The Wii U version of “The Legend of Zelda” has gone through a lot, and it looks like the game’s woes aren’t quite over yet. After a delay during which we saw pretty much no information on the official front, Nintendo came out with some information about the game which fed players’ interest to some extent and at least calmed down the masses. However, recent rumors have been pointing in the direction of a possible change in the art style, something which has divided the community quite significantly.
The main argument is that Nintendo might be planning to restyle the game in a different way than “Wind Waker HD”, doing away with the cartoony look and changing the overall aesthetics. And this has been a major point of discussion within the community of the franchise’s fans, with strong arguments on both sides and no end in sight.
On one hand, some players apparently loved the way “Wind Waker HD” looked and have been craving for more of the same. On the other, some were displeased with the new artistic direction to the point that they felt uncomfortable even playing the game itself because they couldn’t bear the graphics.
We don’t know if the new “Zelda” will follow the same road or if it will have a more serious art style reminiscent of the older titles. Of course, the “Zelda” franchise has always had a slightly cartoony look, but the cel-shaded style introduced in “Wind Waker HD” was a strong departure from what fans were used to, and it’s not hard to understand why it divided the community like that.
It’s worth remembering that Nintendo are one of the studios that are very strongly in touch with their community and they know what their fans love and want. Because of this, we expect that they have been keeping an eye on those discussions and know how players felt about the art style of the previous game. And with that in mind, if they see too much negativity in the way people are talking about this art style, we wouldn’t expect them to push it onto “The Legend of Zelda” for Wii U.
Still, the Wii U is a platform that somewhat predisposes to such graphics and this has been a source of worrying for some fans who are convinced that this kind of change is inevitable for the franchise. It would also make some sense with regards to the way other popular franchises have been changing, as the gaming industry as a whole seems to be moving towards more cartoony graphics in fantasy games.
Popular examples include “Diablo 3” and “Dota 2”, and it’s also interesting to note that both of those games saw similar discussions among their respective communities regarding the change in the art direction. And in addition, fans of “Zelda” have other arguments against changing the art style from the “Wind Waker HD” direction that have nothing to do with aesthetics at all.
The biggest argument is development time – players see this as yet another barrier to the game’s completion and they are convinced that a sudden change in the art style will result in even more delays. There has been speculation that the previous delay was caused by this exactly, although this is still unconfirmed and we don’t know if there is any truth to those claims or not. The way Nintendo have been behaving around the game certainly seems to point in that direction in the eyes of some players however.