Zelda Graphics: Realism or Surrealism?

The term Realistic Graphics gets associated with Twilight Princess far too often and it seems each time, it isn’t being used properly. What is really realistic about the graphical style of Twilight Princess? Can you even have a fictional race of rock-eating Gorons in a realistic setting? Perhaps the correct term that should be used here is Surrealistic graphics instead of Realistic. This really brings up the question, would you rather see realism or surrealism in Zelda?

Imagine a Zelda game that takes place in a time period similar to the 15th century. It actually has a realistic setting of the late medieval times period. Sword-fighting is front and center and perhaps there is the inclusion of extremely early muskets. The graphical style is of characters that are well, realistic. Say, a graphical style more fitting towards the Uncharted games. The combat is against other humans, although I think there is still room for mythological creatures to fit in here to an extent. The point being, Link and all the characters will be realistic. By realistic, I mean having humanized characteristics.

The other side of the token is surrealistic graphics. I think games like Twilight Princess, the Zelda Wii U Demo, and even games outside of the Zelda series, such as Darksiders II fit this mold. Surrealistic graphics are made to be somewhat realistic, but still in a ‘human-like’ Elf type of way. It’s fiction made to have human-like features. There is room for fictional races that wouldn’t work in a realistic environment.

So what it boils down to. For a future HD Zelda title, would you rather see a ‘Nathan Drake’ type main character, albeit in a green tunic and cap, or would you rather they stay the course with surrealism, as seen in Twilight Princess? Let us know in the comments below.

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