27th March 2003, 1:14 AM
That's how I viewed him too, but now I'm seeing Link as being pretty much a living wall mural. Everything else really has that look too. Look at the design of the centipede monsters and compare them to old world monster drawings. For that matter compare the drawings of Ganon at the very start to that style. They couldn't have made it more obvious unless they had the last picture of current day boys being dressed in green fade to the real world with our hero in the same pose (which they likely would have done except Link starts out in some sort of sailor outfit). When you view him as he was intended, a classical old world artistic style painting on a pot or something brought to life, you can take him a lot more seriously. The long arms with the somewhat angular yet curved bend (not sure how to say that) REALLY resembles the way the arms of egyption drawings of people looked, with that same deformation of really long and bending in the same style. The size and shape of his head (football head) resembles... well I can't quite place it but I remember seeing the style on some island culture I saw on Discovery a while back. The shortness of the characters resembles the shortness of people in aztec drawings (or the shortness of Japanese super deformed style :D). It's like all sorts of legendary artistic styles of the past rolled into one, and the more I look at it the more bits of style of the past I can see. The way the waves look and the way the wind and smoke look also resemble certain greek drawings. It may look ridiculous in the total lack of any context to compare it to, but when you do start comparing, you really notice that far from bad design, this actually reflects very GOOD artistic ability on the modeller's part. I'm not going as far as to say this is my favorite looking Link of all time, I love all the styles he's had through the ages pretty equally. I also won't go as far as to say this is the "best representation" since I find all the styles represent Link quite well, just very differently. I also submit that in the future a different artistic style should be pursued (originating again, coming up with yet another style) and that maybe this should be a one time style.
You know, I also look at the...look of four swords, and notice it's got the same overall style of being similar to old world drawing about it. In fact, many of the symbols seem very old world style. Vaati itself seems to look like many shadowy creatures from old legendary vases full of pictures.
Anyway, the only problem I had from the start was the modelling. Actually, if some of you recall, it was only the humanoids I had a problem with. The monsters and surroundings for some reason didn't bother me and seemed fine. Now that I realize the most likely intentions (and if it wasn't intentional, wow what a coincidence) were this, and looking at it with this outlook the modelling is really nice. They really need to advertise this though. The best thing would be the whole "fade to real world" thing after showing some wall full of legendary murals. Even better considering this IS America we are talking about would be to do that WHILE actually stating it blatently.
You know, I also look at the...look of four swords, and notice it's got the same overall style of being similar to old world drawing about it. In fact, many of the symbols seem very old world style. Vaati itself seems to look like many shadowy creatures from old legendary vases full of pictures.
Anyway, the only problem I had from the start was the modelling. Actually, if some of you recall, it was only the humanoids I had a problem with. The monsters and surroundings for some reason didn't bother me and seemed fine. Now that I realize the most likely intentions (and if it wasn't intentional, wow what a coincidence) were this, and looking at it with this outlook the modelling is really nice. They really need to advertise this though. The best thing would be the whole "fade to real world" thing after showing some wall full of legendary murals. Even better considering this IS America we are talking about would be to do that WHILE actually stating it blatently.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)