The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

The team at ZERO ONE worked closely with the ever-talented Tantalus Media to bring The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD to Nintendo Switch.

Our artists meticulously repainted over 1500 prop, character and environmental textures for the game, at up to 4x times the original resolution. Every pixel was placed to ensure each texture was an exact copy of the original, with the increased resolution being the only difference. Different techniques were developed to bring current gen visual fidelity to the existing engine and assets in order to convert them to more standardised formats. This process helped to resolve visual anomalies, and provided a familiar standard for the artists moving forward, aiding efficiency and reducing costs.

Geometric detail was carefully added to the original character models without displacing the original UV maps, allowing the texture layout to remain untouched. Great care was taken to maintain the exact proportions of the originals, while providing them with an improved on-screen silhouette and smooth deformations when animated.

The introductory cinematic was enhanced to take advantage of the HD resolution of the Switch screen. The resolution was increased to 1080p and artifacts due to compression and pixelation were removed. A variety of processes and filters were used to retain the textural detail in the background without affecting the painterly foreground elements.

User Interface elements were upresed, remade or created from scratch, retaining the look and feel of the original game. It was important the UI elements and icons work well with the Switch layout and conformed to a more modern design language than the original game.

It was an amazing opportunity to work on Zelda, our entire team’s passion for the franchise shone through in the care and attention to detail they poured into its remastering.