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The WiiU tech-demo for Zelda didn’t turn into the final game similarly to how the Spaceworld Gamecube tech-demo didn’t turn into The Wind Waker because both were never actually supposed to be the game.

What did happen however was this;

To this;

After a tech-demo from 1995 that looked like this;

Still, I think we’ll get a dark-realistic looking Zelda one day regardless, we also got TP and that even ended up looking better than the 2000 demo.

I don't have much problems with BotW art style (there are much more serious issues with the game to even consider art style, tbh).
I just find it interesting that, from perspective of my kids (who were 7 and 5 around E3 2012 Zelda demo) who are Zelda fans (especially younger one), that particular art style is what they were fascinated with and were looking forward to...and two years later got fairly disappointed with BotW E3 reveal...though, tbh, I think it's also got something to do with that giant spider in demo as well - it looks much more menacing and cooler than Guardians - spider is something that my older one keeps bringing regularly even to this day.

Well, maybe some day...I didn't like BotW formula very much one way or the other (3.5/5 stars for me), and considering that Zeldas tend to swing wildly when it comes to art style...maybe next one will be just the right one, both in art style and formula.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was released 4 years before PoP. So I don't really see your point, since the graphics and art didn't degenerate but improved instead.

I agree it looks quite charming

I was going to put Federation Force but they beat me up to it.

I remember really loving the change in art style of Red Steel on the Wii.

Red Steel 1

Red Steel 2

Oh, the demo artstyle is uninspired and boring, while the BOTW-style is so  beautiful.

These are nice examples.

I also liked the change in artstyle from the more realistic Darksiders

to the less realistic artstyle of Darksiders 2

All your comment did was remind me why I prefer the BotW style. It's so bright and vibrate while the Wii u demo looks like every other generic fantasy game