[Franky Family]

In your view, what is missing from the last three to five Zelda games overall? Games like Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Echoes of Wisdom; what do you think as a fan about those games? Is there anything that can be improved upon a little, or a lot?

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

More then 4 Dungeons, Dungeons with puzzlebox design and enemies non breakable upgradable weapons, magic meter and dedicated spells, musical instrument and songs with world altering effects, optional companion like Navi, Tattle, Midna and Ezlo.

Main story Link actually takes part in instead of fragmented flashbacks.

 

[Franky Family]

Link definitely could have used a traveling companion or ally during BOTW and TOTK. It would have spiced up the adventure some and could have helped make things more interesting in a lot of ways

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Link definitely could have used a traveling companion or ally during BOTW and TOTK. It would have spiced up the adventure some and could have helped make things more interesting in a lot of ways

I was really hoping it would be Zelda for Tears of the Kingdom given how BotW ended. Shows what I know.

 

[Franky Family]

I was really hoping it would be Zelda for Tears of the Kingdom given how BotW ended. Shows what I know.

Is it just me, or was Zelda a billion times better in BOTW? I feel like in most ways her character was watered down in TOTK. Doing very important things and making important decisions as she always does, but her role in TOTK was extremely boring

 

[DonDonDonPata]

More enemies. Full blown open warfare. Fuse the field battles of Hyrule Warriors with the open-world map. Dynamic engagements where armies and monstwrs move around the map and battle one another.

In the old Zelda games and the old Zelda cartoon, Link and Zelda were constantly fending off attacks and battling enemies. Combat was the main focus, while dungeons gave you a chance to focus more on puzzles while fighting smaller groups of enemies. Twilight Princess showing off mounted combat in Hyrule field was a glimpse of what could be.

 

[Arkam]

For me its:
1. More distinct 'regions'
a. With its own dungeon
b unique weapon (that likely unlocks areas/events in other regions)
c unique MOBs & 'civilizations'

2. Light and Dark World
a. And all the mirroring of the other and all the duplicate/complementing things that entails

3. NO GIMMICK
a. No talking hats, no building machines, no wolf form (or any transformations), No motions controls, etc, etc

4. Only late in game and/or limited fast travel

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

For me its:
1. More distinct 'regions'
a. With its own dungeon
b unique weapon (that likely unlocks areas/events in other regions)
c unique MOBs & 'civilizations'

2. Light and Dark World
a. And all the mirroring of the other and all the duplicate/complementing things that entails

3. NO GIMMICK
a. No talking hats, no building machines, no wolf form (or any transformations), No motions controls, etc, etc

4. Only late in game and/or limited fast travel

Transformations for traversing the overworld/darkworld. Sorta comes with the territory since the dark world alters one form by its corruption. Twilight Princess hinted people were being turned into twili monsters but never see it, Links wolf form was completely undervalued and Okami knew better knew how to make a world as a wolf interesting.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Final Fantasy XVI focused on combat only transformation mechanics, not using any of their sheer potential world traversal options like mechs allow in Xenoblade X.
(FFXVI does not even let you use Ikion form at will).

Baldurs Gate 1/2?3 does show the sheer absolute bullshit a shape-shifting druid can pull in different encounters and environments. Ie, turning into a bird to fly across a lava region and activating the teleport glyph on the other side, allowing the party to outright bypass or approach the entire region from the other side.

 

[Alcedor]

I like the sense of wonder and mystery of the old NES games, and to some extent Link to the Past as well. I don't know if the modern games have lost that or if it's a symptom of me being older, but Zelda games use to have mystery to them. The games lost that at some point it feels like. Even the older Mario games had that. There were so many secrets to find in Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3. That was one of the cool things about Miyamota games. A sense of wonder and discovery, you can see some of that in Pikmin too. That's what made him great.

For another genre example, one of the things that made people super into Mortal Kombat II was the seemingly never-ending secrets people kept finding. You would scour game magazines back then just to try and find some new discovery about the game. Half the shit you heard about MK II was bullshit, but it only added to the game's mystique.

The original Tomb Raider nailed this vibe too.

I miss the "magic" old video games had. Everything was a cool discovery.

 

[ExpandKong]

I am still pissed they didn't do a megazord with all the divine beasts

 

[Franky Family]

For me its:
1. More distinct 'regions'
a. With its own dungeon
b unique weapon (that likely unlocks areas/events in other regions)
c unique MOBs & 'civilizations'

2. Light and Dark World
a. And all the mirroring of the other and all the duplicate/complementing things that entails

3. NO GIMMICK
a. No talking hats, no building machines, no wolf form (or any transformations), No motions controls, etc, etc

4. Only late in game and/or limited fast travel

Good call bro, I agree with that. Getting a bit tired of Hyrule tbh, they need to switch up the setting in the same way they did with Termina in Majora's Mask. The games need something new. A completely different and strange land to explore. I don't know how the rest of the fanbase feels but it's time for a change in scenery from the Eldin, Faron, Hebra, Hyrule Field, Lanayru locations and the lore that comes with it. In Majora's Mask, it was simple. You had the Swamp, Mountains, Ocean, and Canyon. Perfect change up imo from OOT to MM; each region had the similarities going for it and at the same time they were entirely unique

 

[Franky Family]

Here's what was kind of missing in most of those games and in the series at large the past 15-20 years or so:

1) Strong narrative or just interesting narrative (completely missing)
2) Memorable NPCs with mystique
3) Enigmatic atmosphere and tone
4) Catchy tunes all throughout the OST
5) Unique an unnerving dungeon music (scarcely any of this SS - forward)
6) Masterful dungeon design (rare)
7) Genuinely powerful, well-conceived moments throughout the adventure or story (Twilight Princess being the last Zelda game with any trace of such moments in a Zelda game. BOTW and TOTK had bits of lore that covered this void but still had rather unremarkable story bits that were clearly second banana to exploration)

 

[Optimus]

A living, breathing Hyrule Castle and town. That's what's been missing.

It's time to move on from the post-apocalyptic Hyrule setting to a kingdom in need of being protected and saved from the impending return of Ganon. Unfortunately, I'm just not sure that Nintendo is up for making that kind of Zelda in an open-world free-roaming situation. There's just a whole lot of detail they would need to get right with a fully open breathing Hyrule castle.

I'm in favor of them maintaining the open-world style, but they have a lot of work to do in order to build onto it. 7 or 8 dungeons would be a good start.

 

[HE1NZ]

Steam versions.

Though it's clear that watching people play Zelda in 4k on emulators annoyed Nintendo a lot. Enough that they brought 4k and 120hz screen to S2 and remastering BoTW.

 

[Goatmilk]

Design.

 

[Chozofication]

I have higher hopes for this Zelda than I did for botw's successor.

It can't get any worse to be frank. At least they must design all the assets for this Zelda from scratch which naturally will lead to bigger changes.

Said it dozens of times but dungeons, good npcs, open world is OK but make it smaller. Fix the dumb ass weapon system.

Run it at 40fps on switch 2, new non furry art style… vastly better than the botw games.

 

[Rock And Roll]

I like the sense of wonder and mystery of the old NES games, and to some extent Link to the Past as well. I don't know if the modern games have lost that or if it's a symptom of me being older, but Zelda games use to have mystery to them. The games lost that at some point it feels like. Even the older Mario games had that. There were so many secrets to find in Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3. That was one of the cool things about Miyamota games. A sense of wonder and discovery, you can see some of that in Pikmin too. That's what made him great.

For another genre example, one of the things that made people super into Mortal Kombat II was the seemingly never-ending secrets people kept finding. You would scour game magazines back then just to try and find some new discovery about the game. Half the shit you heard about MK II was bullshit, but it only added to the game's mystique.

The original Tomb Raider nailed this vibe too.

I miss the "magic" old video games had. Everything was a cool discovery.

I agree but this is what BotW nailed in my opinion. They brought back that discovery and wonder of the TLOZ and LTTP. Examples would be the shrines. I remember a bunch of times when my shrine detector was going off but there was no shrine visible, so you had to try to find it. One time was on the path with the river up to the other snow region (can't remember the name, it's where the dragon is). I was looking around all over the place then I saw the reflection of orange light in the lake and behind a waterfall. You go searching a bit, and you'll find a shrine hidden behind a waterfall. Straight out of TLOZ/LTTP. Another time I was looking all over the place in an open field with a hill. Eventually I noticed along the side of the hill if you looked carefully, you'd notice the old Zelda "rocks in wall look different" trick, except it was much more well hidden and not obvious this time.

Other examples would be the Korok seeds figuring out how the puzzles initially worked. Looking at the map and noticing both Korok seeds or other things that looked strange on the map often lead to bigger discoveries. Then there was all the stuff with the physics system that people started figuring out, or secrets like if you let an octorok inhale a rusty item, it came out repaired. The game was jam packed with secrets and let the player discover them at their own pace. It was the best sense of discovery in a Zelda game since LttP, and one of the best in video games in the past 2 decades upon it's release.

 

[ExpandKong]

I thought the temples in Tears of the Kingdom were a step back in the right direction, at least. Visually distinct, unique bosses, nice stuff. If you think of each companion as that dungeon's "item" and the point of the dungeon's item is basically to open new paths through the dungeon, it's pretty much exactly what people were asking for after BotW.

In a game where you can do or design pretty much anything, though, what else could a dungeon item be other than a glorified key? It's a little boring.

I dunno. It's tricky. They could keep an open world and scale back the player's freedom a bit, but then would people complain about that? That's rhetorical they absolutely would.

Open world isn't going away I don't think, they sold far too many copies of these two games to walk away from that. Gimme more dungeons at least, I love dungeons.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

I thought the temples in Tears of the Kingdom were a step back in the right direction, at least. Visually distinct, unique bosses, nice stuff. If you think of each companion as that dungeon's "item" and the point of the dungeon's item is basically to open new paths through the dungeon, it's pretty much exactly what people were asking for after BotW.

In a game where you can do or design pretty much anything, though, what else could a dungeon item be other than a glorified key? It's a little boring.

I dunno. It's tricky. They could keep an open world and scale back the player's freedom a bit, but then would people complain about that? That's rhetorical they absolutely would.

Open world isn't going away I don't think, they sold far too many copies of these two games to walk away from that. Gimme more dungeons at least, I love dungeons.

BotW, nevermind TotK could easily fit 20 Dungeons and Mini dungeons.

 

[Spiders]

Mystery and stakes. Even though Link To The Past is my favorite in the series, Zelda 1 is the blueprint. I don't think it needs to go full FROM, but I think some more obtuseness, more "playground esoterics" -- remember the Tower of Druaga influence, and less "Hey, Listen!" and collect-a-thon bullshit.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Mystery and stakes. Even though Link To The Past is my favorite in the series, Zelda 1 is the blueprint. I don't think it needs to go full FROM, but I think some more obtuseness, more "playground esoterics" -- remember the Tower of Druaga influence, and less "Hey, Listen!" and collect-a-thon bullshit.

I would take Navi over 900 korok seeds.

 

[Rock And Roll]

I would take Navi over 900 korok seeds.

No one is forcing you to collect korok seeds. Navi/companions are forced on you, they won't shut up and they stop you from playing the game to button mash A while waiting for them to stop talking. I'd take optional collectibles any day over the other option

 

[Eneru]

For me its:
1. More distinct 'regions'
a. With its own dungeon
b unique weapon (that likely unlocks areas/events in other regions)
c unique MOBs & 'civilizations'

2. Light and Dark World
a. And all the mirroring of the other and all the duplicate/complementing things that entails

3. NO GIMMICK
a. No talking hats, no building machines, no wolf form (or any transformations), No motions controls, etc, etc

4. Only late in game and/or limited fast travel

Light and dark world was already used in alttp. So that's not a must for me. But the rest I agree with.

What I would like to see: less cut scenes.. I don't care about them in Zelda. I'm link and need to save the princess and defeat Ganon. That's enough main story for me

 

[ExpandKong]

No one is forcing you to collect korok seeds. Navi/companions are forced on you, they won't shut up and they stop you from playing the game to button mash A while waiting for them to stop talking. I'd take optional collectibles any day over the other option

Ehhh, you kinda need to collect some Korok seeds to make your inventory space more reasonable. I'm just glad you don't need to collect all of them to get it to a good place, nevermind maxing it out.

They're quick and easy to get, and they get you engaged with the world around you, encouraging you to take a quick detour if you see something a little fishy. I can't say I was too bothered by them really. The idea could probably use some tweaking.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

I know this suggestion irks die hard Zelda fans but…

Less story. A lot less story, and fewer cutscenes. If Nintendo made a robust set of "side quests" (e.g. Witcher 3), put the story and the goofy NPCs into the side content. Leave the main story as thin as possible. It's Link vs Ganondorf. Not complex. Doesn't need to be.

 

[Spiders]

I know this suggestion irks die hard Zelda fans but…

Less story. A lot less story, and fewer cutscenes. If Nintendo made a robust set of "side quests" (e.g. Witcher 3), put the story and the goofy NPCs into the side content. Leave the main story as thin as possible. It's Link vs Ganondorf. Not complex. Doesn't need to be.

We should have gatekept the second they started theory crafting timelines lol.
Boy finds sword, has adventure, saves princess.

 

[Stopped_Cold_29]

Bring back sailing. I'd love another Wind Waker style game with some larger landmasses. Make the ocean feel more alive. I feel like Wind Waker barely scratched the surface.

 

[Franky Family]

BotW, nevermind TotK could easily fit 20 Dungeons and Mini dungeons.

I still think OOT had the perfect balance with dungeons. In all, I think there were three preliminary dungeons to set the pace. Then there were six major dungeons. And then there were like three or four mini dungeons which were all excellent. So in all, about 12-13 dungeons. And on top of that, you had grottos. The Royal Tomb was also a great spot to explore but it isn't exactly close to being a mini dungeon. Almost 14 dungeons in OOT, but they varied in size and complexity, so you were constantly experiencing changes throughout the course of the game in what dungeons would throw at you as the player