As all of you know, the next installment in the critically acclaimed Zelda franchise is cel-shaded.
Here is what it once look liked.
And now.
Many people love the new look and say it’s a change from the series, other people hate their new look because of Link’s unexplainable retarded looking design and because of the fact that it’s cartoony and not realistic like we all initially thought and both sides are entitled to their opinion. Lead designer Shiregu Miyamoto explained the shocking change in direction by saying, “
One thing I\'m afraid of is that people who already saw Link in the very beautiful graphics may be looking forward to the much more sophisticated looking version of him [Space World 2000 footage] in the next Zelda. I do not want to betray them or shatter their expectations, so what we are doing now is making Zelda as unique as possible because uniqueness is something gamers are always looking for. So I can say that we are ready to make that Zelda."Nintendo has now officially gone insane.
My extreme problem with that explanation is this- all he did was alter the graphics. Miyamoto doesn’t seem to realize yet that the American and European problem will have major problems with this. First, everyone absolutely loved the 3D look of Zelda that was found in Ocarina Of Time and Majora’s Mask. A lot of people won’t like the idea of a cartoon game simply because the old 3D look was amazing. The mainstream public would have rather preferred the highly detailed and realistic look that the 2000 Space World demo has. Be honest with yourself; that look spectacular. There is nothing Miyamoto can do in this cartoony form that he couldn’t do in 3D, this game will still be Zelda thankfully, which leads me to my next point.
Second, the kiddie factor comes into play here. The game simply looks childish. Link, to say the least, looks really young and quite gay, and everything else looks like a Saturday morning cartoon that a 7 year-old would watch. Miyamoto doesn’t realize is that Zelda was never a kiddie series to begin with. Little kids couldn’t play these games because they were far too complex. Sure, Nintendo caters to a younger audience, no one ever denied back, but this is taking it too far. Nintendo is literally turning their back on all their older gamers with this who played it. It will not appeal to their gamers, at least not like the realistic version would of. If Nintendo wants this game to sell anywhere as near as well as Ocarina Of Time did (10 million+), then this design will simply not work. Last time I checked the vast majority of Zelda fans were over the age of 13, and I know most people around that age will not like the new look. Hardcore gamers may appreciate the unique style and drastic change, but face it, casual gamers won’t. And we all know they make the overwhelming majority of overall gamers.
Lastly, when Miyamoto said he wanted to be unique, why couldn’t he have done it with another franchise or create a whole new franchise and cel-shaded it instead? Why couldn’t he have done that with Pokemon? That game would be perfect with the new Zelda look. It’s mainly a kid’s game, they watch the cartoon show, and they would appreciate the look. But the Zelda fan won’t. This is arguably Nintendo best and most valuable franchise (Mario being the other of course), why must they change it for the worse?
Let\'s all pray that Miyamoto will wakes up sometime soon.
Thanks for reading my little rant. I mainly wanted to practice my writing techniques for school but I feel I needed to share this with all of you. Now your opinions on the style of the new Zelda are wanted yet again.
EDIT-shoot. My title didn\'t sound right. Zelda has no control over what she can do with the game...it should read: "Zelda, and why Miyamoto is on crack", or something along those lines.
