Poll: *Sigh* Zelda Skyward Sword isn't exactly Cel-Shaded, and I don't think it should be realistic

[Dexiro]

It was my understanding that everyone thought Windwaker was brilliant, so why shouldn't Skyward Sword be?
It's not even AS cartoony and I've heard that even Windwaker had it's dark moments.

 

[Mantonio]

I'm personally glad they're not going for the realism look.

The quest for 'realistic, best as possible' graphics is bringing naught but harm to gaming. The amount of time and money it takes nowadays to make that level of graphics is far too large to be worth pursuing, and that time and money could be better put into better story or gameplay.

Every Zelda game, with the exception of Twilight Princess and (perhaps) Majora's Mask, has gone for a fun and stylised look. Let's not ruin that trend just because Link's socks aren't in 1080p and aren't splattered in mud and gore.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Skyward sword is cell shaded and so are many other things like Crackdown:

Just because something is cell shaded however does not make it cartoony and this is where the difference between SS (unfortunate abbreviation) and WW show. WW is obviously a more cartoony game as shown by the enlarged heads and massive anime eyes. SS is obviously going for the less cartoony and more artistic route, some of the time. The enemy design and some of the environments as show in this trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEerj89rD4k] are much more cartoony than previous 3D Zelda games and may well be on par with WW. Certain frames might look on par with impressionist paintings from 1800s but from what has been shown so far I highly doubt that the entire game will follow that image. Maybe they'll change things up or the trailer isn't indicative of the final product, who knows?

Being a cartoony game doesn't make it bad though. The best part of a Zelda game will always be the puzzles, the boss battles and the setting so if they make these things challenging, fun and engaging in that order I think this will be a good game.

Also, "Miyamoto-san"? Eugh, the san totally isn't necessary. You wouldn't put Mr. Gates or Mr. Cliffy B so why bother with the san?

 

[Outright Villainy]

I think the funny thing is I didn't really consider Twilight princess "realistic" either. It was more subdued, but certainly not realistic. A truly realistic looking Zelda would look like ass.
I like the new style, though I'd need to see more of it, and an overall impression of the world to get a real sense of it. Half of the greatness of wind waker's style was the hugely expressive animations, the animations of waves or winds represented as lines; the whole thing just leapt from the screen. It's like the older link here doesn't really fit in I guess, it's an odd mesh of the twilight princess and wind waker. I'm sure it'll grow on me though, and I'm really glad Nintendo went with something different instead of listening to the whiny fans.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

I wholly consider Twilight Princess to be better than Ocarina of Time. OOT was a great game however I think most gamers who like OOT better than anything is merely because of nostalgia.

 

[Mehall]

Also, "Miyamoto-san"? Eugh, the san totally isn't necessary. You wouldn't put Mr. Gates or Mr. Cliffy B so why bother with the san?

I don't choose to do it myself, but it's a mark of respect, and as I understand it is taken differently than Mr. Gates etc.

I generally see him referred to as Mr. Miyamoto or Miyamoto-san. Cliffy B is what the industry calls him, Mr. Miyamoto is the commonly used name. It's merely someone giving the man his respect.

 

[almostgold]

I wouldn't exactly call TP 'realistic'....

I mean, I thought its art style was brilliant, and probably my favorite par of that game, but that doesn't mean the franchise should stay that way. I think the impressionist style looks pretty good in its own way.

Except the baddies. They look stupid as hell.

 

[DustyDrB]

Has anyone here said they want blood and gore? If so, I haven't seen it. So stop acting like that's what we want. I'm not even saying the graphics are bad, but some of the design choices are cringe-worthy (see the pictures in my first post on this topic).

 

[Fire Daemon]

I don't choose to do it myself, but it's a mark of respect, and as I understand it is taken differently than Mr. Gates etc.

I generally see him referred to as Mr. Miyamoto or Miyamoto-san. Cliffy B is what the industry calls him, Mr. Miyamoto is the commonly used name. It's merely someone giving the man his respect.

I'm not expert, but isn't the more respectful title sama? Anyway, I've never really seen him referred to like that and I find that it flows poorly in a forum post and stands out like a sore thumb. I figure that the name should do nicely by itself, no reference to the level of personal respect is needed for the discussion.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

What would be nice to see is a game that reflects the old style of Link to the Past/Ocarina of Time.

This seems kind of funny to me, because LttP and OoT don't really seem all that stylistically similar to me. LttP is extremely cartoonish in a lot of ways, probably more so than any main-line console Zelda game since other than Wind Waker, which is why Four Swords Adventures worked so well as a hybrid of LttP and WW.

 

[UnmotivatedSlacker]

Just because the characters aren't chibi doesn't mean that it isn't cell-shaded.

You do realize chibi and cell-shaded are two mutually exclusive things right? Just look at the DBZ Budokai series, that was cell-shaded and not chibi.
Also anyone who doesn't want to play this game strictly because it doesn't look like Twilight Princess needs to get over themselves. Graphics don't make the game people.

 

[AdamRBi]

I think half the people complaining about how the game looks don't even own a Wii or plan on buying the game. The mutual consent seems to be that fans and gamers, at least here, are fine with the choice of design. All the shouting and accusation of cartoony-means-easier is just widening the Animation Age Ghetto.

It's a shame people still rant on about how they thing Cartoony Stylized Games can't be good simply because it's not gritty or realistic.

Hehehe, you know what should happen? You know what'd really annoy them? Someone should take a popular gameplay mechanic or title, like a sandbox or an FPS, add in all the violence these players expect from their favorite games, and make it stylized and cartoonish.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_FL9EaqicjX8/TCN1-e0-ZcI/AAAAAAAAAN8/_YsJNPjYA7s/team-fortress-2.jpg

... oh wait, they've already done that... and upon release received universal critical acclaim and is one of the most well rounded and loved fps games on the market.

...

... so <font size=23>Why do we still have to defend this notion?!!

 

[zehydra]

Cell shading isn't very impressionistic. Impressionism is all about taking a step back away from the image to enjoy the picture. Cell-shading is the elimination of texture in order to arrive at a cartoony look. Which worked fantastic for Windwaker, because Nintendo was trying to make a cartoony game with Wind waker. But if they're trying to make an impressionist game, then eliminating textures isn't going to help any.

That's why it's not completely cel-shaded. It's an art style in-between cel-shaded and realistic. The colours and shapes are meant to be arbitrary, as Miyamoto wished to emulate certain existing works.

Impressionism was also about breaking barriers in the art community, which this game is visually doing for the franchise and video game world, and neither one were or are accepted as a whole, but one has survived the test of time, and so will the other. We've seen around two locations, three at a stretch. But if the sky world looks like the first Skyward Sword picture I have posted in the OP, I'm completely game.

Seriously dude. We used to play this game in blocky 3d and stale overhead graphics and it wasn't a big deal. cel shaded, realistic. Does it even matter? If graphics are the only thing you can talk about what's going on in this game that says a lot about the game franchise in question. What about the gameplay? Is there not going to be a single thread commenting on how maybe the gameplay is a little stale? Or how link still doesn't have a real personality or voice in these games? Or how these games outright refuse to have continuity even though it would give the game depth? Or even how link manages to be the exact same link even though nintendo said that it's a different link every time which just creates time parodoxes for characters like zelda or tingle. It's always another exact tingle and zelda from the other generation of the other zelda and tingle and link? Am I the only one who's kinda bothered by the biggest change the series can get is that the final boss isn't gannon or gannondorf?

Because we've talked about all of that already. This title's gameplay isn't at all stale, they've changed it up with forcing you to think about how you attack your enemies with motion plus, and fans have proven that changing the overall aesthetic feel of a Zelda game is enough to go apeshit over. If they changed the gameplay to something akin to, oh I don't know, God Of War? People would be pissed. If it ain't broke...

A LOT of art forms were about breaking the barriers. hell, if he wanted to break the barriers he could make a Zelda in black and white, but that wouldn't make it a good idea.

 

[Mr. In-between]

Seriously why is everyone so in love with Brown now a days?

Because brown is the color of shit, which is usually what you will find inside the skulls of the people who blindly defend those types of games and accuse anything different of being "childish".

 

[The Night Shade]

I think is good because in windwaker it was really cartoony but this is just more colorful

 

[FinalHeart95]

I don't understand why people complain about how realistic FPS graphics are, and how they need to add color, yet they should do the exact opposite with Zelda games?

I'm sorry, but Zelda with some charm isn't exactly a bad thing.

 

[ThePurpleStuff]

The enemies and the scenery are what I most disliked about the demo.

I mean seriously? Link looks fine, but those baddies (especially the keese and what I guess are moblin) look retarded.

This, I completely agree with you, the enemy design is horrendous, what the hell happened? I enjoyed their style from TP, even WW's style was better than their designs. That was the next thing I noticed over the rather empty looking landscape of the place Link was running through. Maybe it's just the test map, it's too soon for us to really say anything about this game, judging it by the screens and demos from E3 isn't enough. We'll have to wait for it to be released to make proper remarks and reviews.

To me, it's not the graphics that matter, it's how the game plays, the fact I'm supposed to buy a motion plus and use my wiimote instead of a classic controller is just annoying. I don't want to feel like I'm forced to buy another peripheral just to play one game with it. If you can't switch controls around then I am not going to buy this game, this is just their way of selling motion plus.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I really don't see what the fuzz is about. For me it's the gameplay that's important, the content itself. I don't think i've ever given the details much attention at all. I didn't complain about Wind Waker, but i didn't get overjoyed by Twilight Princess either. Cel-shade or realistic doesn't really make much of a difference for me, i'm getting the game either way.

 

[Mr. In-between]

I'm amazed that so many users on this site think favorably of WindWaker. Usually all I hear is bitching and moaning because WindWaker was "kiddy" (as we all know, gritty graphics = Serious business).

I loved WindWaker and I especially enjoyed the music for Dragon Roost Island.