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[BlackTron]

The art style is part of the creativity and artistic vision. Realism is not some ideal to be targeted.

I think this was true of Wind Waker. They made a conscious choice to pursue that direction. Wind Waker was their artistic vision to realize. They had more hardware power than ever and wanted to do that.

After that things changed. Twilight Princess was "mature" because, as Miyamoto said, people really, really REALLY wanted a realistic Zelda. So they answered what people "wanted", and that "poisoning of the well" in their mission resulted in a poor looking game. I'm not saying it was bad because it wasn't cel shaded or toony, I'm saying it was bad because when they sat down to make it their priorities were clouded by complaints. OOT was made just by chasing the best looking Zelda on the system that they could. They didn't do that on GC, they chased OOT 2 and we got a lame looking game for it IMO.

I don't think Skyward Sword was pure artistic vision either. In SS the style was chosen as the best one possible to hide the deficiencies of the Wii hardware, without putting out a game that looks completely old and last gen by the time it comes out. Business and hardware realities affected the "art". So we get their best artistic efforts inside this box they are placed in.

You better believe the same thing happened with BOTW. I first played most of it on Wii U where the hardware was tasked even further. Once they made the decision to make an open-world game, they had two choices. Cover it up with as much toon shade trickery as they possibly can, or allow the game to look like complete dogshit. The result was a very skillful pairing of hardware and software that I would call art of game making. But if you want pure artistic vision, just give a designer hardware power and let them do what they want without being boxed in by 1GB of RAM. BOTW and TOTK are still "the same game" designed for Wii U with 1GB of RAM and PowerPC architecture. No TOTK would not run on Wii U but you know what I am getting at here.

What I'm trying to say is that Nintendo deserves accolades for making incredible Zelda games on limited hardware that kept the IP on the map. But don't BS me that this is just some artists pure creative vision unsullied by the constraints given. It would be a huge, huge coincidence that the artistic vision of the designers of the past many years of Zelda games just so happened to be the only one really viable for making them look acceptable on the hardware given. A+ job doing it though.

 

[Lethal01]

Nintendo owes the HD era of gaming, a realistic looking graphical powerhouse Zelda AAA banger.

A stylized looking graphical powerhouyse would be far better they just need to get closter to the CGI animated cerion of the BoTW style reen here

 

[Lethal01]

Why don't you understand that games can have realistic art styles, and STILL retain creativity and artistic vision?

You guys let Nintendo get away with the bare minimum.

Nintendo apologists.

Ah so just pure unfiltere trolling then?
Realistic games can do unique things, I dont care, I specifically prefer stylized ones Nintendo is specifically catering to my tastes and I pray they never cater to yours

 

[AngelMuffin]

The thing ai love most about the Zelda games is that they mix things up every now and again. Makes them feel fresh and exciting. The Wind Waker is my favorite and it still holds up extremely well today and a big reason for that is the cel-shaded art style.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Agreed but won't happen

 

[small_law]

This old chestnut.

 

[Trogdor1123]

 

[Sleepwalker]

I love Wind Waker but think BOTW/TOTK look very bland and unimpressive so I wouldn't mind a change.

 

[LordOcidax]

 

[Toots]

It will never be, realistic zelda would frighten nintenkids too much...
Always give your audience what they want, especially when your audience is 30+ yo children prone to temper tantrums.

 

[Roman Empire]

You can make something look more mature without going for a realistic look.

Stylized Zelda > Realistic Zelda

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

worst thread of the month. Congrats

 

[Lynkk]

Nothing beats the artwork from the first Zelda on Famicom

 

[tommyleelynn]

You're not entitled to what you want, OP.

 

[Guerilla Munch]

Breath of the Wild sold 35 million copies without ever having a price drop. The next Zelda will probably look like Cocomelon.

 

[corgiix3]

Yea its no coincidence my favorite Zelda games look the most realistic.

 

[Lynkk]

And let's be honest, the design of the master sword looks like a shitty toy. It was okay on N64 with 20 vertices.

Time to change.

Make Zelda Great Again.

 

[tr1p1ex]

Never had any complaints with the look of the Zelda games.

 

[Fbh]

I mean, I'd love a Zelda in the art style of that WiiU demo.
I wouldn't call that "realistic" though.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Just bring back real fucking dungeons. That's all I ask.

 

[ReBurn]

It's mind-blowing that another studio hasn't swooped in and made a Zelda like game with realism.

You mean like Zelda being unable to pay the rent on the castle and resorting to onlyfans to make ends meet? Or Link having to do gig work as a doordasher in the evenings because his day job at the sword factory doesn't pay enough?

 

[Madflavor]

I don't think it should stick to one aesthetic, but I think it should change it up every once in awhile.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Just bring back real fucking dungeons. That's all I ask.

no, you ll have 304993010023940 gimmick dungeons with the same assets and ll love it

 

[EverydayBeast]

Good to see both art styles in Zelda.

 

[BlackTron]

You mean like Zelda being unable to pay the rent on the castle and resorting to onlyfans to make ends meet? Or Link having to do gig work as a doordasher in the evenings because his day job at the sword factory doesn't pay enough?

At least one of these ideas is good

 

[MadchesterManc]

Wouldn't mind it myself, but there would have to be a cut-off somewhere so its still stylised. I've seen Kena mentioned a few times so far and that's probably about as far as I'd take a 'realistic' Zelda myself. One done in a similar visual style to Hyrule Warriors probably wouldn't be too bad either

 

[AJUMP23]

The graphics of Nintendo games and the stylized looks they have make them great and timeless.

 

[64gigabyteram]

It's ridiculous how Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess are the only Zelda games going for the realistic aesthetic.

Are they realistic or just more detailed? None of these games look anywhere close to irl

 

[Lokaum D+]

The graphics of Nintendo games and the stylized looks they have make them great and timeless.

100% this, such timeless classics, stylized look or gtfo

 

[Generic]

Zelda shouldn't even have voice acting in the first place.

 

[Generic]

100% this, such timeless classics, stylized look or gtfo

Reminder this still is being sold at $60.

 

[kiphalfton]

Not "realistic" per se, but a very stylized look like the second image in the original post. Or like the cover art of Twilight Princess essentially.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Not realistic, but I'd love for the series to go back to the dark fantasy tones of ALTTP, OOT and MM.

TP I guess as well, but that one struck me more as edgy rather than dark fantasy lol.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Reminder this still is being sold at $60.

it ll be U$ 80 after they release a switch 2 version.

 

[AJUMP23]

100% this, such timeless classics, stylized look or gtfo

Is this a Zelda.....Pokemon is garbage all of them.

I rest my case.

 

[Wimbledon]

I miss windwaker

 

[GymWolf]

100% this, such timeless classics, stylized look or gtfo

I laudably laugh at people thinking that this shit is gonna age gracefully

 

[BlackTron]

Nintendo does not develop Pokemon games and it's not hard to see that they don't have the authority to strongarm Gamefreak.

Nice thread derail though.

 

[Krathoon]

I would appreciate an anime Zelda just like the artwork in the original Legend of Zelda manual.

That would be brilliant.

 

[BlackTron]

I laudably laugh at people thinking that this shit is gonna age gracefully

Well, it ages better than Twilight Princess.

 

[GymWolf]

Well, it ages better than Twilight Princess.

Almost all 3d games aiming for realism before ps4 era aged kinda badly, hardwares were not ready for realistic graphic.

Botw and tokw were made during the ps4 era, way less excuse to look like that when guilty gear games have state of the art celshading that it's gonna look great even in 10 years from now, zelda is gonna look like absolute crap in 10 years because it already look like crap right now.

 

[BlackTron]

Almost all 3d games before ps3-ps4 era aged kinda badly, hardwares were not ready for realistic graphic.

Botw and tokw were made during the ps4 era, way less excuse to look like that when guilty gear games have state of the art celshading that it's gonna look great even in 10 years from now, zelda is gonna look like absolute crap in 10 years because it already look like crap right now.

Well the only way to make them look good for the time they came out while still being an open world game was much, much better hardware. Soul Caliber looked better than anything else on Dreamcast because it was a fighting game that only rendered one arena and two characters. Given the realities for Nintendo's developers, they made the best choices.

Of course I would have preferred a more conservative design and enclosed spaces with a different art style. In the giant draw distance open world game, this was actually a tremendous effort.

 

[Bond007]

Id love to see it.
Zelda has had many different styles over the years. It shouldn't be a permanent thing- more like just a few games and then switch to another art direction.

 

[GymWolf]

Well the only way to make them look good for the time they came out while still being an open world game was much, much better hardware. Soul Caliber looked better than anything else on Dreamcast because it was a fighting game that only rendered one arena and two characters. Given the realities for Nintendo's developers, they made the best choices.

Of course I would have preferred a more conservative design and enclosed spaces with a different art style. In the giant draw distance open world game, this was actually a tremendous effort.

True but then again, who the fuck forced nintendo to take the gimmicky, low budget way with their console instead of making a classic, powerfull home console?

They made their bed and switch is a huge success, it doesn't mean that i have to like that, i hate that switch is a fucking tablet

 

[rodrigolfp]

Fantasy game should look realistic. -_-'

No Zelda game ever had realistic visuals and that Wii U trailer is not realistic too.

 

[BlackTron]

True but then again, who the fuck forced nintendo to take the gimmicky, low budget way with their console instead of making a classic, powerfull home console?

They made their bed and switch is a huge success, it doesn't mean that i have to like that, i hate that switch is a fucking tablet

Nobody forced Nintendo to make Wii U but they sure regretted it. The answer is that they made a mistake. After their mistake, their only way out was the "gimmick" tablet which was apparently what the whole world actually wanted (except us). I think a traditional battle vs Xbox and Playstation after Wii U would have been too much attrition; they needed a gimmick, this time thankfully it was something actually practically useful and not some microphone or waggle shit so the market responded.

 

[DreamcastSkies]

If Nintendo ever does a Zelda with the look of the Twilight Princess Wii U tech demo, I hope it is a remake of Twilight Princess or a direct sequel. I think Twilight Princess is aging like wine. I want to return to that world of Zelda.

 

[GymWolf]

Nobody forced Nintendo to make Wii U but they sure regretted it. The answer is that they made a mistake. After their mistake, their only way out was the "gimmick" tablet which was apparently what the whole world actually wanted (except us). I think a traditional battle vs Xbox and Playstation after Wii U would have been too much attrition; they needed a gimmick, this time thankfully it was something actually practically useful and not some microphone or waggle shit so the market responded.

It was not their only way out, it was a choice, continue with the gimmicky way or make a classic console and rival m and sony like they did in the past gen.

Wii u was already a gimmicky console, not a classic one.

Not sure how coming from a failing gimmicky console, the "only way out" was making another risky gimmicky console, they were lucky and it worked out but it was hardly the only way out...

Sw2 is more powerfull than a ps4, nobody force them to still make game with 5000 yen budget that look like crap in 2025, so even when they have some power on their hands, they still make cheap looking games.

 

[BlackTron]

It was not their only way out, it was a choice, continue with the gimmicky way or make a classic console and rival m and sony like they did in the past gen.

Wii u was already a gimmicky console, not a classic one.

Not sure how coming from a failing gimmicky console, the "only way out" was making another risky gimmicky console, they were lucky and it worked out but it was hardly the only way out...

Of course Wii U was a gimmick.

Just saying I think they made the best moves to navigate out of the dumpster fire.

I'd rather Nintendo has the resources to have the choice to make any Zelda they choose for the rest of my days than to put all their chips on the Nintendo Gamesphere. A position they are now in with Switch 2; the hardware is capable and we don't have a clue what we are getting.

 

[ReasonBeing]

Idk, let Nintendo keep doing what they are doing. Outside of the N64 releases, I think Twilight Princess is the least attractive game to go back to. The "cartoony" art style of the other releases are timeless. I understand why someone would think differently though, it's a subjective topic.