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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Does artstyle really affect Zelda sales?

Frogger on 13 June 2014
SvennoJ said:

Skyward sword was in 480p in 2011 with mandatory motion controls while the hardcore had turned their back on those already. If it had been brown and realistic looking like TP it would not have sold any better, might even have sold less.

Windwaker is my favorite, only one that still looks good (thanks to the HD version) Looks like the WiiU Zelda will be my new favorite.


Wow... I've never looked at them all like that... It's crazy how timeless WW for GCN still looks. Zelda U will be just as timeless. I love that even the grass is cel-shaded. That's a really cool look.



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VanceIX on 13 June 2014
spemanig said:
VanceIX said:

Alright. Works for me. You're entitled to your opinion.

And you yours.

Well, at least we agree there.



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hsrob on 13 June 2014
SvennoJ said:

Skyward sword was in 480p in 2011 with mandatory motion controls while the hardcore had turned their back on those already. If it had been brown and realistic looking like TP it would not have sold any better, might even have sold less.

Windwaker is my favorite, only one that still looks good (thanks to the HD version) Looks like the WiiU Zelda will be my new favorite.

My only concern at this stage is whether or not I'll be able to cut all this grass down with the master sword.



Red4ADevil on 13 June 2014

Where's Malstrom when you need him (not that im dissing the op's argument).



jonathanalis on 13 June 2014

sadly, yes...



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killeryoshis on 13 June 2014

Yes, people want an epic looking Zelda game like the demo. Instead we get something more closer to a cartoon. Cartoons work better in some games but Zelda is not one of them.

What is cool about Ocarina of time and Twilight Princess is that they position themselves as epic Zelda game. WW and the DS games weren't all that epic. Skyward Sword wasn't really all that epic ether. Only at the final battle did it feel so. That's all people want, an epic Zelda game ,but Aonuma won't give us one.

PS: The older 2D zelda games were epic adventures as well



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VanceIX on 13 June 2014
RolStoppable said:
So is Zelda U doomed?

Not necessarily. The artstyle isn't as detrimental as it was in The Wind Waker, but it's definitely not a plus point either. It's going to help that it will have Hyrule Field (unlike TWW and SS), but it better have a lot of interesting places to visit instead of just serving as a boring hub. The combat better be good. It's also noteworthy that Wii U hardware sales won't allow this game to go above 5m, so it's actually doomed in one way for sure. We definitely need more information on the game, because the artstyle alone won't decide its fate.

Hit the nail on the coffin. Bravo.

This pretty much sums up my entire views on the game.



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TheLegendaryWolf on 13 June 2014

Art style isn't everything, but is a noticeable factor. Skyward Sword sold 3.75 million mostly because of motion controls being the only control option available, which scared away quite a few. Art style wasn't the major factor here.



SvennoJ on 13 June 2014
RolStoppable said:
Yes, artstyle does affect sales, but it's not the only thing to consider.

4) Twilight Princess: Summed up as short as possible, it's a tribute to OoT that polished up the game mechanics. Sold accordingly.

You don't think it being a cross-gen title, launch title, long awaited, on the rebound from people boycotting wind waker / game cube altogether, did not significantly boost its sales? I was suckered into buying it day one, thought it was merely ok, not as good as wind waker or oot, did not finish it.



baloofarsan on 14 June 2014

A small observation:
If you take the sales number from VGchartz database (ignoring everything except sales numbers) and sort it for Japan the order from most popular and descending is this (not counting handhelds) :
Zelda 1 - 1.69
Zelda 2 - 1.61
Zelda OoT - 1.45
Zelda aLttP - 1.15
Zelda WW - 0.89
Zelda MM - 0.73
Zelda TP - 0.6
Zelda SS - 0.37

Analysis: Japan likes Simple graphics? - dislikes dark and "realistic" graphics?
But Zelda U graphics does not satisfy western nor eastern gamers so why do they insist on going with this artstyle?