January 21^st, 2003 (12:00am) - The latest issue of the Swedish gaming magazine SuperPlay reveals that Shigeru Miyamoto was not entirely behind the Cel Shaded look of the GameCube’s The Wind Waker.

Here’s the translated article:

With the finished game in his hand, Miyamoto seemed proud of his Zelda team, but according to his colleagues, Miyamoto was not entirely convinced using cel-shading in Zelda during the development.

"It wasn’t Miyamoto that brought up the idea, it was opposite, Eiji Aonuma says. Most of us thought it was a natural way to let it develop, but Miyamoto was afraid to abandon the more human style. He sits in Nintendo’s committee, and has responsibility for a game’s commercial success. And he was unsure how the most faithful fans would react to the change."

"I had a feeling that the Zelda franchise would develope towards cel-shading already during the N64 era said Yoshiki Haruhana."

"During the work with Majora’s Mask, I made some rough sketches that reminds me of Wind Waker today."

"I showed my outlines for Takizawa, and he said: Next time, lets make a whole new game that looks like that!"

"I remember that I gathered all those sketches and asked Miyamoto what his opinion was, said Takizawa, and Miyamoto was not convinced about this style."

"But at the same time, I knew that Miyamoto wasn’t 100% satisfied how the Nintendo 64 Zeldas looked, and he for sure wanted to change it."

"When Shigeru wants a change, he wants it radical. And after some time for consideration, he gave it a go. Let’s make Wind Waker something new, said Aonuma."

"Whole developement team grewed up with manga and anime, so we are inspired. Haayao Miyazakis my neighbor Totoro and Laputa are my personal favorites says Miyamoto. They are different, and those things inspire me."

My Thoughts:

Miyamoto was right; this change to the Zelda series won’t sit well even with the most die hard of Zelda fans. Personally, I have to see it for myself but I would have rather much preferred what we saw at SpaceWorld 2000. But the again, Miyamoto said he wasn’t exactly pleased with the Nintendo 64 Zeldas either.