Chapter 880: We Are the Mainstream Art Style
This art style was a bit flashy, catching many people off guard.
Everyone’s first reaction was a bit puzzled. Was Chen Mo about to let himself go again?
It had to be said, Chen Mo always came up with completely unexpected designs, often going directly against players’ expectations.
While getting surprises was usually a good thing, sometimes these surprises made players question their own intelligence, which wasn’t so great…
“Wait, I don’t get it. Chen Mo’s new game is going with a cartoon style?”
“Oh, this isn’t really a cartoon style. It’s… um… an oil painting style! Watercolor style!”
“Anyway, it seems to go against the current mainstream style… It reminds me of some manga.”
“Yeah, actually the scenery looks fine. It’s mainly the characters that feel a bit off to get used to.”
“But the characters and scenery are very consistent in style. No problem there.”
“Well, it’s Chen Mo. He can do whatever he wants…”
After discussing for a while, the general consensus was: it’s fine. Having another style of game isn’t a problem.
But… what kind of game was this exactly?
What kind of game would use this art style?
Although most players had unconditional trust in Chen Mo, seeing this art style, many said “it’s fine” on the surface, but their interest in the game gradually dropped.
After all, the vast majority of people liked good looks. For current VR games, high visual appeal meant realism, lifelikeness, exaggeration, and cool special effects—like *Uncharted*. Just seeing the tiny pores on a character’s face made many players want to buy it immediately.
It had to be said, judging by the first concept art released for *The Legend of Zelda*, it really wasn’t very appealing…
…
Some players also expressed reasonable concerns about this art style, but… they didn’t get any response from Chen Mo.
Not responding was normal. In fact, Chen Mo’s Weibo received thousands of private messages every day. Whether he even read them was unknown, let alone replying.
For Chen Mo, Weibo was basically a platform for announcing new game news, similar to how a certain former leader used Twitter to govern.
Back at headquarters, Qian Kun also asked the question many people were asking.
“Boss, what’s so good about this art style?”
Qian Kun knew very well: did this art style save time? Not really. Most resources in the asset library were realistic, like those from *Uncharted* and *Assassin’s Creed*. Making the art style for *The Legend of Zelda* meant the project’s art team would have to put in a lot of extra work.
Especially considering that *The Legend of Zelda* was an open world with a large amount of resources, this approach was even more labor-intensive.
But before starting, Chen Mo had specifically emphasized two key terms: animation style and plein air style.
The so-called animation style meant a clear distinction between bright and dark areas. Simply put, under real-world lighting, bright and dark areas transitioned gradually. But in many Japanese animations, the bright and dark areas were often summarized directly, skipping the gradual transition in between.
For example, in some anime, if a character’s green pants had shadows due to lighting, in reality and in realistic art styles, it would be a gradient. But in animation, the entire bright area was light green, and the entire dark area was dark green, with a very clear boundary between them. There were only these two colors, no gradients.
The plein air style referred to painting landscapes outdoors. Since outdoor light changed quickly, the painter needed to quickly capture the scene’s features, using color blocks and brushstrokes to summarize highly, completing the work before the colors changed.
Specifically for *Breath of the Wild*, this meant large color blocks, a hand-painted feel, and exaggerated atmospheric perspective, giving a watercolor-like impression.
To match this visual effect, the special effects in *The Legend of Zelda* weren’t particle effects but frame-by-frame animation. These effects were clearer, had more impact, and were more recognizable.
But regarding the art style itself, Qian Kun really couldn’t figure out why they had to do it this way.
Chen Mo asked, “So, tell me, what are the pros and cons of this approach?”
Qian Kun thought for a moment. “The advantage might be that the rendering load is very low, reducing hardware strain? As for the disadvantage… it goes against the current mainstream art style.”
Chen Mo smiled. Qian Kun had rarely been responsible for art design, mainly focusing on systems and numbers. So, like many players, it was normal for him not to understand this style.
Chen Mo explained, “First, it greatly reduces hardware strain, allowing *The Legend of Zelda* to run at high frame rates and high quality on the Switch Pro. Second, this style almost never goes out of date. Physical rendering updates every year, and realistic styles get better year by year. If we used a realistic style, the game’s graphics would look outdated in a year or two.”
“But its most important significance is that it highlights a sense of romanticism. *The Legend of Zelda* isn’t a blockbuster or a historical piece; it’s a fairy tale. So, this style is the most suitable for *The Legend of Zelda*.”
“As for going against the mainstream art style… What is the mainstream art style? We are the mainstream art style.”
Qian Kun was speechless. After a long pause, he said, “…Awesome.”
…
In fact, in Chen Mo’s previous life, the art style of *The Legend of Zelda* had also faced some player skepticism.
Many people’s core argument for criticizing *The Legend of Zelda* was: Say what you will, isn’t this art style just a compromise because the hardware couldn’t handle it? It’s clearly a shortcut!
In reality, this kind of argument would only be ridiculed by many professionals.
Even on the powerful PS4, many games didn’t use a realistic style, like *Journey*.
Not using a realistic style wasn’t because they couldn’t; it was because the designers, considering the game’s characteristics, chose the art style that best suited their game.
In fact, purely in terms of the difficulty of controlling the art style, cartoon styles were harder. After all, realistic styles just needed to be made lifelike, while cartoon styles required a lot of artistic design.
Of course, this wasn’t to say one style was better than the other. But for *The Legend of Zelda*, a game somewhat like a fairy tale, this animation style was the most fitting.
For many players, the art style of *The Legend of Zelda* was also a key selling point and its most distinctive feature setting it apart from other games.
Maybe many players in the parallel world still couldn’t understand what was so good about this art style. But that was okay.
Once the game came out, they would understand.