Topic: Where Should Zelda go From Here?

My top picks for the next Zelda game.

1. BotW-style with more classic dungeons, more variety in shrine and boss looks, and more enemy types. Also, a music instrument. Would it break the game if you could play melodies to change the time of day or weather? I don't think it needs to be a sequel or prequel to BotW. It can be its own game.

2. Zelda Online I played the old unofficial one inspired by A Link to the Past and it was great fun and has a sense of freedom that is missing in Nintendo's official multiplayer Zeldas Four Swords Adventures and Triforce Heroes.

3. Zelda II Remake. Inti Creates and MercurySteam are interested.

4. All of Tingle's Games translated and ported to Switch, especially the Japan-only ones.

@SKTTR Zelda II remake holy Moses yes please. I was never a big fan of Zelda, but until BotW Zelda II was my favorite Zelda game simply because it was really fun hacking away at stuff. One of my favorite NES games ever.

Would it even be a Zelda game then? It has always been an action adventure game. If you changed that, then it would just be a Zelda-themed Mass Effect game.

Zelda 2 was sort of an RPG in that there was a leveling mechanic, I think. It's been nearly 30 years since I played the game though, so might be remembering things wrong. And the creator has gone on record saying that his original vision of A Link to the Past was that of an rpg with party mechanics. Some of those original plans made it into Four Swords and the other one.

@Agriculture Well you can already argue whether BotW is really a Zelda game though.

Brief, 1-game detour back to 2D, top-down in the vein of Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. That would just be so amazing. Like, a truly engrossing, 40+ hour old school (but brand new) adventure in that style...sigh...

Then, ok, fine, follow the BotW trend but with more fleshed-out dungeons and a TAD more coherence to the overworld.

No, it would be a Zelda role playing game, which I think would actually be pretty cool.

There’s a mega successful kick starter for a fantastic voyage esq metroidvania with your name on it! (I can’t actually believe that this hasn’t been done by any semi-serious studio yet...)

But for Zelda how about, now there are so many different Zelda amiibo, repurposing Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival as a Zelda game?

I agree, I've not been a huge fan of BoTW either. It's not a bad game at all, but with the lack of focus, items or dungeons it doesn't really feel like a Zelda game.

Outside of that, it's generally a good open world experience, but it's hampered by some IMHO poor design choices like weapon durability, inability to summon horses in the field, extremely limiting stamina system (especially for swimming), and no way to mitigate rain while climbing. The weapon durability and climbing in particular are obnoxious enough to make me say that BoTW could have been a great open world game except for these things.

On the topic of this thread, I would like to see Zelda retain some of the openness introduced in BoTW, but add more progress gating to provide a smoother difficulty curve and better game focus and pacing. Pretty much something like OoT or Twilight Princess with a large, open overworld to explore.

Also, bring back multiple playable characters similar to what we had in Majora's Mask. Not necessarily Link transforming into other characters, but the ability to switch between them at will. Zelda also needs to be a playable character in the games that bear her name.

I've heard that a lot. Can you explain why? I only played through Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. I get that they are more linear since you only get to some places after you received some items, like how you can't enter the forest temple before you get the hookshot. Is that it, or is there more to the idea of Botw not being like the others?

@Agriculture I couldn't list them, but basically BotW breaks most, if not all, of the series' conventions such as weapon durability and as you said a non-linear world and storyline.

To an extent OoT has a single path through the game. That said, the order you complete the dungeons isn't entirely set in stone. For example you have to do the Deku Tree first. But once you're sent out by Zelda you can either do Dorongo Cave or the Zora dungeon first. And while after you awaken as Adult Link some dungeons are gated by needing certain items to access them, often those items can be gained via a side quest. For example you get the Hookshot from the gravedigger's ghost if you complete the chase. Or the Eye of Truth that's needed for two different dungeons is gained from completing the well.

There's a path that you're expected to do the dungeons, but you can do them in a different order. It's harder if you do, but it's possible.

Even as far back as A Link to the Past you could complete dungeons in almost any order you want, mostly. While you had to do the first 3 (4 or 5 if you count the two trips to the castle) dungeons in a specific order, things then open up. At which point the only requirement is that you need to be able to reach/enter the dungeon. But the item needed to defeat the boss will always be within the dungeon. Doing them in numeric order makes things easier, but it's possible to do them out of order. Assuming you have the item/ability needed to get into the dungeon in the first place, that is.

Yes, now that I think about it, there is quite a lot.

1. It's less linear
2. There's many weapons and they're disposable
3. You can live of the land by hunting and cooking
4. The terrain is open and let's you climb anywhere
5. There are no true dungeons

Most of these are in my opinion improvements, except the last one of course.

I'd be entirely happy if they reused the same world map and game engine to make the next game a prequel that was set before Ganon destroyed everything, 100 years prior.

I imagine some people would be skeptical of doing that but I think it could work quite well.
Reusing the same landscape would mean they could focus a lot of resources on creating new towns and features on the map (just imagine all of castle town and all of Hyrule castle being explorable pre-destruction, it'd be huge!)

They could reuse the idea of shrines but would need to put them in new locations and obviously make new puzzles.

They should also make a lot more story and add some proper themed dungeons.

I don't think they could reuse the shrines if they did a prequel game set during the time leading up to Ganon's successful attack. After all, Link doesn't get the Slate until he wakes up in the Rejuvenation Chamber. Until then Zelda was the one always carrying it. And as the memory sequences clearly show, to access the shrines the chosen wielder of the Master Sword has to be the one using the slate. She likely had been unable to use most of the Slate's features.

"should it go next? Do you want to see another major expansion, a more iterative improvement on the new style, or a return to it's roots type of game?"

Breath of the Wild is the worst 3D Zelda ever while most other 3D Zelda games are absolutely wonderful so my answer is return to roots type of game. About story they can just retell the hero story as they always do. I don't believe in the Zelda chronology, that was shoehorned by fans first and Nintendo afterwards.

That's actually a great idea, and I hope Nintendo is listening!

In the meantime, the developers could play Skyrim for ideas on how to make a fleshed out world that is dense and interesting.

Honestly considering that BOTW told three stories, I would love to see the 10000 year ago banishment of Ganon when the Divine beasts did what they were supposed to from the get go. I want to see the Shiekah at the height of their power. I kinda wonder if he was still rocking a mortal form at that time or if Demise's Hatred just said "forget this" and just started killing people. At least Ganondorf held the implication that he at least just wanted to subjugate everyone...Ganon is just trying to burn the world down (I kinda hate villains like that because its just for the eviluz but its the most common villain archetype.)

A 100 years prior story would work as dlc to BOTW but not much else since Link um...loses...badly. My only issue really with BOTW is Link's cardboard personality isn't working in such a fleshed out world. The hero is important but people don't NEED him, the stories dont bend around him the way the did in other Zelda games so now it feels like we got stuck playing the boring character while all these other cool characters go on about their lives. I almost wish I could have played some sort of smaller game showing Zelda battling against Ganon to keep it sealed. Considering how she took care of him in BOTW and this is while weakened... I kinda ended up finishing BOTW going...sooo....you really didn't need Link's assistance this time around huh?

Unless they used a timey-wimey storytelling device where Link could win. Of course that would mean Breath of the Wild never happened, but whatever.

@Mountain_Man To be honest I like the fact that Link is a hero that can fail. That was one thing I liked about OoT as a kid. The 10 year old got knocked out of the way...which made sense (too bad for Hyrule though). While Link had a bit of cutscene fighting skill in BOTW, I enjoyed the fact that he did lose when fighting off the army of evil. I liked the implied story that the ruined world told. How massive and devastating an army of possessed guardians and monsters would have been for the average person let alone the Champions and the Hero.