02-20-2019, 06:31 PM
Turns Out Many Characters Shared One Body In Zelda: The Wind Waker
<div><div class="media_block"><a href="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/large.jpg"><img src="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/small.jpg" class="media_thumbnail"></a></div>
<figure class="picture strip"><a title="WW" href="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/ww.original.jpg"><img src="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/ww.900x.jpg" alt="WW" /></a></figure>
<p><a href="http://www.nintendolife.com/games/gamecube/legend_of_zelda_the_wind_waker"><strong>The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker</strong></a> got off to a rocky start with fans. The ‘Celda’ backlash may seem like a dim and distant memory now, but at the time many fans were <em>furious</em> that their beloved series was being twisted and turned in a way they didn’t agree with. Fancy that, eh?</p>
<p>Fortunately, Nintendo stuck to its guns and Wind Waker’s timeless art style holds up in a way many other games of the era struggle to in these Ultra High Definition times. Even its harshest critics have calmed down a little and come around to its clean and simple animated style.</p>
<p>We got a chance to enjoy the game all over again on <a href="http://www.nintendolife.com/games/wiiu/legend_of_zelda_the_wind_waker_hd">Wii U</a>, but Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/JasperRLZ/status/1097711098692661248?s=20">@JasperRLZ</a> has made an interesting observation regarding the game’s oddball cast that passed us by in the <em>seventeen years</em> since the game’s initial release:</p>
<aside class="object object-tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Wind Waker is a game with a lot of characters. In order to save on production costs, a lot of characters have the same body model, but with a different head and different clothes. Here’s all the NPCs in Windfall Island for comparison. Spot the ones that are the same! <a href="https://t.co/EjpV6WiT8q">pic.twitter.com/EjpV6WiT8q</a></span>— Jasper (@JasperRLZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasperRLZ/status/1097711098692661248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
</aside>
<p>Look closely and you’ll see that many of the game’s characters share identical body models, with only head and clothes textures changing.</p>
<p>It’s not something we’d have ever noticed without having it pointed out, but now it’s the <em>only</em> thing we’ll be able to think about when we next fire up the GameCube classic. It goes so show just how clever and economical Nintendo’s development team was when called upon to save memory on those cute little GameCube discs.</p>
<p><em>Had you ever noticed this before? Can you think of any other examples of body-swapping (or, more accurately, head-swapping) models in other games? Let us know in the comments below.</em></p>
</div>
<div><div class="media_block"><a href="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/large.jpg"><img src="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/small.jpg" class="media_thumbnail"></a></div>
<figure class="picture strip"><a title="WW" href="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/ww.original.jpg"><img src="http://images.nintendolife.com/62631bd35adae/ww.900x.jpg" alt="WW" /></a></figure>
<p><a href="http://www.nintendolife.com/games/gamecube/legend_of_zelda_the_wind_waker"><strong>The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker</strong></a> got off to a rocky start with fans. The ‘Celda’ backlash may seem like a dim and distant memory now, but at the time many fans were <em>furious</em> that their beloved series was being twisted and turned in a way they didn’t agree with. Fancy that, eh?</p>
<p>Fortunately, Nintendo stuck to its guns and Wind Waker’s timeless art style holds up in a way many other games of the era struggle to in these Ultra High Definition times. Even its harshest critics have calmed down a little and come around to its clean and simple animated style.</p>
<p>We got a chance to enjoy the game all over again on <a href="http://www.nintendolife.com/games/wiiu/legend_of_zelda_the_wind_waker_hd">Wii U</a>, but Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/JasperRLZ/status/1097711098692661248?s=20">@JasperRLZ</a> has made an interesting observation regarding the game’s oddball cast that passed us by in the <em>seventeen years</em> since the game’s initial release:</p>
<aside class="object object-tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Wind Waker is a game with a lot of characters. In order to save on production costs, a lot of characters have the same body model, but with a different head and different clothes. Here’s all the NPCs in Windfall Island for comparison. Spot the ones that are the same! <a href="https://t.co/EjpV6WiT8q">pic.twitter.com/EjpV6WiT8q</a></span>— Jasper (@JasperRLZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasperRLZ/status/1097711098692661248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
</aside>
<p>Look closely and you’ll see that many of the game’s characters share identical body models, with only head and clothes textures changing.</p>
<p>It’s not something we’d have ever noticed without having it pointed out, but now it’s the <em>only</em> thing we’ll be able to think about when we next fire up the GameCube classic. It goes so show just how clever and economical Nintendo’s development team was when called upon to save memory on those cute little GameCube discs.</p>
<p><em>Had you ever noticed this before? Can you think of any other examples of body-swapping (or, more accurately, head-swapping) models in other games? Let us know in the comments below.</em></p>
</div>