Do you think Aonuma brought more artistic expression to Zelda than Miyamoto did?

Miyamoto is the one who revolutionized the gaming world with Ocarina of Time, but I kind of feel that Aonuma made Zelda into a expression of art more than Miyamoto did.

For example, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess is considerably different from Ocarina of Time or Link to the Past. There were so many artsy things in Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess that Miyamoto's Zelda's didn't have.

I think Miyamoto has a more direct approach in that he wants to make a game as fun to play as possible. Miyamoto's Zeldas has a more fundamental approach in storytelling, such as a definite beginning, middle, and end, a central conflict, the obstacles the main character has to overcome to reach his desired end, and a climactic ending. Very simple, straight-forward,"save the princess" type of storytelling,but extrememly entertaining and fun all the way through. On the contrary, if Ocarina of Time felt more like a entertaining, summer movie, Majora's Mask felt more like a trance-like experience that was weird and expressive. More artistic in its presentation, glamoured with weird and bizarre characters (um...like Tingle), more profound themes, and more visually expressive. Likewise, Twilight Princess felt like a meshing of these two, fun and to-the-point like Ocarina but artsy and expressive like Majora.

Of course, Miyamoto can be artsy-fartsy too, like in Pikmin for example. But when it comes to Zelda, it looks like Aonuma likes to dabble and experiment a little bit more by taking more artistic dares, very "dream-like" experience...I don't know, but that's the impression I get between these two "legendary" developers.

Great points, I will have to agree with you. Miyamoto games are almost always extremely simple in terms of plot. The last three Zelda games have been increasingly story driven with more themes appearing.dvader654

Yeah, Aonuma has a more "dream-like" experience.

To answer the question, yes I think Aunoma's games have more artistic expression than Ocarina of Time. Play Wind Waker for 5 minutes and it doesn't take long to notice. Just the way of seeing the little twirls that show the wind blowing, and seeing how enemies leave treasures behind solidifies that arguement I think. Even seeing how he gave the world of Ocarina of Time a dark twist (that opening scene with Link as a Deku Scrub starts the game out on a pretty creepy note).

At the same time though, I don't think Miyamoto can be critized for it. Ocarina of Time was a masterful game, and was the exact Zelda game that Nintendo needed at that time.When that game was released it had to focus on a linear adventure game that was extremely reminescent of the earlier Zelda games because it had to prove that the N64 was capable of delivering the same type of adventure games we loved in a 3-D realm. Had Miyamoto focused on getting too artistic with the game it could have been too much of a distraction and ultimately hurt the game. If you think about it, those are some of the major criticisms that people have with the Wind Waker and Majora's Mask: "Too trippy, don't like the art style, etc."

Prior to N64 there wasn't a whole lot of art styles seen in games. With 16 bits it was a struggle just to make everything look clear and identifiable. I would like to see Miyamoto fully take the reigns for one more Zelda game before all is done and over with though, just to see what he could do.

I agree with you, but it's Aonuma, not Eunoma.k_smoove

Oops! Fixed and edited...sorry. :oops: