The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild is the newest game in the franchise of the Legend of Zelda. Released for the Nintendo Switch approximately three weeks ago, it’s quickly become one of the most popular in the series. I’m researching this game in particular, because it uses an art style very similar to the one i want to produce, and the fighting mechanics they use in this game would also go a long way to understanding what makes a good fighting/flying game, and what doesn’t.
The art style of this franchise has always interested me, up until Wind waker, the style was semi-realistic, semi-cartoony, wind waker broke that with a more cartoon-like game, followed by Phantom hourglass and Spirit tracks, even the prequel to the entire franchise, Skyward sword, adopted this style, although it dialed it back, to a style that i’m trying to emulate, one which was made slightly darker in colour in breath of the wild, as they mixed more realism into the game. Something i’ve loved about the more carttony styled versions is the energy effects they use, especially in wind waker, the swirling tower of lava or water looks just as i imagine energy weapons would in my game, and are, in fact, a big inspiration of them.
I also find the Zelda franchise has mastered the art of hand-to-hand combat. Where in Skyrim you’d just hack and slash at enemies, in Zelda, you use something called targeting, nicknamed that because you’d hold the Z button on the controller to lock onto an enemy, and then attack, allowing you to single out enemies in a fight, so you can just attack like any other game, it adds a new dynamic to the game allowing for more in-depth combat, and ever since nintendo came up with the idea, many other games have used similar or the same method of combat, something i’ll consider using if i make a ground combat part to the game.
Breath of the wild has continued both of these trends, i’ve mainly picked on it though for the architectural styles used, the blocky swirls and patterns, bright colours, and the sense of scale of the world, it’s really a breath taking game, and something i’d love to consider when making my game, especially with the simplicity of the models, and yet how complex they actually are in design, it’s really inspiring for me. i also like the semi-steam punk style they’ve gone with, a sort of ancient fairytale/steampunk world, i really like this style, and i think it’s something i might explore as i design the characters costumes, and the buildings in the cities in game.
GregSkiiArt 