Shigeru Miyamoto Originally Wanted a More Realistic Wind Waker Game, 'Cringed' at the Art Style
When it comes to beloved Nintendo games, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is one of the company's curious cases. When the game was initially released in 2002, it was praised and beloved by critics, but many fans were really harsh on it. A combination of factors had given the game a bad reputation at the start, with some of these fans not really jiving with the game's cartoony and light-hearted premise, with a graphical style that matched it. Over the years, however, many fans now look back on this game fondly and consider it one of the best Zelda games of all time.
Fans in particular now remember The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for being so bright and vibrant, while maintaining the same aspects that made the Zelda series so memorable. At the time, however, fans were expecting a more realistic and darker art style, building on the success of previous console entries Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto also had doubts about the game's art style during development.
Nintendo Launches Huge Summer Switch eShop Sale
YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming has been digging through old interviews for interesting details about the game's development for its latest video. One entry in Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream revealed that Miyamoto apparently «cringed» after seeing Wind Waker's now-iconic cel-shaded art style. He wanted to originally make the game more realistic like the aforementioned N64 games, but the art team had proposed Toon Link during the concept phase, and it stuck with the developers.
This however was never mentioned to Miyamoto during development and when he was presented with Wind Waker's cel-shaded art, he doubted that the game would sell. Series producer Eiji Aonuma stated that
Read more on gamerant.com
