I'm not a huge Zelda fan, or a gamer in general, but I do enjoy playing the games. I think Ocarina was just one of the best games ever, Wind Waker was just beautiful, and Link to the Past was amazingly addictive.So, when I heard that Nintendo had showed a debut trailer for the next Legend of Zelda game on Wii, I just had to hop onto the YouTube and check it out.
I am... ambivalent.
On the one hand, I love the idea of giving Link a whip and some sort of magical hand-fairy-thing. I also think that, pulled off correctly, the new control set-up should be intuitive and immersive.
On the other hand... I'm not sure I like the art direction. Now, I know that's not the end-all be-all for games, but the trailer really didn't show all that much and that was what caught my eye. You see, the art seems to be a compromise between Twilight Princess-like realism and Wind Waker like cell shading. Both games looked beautiful, but they should pick one direction and stick to it rather than taking a middle ground.
The other issue I have with the art is how disjointed Link looks from the gameworld. His model is fairly realistic in proportion and detail, with only a bright color palette and cell shading as a concession to a more cartoony style. The rest of the game world, the scenery, the monsters, everything, seems to be of a far more Wind Waker-ish cartoon aesthetic. This is the opposite of a standard masking effect, where the protagonist is cartoony to allow for identification and the world around is detailed and realistic to allow for recognition, thus immersing the audience (read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics for more on that). Doing the opposite makes Link look simply out of place.
Still, all in all, it's a new Zelda game for the Wii. I suppose I should be excited.
Nice, I really want to play it now, I think I must wait like 1 or 2 months more.
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