This week, we are starting by talking about one of my favourite games from way back in 2002. It has the best soundtrack and the most authentic feeling of exploration and adventure, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
I could ramble on about Zelda and it’s very convoluted lore and timeline for hours. To be clear, I am not going to review Wind Waker nor explain the plot in depth, I will be talking about the art style in particular. On the release, it was not very well received and the feedback was pretty rough, only because everybody was waiting for a more realistic Zelda after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Nintendo had just shown footage of dark themed realistic tech-demo of Ganondorf and link fighting (Zelda GameCube [Space World 2000 Tech Demo] ) and, oh boy, when they revealed the Wind Waker. Colorful cartoony Link with a big smile.
The hate was, what it was at the time, because the expectations were not met, but let me tell you that they wouldn't have been able to create such a timeless art piece of a game if they had done the next zelda game realistically. Considering the hardware limitations and time limits that were set.The devs had more time to concentrate on everything else. Without having to think how everything would look and focusing on the realistic touches which would emphasize the little finickies ( hm, is finicky a word?). Makers of the game had more freedom, they were faster and could focus on the other parts. Even Wind Waker had time constraints and it can be seen in the game, but Wind Waker wouldn't matter so much if it wasn't for the style.
Pursuing a more stylistic artstyle over realistic games is the classical triple AAA game’s trick, but I ain't fooling. I get the natural curiosity of how you can make something as realistic as you can. Artists did it in the 1840s before they got weary of it after perfecting it. Honestly, I don’t think game devs are stopping either before getting the perfect realism. It’s a big market and what consumer’s want game companies do deliver. BUT, with a big market you have competitors and with not so exciting visuals you are easily fallen to the mediacore section. Realism isn't even accessible at all without having a big company with funds and users having to have prizy equipment. Focusing solely on photorealism does often hurt the playability which doesn’t look good with aging graphics.
Stylized game’s target groups are harder to define. You have to know your audience clearly and it's going to be a smaller market. BUT, with a style you can have a unique and memorable game with extra flair. You neither are needing a powerful hardware and the game is going to run smoothly with higher frame rate instead of rendering details.
I don’t actually hate realistic games and I actually love some of them. I am glad that the game industry has had a switch from always trying to make realistic games and trying new things. Although we are not seeing many successful stylized games, stylized realism in games are enough for me. With the industry growing so fast I know that more people are coming to the field appreciating and experimenting color palettes, mechanics and just being creative as heck.
P.S. The title is a fart joke 💨💨
Oh my, what a game you chose!
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to read that the game was not well received by the community at first, I'm surprised!
This cartoonish Link grew on people minds so much over the years, that I thought it's always been like this :D
Looks can be deceiving, but history know what happened next: this title is surely now one of the most famous/adored of all time. Good job Nintendo!
I personally haven't played Wind Waker, but I loooooove the soundtrack!
ReplyDeleteNice thoughts about realism in games. It's definitely a huge market right now, feels like every gaming company is fighting for the title of "THE BEST CREATOR OF THE MOST REALISTIC GAMES" but as you said, focusing on realism over memorability is not the best choice :/
Stylism over realism!!!!