It turns out that removing the iconic cel-shaded art style of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild yields some mixed results, according to a recent Reddit post. Cel-shading refers to a 3D art style that lends its subjects a stylized, cartoon-like appearance. The tried-and-true graphical approach is one that has been used in countless titles over the years, including earlier Legend of Zelda games like Wind Waker.
When it landed on the Switch as a launch title back in 2017, Breath of the Wild was almost universally praised for its charming and alluring art design. Despite being native to hardware that was severely underpowered compared to its competitors from Microsoft and Sony, Breath of the Wild impressed players with uncompromising visual storytelling and intriguing exploration options. Much of the success of Breath of the Wild's visual design can be attributed to the cel-shaded art style, as it helped disguise some of the lack of detail present in many of the character models and environments. The striking graphical style coupled with features like dynamic weather effects and Breath of the Wild's decidedly anachronistic setting makes the game a visual marvel on somewhat outdated tech.
With that said, some fans might be wondering what the game would have looked like if it decided to forgo the Wind Waker-style graphics in favor of a more traditional approach. Reddit user MicroFlamer is one of those fans, and they managed to strip Breath of the Wild of its cel-shading through some clever modding. MicroFlamer's post consists of three in-game screenshots focused mainly on Link and Zelda presented in a more Unreal Engine-esque graphical style. It appears that all of the game's other visual features, including the dramatic lighting engine, have remained unchanged in these images.
Opinions on this different take are split in the comments of the post. While some commenters are comparing this new look to the much-maligned GTA Trilogy remaster's art design, others are a bit more charitable. One fan admits that the removal of the cel-shading results in a slightly inferior art style, but that the shiny and smooth graphics aren't all that bad in and of themselves. A surprising amount of comments are references to Toy Story, likely due to the character models looking a bit like plastic action figures in these screenshots.
This skewed version of Breath of the Wild's appearance is certainly jarring, but it isn't necessarily an unheard-of visual style in this gaming generation. Other Nintendo games like the remastered The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening have employed this more plastic-inspired graphical design and have been praised by gamers. Still, it's hard to imagine how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would have been received without its signature, cel-shaded look.
Source: MicroFlamer/Reddit