A popular horror concept artist has recently taken to recreating some of the creepiest enemies from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with highly detailed renders that look like they've crawled straight out of Dark Souls. Ocarina of Time is known as one of the best games in The Legend of Zelda franchise, originally released to the Nintendo 64 to massive critical success and spawning a sequel in the form of Majora's Mask. While these games were created for people of any age to enjoy, some of the enemies hide very disturbing appearances behind the low-poly limitations of the time.
Players of Ocarina of Time no doubt remember coming across horrors such as Dead Hand, Skulltula, and Bongo Bongo. While the game was rated E10+ by the ESRB, the idea of a cyclops with disembodied hands or a grinning zombie that sprouts arms out of the ground doesn't seem like the most child-friendly concept, especially for a company like Nintendo. Recently, one horror enthusiast sought to breathe more life into the low-res monsters from the past, and the results are horrifying.
Andres Rios, a concept artist and character designer famous for their horror artwork, has taken these unsettling creature designs to the next level, bringing out every gruesome detail imaginable from the original enemies. Featured in the artist's terrifying collection are the Skulltula, Dead Hand, Bongo Bongo, Stalfos, ReDead, and Big Poe, all carefully and expertly brought into high-definition to the horror and delight of the game's fans. The enemies in this collection seem to fit more with the likes of Dark Souls than a child-friendly Nintendo game.
These chilling images speak for themselves, taking what were already creepy designs and dialing them up to 11. All of the creatures were digitally 3D modeled and painted in ZBrush and rendered in Keyshot. Andres has stated that plans are in the works for more monsters from Ocarina of Time as well as Majora's Mask and possibly Wind Waker, meaning the roster of nightmare-fuel fan art is going to get even bigger.
The level of care and attention to detail in these recreations of the childhood horrors is astounding along with the rest of this artist's portfolio. Seeing as the artist does work for Bandai Namco, the publisher for Dark Souls, and looking at their previous work, it's no wonder the concepts take such a Souls-like appearance. It seems like every day the large fanbase for The Legend of Zelda is creating impressive works of fan art, solidifying the series' permanent mark on the games industry and in the hearts of the dedicated fanbase that was charmed so many years ago by the green-clad adventurer.
Sources: Andres Rios/Twitter