2D Zelda Higher Resolution Community Project

[Koh]

Valo

-post-

Who says I didn't try though?  Maybe I did it when it was first suggested, but saw it looked awkward.  Seeing is believing, so...

Whoa. That escalated quickly.

The fun of the experiment is seeing what details people add so I actually like Valo's Link a lot. It's faithful to the blonde-haired design of the time but stays faithful to the original sprite.

I'm not saying not to try, but you still have to be mindful of readibility, and Link's face on his looks really busy; it could be the big eyes, or it could be another reason with all the pixel clutter.

Let's just show what I mean.

Well, seeing is believing, so why don't we just try a bit of everything, with proof that it doesn't look good.

First, the base with no changes.


Alright, so lets try some fingers.


Looks awkward doesn't it?  It's just one pixel for the right hand (on the left) and three on the left hand (on the right).  Maybe a poor choice of color, perhaps?  Would it look better if it were the green instead of the black?



Sort of, but you can barely tell they're even there.  And in the world of spriting, if that's the case, it's the same as it just not existing at all, so those are out.

Well, how about we try a mouth?



Now his expression looks less neutral and a bit different, even though it's just two pixels.  We can try changing the color again.



Not as dreadful as before, but once again, it's not adding anything of value being there compared to when nothing was there before.

Well, what about extending his hair details?



More of a match to his hairstyle in the artwork, with sideburns identified.  This is the one edit that seems at least decent, but then when you think about how the sprite is animated (flipping), you realize that the non-symmetrical nature of it will make the animation look awkward.