Breaking new ground in terms of what? Visual appeal?
Is there a translation mishap somewhere in the article? I'm very confused as to why Aonuma is suddenly having intense regret over Windwakers art style (which is fucking adorable might I add) The top three favorite art styles in Zelda games with Skyward Sword in second place and Twilight Princess coming in third.
Unless I'm missing something and he's still- to this very day getting hate mail over a game's art direction from 8 years ago.
This especially confuses me since there was talk of being a dark skinned Link in the new games, and if the comments on the Destructoid were anything to go by, simply THAT was causing a category 5 shit storm that will even rival WindWakers initial announcement.
Then again, I can kind of see where he's coming from. I don't think Aonuma is really talking about Windwaker, but more or less talking about all the Zelda games.
Now that I think about it, sans Twilight Princess's art style (which was loved because 'dark and edgy') Skyward Sword's art style was met with a fuck ton of whining and complaining.
A good amount of those whiners complained about how colorful and "kiddy" it looked like Windwaker. The only difference being Link isn't chibified.
Hell, a good amount of people said they outright refused to buy a game because of the style of Skyward Sword.
While it certainly wasn't kicking up near the amount of shit that WW did, I can understand really well how such reactions for every single unique style you take can really drain on an artist self esteem and confidence.
Put it this way, you honestly start to second guess yourself a lot. Especially if what you chose to do really was the best decision (which they were).
It has to be depressing as shit to do a new artistic style, and most of the comments you get revolve around it not being OoT enough, or 'eurgh yuck colorful and kiddy'