While many AAA titles have moved away from the use of 2D sprites in favor of 3D polygons, detailed sprite work is still very much alive as detailed by this artist who’s turned three old-schoolPokemontrainers into characters fromThe Legend of Zelda.
Posted to r/Pokemon, the largest unofficialPokemonfan subreddit, user Urque transformed gym leaders from what seems like a handful of differentPokemontitles into the main cast ofThe Legend of Zeldaseries. Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf are all sporting their classic looks from older games in the series specifically likeThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
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Despite each character’s retro looks, they’ve all managed to findways to carry their Pokeballs around. Ganondorf is using some of his magic to levitate the ball in the air, Zelda simply carries hers in her hands, and Link has three Pokeballs strapped to his belt like one of the various items he finds on his quests.
Commenters on the original Reddit post have been discussing which sprites Urque based each character on. It seems like Zelda is based on Ghost-user Fantina, the Hearthome City Gym Leader from the originalPokemon DiamondandPearl. Ganondorf looks as if his sprite is an altered version ofPokemon HeartGoldandSoulSilver’s Indigo Plateau Champion Lance. Because Urque hasn’t responded to the speculative commenters, no one can quite figure out which sprite Link is based on. Some think he looks like Ethan fromHeart GoldandSoul Silver, but there hasn’t been any official confirmation.
Fans of thePokemonseries may be seeing Fantina, the gym leader that the Zelda sprite is based on, again soon in theupcoming remakesPokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearl. Although it looks like thePokemonseries abandoned sprites in favor of 3D models several games ago, it should be nice to see the changes made to the character’s design.
TheLegend of Zeldaseries also dropped its sprite-based designs, although there are certainly fewerZeldagames that used 2D art when compared to thePokemonseries. That said,Zelda’s 2D sprites were usually viewed at a top-down angle, so seeing the three main characters head-on in Urque’s post brings their designs to a whole new level. The nextZeldagame to feature all three characters again seems to bethe highly anticipatedLegend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2, but while Link and Zelda are featured prominently in the game’s trailers, it’s unclear what sort of role Ganon or Ganondorf will play in the story.
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