As something of a follow-up to my dissertations on The Legend of Zelda, I'd now like to discuss one of the big challenges of design: the balance between simplicity and complexity. A good design generally has to be simple enough to be easy to understand, yet also complex enough to maintain audience interest. The challenge is that the distinction between simplicity and complexity is never very cut and dry. What may be too complex to one person may be overly simplistic to someone else. In my Zelda discussions, I mentioned that The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess led to a split in the Zelda fanbase; those who preferred the former appreciated the simplicity of its art style and criticized the latter for "trying too hard" to be more detailed and complex, while those who preferred the latter criticized the former for having an oversimplified art style by "dumbing things down". How does a designer deal with this sort of thing? How can you compromise and come up with something more satisfying? Going back to the Zelda discussions yet again, I said I ultimately preferred The Wind Waker because despite its simplicity, it still has plenty of crisp textures and slick animation that is somewhat lacking in Twilight Princess. Thus, one possible answer to this dilemma is, when trying to achieve that balance between simplicity and complexity, it may be best to center primarily on one of the two while finding ways to integrate elements of the other. The Wind Waker, for example, succeeds because it boasts a simple, no-nonsense design at first glance, but when one digs deeper for finer subtleties, there is a surprising degree of attention to detail to be found.