Nintendo’s Haruyasu Ito, who has worked on the special effects for some of the more recent The Legend of Zelda games, makes an interesting admission in the latest Iwata Asks interview about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
While The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker used cel-shaded visuals and Twilight Princess a more realistic look, Skyward Sword falls somewhere in between the two games. Its look is inspired by a 19th-century art movement called Impressionism, and while it looks like a nice game now, perhaps that wasn’t always the case.
At least, Nintendo of America didn’t think it was.
At E3 2010, NOA told Zelda series producer, Eiji Aonuma, that the effects for Skyward Sword looked “featureless” and “lacked something”. Aonuma conveyed this comment to Ito, who then attempted to make the game look better and more distinctive.
Food for thought:
Prior to Monster Hunter Tri’s release on the Wii, Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, told the game’s developers at Capcom that Tri’s beautiful visuals were placing the Zelda team “under considerable pressure”.
