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Next Zelda Game Predictions

Woyogoyo

The Oncoming Storm
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I'm posting this because I'm curious about what everyone thinks the next Zelda game's gonna be like. For me, I think it'll probably be like BotW. Nintendo like to stick with things that work, and BotW definitely worked. So yeah, what do you think it'll be like?
 
It'll probably play similarly (assuming they reuse the same engine).

As for the form of the game; moar cel-shading is probably in the cards.

I know Aonuma wants to use the HD rumble in a significant way so we can maybe expect to see items that use that like SS used motion controls (but I hope theyre not so invasive).

Hard to know anything else at this point, Aonuma said Zelda will be open air from now on but everything else is up in the air.

What I'd like is a game with a flourishing Hyrule, proper cities and buildings and enough NPCs to make it feel functional.

Don't want the weapon breaking to come back either.
 
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Joined
Feb 5, 2011
Aside from Open Air, I hope to see the clawshot not only make a return, but be more used than before. Like instead of climbing by hand, Link uses the clawshots to climb mountains and trees. He'd start with just one, but when he unlocks the second and makes them longer, he can go further faster.
 

Princess Niki

Allons-y
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I want a prequel to BotW using the same engine but set 10,000 years prior when the first calamity but with actual dungeons, towns to explore, make the Zora Armor allow under water exploration again and show the creation of the Divine Beats & Guardians.
 
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Sep 21, 2014
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Michigan
This is a rough list of what I think the future holds for Zelda games. While I can't say what is more or less likely, I can say what emphasis I place on them, expressed as part prediction and part hope. (percent prediction/percent hope)

Weapons won't break anymore (75/25)- Personally, the durability system didn't bother me in the slightest. While some aspects did break my suspension of disbelief a bit (a sword shattering after 6 hits feels rather silly), it wasn't nearly enough to hurt my enjoyment of the game. Quite the opposite in fact. Pelting an enemy in the face with a weapon that was about to break, having it shatter against their stupid face while I grabbed up their own dropped weapon and bring it to bear on the next doofus in the conga line added a lot to the pacing of many battles, especially early on. That being said, i'm well aware that not nearly everyone felt this way. Weapon breakage is likely one of the single-most maligned aspects of the game, and I'm sure Nintendo will take notice. While some form of breakage/repair mechanic is liable to come back, treating weapons like the sampler toothpicks at a Panda Express is likely taking its final bow. If they go down this path- they will bring back weapon variety (axes, spears, swords, etc.) and will have some sort of material component that allows for something like repairs or upgrades, but uses the structure of the game to prevent you from easily maxing them out early, thus encouraging you to experiment with a variety of items.

Renewed emphasis on story (50/50)- While an individual player may or may not put great stake in the story of a Zelda game, I would posit that the games themselves seem to be at their best when the game cares about its story: Majora's Mask, Link's Awakening, and Ocarina of Time all put a lot of focus on the narrative that was occurring, and structured themselves around it to some extent. Beyond that, the lack of a story that runs through the gameplay was the other thing frequently decried about Breath of the Wild.

At least partial return to a more linear structure (25/75)- As fun as it was to wander freely across Hyrule, I feel that the enjoyment of the dungeons suffered greatly on the altar of nonlinearity. With luck the developers will take what they learned from the latest installment and apply it to making a more finely crafted difficulty curve, with not so much of an enforced dungeon order, but certainly an implied one. If they go down this path- A return to themed dungeons with distinct visual styles and thematic elements, and sweet dungeon music again.

Freely explorable caves (10/90)- Not sure how to elaborate on this one. I really was disappointed that BotW didn't have freely explorable cavern systems. Everything was shrines that load or dungeons that weren't difficult. I'd love to find random labyrinthine cave systems that require a certain degree of fortitude and wit to explore. Think something in the nature of Typhlo Ruins, only it gets steadily darker as you delve deeper, with stronger monsters and some sweet rewards that escalate as you go. Culminating sometimes in a wicked neat puzzle, or a cool miniboss.
 

el :BeoWolf:

When all else fails use fire
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The master Sword won't be in it

Actually I could see them milking this BotW style and the next game being open world, and essentially BotW 2
Though previously it would be a big console game followed by two handhelds or smaller games. BotW and the switch really change things up
 
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I'm posting this because I'm curious about what everyone thinks the next Zelda game's gonna be like. For me, I think it'll probably be like BotW. Nintendo like to stick with things that work, and BotW definitely worked. So yeah, what do you think it'll be like?
Nintendo have a weird history with Zelda follow up games. Zelda 2 and Majora's Mask were totally not sticking with things that worked. Both were risk taking. On the other hand Phantom Hourglass was sticking with the previous (Wind Waker) with mixed success.

What is important is how Majora's Mask use most of the same ingame assets as OOT. I feel because of the 5+ years to make BotW, I think it's 3D sequel will use most of the same assets again.
 

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
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Zelda Switch 2: The Sequeling will be a carbon copy of BotW.

How do I know this? Because BotW is mediocrity squared. BotW is where the Zelda series reached a singularity. All of Ninty's laziness and cluelessness culminated in BotW. BotW is already a carbon copy of every rehashed modern OHPIN WHARRLDD!!! game in existence. It is Ubisuck school of derivative game design 101 distilled into its base form. BotW tries nothing new - not for the Zelda series - but for open world games. BotW is where Ninty gave up and said "@#$% it! We'll just do what everyone else is doing!" The Zelda series finally lost its identity, the same identity it helped pioneer that everyone else and their dog has been deriving from for their open world adventure games for decades, when it turned into literally every mainstream AAA open world product in the last ten years.

From here, barring any sort of creative brain fart similar to Majora's Mask (which I am certain Ninty is as 100% intolerant of as any major corporate entertainment company) the only way forward is simply to crank out more carbon copies of BotW with a new title and the same coat of paint until the world is sick to death of em.
 
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Well, didn't Aonuma already state that they'll keep the BotW formula (as they should)? Perhaps they'll implement more traditional Zelda-style dungeons following people's disappointment with BotW's main dungeons, though. I just hope they don't return to a linear order. They should stick to letting the player freely choose the order to beat them just like in BotW, Zelda 1 and ALttP (most of the Dark World dungeons).

Zelda Switch 2: The Sequeling will be a carbon copy of BotW.

How do I know this? Because BotW is mediocrity squared. BotW is where the Zelda series reached a singularity. All of Ninty's laziness and cluelessness culminated in BotW. BotW is already a carbon copy of every rehashed modern OHPIN WHARRLDD!!! game in existence. It is Ubisuck school of derivative game design 101 distilled into its base form. BotW tries nothing new - not for the Zelda series - but for open world games. BotW is where Ninty gave up and said "@#$% it! We'll just do what everyone else is doing!" The Zelda series finally lost its identity, the same identity it helped pioneer that everyone else and their dog has been deriving from for their open world adventure games for decades, when it turned into literally every mainstream AAA open world product in the last ten years.

From here, barring any sort of creative brain fart similar to Majora's Mask (which I am certain Ninty is as 100% intolerant of as any major corporate entertainment company) the only way forward is simply to crank out more carbon copies of BotW with a new title and the same coat of paint until the world is sick to death of em.
LMAO, I was wondering how long it would be until somebody posted this kind of reply.
 
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I'm expecting something in the vein of what happened with MM, actually. OoT and BotW find themselves in very similar situations - both are considered revolutionary, had universal critical acclaim with 10s across the board and multiple GotY awards, and have sold an insane amount of copies (which is most impressive for BotW given the situation Nintendo was in before the Switch). It makes sense that the follow-up would be similar.

I would think Nintendo would use the same engine, same setup, same focus on nonlinearity, but perhaps add a much greater emphasis on a contained story with characters. We've already got our grand, Hyrule-ending narrative with Ganon and all of that kind of thing you'd expect from a 3D Zelda plot. It's time for a smaller scope with an even greater focus on characters, with world building that comes as a result of that.
 

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