Since this has turned into a Zelda thread, I'll add my two cents. This is cobbled together from several posts on a different forum, so forgive me if it sounds a little stilted.
The overworld needs more life in it. Zelda II had several villages with tons of people in them. Since then, we've only had one or two. ALttP had Kakariko and that's it. OoT had Hyrule Castle and Kakariko. MM had Clock Town. WW had Outset Island and Windfall (and maybe you can count Dragon Roost). TP had Ordon, Hyrule Castle and Kakariko again. But that's pretty much it. No life outside the towns and not much inside them either. I'd like to see people roaming about the overworld, some of them fighting monsters, some of them fishing in the streams or hunting. Maybe even some of them living there in huts.
I agree with this. You also have to have a lot of interaction with the residents. Twilight Princess had rather boring towns. Clock Town and Windfall Island were pretty brilliant. More on this later.
Secondly involves how the dungeons integrate into the world. I'd like to see them more seamless. Not so much like you're halfway through a dungeon before you realize it kind of seamless, but perhaps with areas where you go outside and can see the rest of Hyrule around you. Much like the Skull Palace from ALttP, you can leave and re-enter the dungeon at different points. My other idea for how dungeons would integrate into the world is that when you finish a dungeon, instead of leaving the way you came in, you exit from the Boss room into a completely new area of the overworld, such as a new village perhaps (Lanayru Mines did this). Later in the game after obtaining different items, you can warp to that town and re-enter the dungeon. Once inside, you'll find an area that is unlocked with your new item and it becomes the next dungeon.
This is a good idea, but I believe it should be used sparingly. Ideally, I want most of the overworld to be available at or shortly after the beginning. I like the idea of exiting dungeons in a new location, though. It reminds me of Hyrule Castle in Wind Waker. It wasn't really a dungeon, but you exited a different way from which you entered.
Another idea I thought of was after defeating the dungeon boss, you get a piece of an item. Once you have all the pieces, it becomes the weapon you need to defeat the final boss (along with the Master Sword obviously). Perhaps you can even use it along the way as an item, but it's true power isn't available until you have all the pieces. We've already collected Triforce shards, maidens, medalions, pearls, fused shadow pieces and mirror shards. Why not something that can actually be used by the player?
This is a good idea as well. It doesn't even have to be necessary to defeat the final boss or an actual item. It could be some sort of combat ability or something. It could be a bit like powering up your sword in Skyward Sword (except it would have to be more useful than Fi's Dowsing upgrade).
Something else I would love to see is season changes. Like, with an actual calendar. Not necessarily realtime, but based on the regular day/night cycle of the game. Then they could have a calendar based not on our Gregorian calendar (who wants Hyrule to have Novembers and Decembers?) but they could make up their own lunar calendar or something.
Natural disasters would be awesome too. Maybe you have to hide in a low-lying ditch to avoid a tornado? Or a hurricane along a coastline that destroys a town and you have to help them find materials to rebuild it. Or it destroys a seaside jungle and reveals the next dungeon?
I love the seasons idea. I'm not too ecstatic with the natural disasters idea. I do like running from tornadoes like in Wind Waker, but something on the scale of a hurricane would probably have to be predetermined instead of a random occurrence, much like the fire in Kakariko Town, but with a true aftermath.
I'd like some sort of personality ecology, so to speak. MH3 is setup so that your actions with creatures in the environment affect others. For example, perhaps you didn't help a woman catch her cuccoos, which means that she didn't sell the eggs to the man across the street. This man now has to go hunt for food. While hunting for food, he runs into moblins or something and you have to rescue him. Or, you have a shop and you bring in a bunch of weapons that you've collected and sell them to the townspeople. They decide that since they now have these weapons, they can organize a militia. This militia helps you later to defend the town (or neighboring town) from an attack by the evil force of the game.
This really is what I want the most from Zelda. My favorite Zelda is Majora's Mask, and that actually has little to do with the actual dungeons. You really felt connected to all of the characters. Each region had its own problems. The South had the Deku Scrubs and the monkeys, the North had the troubled Gorons, the West had the Zoras and even the seahorses, and the East had Pamela and her father. This is a bit similar to Ocarina of Time's first three dungeons, but the sense of urgency was much more apparent in Majora's Mask. I'm not even talking about the superior Clock Town and its myriad of connected characters. It's amazing because you don't even know certain characters are related until you dive deeper into their stories. Wind Waker even had memorable characters. I liked Skyward Sword's characters (especially the first quest with Batreaux because it was a mystery and more than three characters are involved), but I found it hard to really appreciate them because they were so disconnected from the outside world. At the end of the game, not a single one of them even knows that Zelda has been in danger the whole time. I'd also like events to happen in the story that change towns, even temporarily. Your natural disaster idea comes to mind. For example, I liked when a storm hits Windfall Island, and Tetra's pirates come to drink in the bar. Windfall Island was so good, by the way.
1) Caves that actually go somewhere. 2d Zeldas do this. I want to go into a cave, have a ton of different branches and exits. I want to come out in a completely different area. TP did this once with the tunnel to N. Faron Woods, but didn't use it again, and that one only had one exit.
This needs to happen.
2) Sandstorms in the desert change the topography. Maybe the sand blows around and uncovers a hidden cave, or old ruins to explore.
This is an excellent idea, but I believe it needs to be predictable. That's part of (I'm going there again) Majora's Mask's charm. It had a repeatable time cycle, so that allowed you to know what was going to happen three days in advance. The spectacular part about this is that each day was different. In other games with schedules and such, I think every day is identical. You need to have some sort of cue to know that, "Okay, tomorrow, a cave should be uncovered in the desert." It's immensely empowering to know something will happen before it happens, and this applies to characters as well. To this day, I still know that Gorman starts in the Stock Pot Inn on Day 1 and will enter the Mayor's house at precisely 10:00 AM. I also know that it will rain on Day 2 every single time. It's a great feeling.
3) An ocean. With tides. And Giant Enemy Crabs. Even if we don't get to sail on it. I still want to explore a coastline. Above the water and below it as well.
4) I want to take a boat out into the ocean and deep sea fish.
5) I want it to rain randomly. Previously in the series, when it has rained, it's been at very specific times. I'd like real weather effects: rain, snow, hail, etc for no good reason other than the weather engine decides it's a good day for an umbrella.
6) A true, honest to god forest. I want to be able to enter the forest at any point and leave at any point, not just follow preset paths. I want to find a cottage deep in the woods that hasn't been touched in a hundred years. Or follow a creek as it turns into a stream with waterfalls.
Just make the world real. Somewhere you'd actually like to visit if it wasn't infested with monsters that would like nothing better than to put your head on a pike.
I agree with all of this, but I don't mind if I never get to deep sea fish.
You have some really great ideas. It makes me a little sad that Nintendo might not create a game like this, but I know that I'll love whatever Nintendo makes.
I do have one of those ideas that fall into the category of "Idiotic Fan Ideas That Aren't Zelda-like And Should Not Be Included," though. I'd really like the combat to evolve a bit. The enemies are much to passive to really be a threat. I'd like to see a Link with more dynamic moves and special abilities. I wouldn't mind seeing combos. Yes, combos. Enemies could be more aggressive as well. The idea of a final Ganondorf duel has been used a couple of times already. While the setting is generally breathtaking (Wind Waker, I'm looking at you), the actual battle is rather boring to me. He'll block many of your attacks, and you might just keep swinging until it connects. Or something will occur during the battle that leaves him temporarily stunned. I don't know, these battles just don't excite me that much. But yeah, I know that's not really Zelda-like, so I don't mind if it never happens.
