Zelda’s Avant Garde Art Style and the Videogame Industry

The time for realism in videogaming is reaching its threshold and will eventually begin to lose favor to Romanticism. Zelda and Call of Duty are a prime example of this.

[Yi-Long]

I've said this many times before, but I much prefer a great distinct colourful visual style/design, over 'realism'.

Don't get me wrong, photo-realism obviously can look stunning, but games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda Wind Waker and Journey will stand the test of time, not because of pixels or 60 fps and realistic lighting, but because it's just got a stunning DESIGN that make them amazing to watch and experience.

You can have 10 different developers and they would all create (for instance) a car that looks photo realistic and gorgeous, but by now that's already pretty much 'accepted' as the norm. However, a racing game that would be colourful and cell-shaded might be less impressive on a technical level, but could look infinitely more stunning and original on a visual level.

Really looking forward to Rime, for example, and for a huge part that's based on it's fantastic looking visual style.
Sunset Overdrive looks great as well (reminds me of Tekkonkinkreet).

[SuperBlur]

that screenshot http://nintendoenthusiast.c...

is exactly why i got a Wii U yesterday . Okay the deal was also too good to pass , Nintendo Land - Skylander and Mario Kart 8 for the wholesome of 235$! Its only 8gb and i kind of hate the loading of going from a menu to another but that zelda SS has me drooling all over the place. I cant wait to play Yoshi Woolly Land , SSB , Zelda , Splatoon and all the games i missed out since then.

I haven't made the count yet but i think im well over 10, SMB Wii U , Luigi U , DK, Zombi U just to name a few

[Yi-Long]

That's a pretty good deal, apart from the small HDD. I'm still on the fence about buying a WiiU, simply because I have my doubts about the new Zelda coming to the WiiU next year, because of the situation Nintendo is in with that console at the moment.

It wouldn't surprise me if they'd do a 'Twilight Princess' and release it as a cross-gen launch-title for a new system, because WiiU simply isn't doing very well.

I've been very tempted about buying the WiiU when a local store had the Wind Waker console for sale for 200 euro, but the fact it was only a download-code instead of the game on a disc, kept me from buying it.

I'm really curious as to what Nintendo will be showing next month on the TGS, but they really need to come up with something great.

[thezeldadoth]

i'm considering skylanders for the fun aspect, no kids. how is it?

[NewMonday]

a game like the Order can be both realistic and artistic

IMOO I think developers should first try to eliminate visible aliasing, pop up, screen tearing and unstable frame-rate because these break immersion.

and devs should also maximize the effects of cell shading/lighting before going on to pomp more polygons.

looking at the Sony games at GC I was impressed by the art design of many games and the priorities of using the systems power, the likes of Tomorrow Children, Rime, WiLD and Tearaway made me forget that I'm watching games.

[Venoxn4g]

get Wonderful 101 ..amazing amazing game
then if you love shmups get Nano assault neo from eshop

[N4g_null]

@ Yi-Long what makes you think zelda won't be out for another 2 or 3 years? It is coming and the art style is shader based. The slow roll of games are because dealing with non fixed shaders opens up way more ways of doing things. Yet the true art is going to come from shaders created for stuff like gpgpus only. For example many things done in a Vfx package can be done on the wiiu and ps4.

Plus just from looking at the zelda remake they only needed to redo the Shaders for it to look massively better. They could easily add the other zelda lands to this game.

@newmonday the tech is already available to fix all of this issues you stated. Vfx and many 3d apps can actually render way beyond consoles. Pc are not even being taxed anymore. Thank fully 4k and 8k displays and Hollywood adoption of digital 8k cameras are going to help lower these cost then realism is not going to be as impressive. Currently their are many place where you can buy the set pieces for asscreed, watch dogs or gta. The pop up can only be fixed by culling but even that has a ram threshold. 16 gig consoles are where we maybe heading.

Until we get get there we really should lay off realism as much.

About the article. What you have to understand is the simple fact that most people creating these games don't know art history yet want video games to grow up. They simply don't know what makes good art other than realism. Before you know it the game will become same-ish. Then you will simply be playing map packs and mods at $60 a pop.

Notice how mario 2 lost levels sold less than mario 2 in dream land. Then there is the empty focus on art from the development stand point. No new or even fun game play is created hardly anymore.

[imXify]

There's another reason to use cell/toon/hard-shading.

It renders ridiculously faster! That's why Wind Waker didn't take long to port. It's so easy!

So the WiiU can take full advantage of that like Zelda U with that huge draw distance.

[lilbroRx]

That makes no sense. A texture is a texture whether its plain, realistic, cel or otherwise.

How long textures take to render depends purely on the physical size of the data vs the transfer rate of the hardware, not how they look or what style they use.

Where did you get this ridiculous information?

Wind Waker HD took over half a year to port. The reason it renders so fast is because the game was designed to take advantage of faster loading memory. It rendered fast on the Gamecube. The reason it has such a huge draw distance is once again because of the memory. The original Windwaker loaded one quadrant into 24MB of memory. They had access to 1GB of memory that was multiple times faster on the Wii U so they could load every area in the game into the RAM at once.

[imXify]

"Cel shading (often misspelled as 'cell shading') or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or Tints and shades." - Wiki

I also tried the toon shader by myself on my own 3D scene and I can tell you it's faster.

[rextraordinaire]

I've always liked styled visuals better. Borderlands, Okami, Dragon's Crown, LBP, Katamari Damacy, Child of Light, Kingdoms of Amalur... All those games look much better than any realistic style I've seen.

Zelda has always been good at that. Link to the past and Spirit Tracks (toon link) are fine showcases of good art direction.

[GenericNameHere]

"Nintendo has always been the Avant Garde of video gaming. They create new styles and new ideas, and this is what has and will save this industry again."

This... I have no words. Save the industry? Really? And the Avent-garde of video gaming? Way to insult plenty of developers who have also created advancements in gaming. You can say one of the top leading, but not "the". Dude was basically insulting developers for creating "realistic" characters and settings instead of these cartoonish and artsy design. But then again, the website is Nintendo Enthusiast, so author probably had a field time bashing those "Hollywood movie games".

The "save this industry" line just soured me. Your whole article was good, and could have ended well, until you threw that huge fanboyish comment. WTF.

[N4g_null]

Just look at the sales. Gaming is not retaining it's fans. Yet apple can sale 16 million in a month... what is wrong here?

I think console gaming does need saving. I'm not sure how old you are but I remember japan having many many ips people where salivating to buy yet not one game from Japan or the west can best cod. It really comes down to other games just not offering enough fun. This could be because realism is being chased. Yet no casual gamer cares about that on apples platform and they sale 16 million in a month. Even console development teams are pondering leaving consoles all together for smart devices.

The industry has lost more talent last gen than any other. People use to want to make video games and be just like Nintendo. Now they just fix problems so that reality can be created.

Even Hollywood has left the game industry behind. With marvel studio releasing very stylish movies made in reality with a huge push into stylish and cartoon over tones rather than trying to be realistic.

Hollywood has a few things the game industry lacks are has simply ran out of the idustry... talent and tech.

Nintendo is like the Pixar of gaming and we are yet to see an Oscar worthy video game. The themes are way to juvenile story wise. How come Hollywood gaming hasn't learned how to make a Dallas buyers club, 12 years a slave, wolf of Wallstreet?

The talent needed to make games that can win a Oscar are in the movie industry and the game industry is becoming a back water speed for juvenile delights only. Which is why so much talent has left gaming.

[MaxwellBuddha]

Games are not movies.

[LazyGoron]

I have the picture of the new Zelda landscape on my computer at work.

I've had numerous people come and say "what a pretty image/painting, what is it?".

Goes to show how amazing the game looks when middle-aged non-gamers are commenting on style and look.

[superchiller]

The article is nothing more than fanboy fantasies about a company that lost its way a long time ago. When I think about the Nintendo of today, the only thing that comes to mind is their obsession with gimmicks to set themselves apart, and poorly-designed hardware. The Nintendo of old that many loved, the one that produced great systems like the NES and SNES, died years ago. The modern Nintendo is on a path to irrelevance, with poorly thought out gimmicks like waggle controls, headache-inducing 3D, and a bulky, low-rez, distracting tablet-wannabe.

[Digimortal]

Nintendo hasn't changed at all since the NES came out. There still making the quality games they have been making since the NES days. There always thinking of new Ideas to play games just like they did with so many damn accessory back then and allowed so many other accessories that were published by Nintendo. Its you yourself who has moved on and don't care about Nintendo. They still to this day create some of the best IP's on the market. Just cause you don't like Motion controls, 3D tech with the 3DS or the tablet screen on the Wii U. Doesn't mean they are not like what they use to be. They are still doing the same thing in this industry that they have been for the last 20 years and that's making fun unique video games and that's what matters.

[marloc_x]

NO ONE ELSE is setting themselves apart..

[ExiledBlitz]

This was a really surprising and pleasant article. After hearing what the author had to say, I come out wanting an overall boost in variety in art styles in video games.