Daily Debate: Were the Initial Criticisms of The Wind Waker’s Cartoon-Style Design Justified?

Back at Space World 2000, fans were astounded to see a tease of what a lot of them believed to be the next chapter of the Zelda series. After the rousing success of Majora’s Mask, gamers and critics everywhere simply gawked at this amazing next-gen system clash between Link and Ganondorf. It was riveting, it was breath-taking, and it was… not the direction the franchise was going as the Zelda team was tired of designing games in this format. And who could blame them? They had done this style of game twice already within the span of just a few years.

Even the co-director of Ocarina of Time and Majora‘s Mask Eiji Aonuma just found the Space World demo to be a rehash of the Ocarina of Time style. Ideas were thrown out for a while from the rest of the development group until designer Yoshiki Haruhana showed them a cartoonish drawing of a young Link that caught their attention. From that point forward, the plan was to create something that even Aonuma was worried series creator Shigeru Miyamoto would disapprove of. Just think about it: a Zelda adventure like you’ve truly never seen before.

This wasn’t the first time cel-shading was used for a video game though, as the same year development began on The Wind Waker, Sega released Jet Set Radio for their recently released Dreamcast console. The game was the first to attempt to integrate cel-shading into a video game and was an attempt at making this roller-skating arcade title stand out from the pack. And maybe that’s what the Zelda team wanted when trying to develop this title.

As Aonuma feared, Miyamoto, as well as series producer Takashi Tezuka, weren’t fans of the art style. They even went so far as to criticize the size of Link’s eyes during development. Miyamoto continued to be hesitant about the cel-shading, even telling Aonuma it wasn’t too late in development to back out of this idea. Ultimately, Miyamoto decided to side with the direction Aonuma was going, seeing the development team not only be really enthusiastic about the project but also realizing that the group was still a ways off from making a truly realistic Zelda title.

The world finally got to see what the folks over at Nintendo had been working on a year later at the 2001 Space World Expo. It was there that everybody got to see the first public unveiling of The Wind Waker, and criticism was about as mixed as you could get. While some people (like my 13-year-old self) appreciated the change in direction the series was taking, others were disappointed that the next chapter in the Zelda series wasn’t going in the direction the prior year’s Space World demo showed. Some critics were even dubbing the game “Celda.”

It would take more time, but eventually, and after a much better showing at the following year’s E3, the game was released on December 13th, 2002. The reception alone was amazing, with a lot of critics applauding the change of visuals, liking the cel-shading art style to that of a Disney property, or even something acclaimed animation director Hayao Miyazaki created. Eiji Aonuma and his team took that risk, ignored all of the critics, and in the end, it was well worth it.

Looking back at the development history of The Wind Waker, do you think those initial criticisms were justified after the 2001 Space World Expo reveal? I mean, look at where we’re at now with cel-shading in video games decades later. This “cartoon” style helped revolutionize the way we see video game adaptations of popular anime like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. Even just a year after the game’s release, we were starting to be introduced to acclaimed cel-shaded video games like Viewtiful Joe, the Sly Cooper series, and even the Zelda-like Okami. As of this writing, one of the most critically received games of the year is an out-of-nowhere cartoon title known as Hi-Fi Rush from developer Tango Gameworks.

This style can even be seen influencing the most recent Zelda titles like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Jet Set Radio may have kicked the door open for these cartoons in gaming, but it was titles like The Wind Waker that made sure it stayed open.

I say it in my staff bio and I’ll say it again here, one thing that I’ll always appreciate about any video game franchise is when it tries something different with the formula. It may not always pay off, but the times when a series does take risks are when you get a game that’s truly special. This is why The Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game of all time.

What do you folks think? Were the initial criticisms of The Wind Waker’s cartoon-style design justified? How do these critiques hold up today? Let us know in the comments below!

Kristen G. Rosario

Kristen G. Rosario is an Editor who joined Zelda Dungeon back in September of 2015. His current goal is to become a full-time video game journalist, hoping to eventually gain a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. While he pursues that dream, he not only takes care of his adorable dachshund Angel, but also helps run a YouTube channel with his brother. The Zelda series is a quest he hasn’t fully completed yet, but hopes to get there one day.