Inspired by Final Fantasy VII Remake, animator Gareth Butts shared an inspiring clip that transplants Link and Zelda into a familiar victory scene.
Butts posted the brief clip to his personal Twitter page last week, showing The Legend of Zelda‘s protagonists Link and Zelda performing a Final Fantasy VII Remake-style victory pose. After a quick hint of the game’s original battle menu, the camera pans faithfully around the characters as they re-enact Cloud and Tifa’s celebratory poses, set to the victory fanfare.
“The animation in [Final Fantasy VII Remake] was inspiring,” Butts wrote in the intro to what he calls “a study and tribute to some of my all-time favourite games.”
The models of Link and Zelda were created by senior character modeler Christoph Schoch (@artstoff), drawing from their appearances in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. All the finer points of the original animations are present in Butts’ recreation, from the way Link swings the Buster Sword in circles before shouldering it, to the way Zelda dusts herself off and stretches.
If you look closely, you can see fine details like materia set in the Buster Sword’s slots. The massive weapon has been rescaled subtly to better suit Nintendo’s elven hero.
Stylistically the scenery, created by PolyArt Studio, leans into the brighter natural aesthetics of Breath of the Wild instead of the grittier, manufactured feel of Final Fantasy VII Remake. However, now that Cloud and friends are free of Midgar, perhaps we’ll see the likes of these rolling hills and birch trees in the next installment, whenever it arrives.
Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda may seem vastly different, but these storied franchises have more in common than it may seem. Both originated in the NES/Famicom era—in Japan, Zelda‘s first game launched in 1986, followed the next year by Final Fantasy—and have a tradition of reinventing themselves between installments. Both have pushed their respective RPG subgenres to new heights over the last thirty years. And of course, fans can see their worlds collide in Super Smash Bros.
In the meantime, you can follow Garreth Butts on Twitter to see more of his animation work!
