Zelda fans distract themselves from Tears of the Kingdom leaks by debating the series’ best art styles

With the release of Tears of the Kingdom just over a week away, plenty of Legend of Zelda fans are desperately counting down the days until they can take to the picturesque plains of Hyrule again.

Unfortunately for those who were hoping to go in having seen as little of what the game has to offer beforehand, large swaths of it have recently leaked, making avoiding spoilers quite difficult for those who still want to chat with their fellow Nintendo stans.

If you’re desperately trying to dodge pre-release info about the new game and have run out of Breath of the Wild challenge runs to watch, you might want to get involved in a couple of lively Reddit discussions that focus on the series’ illustrious past.

Which Zelda game do you find the most aesthetically pleasing?

These creatively-themed conversations form the subject of a couple of recent threads on r/zelda, the first of which was kicked off by a post from user Epic_Rain, who asked: “Which main (series) 3D Zelda (game) has the best art style and graphics?”

Many of those offering answers seemed to let design philosophy weigh slightly more heavily in their choices than visual fidelity, with comparatively older entries like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess receiving a lot of love, alongside more recent games like Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild.

“I love Wind Waker's whimsical and welcoming style, Twilight Princess nails the dark fantasy aspect, and Skyward Sword's painting-esque style really brings out the fantasy epic (vibes) the best.” declared user Sentinel10, who effectively illustrated a lot of the reasoning behind a lot of their peers' most popular picks, while failing to settle on a winner of their own.

Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask also received a few nominations, with user McDuffin describing their aesthetics as being “like a beautiful dream”.

On the other hand users Joezze and BennyTATS suggested that Breath of the Wild doesn’t quite deserve the same level of reverence as its predecessors, due to the higher visual standards achievable via 2017’s tech.

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Meanwhile, in another thread, some fans have decided to narrow down their design debate to the game’s iconic shields, with armaments from all of the titles mentioned above receiving some level of props.

Regardless of which game’s beautiful visuals you plan to distract yourself with until Tears of the Kingdom arrives, make sure to follow us for a bunch of helpful guides to its various features, including weapon crafting and raft building.