I agree with curl. A darker looking Zelda is more appealing to the general public.

To the bolded. The people complaining about 900p assasins creed are the diehard sony fans who like to fan console wars and put down the xbox one. The large majority of the public dont care/wont know that its at 900p and buy it anyay because it looks cool. Ive met COD players who wouldn't touch Borderlands because the art style is cartoony.

As far as the change goes I think that the cel shading look probably makes it easier to do a bigger open world without rubbish textures, if thats the style of gameplay they are going for.

I cannot understand the opening post or the title.

I will just say this: "cartoon" graphics aren't as big an issue as people make them out to be in terms of marketing, so long as they aren't in the area of WW in terms of "super exaggerated." I mean, look at Walking Dead episodic games or Borderlands; both are "toon" like, they just market themselves as badass instead of adorable. It's all down to the spin; you could sell boxed rocks with good enough marketing.

Also, the new Zelda is actually a graphic I could see people liking; it is kin to No Man's Sky in many ways (the colors, vibrancy, and some of the shading techniques) and people have praised that. They just need to keep their message focused on the action, open world, story, etc without dwelling on "cuteness" factors or anything.

But back on topic, the reason is fairly simple. The tech demos done on the GC and Wii U are just that: tech demos. What you are seeing is max capabilities in an isolated room with controlled events. A game running smoothly at that level (with the 1080p and high framerate) would have to be similarly constrained in terms of view distance and open spaces. The graphic in the full games are those that they feel allow them to do what they want while maximizing visual appeal and creating the flavor they want. I frankly like both visuals and would love to see both used this gen (with the second Zelda maybe being a cross gen title for the next Nintendo console in 2017 or 2018).

The other one was just a demo showcasing the hardware of the WiiU and what it could do. That showcase just happened to have a Zelda coat (which they have done since the N64). This was known since minute one, no one should have expected that to be what Zelda U would look like.

Moreover, while I like the realistic style better for Zelda usually, I find the actual style technically far more impressive. Of course, they would have improved the realistic style also, but still, I'm definitely not complaining. This is also a very different case than Wind Waker's anyway. This style is way more refined and detailed.

Also, Wind Waker enjoyed immediate back-lash. And major one at that. The trailer they showed at reveal was even more cartoony than the end product, which they had to tone down because of the bad reception. This Zelda however, or the trailer they showed, has seen almost nothing but praise.

To be honest, the bottom images graphics style is pretty weak. If Nintendo wanted to go in that direction of the darker OOT and Twlight Princess they could do a lot better.

Why they settle for the more niche style is probably a combination of wanting zelda to stand out (Windwaker, Zelda Wii U), comforming to restrictions graphically set by their ambitions (massive open world ala windwaker-Zelda Wii U), and not wanting the game to appear graphical dated by hadrware tech (Skyward Sword, Zelda Wii U).

Luckily this gaphical style isn't as bold or niche as windwaker, whilst still being far more imaginative then skyward

I've no idea what you're talking about. The top picture is the actual game and the bottom picture is a tech demo. What's so hard to understand about that?

It was just a tech demo, just like space world 2000, then ended up cel-shade, the Wind Waker.

Something tells me cel-shade is much better than realistic visual. & it was revolutionized again, i know... But realistic requires more textures.

Seriously, fuck the market.

That new Zelda looks incredibly better than that demo tech and the world will be fantastic, beyond what would be possible with a more photorealistic approach.

Tech Demo =/= Actual game.
Nintendo could probably pump out a game that looks like the Zelda U Tech Demo if they put a lot of effore in it, but apparently they think all we want is mostly cartoon type games...

Their both toon..... What, why is one darker than the other? Because it takes place in a castle.