 |
| Damien Canderle - Winner Comicon Game Artisan Challenge 2010 |
I, like others, immediately associated this design with a game like World of Warcraft. Though it's not clear whether that was the artist's intention, Link clearly differs from any other iteration of Link in the series. Obviously, the biggest change is his age. In the series, the eldest iteration of Link is still a young man, and oddly enough viewers of this artwork have expressed their support for seeing Link of a similar age to this in a future installment.
Despite Link being several decades older here, he is clearly still Link. He's far more mature, however, and this shows in his visual design - not counting the obvious of course. His attire is closely connected to the original Hero's Tunic, but it's grittier and it does have a far more adult feel about it. Though it's not clear, this design was probably based on Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword's version of link, wherein he is a young adult. I for one associate it with Twilight Princess since this redesign seems to share Link's seriousness from that game.
Again, the attitude takes significance here. While other incarnations of Link obviously have slightly different personalities that different players relate to, and sit well in the different worlds of Zelda, here we see the solemnity of Twilight Princess Link - as such I immediately made the connection between the two. The point here is that attitude - personality - is important. If this artist's interpretation of Link had an entirely different personality to any incarnation of the Hero, then it could very well have been a different story,
Visually there's no question. We know this is Link. He could exist in WoW easily, as a number of people have pointed out, or this could be the artist's interpretation of how a future Zelda title could be in style. However that's what is interesting about it since it still retains the original essence of Link, with the tunic, famous weapons and the gauntlets. The only gripe that I could see people having with this is the fact that he is right handed here, not left-handed as he almost always has been. Of course, that's a pedantic outlook on things, but it goes back to the point of player familiarity with a character; why they recognize and relate to them.
Again, the attitude takes significance here. While other incarnations of Link obviously have slightly different personalities that different players relate to, and sit well in the different worlds of Zelda, here we see the solemnity of Twilight Princess Link - as such I immediately made the connection between the two. The point here is that attitude - personality - is important. If this artist's interpretation of Link had an entirely different personality to any incarnation of the Hero, then it could very well have been a different story,
Visually there's no question. We know this is Link. He could exist in WoW easily, as a number of people have pointed out, or this could be the artist's interpretation of how a future Zelda title could be in style. However that's what is interesting about it since it still retains the original essence of Link, with the tunic, famous weapons and the gauntlets. The only gripe that I could see people having with this is the fact that he is right handed here, not left-handed as he almost always has been. Of course, that's a pedantic outlook on things, but it goes back to the point of player familiarity with a character; why they recognize and relate to them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment