Wind Waker's art style also holds up a LOT better than Twilight Princess's does, especially in HD. TP looks ugly if it's played in HD in places due to the textures.... I guess having a realistic Zelda on Wii U would make sense as the hardware would allow for it, but this style probably has a few advantages - they might be able to make it look a lot cleaner (60fps/1080p/antialiasing?) due to the style not needing super highres textures everywhere. Hopefully the images posted by Nintendo are the actual game running and not just "ideally-rendered" like the first Skyward Sword shots were. I say "ideally rendered" because it's as if they took the actual game engine and upped the res and AA ... so it's not quite a pure CG fakeout but it's not quite the real engine either.

What you people are forgetting is all the people in the world who aren't passionately interested in gaming, and won't react with critisism against an artstyle. They react with indifference towards the game instead.

Nintendo's goal in 2006 was fighting disinterest. Now they are doing the opposite.

manuel said: curl-6 said: KungKras said: Jizz_Beard_thePirate said: I do agree that fans will have mixed feeling about this till 10 years later when they will be praising it I'm not praising Wind Waker ten years later. I still dislike it. Same here. And then there's guys like me. I adored the hell out of Wind Waker the moment I saw it. And I still love it 10 years later.

That's why I keep saying that all the anime-zelda accomplishes is to split the fanbase. It polarized us 10 years ago, and it still does.

Good for you if you like it, but I'll tell you this. If GC Zelda looked like the demo they showed (IE classic fantasy), then we never would have been split in the first place. Instead of half the fanbase (or more) noone would have complained about the looks.

KungKras said: manuel said: And then there's guys like me. I adored the hell out of Wind Waker the moment I saw it. And I still love it 10 years later. That's why I keep saying that all the anime-zelda accomplishes is to split the fanbase. It polarized us 10 years ago, and it still does. Good for you if you like it, but I'll tell you this. If GC Zelda looked like the demo they showed (IE classic fantasy), then we never would have been split in the first place. Instead of half the fanbase (or more) noone would have complained about the looks.

Well... I can agree with that.

While I loved the WW art style I wouldn't have complained about a more "realistic" one. I think I'd have liked that, too.

KungKras said: manuel said: curl-6 said: KungKras said: Jizz_Beard_thePirate said: I do agree that fans will have mixed feeling about this till 10 years later when they will be praising it I'm not praising Wind Waker ten years later. I still dislike it. Same here. And then there's guys like me. I adored the hell out of Wind Waker the moment I saw it. And I still love it 10 years later. That's why I keep saying that all the anime-zelda accomplishes is to split the fanbase. It polarized us 10 years ago, and it still does. Good for you if you like it, but I'll tell you this. If GC Zelda looked like the demo they showed (IE classic fantasy), then we never would have been split in the first place. Instead of half the fanbase (or more) noone would have complained about the looks.

The fanbase wouldn't have split but the's a good chance it would of shrunk as time passes and this is shown to happen in other franchise that choose not to change the approach. Ultimately splitting the fanbase with differing and varied approaches is for the best, Nintendo essentially did with Zelda what they did with Mario and made the gameplay giving what draws people back and not how it looks and what WW established was that this is a series that will not stick to one approach in each installment giving them a good amount of freedom. If every Zelda game since OOT kept that approach the's a good chance the userbase would have shrunk and you'd be looking at less potential sales, I'll even add some food for thought, the animation quality shown is on par with what we see in Ghibli films and the approach could give the series a big boost in Japan. Personally I don't see the visual approach affecting performance in the west by much.

For sales data:
http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/game_comparison.php?reg=Global&ending=Weekly&game%5B%5D=&game%5B%5D=&game%5B%5D=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Skyward+Sword+%28Wii%29+%5B45669%5D&game%5B%5D=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Twilight+Princess+%28Wii%29+%5B4573%5D
On the Zoom menu press "all".

It seems SS and TP started off with the same hype (I know TP was on GC too). TP had a few more christmases than SS that explains some of the total diffrence in sales figures, (6.95 vs 3.75).

http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/game_comparison.php?reg=USA&ending=Weekly&game%5B%5D=The+Elder+Scrolls+V%3A+Skyrim+%28X360%29+%5B49112%5D&game%5B%5D=The+Elder+Scrolls+V%3A+Skyrim+%28PS3%29+%5B49113%5D&game%5B%5D=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Skyward+Sword+%28Wii%29+%5B45669%5D&game%5B%5D=

For the first Christmas Skyward Sword sold better than the PS3 edition of Skyrim.

On the Zoom menu press "all".

KungKras said: manuel said: And then there's guys like me. I adored the hell out of Wind Waker the moment I saw it. And I still love it 10 years later. That's why I keep saying that all the anime-zelda accomplishes is to split the fanbase. It polarized us 10 years ago, and it still does. Good for you if you like it, but I'll tell you this. If GC Zelda looked like the demo they showed (IE classic fantasy), then we never would have been split in the first place. Instead of half the fanbase (or more) noone would have complained about the looks.

I think more than anything, anime-styled Zelda is driving away potential new mainstream gamers.

I'm a fan, and although I really dislike anime (bar few pieces here and there), I will have no problem playing and enjoying new Zelda. But mainstream audience, one that Nintendo failed to impress for so long and make them jump the ship, is not looking for that style - teens today want to watch Game of Thrones, not anime, they are playing Skyrim, not Skyward Sword.

Unfortunatelly, Nintendo and Aonuma are still wearing blinders and failing to aknowledge what sells in the west - is this stuborness, or their "Nintendo culture" agenda, I really have no idea. Of course, it may be they don't care about profits, and want to do whatever they like, but I somehow find that hard to believe.

Skidonti said: Oh you guys will all grow up someday. (;

So you're only grown up if you like big garish slabs of single colours and fugly football-headed characters? :p

HoloDust said: I think more than anything, anime-styled Zelda is driving away potential new mainstream gamers. I'm a fan, and although I really dislike anime (bar few pieces here and there), I will have no problem playing and enjoying new Zelda. But mainstream audience, one that Nintendo failed to impress for so long and make them jump the ship, is not looking for that style - teens today want to watch Game of Thrones, not anime, they are playing Skyrim, not Skyward Sword. Unfortunatelly, Nintendo and Aonuma are still wearing blinders and failing to aknowledge what sells in the west - is this stuborness, or their "Nintendo culture" agenda, I really have no idea. Of course, it may be they don't care about profits, and want to do whatever they like, but I somehow find that hard to believe.

While I'm overall pleased with the art style, (and just glad it's not Winder Waker fugliness) I have to agree about it not being the smartest move from a commercial point of view.

It would have been better for Nintendo and the Wii U if this had looked like the tech demo. Western mainstream gamers don't want a cartoon Zelda.

Still, it will sell better than it would have if it had been bobble-headed child Link.