This week at Critical Hits we’re looking at a classic question of taste, choice, and large anime eyes. With our mouths posivitely awash for the impending releases of the Wii and the new Zelda game Twilight Princess, we look back at the latest installment in the franchise. Tons of fans aired their grievances prior to release about the cartoon-like art style and childish approach, but afterwards everyone was pretty much silenced as Nintendo yet again delivered a wonderful gameplay experience that was beautifully artistic as well.
Nonetheless, with a game out like Super Smash Bros. Melee which depicted a high polygon, well rendered Link fighting other combatants in stunning environments, fans would still lust for a more realistic game in the series. That is what has been promised, and indeed more then that as shown in the previews, but in the end will the art style really make that much of a difference? Both will no doubt be groundbreakingly excellent games, and so with that I put it down to a question of taste.
How do you like it: Stylized or Realistic?
My thoughts after the break.
While playing through Windwaker, I often find myself simply bawking at the brilliance of the visuals, but I’m a sucker for artsy stuff. Probably my favorite part of the game is the way that clouds, smoke, and water are treated. This stems from an interesting characterstic of the cell shading, seeing a still image of it is mildly interesting, but viewing the art in motion is really a treat. Contrast this to high-res modern games that strive for realism and you often find the opposite is true, the still images are absolutely breathtaking while the game in motion can be choppy and uninspired. It could be argued that this makes it more a task of skill to create a fluid game that is also realistic, but an artistic style can leave much more room for creative in all of the content, such as with the smoke or with ultra-expressive facial expressions. The artistic styling is also much more resistant to the ‘bull-shot’ syndrome that next-gen games often blatantly suffer from.
If you look at any screenshots for Twilight Princess, you really cannot argue that the game isn’t beautiful looking. Consider the amount of processing power that is needed to render these scenes in real time though, especially when compared to that needed for the cell-shading, and if the games are running on the same platform (the GameCube) then there it could be likely that TP could fall victim to long load times and sluggish gameplay. I doubt this, mainly because Nintendo hates load times and is masterful at putting the extra polish on games, especially when it pertains to gameplay.
Really this isn’t a one versus the other question, but a question as to if there is a superior when all things are considered. Thankfully we should be blessed with both an excellent cel-shaded and a fantastic high-res Zelda game, both sticking faithfully and flawlessly to the classic Zelda gameplay. Were there really people who refuse to play Windwaker because of the cartoon graphics, or people who couldn’t stand the semi-childish treatments? If so, hopefully these people will be overjoyed and satisfied with what’s in store for the future.
One way to approach this question is to not think strictly about Zelda games, but to consider lots of examples. Can you even stand looking at screenshots of Everquest II? I prefer World of Warcraft’s style by a longshot. Did the previews for the movie A Scanner Darkly look really cool to you? One of the most interesting aspects of this debate is that its roots go back a long way in art history and even human history as a whole. Impressionistic and abstract painting, the huge stone heads on easter island, even cave paintings of cattle and horses, man has always been interpreting what he sees around him with different styles. Recently, with the popularity of ammature and professional photography, we have the luxury of comparing between these two styles directly. Would you rather look at a photo of a bunch of fruit, or a still-life painting of the same?
No matter what your preference is, if you’ve ever played a Zelda game, you are probably just as excited by seeing this one image as I am:
(it’s not upside down)
GOD that’s hot. Please share your thoughts on the subject here, if you haven’t played either of these Zelda games then you can base it purely on the screenshots, you can go out and buy Windwaker because it’s amazing, or you can share other comparisons!
I’ve heard Okami is a very stylized type of game. It looks gorgeous but I haven’t played it due to the lack of a PS2.
I, for the most part, prefer realism. At the same time however I really like to see fantastic things happen within the realistic environment.
When I think of stylized however, I’m thinking of cartoony imagery and that sort of thing (stemming mainly from your post) but I know that isn’t true. One of my favorite games of all time is Max Payne and every aspect of that game oozes the film noir style. So I guess what I’m saying is I enjoy stylized games but within a realistic framework, does that make sense?
Also, I haven’t played any zelda game since the original NES. I think I’ve seen windwalker played and while it looked neat but I wans’t even remotely inspired to pick it up.
By the way, that last picture is upside down.
Just like the art on tabletop games, I think the art style (realistic vs. stylized, and any number of other artistic choices) are dictated by the game itself. Zelda has its roots in the cartoony/pixeled, with elaborate and vast backgrounds. This fits just fine with the adventure nature of it. The story they wanted to tell in Windwaker starred younger kids and had a talking boat; I think the cell-shading worked fine for that. It looks like Twilight Princess is going to be darker in many ways and have large gross monsters, so the more realistic approach works. However, I don’t think I ever want to see a realistic Mario game: there’s too much crazy crap that’s part of Mario that wouldn’t translate to a Final Fantasy-cutscene style.
When I first saw what Wind Waker looked like, I hated it. The style just annoyed me. But as I played it, it grew on me.
I can’t wait for the new Zelda game.
I have one complaint about realistic games, and it’s probably just me, but I find them harder to navigate sometimes. There’s just so much detail, you get lost in it.
That’s a good point. I’ve had far more “realistic” games that had horrendous camera problems than I have in less-realistic games. When you can design a world in a color palette of your choosing, it’s easier to do the design more friendly to the eye than when you’re trying to emulate people in camouflage in bushes.
Realistic rendering seems to be the standard these days, but alternate methods can work in my opinion, they just need to be justified. A Scanner Darkly used quirky rotoscoping to good effect, not just some empty ploy at being different. The game “Freedom Force” (comic book overhead tatical strategy game) seemed to be pulled right out of the silver age and was marvelous for it. Basically, if you’re gonna do something off-beat it had better fit the mood and purpose of the game.
I agree with The Game; I think the choice of art should be dictated by the game and what type of game the designers are trying to make. A game that wants to potray itself as comical or ridiculous is probably better suited to a stylized art theme (i.e. Mario, Super Smash Bros, TMNT games, NFL Blitz, etc). This is also true for ‘cutesy’ games (i.e. some Zelda games, Dragon Quest 8, Harvest Moon, etc).
On the other hand, a game that wants to portray itself as scary, gritty, or ‘realistic’ is probably better suited to a realistic art theme (i.e. WW2 games, MGS, Madden games, survival horrors, Grand Theft Auto, etc).
Oh, to go along with what Bartoneus was saying about the evolution of art. From what I understand the development of impressionism (cubism, all the other abstract art forms) which many of us really enjoy and love came around because artists eventually mastered the realistic.
Does anyone know some gorgeous abstract artful games about?
Just a few links to interesting, and mostly none-related, art sights:
http://www.onethousandpaintings.com/home/
A great idea for what most people wouldn’t consider art, but an idea that can really be loved. Also has a lot of awesome economic implications with the pricing, the more of them that are sold the more valuable each becomes, even the ones already sold gain value. Plus we bet that the Lost numbers were some of the first to go! 4,8,15,16,23,42
http://jacksonpollock.org/
Pretty sure TheGame showed me this, or someone I know through him, but it’s really great. Though I’m not sure what Jackson Pollock would really think, if he’d cry because now anyone can do exactly what he spent years doing, or because it’s proven that really anyone could do what he was doing and that’d make him happy. I have no idea.
Not really games, but interesting and fun nonetheless! Woot Art!
I think when it comes to games like zelda you have to be very careful in what art you choose to use. Being a huge zelda fan and having played every zelda game out there (at least 10 times a piece) Windwaker was a HUGE turn off for me, at first.
I grummbled at the idea of making it “cartoony” and cell shading made my teeth hurt. But after much coxing by AndreastheO I bought the game and was in love.
after playing Orcana of time I was content with seeing Link in a semi child like cartoon image. Far from his roots as a top view head with a pointed stick, i think the wide variety of steps Nintendo has taken his artwork through leaves a bad taste in my mouth. We grew up loving the head with a stick and were blown out of the water when Nintendo revamped the Zelda franchise with the release of Nintendo64.
But what disturbes me is the way they have jumped from style to style. Lesson learned from Windwaker should have been that the majority liked him smooth and clean cut, not all pointed. Sure the game was fun, but if being woefuly addicted to videogames has taught me anything its that you have to enjoy looking at something for hours and hours, and cell shading was just to hard to take some days.
Now Nintendo has thrown us from one end of the spectrum to the other. We go from cell shaded and as unreal as humanly possible to feeling like if we wanted to eat the grass in Twilight Princess it would taste like grass.
Given the graphics get me all hard (My thumbs you sickos my thumbs) and cravenly drooling over the prospect of buying a Wii (if it wasnt for that damn ugly ass controller!..oh yeah and Im broke) I think the main idea should be “Stick With What Works”.
if you want to go realism go realism, if you want to go cartoon, stay with cartoon.
Windwaker will probably turn out to be more of a classic just because it is stylized. Graphics do not matter because the point is that it’s supposed to look like that.