Personally I am loving the format of the current switch games, and Nintendo has signaled that they intend to keep making games in this style though not necessarily a sequel.
I would love first and foremost for the story telling to be brought back to the standards of Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess.
Also, to me the best thing in the 3D games has always been the pacing, you have your first initial quest, that leads to Link powering up in a few different ways. Then Link is set on a second quest, becoming more powerful again. Then a twist of some sort, though that’s optional. Then finally the climactic battle with the big bad. I would also like to see more of an after story, though it is traditional for that to not be a thing at this point.
As for settings, I would LOVE to see a game set after spirit tracks in New Hyrule in the midst of an industrial revolution, mixed with magic.
How about you, what are your wishlist items for the next/future Zelda games?
As much as I love BOTW and TOTK, for the next Zelda game I’d like to see another top-down game (Link between worlds, the link’s awakening remake, etc).
If they don’t want to make a whole new game I’d love to see the Oracle games remade, or even Minish Cap.
As far as I know, Nintendo has signaled that they wish to continue making these vast open world games.
But they are certainly leaving money on the table if they don’t license out the property for the creators of the Link’s Awakening remake, to make something completely new of their own creation.
Would also love for them to get back in bed with Capcom and see what can be made from a top down perspective.
I want a modern game with the Dark World mechanic. I know TotK has a little bit of that with the Depths, but a real mirror world where you have to solve puzzles based on the difference from one world to another would be incredible in a 3d open world.
Plus I want to see Bunny Link again. Tie it into the Zonai lore and explain why he turns into a rabbit in the dark world.
I would prefer a more linear story line while keeping the game open world similar to the Assassin’s Creed games (I’ve only played up to black flag), so that there aren’t as many desynchronisations between mains quests (e.g. completing the dragons tears allow link to find where Zelda is, but he still won’t know when doing Regional Phenomena.
Love this question / thought game.
I could probably spend hours discussing this, and wondered about the future of Zelda games a lot growing up.
I’d like to see Vaati and Twinrova (antagonists other than Ganondorf) be the focus of the next games. Even if that choice lead to a greater antagonists storyline in a sequel, that revealed Ganondorf behind it all.
As you mention, the handheld games are incredible, and provide so much opportunity. If they one day released Oracle of Secrets, in any capacity, I imagine it would break Zelda fans minds across the world.
I have been dreaming for years that they do a modern remake of the Oracle games AND back it up with an all new 3rd game!
Gay Gorons
Do gorons HAVE gender? Can they BE gay?
Have you ever seen a female Goron?
This is my new favorite out of context question.
Gorons reproduce asexually.
i really miss the feel of classic dungeons. i loved botw but the shrine and divine beasts just didn’t feel like a dungeon.
This is kinda fixed in Tears of the Kingdom. The temples are back and more unique than the beasts in BotW.
I would definitely say the Fire Temple feels a lot like a temple, but the other not so much, they feels more like temple “lite” rather than a full temple. I think that sort of the trade off with open world Zelda game, it emphasize less on linearity.
All I want is to go back to the classic Zelda formula of a linear story with dungeons. BOTW and TOTK are great, but I miss the old games. I miss getting a new item that suddenly makes new parts of the world accessible.
I’m afraid, however, we won’t ever see this type of Zelda again. BOTW and TOTK have sold an insane amount of copies. This may be the new normal for Zelda.
Also, please let there be more 2D games.
I really feel like the writers gave up WAAAAY too much pacing making the 4 temples doable in any order.
What could have been cool progression of story every time they flashed back to the sages ended up 4 copies of the same troupe that didn’t advance the story at all…
Demon king? Secret stone? Secret stone? Demon king?
Yeah…
I would like a more linear story like the older Zelda games. The world can still be open and have plenty of discoverable side items. I mean the first one technically was an open world, you were just blocked off from areas by the need for an item, just like TotK you essentially need certain elixirs, gear, or food to be able to go to certain areas effectively.
I’m just not a fan of the disconnected plot. Every time I went to a new area for one of the sages, it was the same dialogue and the same cutscenes, just with a different sage and tribe mentioned.
I really want a new 2D game and/or a more linear 3D game. I love BOTW and TOTK but I don’t want that to be the permanent future for the series.
I’d like to see a game where you play as Zelda. I remember there being a question if she was the protagonist of BOTW in the first teaser because Link was wearing the hood up.
I know that the “woke” cries would be ridiculous, but I think it’d be neat to have her save Link for once.
Child + Adult link, with the Adult Link’s worlds being more like TOTK (exploration-based) and child Link being more like OoT (puzzlevania). Each could have their own version of the underground, land and sky - with child Link being before devastation and adult link afterwards. And playing the ocarina you can switch between them while keeping your location.
Underwater and building submarines. It’s such a shame this isn’t in TOTK already.
Like imagine playing TOTK but you start out on a load of islands like Wind Waker and build a small raft, then eventually a sailboat, and then with Zonai fans, and a bit of swimming.
More automation-based gameplay with better object persistence and larger contraption possibility and be able to save and share them more easily. It should be possible to evenutally automate obtaining Zonaite for example, Factorio style.
Koji Kondo music of course. Even if they have both, TOTK has way too little music, and too quiet.
To your first idea, the seamless transition between past and present in the same spot. I think it could work something like what we THOUGHT would happen in The Medium if you remember that game. Though it wasn’t super great there lol. I did love the time crystals in skyward sword!
Personally, I want another WW/PH/ST style game, generally speaking. ST was released ~14 years ago. I think maybe we could explore
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Under the waves more as with what happened in WW.
We’ve already done the sky (twice), and have done ground a lot and now
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underground too in TOTK, so underwater might be interesting.
I also can’t stand the concept of item durability. I prefer the classic item style personally. And let’s keep a few of the classic items, but make most of them brand new, and not just slightly different versions of the same things.
If Nintendo’s up for it, I think a Zelda MMO could be interesting. I know a lot of people have talked in the past about a Pokemon MMO, but personally I’d prefer a Zelda one.
Also, please, no 900 of anything to collect. That’s waaaaaayyy too much IMO. ~100 is about the most I’m willing to do.
I don’t personally think Nintendo could handle an MMO in their current state. Just look at literally all of their games with online capabilities. While I do think it would be cool, I don’t see it in the cards.
I completely agree about items etc. I miss key items being special and uniquely used for their purposes in puzzles. My personal favorite had always been the hook shot and I miss it dearly.
Yeah, that’s fair. Their online in general is way behind. I don’t understand how Sega could do it in the late 90s and Microsoft’s been doing it for ~20 years and yet Nintendo still can’t/won’t get it together.
I too enjoyed the hook shot a lot. I also don’t want so many items that only get used for 1 dungeon or have little to no use outside of dungeons.
Looking at you Spinning Wheel in TP lol.
I think as much as Nintendo wants to push into connectivity and all that, there’s still an older more conservative chunk of the company that see no need to transition into those things.
Open world games are awesome, they are like the epitome of emergent behavior, and the simulation aspects are wild!
Yet, I love games that are crafted around a well written narratives. I prefer a cohesive story with good pacing, which the Legend of Zelda series did so well.
I don’t mind spending hundreds of hours playing a game, but I also don’t like wasting time exploring every nook and cranny looking for secrets to “complete” a game.
I don’t know. I like games with a beginning, middle, and ending. I rather sink literal days of playtime in an RPG with the illusion of choice than run around aimlessly in an open world game.
I want a Zelda game set in an a futuristic setting, something like a cyberpunk or space age aesthetic. I am tired of the medieval high fantasy aesthetic. No more ancient advanced technology. I want contemporary advanced technology!
Man people have been drooling over a future setting for decades. While it could be awesome, I don’t personally have a vision about how all that superior tech would mesh well with the goddess powers, triforce, etc. Like, if we go too far Ganon would just shoot link and it’s game over.
It could be framed in a time where magic is largely forgotten.
Zelda and Link are frozen in time due to some great cataclysmic event in the past that left Hyrule in ruin, and thousands of years have passed, where the remaining people built over the remnants of the past and have entered into the industrial revolution, with dark and intricate, smoggy towns.
Zelda and Link they to make sense of this world, that ridicules their speech, their clothes, their mannerisms, but is shocked by their physical and magical prowess.
Zelda’s magic is weak at this point, but it’s enough to inspire hope in the bleak factory workers of the future.
Link uses his old gear combined with new gadgetry to navigate the steel jungle of the era, and find clues to the source of great cataclysm that happened all those aeons ago.
Well, that has always been the case with any weapon. Magic will still be more powerful than a bullet.
I guess it is more about aesthetics than logic for me. The technology would dictate the kind weapons (laser pistols, light sword, remote, controlled bombs), navigation (motorcycle, hovercraft, jetpack), puzzles, (hacking, pushing boxes will never go out of style).
Enemies can still be monsters, they don’t need to be robots.
Magic does not suddenly evaporate with the development of technology. They can be separate abilities, or integrate mana style into objects.
As far as Ganon goes, whatever. If the Star Fox team can fuck up a giant ape with an arwing, link can handle a big ass hog with a gun.
I suppose you make some good points. It would take someone far more creative than I to meld that fantasy and scifi aesthetic, while still maintaining THE Zelda feel we all love
They would need to be more creative than me too!
Like others, I do miss the old style dungeons and linear storytelling. I think it could be done by merging the gameplay styles of the new games and Skyward Sword/Wind Waker by turning the series more into a Metroidvania. Just have major regions be unlocked by needing certain equipment, or even have the story advance using a time mechanic of some kind that requires certain events to advance time perhaps.
Also, proper fishing mechanics.
I would like eliminate the focus on physics puzzles in favor of more combat trials, exploration, and spelunking.
The physics puzzles fun sometimes, but they are so contrived. It doesn’t make you feel like you’re in a fantasy world. It makes you feel like you’re playing a fantasy game. While I still enjoy them when I’m in the mood, after two games of it, I’ve found myself glad I just found a Rauru’s Blessing instead of another physic puzzle. On the other hand, I really enjoy the “here’s a stick, use only what you find in here” shrines, and I love the cave exploration.
I would die of excitement if Nintendo ever made a TotK Zelda roguelike featuring randomly generated caves with a good balance of exploration, combat, and puzzles. And it would need unlockables and meta-progression. Maybe some caves would contain shrines. Not a different zone you enter like in TotK, but some branch of the cave leads to cut stone and you’re suddenly at some kind of randomly generated shrine. When you die, you start an entirely new run. Steal my idea, Nintendo!
But that would be some side release and not the next real Zelda game.
For a real Zelda game I just want the best of all worlds. I want a huge open world to explore, and the freedom not not get trapped by “rails” unless I go down some specific quest line. Quests should be more like the ones in Skyrim or Fallout, but with the Nintendo flair and story writing. I want hidden, but epic quest chains that you might not even find in your first playthrough. Ones that result in you being stronger, but are totally optional. I want less “go help each race to get some key ability you must use once and then becomes totally optional.”
(As an aside, I think the Rito abilities are the only important ones for enjoying either game because the open world requires mobility. The Gerudo power in BotW was badass and maybe a bit too good, but totally optional. TotK’s Gerudo ability is basically a slow and annoying version of that, which made it useless in my opinion.)
I never liked how Wind Waker kept you on rails for so long. BotW was a breath of fresh air in that regard, and TotK, too, but I would be OK with individual quest chains being on rails with maybe only a little variation in how you complete them, but at the same time I don’t want to get analysis paralysis from having to make important decisions that change the whole game. I like how Zelda games don’t have that. You never make any moral decisions except for once in a while you can complete some tiny side quest by being a rogue instead of a saint. I can’t even think of any good examples. Even when you steal something in this game, the NPCs find some wholesome way to forgive you. But I don’t really need the option to “blow up Megaton” in a Zelda game.
Multiple endings would be great based on what you did in the game.
A better weapon degradation would be good. I think the modern Fallout series do a better job with that. Yeah, things break, but you can have them repaired (or do it yourself to some degree.) That one guy in Lookout Landing has been polishing his helmet for 200 hours, and he’s still not done.
