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What's Next For Zelda?

Emedan

Member
Doubt we'll ever see another mainline Zelda with a smaller scope than BOTW/TOTK though I think we've seen the last of traditional Hyrule for a while.
 

NahaNago

Member
How about a trilogy that has you plan as ganondorf first, and then zelda, and then Link in the end.
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Doubt we'll ever see another mainline Zelda with a smaller scope than BOTW/TOTK though I think we've seen the last of traditional Hyrule for a while.
I mean it would be cool if they flipped the switch and had a game that took place in Lorule instead of Hyrule for once.
 

Little Mac

Member
Doubt we'll ever see another mainline Zelda with a smaller scope than BOTW/TOTK

Hot Fuzz Shame GIF


I might be alone on this but as much as BOTW was heralded, I found the weapon durability system and open world design mentally exhausting. I'm all for letting the player venture off the beaten path and explore but it sometimes gets to the point where you're overwhelmed by the sandbox and have lost your motivation to play. Again, I'm probably an outlier, but I prefer a much more guided experience with more clearly defined rules. Regardless, with the immense success of BOTW and TOTK, I doubt we'll get the smaller, more intimate, mainline Zeldas again.
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Sure but I think something more akin to Termina would be in the cards next. A completely different world.
Stepping away from Hyrule would be a nice change of pace but they are keen on LoZ being retellings of a similar tale over and over again. You only get this sort of thing in Oracle, Awakening, Majora's Mask.

You can argue Wind Waker, Skyward Sword but that's before Hyrule or after Hyrule was flooded.

I'd love a more brutal Ganondorf focused game but I feel Ganondorf is only going to be playable in Warriors. I had dreams once of all 3 Triforce wielders needing to form an alliance to take down a greater evil then even Ganondorf but I don't think they would ever take that route. Especially now with TotK's characterization of Ganondorf.
 

Emedan

Member
Stepping away from Hyrule would be a nice change of pace but they are keen on LoZ being retellings of a similar tale over and over again. You only get this sort of thing in Oracle, Awakening, Majora's Mask.

You can argue Wind Waker, Skyward Sword but that's before Hyrule or after Hyrule was flooded.

I'd love a more brutal Ganondorf focused game but I feel Ganondorf is only going to be playable in Warriors. I had dreams once of all 3 Triforce wielders needing to form an alliance to take down a greater evil then even Ganondorf but I don't think they would ever take that route. Especially now with TotK's characterization of Ganondorf.
I'd argue they do, a Hyrule from a different era would also be fine, current implementation of Hyrule is overused by now though - I think they'll find it hard for people to feel excited to enter that same world a third time in a row.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I'd argue they do, a Hyrule from a different era would also be fine, current implementation of Hyrule is overused by now though - I think they'll find it hard for people to feel excited to enter that same world a third time in a row.
I think it might be interesting that yes while Hylia is worshipped and serves as the foundation of Hyrule it might do the franchise well to introduce other lands or continents that were overseen by other entities.

And that not all races are keen on bending the knee to the Royal Bloodlines rule.

I tend to enjoy OoT's worldbuilding more where it was 3 Goddesses that had created the world itself before disappearing and leaving behind fragments of their power behind. Back then Hyrule was just a name and had no hyperfocus on Hylia.

It's ironic since Din, Farore, and Nayru having created the world are much stronger then Hylia based on that metric alone.

I don't think it impossible if the 3 Goddesses created Hyrule that they didn't create other Worlds also.

---------

Only interesting part of TotK personally for me was the Depths. Lots of mystery there but ultimately felt like a mostly empty and dark setpiece. You have a thriving living Hyrule built on top of a dead world.
 
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efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
This might actually be cooler than a return to Windwaker. I love the worlds within worlds concept.
It could add a new dimension to interactivity and player influence on the world.
Imagine as human sized link you cut down a tree or set off a small bomb - or even just cut off a patch of grass. Then, within a couple days, as Minish Link there would be a new settlement in the fallen log, or a new crater full of monsters to explore - or just a clearing in the grassy "forest" that wasn't there before, attracting different fauna.

You could create or destroy lakes in the Minish world by simply moving around small quantities of water as human Link. One bottle's worth could be equivalent to several swimming pools.

In order to prevent the player from completely demolishing the Minish world as human sized Link, there could either be a limit to how much you can play at that size, or there could be a Majora's Mask type system where the world resets every few days either through a time loop, or a magic spell, etc.

There's plenty of creative potential here, and it's sufficiently different from previous 3D Zeldas. The concept also offers many interesting ways to take advantage of the more powerful hardware.
 
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Zannegan

Member
Or they could have a system where
It could add a new dimension to interactivity and player influence on the world.
Imagine as human sized link you cut down a tree or set off a small bomb - or even just cut off a patch of grass. Then, within a couple days, as Minish Link there would be a new settlement in the fallen log, or a new crater full of monsters to explore - or just a clearing in the grassy "forest" that wasn't there before, attracting different fauna.

You could create or destroy lakes in the Minish world by simply moving around small quantities of water as human Link. One bottle's worth could be equivalent to several swimming pools.

In order to prevent the player from completely demolishing the Minish world as human sized Link, there could either be a limit to how much you can play at that size, or there could be a Majora's Mask type system where the world resets every few days either through a time loop, or a magic spell, etc.

There's plenty of creative potential here, and it's sufficiently different from previous 3D Zeldas. The concept also offers many interesting ways to take advantage of the more powerful hardware.
It would be great if they had a procedural system whereby the Minish rebuild gradually, and also get more upset at/less helpful toward, Link the more destruction he causes.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
I would like a third take on the Ocarina of Time/Twilight Princess style. With a large overworld, but also a number of deep dungeons. And WiiU 2011 demo artstyle.

The open world thing was fun but I'm ready to move on.
 

Esca

Member
I'd like an open world and a good amount of dungeons. Something more in line with oot or tp with maybe a sprinkle of ww. I don't want weapons breaking or needing repair with little use, I didn't want to build shit. I want to go on an adventure that takes me across the world. I want things to be unique.
 

Durin

Member
I'm fine with the open-world systemic stuff, which is fantastic...but I'd like less but more intricate dungeons like the older Zelda entries. Also fine with more puzzles having multiple solutions if the systems are designed well enough.
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
to take down a greater evil then even Ganondorf
Echoes of Wisdom spoiler....

It actually does deal with an evil that is greater and even predates the existence of Demise/Ganon. It goes right into Lovecraftian territory with explaining how the entire world of Hyrule was built to imprison this thing because it was that evil and powerful.
 
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chakadave

Member
I want BotW but add some sor tof combat revamp. I want each weapon class or type to have different moves. I'd be ok with more theme dungeons too.

I just really enejoyed the Mastermode where + weapons changed things up a bit. I'd like to see them expand that and combat.
 
Link is always about 1/3 the size of majority of trees.
Can we make trees awe inspiringly big as they are ?

Sticking with anime as base inspo for art style has become limiting. Break free ?

Get away from the copy / paste assets. Wayyyyy too many repeated assets around the world.

Increased running / walking speed.

Music should make a return to forefront.
 

FeastYoEyes

Member
Elden Ring felt a lot like a maturation of the older Zelda games to me. Id love to see an actual progression system and then ditching the destructible weapons. Bring back REAL DUNGEONS.
 

od-chan

Gold Member
I'm pretty done with expecting anything from Zelda anymore. Aonuma clearly has lost any vision (this already became clear with SS) and the guy they put in charge with Botw is apparently only capable/allowed to design games for short attention spans.

It's sad, really, since Zelda was the most fleshed out attempt at a somewhat cinematic presentation of an action adventure (OoT, MM, WW, TP) they had themselves going, akin to a Final Fantasy, albeit obviously on a much smaller scale. They demoted it to a mere playground for gimmicks in between bus rides and seem to want to keep going that way.

Botw itself was amazing of course, but interviews with the devs afterwards showed that they cleary took the wrong impression from its success, and ToTK is a testament to that. Also Nintendo famously loves to double down.

I won't even talk about the mobi... 2d titles, they lost their way with the DS and never got back again. Link's Awakening was great, as in, I was expecting nothing and they remade a Gameboy game, so it was fine to get adjusted with the look and try appreciating it. Having to see these creepy fuck characters in Echoes of Wisdom again brings me little joy though, but then the game itself is even worse because it's basically The Legend of Gimmicks.

I wouldn't be nearly as negative about all this if I had any reason to hope we'd be seeing something different in the future. As I mentioned, BotW and LA Remake are great (botw being among my top5 zeldas), but they took it in the wrong direction, to put it mildy. Even correcting course would mean hardship on the fandom, with the insanely long dev cycles. But they see no problem in releasing a dlc 6 years later and calling it a mainline title, when it's arguably a worse experience than the previous game, and having one of their 2d titles be a remake and the other one basically a spin off in terms of gameplay, both in the same continuation of the chibi gone wrong ds look. Interviews suggest they very much want to stay the course.

This sounds more bitter than it's supposed to. I was just really disappointed with ToTK (and skeptic since seeing its reveal) and the overall development since SS basically, so I'm just kinda done looking forward to it. It's fine too, things just run their course, be it bands, directors or games.
Of course I'd love to get hyped again when they find themselves going back to what made 3d Zelda's interesting, and I'll always have an interest in the franchise since I've grown up with ALttP, but I won't be holding my breath and luckily nowadays there's a plethora of much more interesting games to look forward to.
 

Moochi

Member
Give Link a motorcycle and a crossbow. Diesel punk hyrule with vehicle building and customization. Towns are ruled by enemy factions and you gotta gradually take them over by doing quests, dungeons, shrines. Extreme customization on weapon and vehicle crafting. More serious, adult tone. You can flush all the toilets.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Zelda x Dark Souls
Give Link a motorcycle and a crossbow. Diesel punk hyrule with vehicle building and customization. Towns are ruled by enemy factions and you gotta gradually take them over by doing quests, dungeons, shrines. Extreme customization on weapon and vehicle crafting. More serious, adult tone. You can flush all the toilets.
200w.gif
 
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Lupin3

Targeting terrorists with a D-Pad
Never really thought about it. Guess I just believed Nintendo would stay with the botw formula forever. But something new would sure be refreshing.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
A Zelda that plays similar to Elden Ring ie a open world that has multiplayer and is massive im scale.

Higher resolution/fps and HDR versions of BOTW/TOTK either in a update or stand alone remasters.

A remake of OOT.
 

Oberstein

Member
I think I speak for everyone when I say that a cross-over with Just Dance would be ideal. Bringing in hip-hop, twerking Zelda and a Link with a guitar and a microphone.
 

near

Gold Member
I don’t care what it is, so long as it isn’t aesthetically as bad as Echoes of Wisdom, with those awful chibi character models. I refuse to play that shit.
 

Xdrive05

Member
There’s no reason for them to go back to the same BotW/Totk world map this time around, so they surely won’t. That frees them up to do something completely new and radical and cultivated around a whole new idea. Aonuma had already let the cat out of the bag that they are sticking with the more open ended approach. So either they’re going to build a whole new Hyrule with a similar scale, or they’re going to take it in a radically different direction concept wise.

The Switch 2 hardware will give them a lot more headroom to do anything they want. I would not expect it before 2027 at the very earliest.
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
Hopefully real dungeons and more interesting level design. I’m not interested in further going down the BotW/TotK road. Those were great but I’m good now. I’ve had my fill of “open air Zelda”.
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
I think I speak for everyone when I say that a cross-over with Just Dance would be ideal. Bringing in hip-hop, twerking Zelda and a Link with a guitar and a microphone.

Heimdall_Xtreme Heimdall_Xtreme

A rhythm Zelda game actually exists....

 
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Pejo

Member
My heart wants another top down puzzle/combat Zelda game with thoughtful dungeon and boss design. It doesn't even have to be a "mainline" Zelda game, but for fucks sake please don't use the Link's Awakening remake art style.

I hated this art style:
iu



In reality, they'll probably do something new for the next one. The open ended physics based stuff was fun to play around with, but there will probably be a new gimmick this time. Vitality Sensor 2.0 integration + Alarmo functionality baybee.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
Heimdall_Xtreme Heimdall_Xtreme

A rhythm Zelda game actually exists....



0:05


More like this.



With the cutscenes and moments of the History of Zelda games.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
An evolution of BOTW probably, they can milk this remixed for a few more entries just as we had MM, WW, TP and to an extent SS in the OoT vein, they aren't gonna reinvent it every other time. Funny if once grand stuff like TP become the "low budget" series entries like the top down stuff are now.
 
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