Is Realism Necessarily Bad?

[A Link In Time]

One of the common complaints I hear about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is it’s too gritty for its own good. Fans complain about the dull color palette and lack of a magic meter wondering why Nintendo chose to ape Ocarina of Time half-heartedly.

But is realism necessarily a bad thing for Zelda? It’s important to remember that while recent installments have embraced a more “mature” look they continue to be grounded in fantasy.

Skyward Sword took a different approach to realism by not only endeavoring to immerse the player into the experience with its motion controls but also introducing more cunning foes and an increasingly vulnerable Link. Now no longer indefatigable, gamers were forced to ponder Link’s stamina gauge and shield meter in battle.

There probably is a market influence factor affecting realism in Zelda but darker aesthetic and new items as well as character weaknesses aren’t necessarily a fault of the game. Many a gamer pines over the loss of the magic meter as well due to the mechanized nature of more recent adventures yet that has been counterbalanced with a plethora of new and intriguing items like the Sand Wand and Beetle.

What are your thoughts on increased realism in Zelda? Do you believe such a trend is even occurring? Should the franchise become a lighter experience, per se, and shed the gameplay additions from Skyward Sword rendering Link and his gear more believable?

 

[JuicieJ]

Twilight Princess isn't an example of realism. The colors are way too bland to emulate real life (seriously, it's not that brown, green, and grey), and characters' faces have an anime look to them.

As far as game mechanics go, I don't see a problem with some realism. Limitations like the Stamina Gauge and Adventure Pouch help create the need for resource management, making the adventure feel more authentic, so that's a good thing. Too much realism, though, and the game will just be overly frustrating.

Look at Far Cry 2. That game took realism so far that guns would sometimes jam. That's a horrible game mechanic, as you could lose a firefight because of it. There always needs to be an amount of unrealistic features in a video game, especially a fantasy series like Zelda. The things Skyward Sword did were fine, and I hope they only become more and more fleshed out in future titles. But there needs to be a restraint on such things, as well.

 

[DarkestLink]

I really don't see the problems with the colors. I found them far more immersive than previous titles. OoT felt like an obvious game and Wind Waker made me feel like I was watching Nick Jr.

Realism is a good thing and something Zelda has been trying to embrace since OoT. I say the more the better.

 

[Curmudgeon]

I'm more concerned with internal stylistic consistency than the artistic direction itself. TWW and TP both worked for me.

 

[Ventus]

Realism isn't bad at all for Zelda. Need I cite the tons of games that have some degree of realism in them and manage to sell well into the millions? Call of Duty, Halo, Red Dead Redemption, Final Fantasy etc. etc. etc. A fantasy genre doesn't mean things can't be somewhat realistic, and a fantasy series taking a somewhat realistic approach doesn't mean the series will die. :I

I've no problem with the more realistic color palette introduced in Twilight Princess. I'd argue that OoT's slightly more vibrant art style is more realistic; in the real world, when the sun shines the land you reside in also gleams due to sunlight but in TP the world didn't do that, but TP's color palette still works at large.

On that note, we can have realistic magic. Just needs the proper visual effects and the proper combat/defensive effects.

The thing that actually affects a Zelda game's quality is the content, not the looks.

 

[Random Person]

Realism does not take away from gameplay unless it conflicts with something else that is important. Usually, that thing is convenience. After all, the more you go to realism, the more you go to actual life. Why would I do something in a game that I can do in real life? Can you image if you actually had to learn archery, swordsman ship and all the rest. Your simple game would take years. Thus generally isn't the problem in Zelda though. People felt TP took away from Zelda's colorful environment that its known for. While I agree that it did do that, because TP was intentionally trying to be a more mature OoT, I Personally don't hold it at fault. The complaint of SS's realism though, can be related to it losing convenience. The realistic things in SS becomes a bit more tedious.

More realism to a game is a bad idea, but there is a way to make it implemented correctly. Its all about checks and balances.

 

[JuicieJ]

People felt TP took away from Zelda's colorful environment that its known for. While I agree that it did do that, because TP was intentionally trying to be a more mature OoT, I Personally don't hold it at fault. The complaint of SS's realism though, can be related to it losing convenience. The realistic things in SS becomes a bit more tedious.

SS was intentionally losing convenience to add strategy to the world, though. If you can justify TP because of intended design, then you should justify SS.

 

[Spirit]

The new 3DS Dynasty Warriors has a Link model in it and his face is very much a photo-realistic one in that everything is the proper proportion but i personally don't like it, i'm too used to Link having an anime-esque face. More realism in the environments would be nice but really I'd settle for Zelda's 'realism' to be a better detailed and textured TP which we'd get anyway with HD graphics so whatever the next Zelda looks like will be realism for me or at least Zelda's equivalent of it.

I don't think realism in games is a problem but i think it may hinder Zelda rather than enhance it.


http://www.thesixthaxis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/l_4f6031a6a12e2.jpg <-- Dynasty Warriors Link

 

[Keeseman]

Realism isn't bad for Zelda, necessarily, but it may not be that great, either. What Nintendo needs to do is find the balance between realism and fantasy.

Zelda has always been fantasy. Despite its poorer graphics in comparison to today, Zelda on the NES was very fantasy, with weird geological and botanical structuring, along with all the phantasmagorical baddies and dungeons. When it moved to the Super Nintendo, it continued that fantasy in aLttP with foggy forests, mystic NPCs, and of course, the warped Dark World. Everything was overemphasized or even warped to make the fantasy that these games were.

TP, even in its art style, was very fantasy. The sky in itself was quite unlike reality, as well as the overworld and all the dark colours in it. Too much dark is not realistic, something which OoT had more of a balance of, but typically had more light than dark, at least in the overworld. All the games' art styles were very fantasy-like, and not quite like real life.

So, Zelda is a fantasy adventure series, and it always will be (or at least, it should). But there will always be a realistic element to it, as well.

In the 2D games I mentioned, you weren't some tanking powerhouse. And the emotions and personalities that were given to NPCs (like the people in Kakariko Village) were very realistic and normal. These things have continued on in the Zelda series, but unfortunately, the tanking thing is becoming more and more a reality...

There is humanity to Link. But I think they should give him more of that. He should have a definite weakness, something that makes the player have more challenge in Zelda- something that the series is losing.
He should also have some sort of emotional or moral struggle, and so far, we have seen none. This makes sense when he is a kid in games like aLttP or WW, because a child typically does not have struggles with evil or painful emotions like an adult does. But he is still the perfect hero without moral flaw in games like TP and, I would assume, SS. A moral struggle would make the game story more interesting, in the least.

As with battling, I think it has always been unrealistic, and is unrealistically easy in the 3D games. I believe the battling should keep fantasy elements, but it should become more difficult than it is now. Z-targeting makes it too easy, and it should be changed up to make it more realistically difficult, while still holding true to the series' fantasy.

In conclusion, there needs to be a balance between the incredible fantasy-adventure that Zelda has always been, but there should also be an element of realism in it, too, especially with battling, along with the characters- both Link and the NPCs.

 

[Vaati101]

I don't think realism is bad as such, but I think it's a bit too common in modern games these days. Most X-box/PS3 games for example, Call of Duty, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed etc. have a realistic artstyle and because they all use the same artstyle over and over again, it starts to get less creative and just boring seeing the same visuals.

Zelda made an attempt at realism in Twilight Princess and I do think it worked pretty well since it wasn't overly realistic, however should Zelda go down that route again? I personally don't think they should, they did a good job with Twilight Princess and in a sense I would like Nintendo to try something different then trying to be like other games, otherwise it's just gonna lose it's creativity in visuals.

 

[Castle]

Yes, realism is bad. Reality bites. I don't want to have to suffer a game that emulates reality.

In Zelda's case, however, the matter has nothing to do with realism but rather which games are not toony.

 

[DarkestLink]

He should also have some sort of emotional or moral struggle, and so far, we have seen none.

Lanayru cutscene Link is getting tempted by power and begins to fantasize over killing his best friend for it.

 

[Pancake Wizard]

There is nothing wrong with realistic graphics, it just might not fit some games. TP did not have realistic graphics, but compared to the other games, it was more realistic.

I think Zelda can have multiple art styles. TP was actually my favorite, but I still like the other styles to. So no, realism is not bad.

 

[Terminus]

One of the things I liked about SS was it's resource management.

I still think that the visuals should be realistic to a degree. Something between;

and

Beings TP was a bit drab but SS on the whole was too bright and the colors didn't translate well in shadow.

 

[MiniMouseofPyru]

　Ｉ　ａｇｒｅｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ＪｕｉｃｉｅＪ．　Ｔｈｅ　ｃｏｌｏｕｒｓ　ａｒｅ　ｗｈａｔ　ｔｏｏ　ｂｌａｎｄ　ｆｏｒ　ｒｅａｌ　ｌｉｆｅ．Ｂｕｔ，　Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｔｏ　ｓａｙ　ｔｈａｔ　ＴＰ　ｉｓ　ｏｎｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｒｅａｌｉｓｉｔｉｃ　Ｚｅｌｄａ　　ｇａｍｅｓ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅｒｅ．　
Ａｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｒｅａｌｉｓｍ　Ｉ　ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｉｔ＇ｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｔ，　ｂｕｔ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｒｅａｌｉｓｍ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｂｅ　ｎｉｃｅ．