/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3927116
Nah, the stuff they outsorced to animation studios in the first 4 games was mostly promotional/packaging artwork and illustrations, created *after* the in-game visual style was already in place, not first stages concept art or anything (though they did ask for test pieces when they were beginning work on OoT before they decided to keep everything in-house)

I assume Link looked like earlier Links in those demos because... that's how Link used to look? It was not like today; a striking new visual look to get people's attention was not a priority, as the exhausting pre-release hype information drip was still not an industry standard practice. Radically changing link into a bishonen was a pretty big leap, and it took a person who knew he wouldn't lose his job to take it.