Firstly, kill the formula. Find the boomerang to find the boots to find the fire arrows to find....ugh. Introduce some unpredictability. Make me guess and surprise me for once and make the world approachable in more ways than one. Maybe dungeons that could be tackled in whatever order would be nice, as well as secret ones that can only be found by accident. Or some sidequests that deviate off of the main plot but still affect it. Give incentive to go and explore. It should be more than just the story and dungeons......make it a living world.
Secondly, start the game off with a bang. Get me into the action within the first five minutes like AlttP did. This probably won't happen because Nintendo doesn't want to overwhelm people with Zelda's incredibly complex controls and and insanely steep learning curve straight-up, so we're probably going to wake up in yet another village and it'll take 3 hours of dumb, mundane errands and sheep herding before we're even given a wood sword to play with a straw figure, but I can hope (as I always do) that this time it'll be different. Zelda NEEDS to start off much quicker to catch and retain my interest.
Thirdly, make it vast, and not just the dungeons. It'd be amazing to have an enormous overworld; a castle with an outerlying town to explore with bustling streets and activity, deep forests, deserts, etc. It strikes me that Zelda has lost a lot of the feeling of adventure and scope with each new entry. More like it's become all about the dungeons and bosses. Which is fine, but a large expanse would be great as well. Riding Epona over a moat into a castle courtyard with towers looming in the sunset ahead could be incredible.
On the graphics side of things, I'd be more than fine with this:
That's what a true next-gen Zelda looks like to me, and even that's from a tech demo years old. Technically proficient but at the same time maintaining that classic Zelda aesthetic. Though I believe Nintendo will, once again, take a very conservative visual approach and we are going to see something that looks marginally better than SS and TP.
Finally, and this is easily the most vital: Nintendo has to stop treating me like I hold the cognitive ability of a 5 year old. Let me play without interference and hand-holding. They also need to reintroduce efficiency and speed into the gameplay (removal of repeated/unskippable text, a better and more accessible inventory system, etc). Zelda as it stands desperately feels like it needs a complete overhaul of many of the underlying mechanics that have defined it for so long now. While certainly functional, they are beginning to feel slow, cumbersome, and antiquated. People always love to point out that Nintendo introduces new things in each iteration, and while this is true, they are still overlayed on a foundation that has been with the franchise for decades. Everything needs to be stripped to the core and rebuilt from the ground up at this point--an RE4 scale facelift.
One more thing....no lazy shit like repeated bosses.
That's about it, and taking all those into account my faith that Nintendo can do any of those amounts to pretty much zero. It will be just as it has been in the past: essentially the same damn game, with a few new novel mechanics placed on top of a long ago tired formula. And I have no doubts that it'll garner 10s pretty much across the board.
MirkoS77
I agree with chaning the formula somewhat. Not so much with the find the boomerang to find the boots etc., but completing dungeons in whatever order would be cool. That would open up the possibility for multiple storylines. Where the player could choose how he wants to tackle the game. Kind of like Mass Effect. Though, in order to do that would require a much greater undertaking than any of the Zelda games have had before. That would be awesome.
Regarding game opening personally, I don't mind a gradual indtroduction. Especially with Zelda as I love just exploring every nook and cranny. I don't have much to say in response to that.
I totally agree with your third point. When one of the developors said they were going to take some inspiration from Skyrim that is exactly how I hope it will be. A vast world with intricate towns to explore. People to talk to. Sideline story quests maybe some factions to belong to. The dungeons and bosses have become very recycled and this would be the best way to add to that.
I don't care so much about the graphics. I just don't want it to be dark because every game is dark nowadays.
I also agree with the hand holding. I hated how Fi kept interrupting with the most asinine suggestions or advice, things like that. The unskippable text is annoying but I don't think that will change. I just hope they get rid of the annoying side kick advice every 10 seconds. Basically ruining the puzzles.
A lot of what you said would really help the Zelda franchise if they just implemented it and I agree completely. I am just hoping they truely move toward a more Elder Scrolls like feel. Less focus on boss fights and dungeons and more on how the world makes you feel, which is what Zelda tries to be but I don't thinkt hey have captured it in the last couple games.
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