care because they know they are playing a dated game and they want the gameplay not the look. But before the Gamecube era Nintendo actively tried to compete with their competition and produce something that was equal to or superior for each console. Until the Gamecube, Sony/Squaresoft was rolling out FFX with huge visual cinematics mean to attract more fans to the series. WW seemed incredibly weak when compared at the time. So this has caused people to later view WW and Nintendo as either fumbling or simply not even trying. Which has slowly evolved into just not at all liking cell shading in general because it brings up memories of small, big headed characters with overexaggerated features roaming around in a brightly colored cartoon landscape. Even if that memory to a lot of people is an overembellished exaggerated memory of what they did see at the time.

I would argue that Nintendo still continued to battle fiercely with the competition during the sixth generation with the Gamecube. The Xbox was more cutting edge than the Gamecube but that's because Microsoft is a large corporation with tons of money to spend. In comparison to the power of the PS2 hardware, however, the Gamecube was clearly superior. The GameCube's graphics processor is 162 MHz compared with PS2's 147 MHz (Source). What ultimately killed the Gamecube was the it lacked online play (I do realize that the system was broadband compatible for LAN and one game boasted genuine online capabilities-Phantasy Star Online-but it was too little too late) and could not play DVDs which the other two competing systems could.

In regards to The Wind Waker, it was a very good game for its game. Many games of the generation were blurry messes and Nintendo wisely chose to avoid that fate with its first Gamecube Zelda installment by using a cell shaded art style. The color palette provided for excellent juxtapositions in tone and added further immersion by creating a more engrossing and emotional experience. It's truly incredible how the title could fluctuate between elements of light and dark so effectively. At the start of the game, it's hard not to feel ecstatic for Link on his birthday with the gulls singing in the beautiful sky overheard and Aryll popping in to awaken the tired soon to be hero. At the game's conclusion, Nintendo was able to effectively dim the game's colors and not make the epic conclusion seem out of place. I've always deemed this screenshot to be one of the greatest expressions of that belief.
images
Even titles released later during the system's lifespan like Twilight Princess when Nintendo clearly knew how to tap the most out of its system were held back by the system's SD graphics and appeared incredibly pixelated.

I do agree about the exaggerated aspect though. I believe that after this first true genuine generation of Nintendo lagging behind in terms of horsepower, fans I starting to truly appreciate what The Wind Waker meant for its time. But that's an oversimplification of things. Graphics are only the cherry on top for a videogame. What truly made The Wind Waker shine was the standard shining gameplay of the franchise and a story more engrossing than usual which also stood in stark contrast to what most would expect from such a "kiddie" looking game.
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
I've heard this same ting about a lot of games, not just Zelda, but i agree. I love Wind Waker, and it ind of bugs me when people judge video games on only their graphics.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2012
So many out there view realism as the pinnacle of video game graphics. Realism doesn't mean squat if your world is boring and bland.
Give me a vibrant, creative world any day.
 
Joined
May 5, 2012
I know that graphics aren't the most important feature of a video-game, I even think that the old oot is perfect as it is but it does change something. When I playes twilight princess, I couldn't help but feel amazed, the artwork was so beautiful and serious, it was how I pictured in my head the world of zelda. Although I admit it was a bit too dark at times and a colorful world is amazing as well (Ex: oot and ss) but there's something about WW's graphics that just didn't make any appeal to me. When i played it, I had a hard time getting into it because of the graphics that were too childish in my opinion, I felt like they had specially made that game for children and I was a teenager already so I became uninteressed and never finished it. I don't like toon graphics, at all. I think it takes away a lot of the seriousness of Zelda and that is important in my opinion.
 

Fig

The Altruist
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Location
Mishima Tower
As I posted on an earlier thread that I made, I despise people who hate a game because of its graphics. My never played a Zelda and only has an Xbox 360, so I knew what ideas he had for graphics, but when he saw the trailer and review for Skyward Sword at IGN's website, he told me that he was amazed by how the graphics looked like in Skyward Sword. I was astonished by his reaction, and I was amazed by what he thought of Skyward Sword's graphics. When I showed him the graphics for Wind Waked, he couldn't believe the graphics were so amazing at the time of its release. He then tried both games out, and he now wants to but a Wii to play those two games, which I'm going to lend to him. He also prefers a game's gameplay than its graphics. Just to clarify, graphics don't make the game awesome, the gameplay elements, plot, story, game features, etc. bring out the epicness of each separate game its existence.
 

prince rallis

I'm a huge metal fan.
I liked the Wind Wakers graphics although I hated sailing because it takes so dang long to get to your destination,the only games in the zelda series I didn't like the graphics in are SS and OoT3D,SS was a little bad but OoT 3D was just awful they just irritate my eyes.

I've heard that people also hated TP because of its graphics.
 

DinNayruFarore

God of Goddesses
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
It's very strange for someone to hate the graphics because I like the graphics. People who have a stronger sense of graphic arts from the West would have a lesser favor for the graphics, so I can understand. The content of the game was good to alright mainly because of sailing, but I liked the graphics a bit.
 

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