WhenThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakerfirst launched in the early 2000s, it did so with a brand new cel-shaded art style.The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s cel-shaded art style divided fans at first, but it has since proven popular, with many lauding it for its longevity compared to more traditional 3D graphics. Even so, some may still be wondering whatThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakerwould look like if it were going for more photo-realistic visuals, and fans know now thanks to the work of artist Vitor Maccari.
As spotted by Nintendo Life, Vitor Maccari has shown wasThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakerwould look like if it were made using Unreal Engine and going for a more realistic art style, while retaining the cartoony design for Link. The video gives fans a glimpse atThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakerislands, as Link sails by on theKing of Red Lions boat. At one point in the video, the King of Red Lions turns around and talks to Link while they’re sailing.
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The video uses some classicWind Wakermusic to complete the effect, and finishes off with a gorgeous look at what Link sailing would look like at night with these graphics. While fans shouldn’t count on Nintendo making anything official like this, it’s still a neat presentation that shows what aWind Wakergame built with Unreal Engine could look like. And with game developers now starting touse Unreal Engine 5 to build their games, they can look better than ever before.
This is far from the first time that someone has createdZeldavideos and demos using Unreal Engine. There have been numerousLegend of Zeldarecreations using Unreal Engine, mostly focused on the Nintendo 64Zeldagames. Fans haverecreatedOcarina of Timeareas in Unreal Engine, plus some of theMajora’s Maskcutscenes, but it seems the videos showcasing these projects are often taken down, unfortunately.
As far asWind Wakergoes, anyone feeling nostalgic after watching this video has a couple of different options to play it. They could always track down a GameCube and a used physical copy of the classic game, or they could buy a Wii U and playWind Waker HDinstead. Either route is a potentially expensive prospect, so hopefully the rumors of aZelda: Wind WakerSwitch portturn out to be true.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Wakeris available on GameCube, with an HD version out on the Wii U.
