Fanart - Hero of Time

I'm hosting a challenge over on my DeviantART. Redesign a Nintendo character so that his design would work in an M Rated PS3 game, while still keeping the character recognizable to fans. I always thought the Nintendo designs were a little too kid friendly. I grew up with Nintendo and I loved the games, but a part of me wishes Nintendo grew up with me. Games got more realistic as far as story and art goes. But Nintendo kept the same games, the graphics never improved and the gameplay was essentially the same. Which is great, don't get me wrong. Fans don't like change. This is why I did this challenge though. I wanted to see what Nintendo characters would look like if they evolved with the times the way Metal Gear Solid did.

I chose Link from The Legend of Zelda because while he is a cool character, he's too fairy-like. I wanted to put him in more of a Skyrim type of world so I based his design around that. A little more practical and real, while still leaving a few elements so you know it's Link. The gameplay and story would be essentially the same, but the look and graphics would be amped up if this were to actually happen. I actually did a lot of research into The Legend of Zelda so I could keep this true to his character and keep the fans happy while still changing his design and taking away his hat.

I'll admit though, in real life you could never change Link's design. Or any other popular character for that matter. This was just for fun. And I did have a lot of fun with it.

Here's an animated step by step process of my Hero of Time painting.