When the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake was first revealed, one of the most common gut reactions I saw across the internet was in response to the game’s overall visual style. And everyone seemed to focus on one thing in particular: Link’s clothes.

Basically, Link’s clothes feature a ridiculous amount of detail. They appear to be hand-woven out of some sort of fiber, and you can see every stitch. There’s a fringe around the bottom, and larger stitches where the sleeves attach and where his hat comes together. Over his tunic, he’s wearing some sort of leather armor with swirling leaf designs. Adult Link’s boots have similar etchings. It all looks…not hyperrealistic or anything, but it certainly has an over-the-top amount of intricacy that the Nintendo 64 Link never could have dreamed of.

There was debate, though, as to whether this was good or not. Some people compared it to the look of Unreal Engine fan games, which have been oft-mocked for missing the simplistic charm of typical Nintendo games. A lot of people felt that Link stood out from his surroundings, especially when he stood next to other NPCs with less detail, such as some folks in Castle Town. But others really liked the tunic and its details, and noted how well it spoke to Link’s origins as a child of the forest.

Well according to the game’s developers, that history is exactly what they were tapping into with the tunic’s intricate look. In an Ask the Developer interview today, art director Aya Shida and producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi explained how the tunic (and the rest of the art style) came to be.

Source link