"EXACTLY. I've heard people say the the cartoon-look doesn't suit Zelda, but if you look at the designs of older games like Ocarina, Link to the Past, and Legend of Zelda the style was always cartoonish. Nintendo simply made the graphics match the cartoonish style."
No, no, no- that was just people who deep down *didn't* like the cel-shading rationalizing Nintendo's choice of the graphical style by saying that's the way it's always been when that's NOT the way it's always been. LoZ was a very early NES game, so I'm sure Nintendo was more focused on getting the graphics to look close to what they were, meaning they had very little room for any kind of "style". A Link to the Past had a pretty cartoony look- not full blown, but the style of the graphics were a big change. The Oracles had a more anime influenced style (that's anime, NOT cartoons), and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask were both obviously pushing mainly for a realistic style. Granted the N64 couldn't convey that feeling perfectly, but with a few exceptions saying OoT and MM were cartoony is just a disillusion. Just face it- Nintendo changes the style of Zelda often and that's why *I* finally came to grips and accepted the graphical style, because I realized that all good things come to an end and it's important broaden the game's scope to other fields. Even so, there are many moments in Wind Waker that are decidedly realistic, despite the cel-shading (namely the Tower of the Gods).
What I find funny is if people say a realistic Zelda would've been better, immediatly someone jumps out with the argument that they don't want Nintendo to do the same thing over and over again and wear it out. Yet those SAME people turn around and claim Zelda's ALWAYS been cartoony and so people shouldn't be mad that it's cartoony now. If they don't want Nintendo using the same idea over and over again, why, according to them, are they perfectly content with a cartoon style for all *9* Zelda games?