RamboBambiBambo
RamboBambiBamboBingoBongoBoiyo
Just as the title of this thread says.
I was bored.
I am at work for a twelve hour shift and have been stuck at a desk for quite some time.
I also had a spark of inspiration.
What better way to pass the time than to come up with about a dozen Zelda game ideas?
Sure about five of them are remake ideas, but the rest are original ideas.
So...
Here are RamboBambiBamboBingoBongoBoiyo's Zelda Game ideas, all of which fit neatly in the timeline -
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1 - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit of a Hero
Basically, I have taken the idea of Akira Himekawa's Skyward Sword Prequel Manga from The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, and thought to myself "what if we expanded on the core concepts of this manga in order to make a complete game set in the Era before the Era of the Sky?"
This game would be set as a classic 3D Zelda title, where it is a limited open world experience a-la Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.
It would feature remixed versions of the areas we are familiar with from Skyward Sword BUT also include the regions in-between Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru. And the story would be based off of what we know exists from Skyward Sword's established lore AND the manga.
Lord Dagianis betrayed his fellow men and sided with the Demon King. They knew his rise was inevitable so Lord Dagianis chose to appeal to Demise in the hopes he would be spared. Link's adventures to find out who was poisoning the holy springs reveals none other than Lord Dagianis; who turnes the blame onto Link and frames him. Imprisoned for seven years, the young knight is eventually freed by his fellow knights when Lord Dagianis' trechery was revealed and he was slain by Demon Lord Ghirahim as "payment for his services".
Link is freed from his shackles and is chosen by Hylia to be the one who would reforge the Divine Sword into a weapon that could be wielded by mortals to slay the Demon King. Link searches out for the three divine flames and Master Ore. Using the divine flames to melt down the Divine Sword and the Master Ore to reforge it; they create many weapons to share among the Knights. The Magical Sword, The White Sword, The Lokomo Sword, The Phantom Sword... and The Master Sword. With sword in hand, Link is just in time to face off against the freshly breached Demise.
Those who read the manga would already know how the game ends.
Link fails in his duel.
But returns with the sword to the Temple of Hylia, following the guidance of Fi to place it into the pedestal within the base of the Goddess' Statue.
This enacts a contingency plan that Hylia had in place should Link fail the duel.
The lands begin to rise and survivors are taken to the heavens, along with the Golden Power, this act saps the Master Sword into becoming The Goddess Sword.
Link dies and is buried by his fellow knights in the sky while Hylia seals away Demise at the cost of her divine immortality.
We would have a game that explains the origin of Link's ever-reincarnating soul - A gift for his selfless sacrifice so that he may live countless lifetimes of joy... and the eventual reincarnation would come around to finish what was started as the Hero of the Sky.
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2 - The Legend of Zelda: Fables of the Picori
Those of you who have played The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap will likely recall that before it was the Four Sword, the mystical blade was known as the Picori Blade. And that there are stained glass portraits in the prelude backstory that depict someone known as the Hero of Men who was known throughout the land and entrusted with the Picori Blade in order to finish their quest to quell the world of monsters, using the blade to seal all the evils into a magical chest.
I figure that we should have a game that is somewhat like what The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Remix the overworld design of LoZ: The Minish Cap, add in alternate versions of the dungeons from The Minish Cap, and have a new story set in a familiar nostalgic landscape. A game wherein we take on the role of the Hero of Men and travel the world, both normal sized and shrunken down, in order to gather the resources and the strength necessary to forge The Picori Blade and The Picori Box and seal away the evil until the events of LoZ: The Minish Cap transpire.
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3 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap HD
Put simply, using the engine and assets of The Legend of Zelda: Fables of the Picori a 3D top-down remaster of the original LoZ: The Minish Cap!
The feat would be easy to pull off, considering not only the fact that the game would share the same development assets and such; BUT it would also be mostly the same overworld design. Arguably 80% of the development would be finished once LoZ: Fables of the Picori is complete!
And then The Minish Cap HD could be bundled with Fables of the Picori so that players can play both of them at once.
The name of this proposed bundle product?
5 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Fables Collection !
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4 - The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Fables
Another Remaster, though not a singular game either.
This game would see two games remastered and put together :
And even THEN it isn't the end of this title.
Because not only would there be remastered versions of LoZ: FS and LoZ: FSA+, but there will also be an online multiplayer mode.
Sure, you could argue that the entire game is multiplayer, but it is all cooperative.
What about a versus mode? Free-For-All, 2v2, 4v4? Have up to 8 versions of Link on the screen as you work cooperatively against another team of Link's to solve online race dungeons or simply clash in arenas in a direct versus mode?
Green, Red, Blue, and Purple vs. A team of their Shadow counterparts?
Just something extra fun to add to the mix.
Plus, as a bonus DLC for post-release content, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary is made available as optional DLC with all the old content intact and some of the newer content from the newer engine setup.
And as an even further bonus, this game itself would ALSO be included in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Fables Collection !
Making the entire collection technically Five Whole Games for a single purchase!
(Four Swords Anniversary would be included in the collection of course)
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6 - The Legend of Zelda: Saga of the Oracles
In 2019 we saw the release of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, remastered with an all new "Toy" style of graphics and art.
Why not do the same for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons?
It makes perfect sense as LA, OoA, and OoS were the only three 8-bit Zelda handheld games available on the GameBoy Color.
But that is not what we should only do, no no no.
A simple remaster would simply not suffice.
Tada !
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7 - The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold
A remaster of the very first game from 1986 and a reimagining of its sequel from 1987, The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold contains both The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The former receives only a graphics overhaul and a slightly touched up script, since game manuals aren't really much of a thing, to explain the story and your impact on the land of Hyrule.
Meanwhile Zelda II gets FULLY revamped to play like the original Zelda game while telling the same story. The Overworld is heavily expanded and allows for players to have quite the adventure across Greater Hyrule.
A retelling of the first two games for old times sake. And when the games are both complete, a bonus scene comes around where it is revealed that the reason why this duo remaster/reimagining has the sub-title of "Heroic Tales Retold" is because Link, now an old man, is telling the legend to his grandchildren; hence why the events play out in a more fresh manner of gameplay than what we played back in the 80s, as the newer gameplay is to both appeal to the newer generations while also being the way his grandchildren imagine the events their grandfather described.
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8 - Zelda III: The Legend of Link
A surprise continuation of the original two Zelda games from the Famicom/NES era of videogames that will be developed alongside The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold and use the same manner of engine, art style, and top-down gameplay.
This game takes place just after Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. With Dark Link slain and Ganon's minions failing to resurrect their Demon King, the generals of Ganon's dark armies decide to take matters in their own hand. In their side there is a power vacuum, the Demon Tribes without a Demon King. Loyal Demon Generals now growing restless and ambitious. Now they seek to crown themselves Demon King and lead the dark armies against Hyrule!
So now the Demon Tribe is in a civil war of sorts and Hyrule is the battlefield they have chosen! Monsters fighting Monsters and innocent lives of Hyrule's denizens are caught in the cross-fire!
Link sets out on another adventure to put an end to this.
Each of the eight bosses in the game are one of Ganon's Demon Generals and will be found both in traditional dungeons and their own conquered forts and keeps. Tackle the bosses in any order.
But know that the last one you face will become the next Demon King and their regular dungeon boss will be replaced by a trusted mini-boss lieutenant. The boss fight altering and Hyrule Castle being the location of this final duel. The encounter becoming a mutated version of the original bossfight you would have had if you decided to take them out in one of the main fights.
When the dust is settled, Hyrule is saved for the third time in seven long arduous years.
Link's Heroics are recognized across the land.
The Hero who slain Ganon with the Silver Arrow, the Hero who prevented Ganon's resurrection, and the Hero who caused the retreat of the Demon Armies.
Now recognized by the King, Link is made a Knight of Hyrule and joins the ranks of the Nobility, birthing the Noble House of Lynelheart to produce many great warriors in the coming centuries!
This game, along with The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold, would be offered together in a bundle pack -
9 - The Legend of Zelda Trilogy Pack !
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10 - The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession is both the third game in the Hyrule Warriors lineup of the franchise and a sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. For his valiant efforts at saving Hyrule on multiple occasions, the Link - The Hero of Hyrule, was granted the title of Grand Knight of the Realm and made a nobleman. In time, The House of Lynelheart became one of the greatest of the noble houses of Hyrule. Which is where we eventually are led into this Hyrule Warriors game.
The Spirit of the Hero is reincarnated once again, this time in the Noble House of Lynelheart and as a direct descendant of the previous heroic reincarnation. Trained valiantly in swordsmanship, the notions of bravery, and honor; Link is a Knight that will have to raise his sword not just in offense to the monsters of the demon tribe that will come to plague Hyrule during his adventures… but also to his fellow Hylian brethren. King Odenathus Eclesius Hyrule has died due to the sudden onset of disease, leaving behind him three separate heirs to the throne. They are triplets born on the same day - Prince August Vaughn Hyrule, Princess Zelda Elise Hyrule, and Princess Anais Hilda Hyrule. And many in the kingdom are surprised when the King declares Zelda to be his successor prior to his passing.
The Noble Houses of Hyrule are set in disarray. House Hebra, House Tabantha, House Akkalla, House Necluda, House Ordona, and House Lynelheart are all in disagreement to what has been declared. House Hebra and Tabantha support Prince August Vaughn Hyrule to be the new King of Hyrule; citing him as the male child and therefore the rightful heir. House Akkalla and Necluda support Princess Anais Hilda Hyrule, citing her as the eldest and therefore the rightful heir of the kingdom! Meanwhile House Ordona and House Lynelheart are loyal to the king and see the wisdom of his choice, and therefore support Princess Zelda Elise Hyrule’s claim to the throne!
And to make matters worse, the Curse of the Demon King has caused another full of hatred and lust for power to rise up and summon the Demon Tribe’s monsters to the fields, and they are being supported by the Seventh Noble House of Hyrule : House Kasuto! One of the lesser noble houses, Lord Ingram Kasuto seeks to usurp the throne and become the next King over Hyrule. Nay, he seeks to declare himself Emperor Kasuto and conquer their neighboring nations as well!
Needless to say, this is a decent plot setup for a complex narrative. Siblings pitted against one another by rivaling houses that each seek to supplant a puppet ruler or to heed the King’s dying command. A lesser house seeking to take control of the throne for themselves and thinking that they are in control, when in reality Lord Kasuto is being used as a pawn for the true villain of the game : Malladus! Yes, the same Malladus from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. In the Downfall Timeline, he has breached his seal and seeks the Golden Power of Hyrule. A desire he keeps secret until he betrays Ingram Kasuto. And in the end, it is the presence and threat of Malladus that helps convince the other remaining houses to abandon their ambitions and reunite once again to face this evil head on! What better way to unite a nation than have some comradery on the battlefield against a common foe?
Though the end of this game is not as it seems.
Something is wrong...
(~foreshadowing~)
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11 - The Legend of Zelda: Dawn of a New Light
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was one of the most acclaimed titles in the franchise. Its success had warranted discussions about the possibility to make a sequel to the game that lie mostly separated from the main narrative, similar to how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a sequel story in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. However, such a game did not come to pass. Instead the project was set aside and in time, the sequel that fans received was an on-the-rails shooting gallery game - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Crossbow Training. I seek to re-ignite this potential sequel idea for Twilight Princess and make it a reality. And we already have the plot setup to do so.
Ganondorf has been defeated, slain by the Hero of Twilight. Midna, her form restored, returns to the Twilight Realm and shatters the Mirror of Twilight permanently. Zelda is able to turn her attention towards her kingdom and begin to rebuild. But all is still not well. Zelda possessed the Triforce of Wisdom. Link possessed the Triforce of Courage. And Ganondorf possessed the Triforce of Power. With Ganondorf now dead, his piece of the Triforce abandoned him. And according to a Seer that Zelda had consulted, the Triforce of Power was no longer in Hyrule! Instead it has been attracted to a dark power in a far off land to the west.
Zelda knights Link for his bravery and efforts, as well as Auru, Ashei, Rusl, Shad, and Telma. And she tasks Link with a journey out west to another nation. He knows his goal is to search for the displaced Triforce of Power, seeking to prevent its destructive potential from falling into the wrong hands and causing irreparable damage to the neighboring nation of Neris. Venturing west across the dangers of the Gerudo desert, Link will collapse on the far side of the sands in the easternmost regions of Neris. Taken in by a kind family of local Neridi, they reveal to Link their plight. There is a darkness that is casting its shadow across the land. Night is eternal and Neris is now swarming with monsters! The people are afraid. Link thanks them for his hospitality and sets himself to work. He will not let a power from his kingdom cause destruction in another.
And at the end of his quest?
With the Triforce of Power back in Hylian possession, Link turns back to the East to return to Hyrule.
Walking into the sunrise as dawn breaks.
A new dawn on the horizon as a new era dawns for Hyrule and Neris.
The Dawn of a New Light.
This sequel game invites the opportunity to work with scrapped content. A new landscape means that you have the chance to encounter new monstrosities. Take the Blins for example. The Bulblin tribe of Blins were featured in Twilight Princess; with King Bulblin implied to defect to the Hylian side of the conflict by the end of the game. This new region could see enemies implemented that were not in the final game in Twilight Princess. Moblins for example could be an enemy type. And the Bulblins could be unexpected allies for Link to have in the story. Not to mention enemies from the other games can be implemented in this new country of the world that were not featured in Twilight Princess, such as Hostile Zora and the like.
This game would also play very much akin to Twilight Princess and share a similar art style, allowing the transition from TP to DoaNL to not be jarring visually and gameplay wise.
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12 - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening is a Four Swords game that is both single player and multiplayer. Played in the traditional top-down zelda fashion with Toon styling, players can play through the main game in single player OR in multiplayer fashion with other players dropping in and dropping out at any time of the game. Adding or subtracting players will slightly rework the enemy encounters in the overworld and tweak the puzzles in dungeons so that they are balanced and more enjoyable for all players involved.
The story of this game is a simple one. Link is reincarnated as one of the sons of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Eons have passed since the events of Four Swords Adventures. The tales of a hero split in four fighting a dark wind mage have long since passed. Fading from Tales, to Fables, to Legends, and finally into Myth. This has resulted in the Royal Family neglecting their duties in tending to the Four Sword Sanctuary and performing the rituals and rites with the Maidens to ensure the seal is maintained. In time the shrine eroded and the seal’s strength waned. One day, Vaati was able to break away from his seal and encase Hyrule Castle in crystal! Thankfully Link was not home at the time, instead visiting Insmuth the Blacksmith on an errand.
Now Link, knowing of the myths, sets out to the Four Sword Sanctuary to find the myths to be factual truths. The Four Sword and its seal kept away evil, but no longer. But the Four Sword is without its magical light it once held. He can split into four, but they will not always be at his side to help him conquer the obstacles that stand between Link and the salvation of his Kingdom and family! Link must search for the heirs to the maidens to receive their blessings and he must also search for another sword of magical power to melt down and enhance the Four Sword to no longer merely seal away evil but to slay it. He must seek out the Magical Sword from another long-bygone myth. Only then can he break through the crystal barrier of his home castle and face off against Vaati.
Though the end of this game is not as it seems.
Something is wrong...
(~foreshadowing~)
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13 - The Legend of Zelda: The Hylian Odyssey
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was an ambitious project. An open world Zelda title in the 3D formula established by Ocarina of Time, one with a massive overworld and a new console to utilize in order to render it. And yet, the game had plenty of scraped and cut content. Plenty of islands weren’t featured that were planned to be, some story bits had to be rewritten slightly to work around unfinished content, and the under-sea exploration that was planned was abandoned entirely for a linear section on the seafloor. The Game Cube could possibly fit all of this effort in… but there were many factors to consider otherwise.
I offer a game to be the successor to The Wind Waker. Sure there was the actual sequel on the Nintendo DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. But that game was a sequel in timeline and not so much so as a sequel that greatly expanded on what the original promised. We explored a new sea in that game with an entirely separate set of mechanics and controls. What I propose instead is a second attempt at an open-world sea adventure within the Legend of Zelda franchise. One that, yes, is a sequel that takes place on the Adulthood Timeline but also seeks to fulfill the goals set by the original.
The Legend of Zelda: The Hylian Odyssey is to be the endgame of such an ambition. The premise is simple:
Set hundreds of years after the events of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, New Hyrule is now just referred to as Hyrule. The peace has been broken by the occasional crisis in that time, but it was always settled by a hero who stood up and took it upon themselves to fight for peace once more. But now the Royal Family is deeply concerned. The waters at the shores of Hyrule have suddenly receded a significant amount, the beaches extending by nearly a hundred meters! The Royal Family knows of the secret that is sealed in stone in the Hylian Archipelago and fears that this ancient evil may have breached his seal once again! And so, a voyage is arranged to return to the Hylian Archipelago and investigate.
Link is but a knave who is an apprentice to Sir Linebeck, a knight that was entrusted to be a part of this voyage for the Hylian Archipelago. And so, the Fleet of Red Lions sets sail. After months, they reach the old archipelago. The map is the same as The Wind Waker, only since the waters have receded, the islands are now larger and have more to explore and offer to the players. New islands are discovered and settled by the peoples as well. The public story is that Princess Zelda Aryll Hyrule is away on vacation to the archipelago. In truth, she is there to research and assess what is happening in the archipelago to cause the waters to recede. And Link? Well, shortly after arriving in the region the Fleet of Red Lions is attacked by Pirates! Link fought valiantly but is one of the captured few by the pirate gang! He will escape their clutches and begin to explore the archipelago in search of the fleet… and guided by a spirit of an old man who seeks to reveal the greater threat and narrative.
The Hylian Odyssey is to be a more modern attempt at an open-world sea adventure in the Zelda franchise, a modern second attempt at making a open-world sea adventure starring Link. Players get to have a rush of nostalgia as they explore old islands from The Wind Waker, now larger due to the receded waters, as well as new islands. Much more to discover on the seas rather than very empty waters and the occasional small island to stop at once and then perhaps never again. Each square of the map has plenty of water but also a mix of land to keep things interesting and the seafaring to not be too boring.
And then there is the seafloor. There will be plenty of regions of the sea where Link can “warp” down to the seafloor and find the sunken Old Hyrule. Exploration abound in this underworld where Link has different enemies to encounter, the Zora peoples to meet with, and a new threat unveiled that will cause destruction if not stopped. A threat that seeks to drain the oceans in order to conquer the world. Though it was halted by Spirits of Light, they could only hold it back for so long.
At the end of the game’s narrative, Link thwarts the evil but the seas still recede. No longer does Hyrule have to fear from the evils of the past so the gods deem it necessary to cull back the waters and let the people reclaim the land. The Hyrule that they had left behind, the one with the Sprit Tracks, is now inaccessible due to high altitude differences. But the royal family knew that this could be a possibility. And so, Lower Hyrule is established… and in time it too shall be known only as Hyrule.
Of course, this game would be rendered in the Toon style, however, since the story will take place over a wide period of time, we will finally see Toon Link in his more adult form as he grows from a knave at sea to the Knight of the Ocean!
As a twist of the narrative, Ganon is revealed to have been broken free from his Stone Imprisonment, the top of his tower is now a small island that can be visited. And a character that is an old man is revealed to actually be Ganondorf himself. Although it is a bit obvious when you first meet him. After all, not many characters in the franchise have dark skin and fiery hair. But having been sealed away for so long, the Curse of the Demon King has passed onto the current main villain of the game. Time has allowed for Ganondorf to review his history and allow his hatred to subside. A changed man to be more of a pacifist who is choosing to help the boy he recognizes to be the reincarnation of his ancient foe. He is the one who provides Link his small boat that he sails the world with and a recurring character that reappears often enough in the story to provide a guiding hand, taking on the role of King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule - The King of Red Lions. A nice surprise change in character.
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14 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Across the Ages
My most ambitious title yet.
A Breath-of-the-Wild style 3D Zelda where the world is open and vast.
The first Zelda game idea I had ever come up with, ironic that it occurs at the end of the parallel timelines.
The start of this game links up with the endings of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening.
It is revealed that a Sheikah scribe by the name of Takeda Yiga has betrayed his creed.
Sheikah are usually born with Red Eyes that when trained and focused can see the truth behind deception magic.
But Takeda Yiga is not your typical Sheikah. He is one that is born every fifty years, born with Lavender Eyes.
With the timeline split of Ocarina of Time, the Sheikah started having children on occassion that possessed these lavender eyes. Eyes that were gifted the Sight of Hylia.
To put it simply, the parallel timelines reside so close to one another that these Sheikah are able to see through the thin veil that splits the timelines.
Where one will see a sunny day, one with the Sight of Hylia would possibly comment about the rain they are seeing in another timeline.
With this gift, the Sheikah appointed it so that every Sheikah born with the Sight of Hylia is to be made a scribe and a scholar. They would be tasked with wandering the world and record the happenings of the alternate timelines. Their records of the events that transpire will help the Sheikah investigate possible disasters and prevent them from occurring in their own timeline if possible. A task that Takeda Yiga took in stride!
However, he was also a bookish type and loved to read. His curiosity endless and his status as scholar allowed him access to the most secretive texts the Sheikah possessed. And as he red these ancient records he became enraged! His people were tasked with the safety of Hyrule and its Royal Family. They were masters of technology and magic, dispelling countless curses and dismantling many harmful rituals. And yet, he found no record of an attempt to rid the world of the Curse of the Demon King! It frustrated him... and sparked a dark ambition.
Takeda Yiga would, in secret, aim to dispel the Curse of the Demon King. But that was no easy task. To dispel a curse, you would have to break the pillars that support it and bind it together. The Curse of the Demon King had three such pillars.
The Spirit of the Hero
The Hatred of Demise
The Bloodline of Hylia
The removal of the Spirit of the Hero would not be ideal. Link's ever reincarnating soul was a vital power that helped defend Hyrule from invaders from outside nations as well as solving the crisis. Sure it would break the curse to somehow rid the world of his Spirit. But then Hyrule would be subject to more wars that do not involve the one who would inherit the Hatred of the Demon King.
The removal of Hatred itself was also out of the question. For when Naryu created the Law of the world, she created it in perfect balance. Removing hatred itself sounds like a good thing until you realize that the natural law would fall into disarray without it. A fox cannot hunt if it has not a smidge of hatred for a rabbit. The removal of hatred would end in a total apocalypse in the long run. Takeda wanted to prevent apocalypses.
These first two options required the Triforce to even make happen. A closely guarded secret only known to the Royal Family. Unobtainable by any real means he could muster.
That left only one option... slaughter the Divine Bloodline of Hylia.
It would go against the creed of his people.
But it would also dispel the Curse of the Demon King. Perhaps this was why his people never dispelled the Curse? They were unwilling to break their creed, their oath to protect Hylia and her descendants.
This brought even more anger upon his own kind.
Takeda Yiga made his decision... He would set aside his pride and his oath. For the betterment of Hyrule and the world, he would undo the Curse of the Demon King by breaking his creed and ending the very bloodline he swore to protect.
But this task was also not so easy.
The Royal Family is heavily guarded by soldiers, knights, honor guards, and the Sheikah peoples. And that would require an army to get past to eliminate all the noble houses of Hyrule and the Royal Family, all of which share descendants of Hylia among their bloodlines.
There was also the fact that Takeda Yiga realized that he could see through the veil that separated the three timelines. He grew fearful that if he were to simply end the Bloodline of Hylia in his own timeline, the existence of the Royal Family in the other two timelines might still uphold that pillar of the curse. That would mean killing the royal family he swore to protect would be a futile effort as when the Evil to inherit the Hatred of the Demon King would clash with the one born with the Spirit of the Hero, they would surely lose this battle as the Royal Family was always there to support and stand beside the Hero in the crisis.
Doom would come for them all.
But Takeda Yiga was not thwarted by this notion.
Instead, he found an unexpected solution and the unlikeliest of allies.
Those born with the Sight of Hylia can meditate and focus their will. In time, they can make an apparition of themselves in other timelines, essentially Astral Projection across the veil of time.
Takeda Yiga would then conspire with Malladus and Vaati, convincing them of the ultimate plan he had come up with.
Step 1 - Locate the Gate of Time in each of their timelines.
Step 2 - Perform a ritual in synchronize the timelines using the Parallel Gates of Time as conduits and focal points.
Step 3 - With the timelines unified, the Demon Armies of Malladus and Vaati can coordinate and eliminate each of the Royal Families of each timeline. Two Demon Armies bearing down on a single army that is prepared for only one Army of Evil.
Step 4 - Separate the three timelines once more. Malladus gets his own Downfall Timeline once again to subjugate and rule. Vaati will receive the Childhood Timeline to spread his dark magics across. And Takeda Yiga would turn himself in for his crimes, satisfied that he saved his own timeline from the endless cycle of evil. And in time, Malladus and Vaati will die off and the other two timelines would eventually reach peace as his had done. He would cause genocide in three timelines in order to spare every generation that followed the massecre from further cycles of death and despair.
That is the plan.
That was the plan.
However, the final battles of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening had caused the ritual to be interrupted in the Downfall and Childhood timelines.
And Takeda's plot was discovered and interrupted in the Adulthood timeline by his fellow Sheikah.
The Timeline merger was incomplete and rifts where the three timelines bleed into one another now exist.
There are Three Kingdoms of Hyrule.
Three Castles in the world.
Two armies of Darkness wandering the world.
And Three incarnations of the Spirit of the Hero :
Link and his sister Linkle were adopted by the Sheikah clan, their home ravaged by an attack of monsters
(an early attempt by Takeda Yiga at amassing his own army of monsters with basic summoning that proved to be uncontrollable and not the solution he was looking for.)
Impa saw something in the twins. Link and Linkle, at the ages of eleven and nine, had fought to protect themselves as the attack happened. Their mother passed long ago and their father fell in the sudden attack. And yet, the two were left standing. Crying, but alive against the odds.
Adopted by Impa, they were trained to be Sheikah. Link excelled mostly in swordsmanship while Linkle was the better with the bow.
With the coming crisis, the Sheikah moved in to secure the safety of the Hyrule Royal Family. Link and Linkle were part of this mission party.
And his close proximity to Princess Zelda has revealed that Link is the one who reincarnated with the Spirit of the Hero!
He is then tasked with investigating why other castles have appeared on the horizon, why the world shook, and what these strange areas surrounded in light are supposed to be.
Their first clue is the Ancient Temple of Time that Takeda Yiga had been found at, having been the cause of this madness.
Link will investigate this Ancient Temple of Time, and accidentally stumble into the Gate of Time - Emerging into the far past. He will exit a temple that is familiar to Skyward Sword players and approach a statue to Hylia shortly before it rises to the heavens. A divine light emanating from within draws him in. Link then comes face to face with Hylia and... his original incarnation from LoZ: Spirit of a Hero!
Seeing the Link from the future standing there, Hylia concludes that one specific possible timeline was now declared to be absolute. All other possible futures collapse. Knowing this, she gives Link his instruction and asks of him to meet with his dying first incarnation. This grants him three hearts and some new combat techniques. And then Hylia gives him his instruction towards success and sends him back to his time period.
In this game, Link will travel between the three timelines and into the past to discover the means of putting and end to this crisis.
Link will meet each of his known past incarnations after their times of adventures are done to gain power and learn where a valuable relic of their adventures is located in the overworld. Two hearts gained from each and some new combat finesse. Memories of their adventures as well, since it is technically his own soul synchronizing with past versions of itself. They will also unlock items that he can find in the present day overworld to help him further on the journey.
This is also a co-op game. Player two can join to play as Link's sister, Linkle. Link is superior with swords and moderate with the bow, while Linkle is best with archery and moderate with physical attacks. Link is more of a frontline while Linkle is more stealthy and ambushes the enemy easily.
The endgame will result in the three timelines merging into a singular timeline.
Survivors of the three royal families will unite into a single bloodline.
Takeda Yiga's foolishness will be unveiled as he misunderstood the method behind The Curse of the Demon King. Had he been successful, they would all be doomed in that timeline until the end of days.
Malladus and Vaati will re-awaken the corruption that Ganondorf had abstained... only to have Ganondorf absorbed them both into his own being.
A duel between Link and Ganondorf breaks out but it changes when Link reveals the reason behind all the puzzles he solved in all his lives. Teh reason why Hylia sent him out to obtain the memories of his past lives. It was to accumulate wisdom and how to truly break this endless curse.
Link releases Demise from his seal within The Master Sword, the Demon King absorbing all the power from Ganondorf so that his might can be increased by three fold as the hatred from three parallel worlds is now in one being.
Let the duel begin as Link pulls out all the stops once again.
Demise will be truly slain rather than sealed, for sealing him is what caused his hatred to radiate out and latch onto those worthy of its strength and poison. The Demon King was sealed away, but his hatred couldn't be contained.
But as one final blow before death reaches him, Demise will curse Ganondorf with the blood of the Demon King itself... Malice.
Ganondorf will be fought and sealed away.
But the Malice will continue and endure.
In time, the Great Calamity will come and another incarnation will fight it - The Hero of the Calamity.
And 10,100 years after that... the Hero of the Wild will have his adventure!
(I thought of the concept of a timeline merger game back when the timeline was revealed in 2011. And with Breath of the Wild having details from all three timelines, I think its existence only enables the creation of my timeline-merger game even more. Players that enjoy the timeline want to know where Breath of the Wild even fits on it. And I think this has allowed me to come up with a proper title to ensure that placement.)
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And there you have it.
11 Zelda Games
3 Bundles
3 Remastered / Reimaginings
And HERE is how it would all fit in the timeline -
Sooooooooooooooo.... Whaddya think?
Boredom at a receptionist desk on a slow day with a 12 hour shift+ inspiration + motivation + admiration + a bit too much coffee perhaps = Nintendo should hire me?
Is my math right on that?
What are your thoughts on this and which is your favorite?
I was bored.
I am at work for a twelve hour shift and have been stuck at a desk for quite some time.
I also had a spark of inspiration.
What better way to pass the time than to come up with about a dozen Zelda game ideas?
Sure about five of them are remake ideas, but the rest are original ideas.
So...
Here are RamboBambiBamboBingoBongoBoiyo's Zelda Game ideas, all of which fit neatly in the timeline -
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1 - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit of a Hero
Basically, I have taken the idea of Akira Himekawa's Skyward Sword Prequel Manga from The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, and thought to myself "what if we expanded on the core concepts of this manga in order to make a complete game set in the Era before the Era of the Sky?"
This game would be set as a classic 3D Zelda title, where it is a limited open world experience a-la Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.
It would feature remixed versions of the areas we are familiar with from Skyward Sword BUT also include the regions in-between Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru. And the story would be based off of what we know exists from Skyward Sword's established lore AND the manga.
Lord Dagianis betrayed his fellow men and sided with the Demon King. They knew his rise was inevitable so Lord Dagianis chose to appeal to Demise in the hopes he would be spared. Link's adventures to find out who was poisoning the holy springs reveals none other than Lord Dagianis; who turnes the blame onto Link and frames him. Imprisoned for seven years, the young knight is eventually freed by his fellow knights when Lord Dagianis' trechery was revealed and he was slain by Demon Lord Ghirahim as "payment for his services".
Link is freed from his shackles and is chosen by Hylia to be the one who would reforge the Divine Sword into a weapon that could be wielded by mortals to slay the Demon King. Link searches out for the three divine flames and Master Ore. Using the divine flames to melt down the Divine Sword and the Master Ore to reforge it; they create many weapons to share among the Knights. The Magical Sword, The White Sword, The Lokomo Sword, The Phantom Sword... and The Master Sword. With sword in hand, Link is just in time to face off against the freshly breached Demise.
Those who read the manga would already know how the game ends.
Link fails in his duel.
But returns with the sword to the Temple of Hylia, following the guidance of Fi to place it into the pedestal within the base of the Goddess' Statue.
This enacts a contingency plan that Hylia had in place should Link fail the duel.
The lands begin to rise and survivors are taken to the heavens, along with the Golden Power, this act saps the Master Sword into becoming The Goddess Sword.
Link dies and is buried by his fellow knights in the sky while Hylia seals away Demise at the cost of her divine immortality.
We would have a game that explains the origin of Link's ever-reincarnating soul - A gift for his selfless sacrifice so that he may live countless lifetimes of joy... and the eventual reincarnation would come around to finish what was started as the Hero of the Sky.
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2 - The Legend of Zelda: Fables of the Picori
Those of you who have played The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap will likely recall that before it was the Four Sword, the mystical blade was known as the Picori Blade. And that there are stained glass portraits in the prelude backstory that depict someone known as the Hero of Men who was known throughout the land and entrusted with the Picori Blade in order to finish their quest to quell the world of monsters, using the blade to seal all the evils into a magical chest.
I figure that we should have a game that is somewhat like what The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Remix the overworld design of LoZ: The Minish Cap, add in alternate versions of the dungeons from The Minish Cap, and have a new story set in a familiar nostalgic landscape. A game wherein we take on the role of the Hero of Men and travel the world, both normal sized and shrunken down, in order to gather the resources and the strength necessary to forge The Picori Blade and The Picori Box and seal away the evil until the events of LoZ: The Minish Cap transpire.
The Hero of Men is not Rinku / Link... ... ... ... It is instead Rinkuru / Linkle !!
Throughout the entire game players will be under the impression they are playing as Link and pronouns will avoid saying He/She type pronouns so that at the end of the game it is revealed that the Hero of Men is a woman!
Playing New Game Plus mode will allow the player to take on a Toon-version of Linkle's outfit from Hyrule Warriors, as well as a slightly modified script so that She/Her pronouns are used when fitting.
Throughout the entire game players will be under the impression they are playing as Link and pronouns will avoid saying He/She type pronouns so that at the end of the game it is revealed that the Hero of Men is a woman!
Playing New Game Plus mode will allow the player to take on a Toon-version of Linkle's outfit from Hyrule Warriors, as well as a slightly modified script so that She/Her pronouns are used when fitting.
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3 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap HD
Put simply, using the engine and assets of The Legend of Zelda: Fables of the Picori a 3D top-down remaster of the original LoZ: The Minish Cap!
The feat would be easy to pull off, considering not only the fact that the game would share the same development assets and such; BUT it would also be mostly the same overworld design. Arguably 80% of the development would be finished once LoZ: Fables of the Picori is complete!
And then The Minish Cap HD could be bundled with Fables of the Picori so that players can play both of them at once.
The name of this proposed bundle product?
5 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Fables Collection !
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4 - The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Fables
Another Remaster, though not a singular game either.
This game would see two games remastered and put together :
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures Plus
And even THEN it isn't the end of this title.
Because not only would there be remastered versions of LoZ: FS and LoZ: FSA+, but there will also be an online multiplayer mode.
Sure, you could argue that the entire game is multiplayer, but it is all cooperative.
What about a versus mode? Free-For-All, 2v2, 4v4? Have up to 8 versions of Link on the screen as you work cooperatively against another team of Link's to solve online race dungeons or simply clash in arenas in a direct versus mode?
Green, Red, Blue, and Purple vs. A team of their Shadow counterparts?
Just something extra fun to add to the mix.
Plus, as a bonus DLC for post-release content, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary is made available as optional DLC with all the old content intact and some of the newer content from the newer engine setup.
And as an even further bonus, this game itself would ALSO be included in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Fables Collection !
Making the entire collection technically Five Whole Games for a single purchase!
(Four Swords Anniversary would be included in the collection of course)
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6 - The Legend of Zelda: Saga of the Oracles
In 2019 we saw the release of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, remastered with an all new "Toy" style of graphics and art.
Why not do the same for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons?
It makes perfect sense as LA, OoA, and OoS were the only three 8-bit Zelda handheld games available on the GameBoy Color.
But that is not what we should only do, no no no.
A simple remaster would simply not suffice.
Does anyone remember the cut Zelda title that was supposed to be released alongside Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons?
The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seeds of Courage?
Well, the Oracle Farore did not receive her own game... until NOW !
You see, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons made use of the GameBoy Link Cable to unlock extra content by way of passwords and synchronizing files.
By making one of your profiles in either game a LinkCable save file, you would unlock the true ending of the Oracle games!
Well, since these two games would be intrinsically bundled into a single game, the LinkCable content would have to be reworked somehow.
Most of the content would have to be made available in the games as rewards for new bonus mini-dungeons or mini-games added to the overworld.
BUT the endgame where Twinrova and Ganon are made the true final bosses would have to be adjusted.
Therefore, when you complete BOTH Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons in this game, the main menu will have a pop-up saying "It was a secret to everybody" before a third game option pops up between OoA and OoS.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Secrets is unlocked !
Oracle of Secrets takes place in the long forgotten and hidden secret nation of Secluda, a region that was hidden away in a pocket dimension in ancient times. Now the lands of Holodrum and Labrynna are no longer connected by a shared border. And in Oracle of Secrets, you can travel between the three nations (think of how in Pokemon Silver/Gold/Crystal you could travel between Johto and Kanto regions. Similar to that) which will be vital to the story.
Secluda is a land populated by automatons, many hostile and some friendly. And it is a land of secrets!
Here is where the final battle will take place against Twinrova and Ganon.
The central structure is known as the Colossus of Secluda, and surrounding it are six temples that hold the pieces of the key that must be assembled to access that central structure.
To enter each dungeon, you must collect secrets from both Ages and Seasons to piece together the ancient riddles. Solving these riddles will reveal where in Holodrum or Labrynna the entry keys to these temples lie.
You can tackle these temples in any order you choose.
Two will be heavily combat focused (Seasons type), Two will be heavily puzzle focused (Ages type), and two will be both heavy in combat and puzzles.
Utilize all the tools you acquired in Ages and Seasons to your advantage.
And then when all is done you can enter the Colossus of Secluda, retrieve The White Sword (in lieu of the Master Sword), and face off against Twinrova followed by the improperly resurrected Ganon to achieve the true ending of the Oracle games!
The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seeds of Courage?
Well, the Oracle Farore did not receive her own game... until NOW !
You see, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons made use of the GameBoy Link Cable to unlock extra content by way of passwords and synchronizing files.
By making one of your profiles in either game a LinkCable save file, you would unlock the true ending of the Oracle games!
Well, since these two games would be intrinsically bundled into a single game, the LinkCable content would have to be reworked somehow.
Most of the content would have to be made available in the games as rewards for new bonus mini-dungeons or mini-games added to the overworld.
BUT the endgame where Twinrova and Ganon are made the true final bosses would have to be adjusted.
Therefore, when you complete BOTH Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons in this game, the main menu will have a pop-up saying "It was a secret to everybody" before a third game option pops up between OoA and OoS.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Secrets is unlocked !
Oracle of Secrets takes place in the long forgotten and hidden secret nation of Secluda, a region that was hidden away in a pocket dimension in ancient times. Now the lands of Holodrum and Labrynna are no longer connected by a shared border. And in Oracle of Secrets, you can travel between the three nations (think of how in Pokemon Silver/Gold/Crystal you could travel between Johto and Kanto regions. Similar to that) which will be vital to the story.
Secluda is a land populated by automatons, many hostile and some friendly. And it is a land of secrets!
Here is where the final battle will take place against Twinrova and Ganon.
The central structure is known as the Colossus of Secluda, and surrounding it are six temples that hold the pieces of the key that must be assembled to access that central structure.
To enter each dungeon, you must collect secrets from both Ages and Seasons to piece together the ancient riddles. Solving these riddles will reveal where in Holodrum or Labrynna the entry keys to these temples lie.
You can tackle these temples in any order you choose.
Two will be heavily combat focused (Seasons type), Two will be heavily puzzle focused (Ages type), and two will be both heavy in combat and puzzles.
Utilize all the tools you acquired in Ages and Seasons to your advantage.
And then when all is done you can enter the Colossus of Secluda, retrieve The White Sword (in lieu of the Master Sword), and face off against Twinrova followed by the improperly resurrected Ganon to achieve the true ending of the Oracle games!
Tada !
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7 - The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold
A remaster of the very first game from 1986 and a reimagining of its sequel from 1987, The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold contains both The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The former receives only a graphics overhaul and a slightly touched up script, since game manuals aren't really much of a thing, to explain the story and your impact on the land of Hyrule.
Meanwhile Zelda II gets FULLY revamped to play like the original Zelda game while telling the same story. The Overworld is heavily expanded and allows for players to have quite the adventure across Greater Hyrule.
A retelling of the first two games for old times sake. And when the games are both complete, a bonus scene comes around where it is revealed that the reason why this duo remaster/reimagining has the sub-title of "Heroic Tales Retold" is because Link, now an old man, is telling the legend to his grandchildren; hence why the events play out in a more fresh manner of gameplay than what we played back in the 80s, as the newer gameplay is to both appeal to the newer generations while also being the way his grandchildren imagine the events their grandfather described.
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8 - Zelda III: The Legend of Link
A surprise continuation of the original two Zelda games from the Famicom/NES era of videogames that will be developed alongside The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold and use the same manner of engine, art style, and top-down gameplay.
This game takes place just after Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. With Dark Link slain and Ganon's minions failing to resurrect their Demon King, the generals of Ganon's dark armies decide to take matters in their own hand. In their side there is a power vacuum, the Demon Tribes without a Demon King. Loyal Demon Generals now growing restless and ambitious. Now they seek to crown themselves Demon King and lead the dark armies against Hyrule!
So now the Demon Tribe is in a civil war of sorts and Hyrule is the battlefield they have chosen! Monsters fighting Monsters and innocent lives of Hyrule's denizens are caught in the cross-fire!
Link sets out on another adventure to put an end to this.
Each of the eight bosses in the game are one of Ganon's Demon Generals and will be found both in traditional dungeons and their own conquered forts and keeps. Tackle the bosses in any order.
But know that the last one you face will become the next Demon King and their regular dungeon boss will be replaced by a trusted mini-boss lieutenant. The boss fight altering and Hyrule Castle being the location of this final duel. The encounter becoming a mutated version of the original bossfight you would have had if you decided to take them out in one of the main fights.
When the dust is settled, Hyrule is saved for the third time in seven long arduous years.
Link's Heroics are recognized across the land.
The Hero who slain Ganon with the Silver Arrow, the Hero who prevented Ganon's resurrection, and the Hero who caused the retreat of the Demon Armies.
Now recognized by the King, Link is made a Knight of Hyrule and joins the ranks of the Nobility, birthing the Noble House of Lynelheart to produce many great warriors in the coming centuries!
This game, along with The Legend of Zelda: Heroic Tales Retold, would be offered together in a bundle pack -
9 - The Legend of Zelda Trilogy Pack !
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10 - The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession is both the third game in the Hyrule Warriors lineup of the franchise and a sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. For his valiant efforts at saving Hyrule on multiple occasions, the Link - The Hero of Hyrule, was granted the title of Grand Knight of the Realm and made a nobleman. In time, The House of Lynelheart became one of the greatest of the noble houses of Hyrule. Which is where we eventually are led into this Hyrule Warriors game.
The Spirit of the Hero is reincarnated once again, this time in the Noble House of Lynelheart and as a direct descendant of the previous heroic reincarnation. Trained valiantly in swordsmanship, the notions of bravery, and honor; Link is a Knight that will have to raise his sword not just in offense to the monsters of the demon tribe that will come to plague Hyrule during his adventures… but also to his fellow Hylian brethren. King Odenathus Eclesius Hyrule has died due to the sudden onset of disease, leaving behind him three separate heirs to the throne. They are triplets born on the same day - Prince August Vaughn Hyrule, Princess Zelda Elise Hyrule, and Princess Anais Hilda Hyrule. And many in the kingdom are surprised when the King declares Zelda to be his successor prior to his passing.
The Noble Houses of Hyrule are set in disarray. House Hebra, House Tabantha, House Akkalla, House Necluda, House Ordona, and House Lynelheart are all in disagreement to what has been declared. House Hebra and Tabantha support Prince August Vaughn Hyrule to be the new King of Hyrule; citing him as the male child and therefore the rightful heir. House Akkalla and Necluda support Princess Anais Hilda Hyrule, citing her as the eldest and therefore the rightful heir of the kingdom! Meanwhile House Ordona and House Lynelheart are loyal to the king and see the wisdom of his choice, and therefore support Princess Zelda Elise Hyrule’s claim to the throne!
And to make matters worse, the Curse of the Demon King has caused another full of hatred and lust for power to rise up and summon the Demon Tribe’s monsters to the fields, and they are being supported by the Seventh Noble House of Hyrule : House Kasuto! One of the lesser noble houses, Lord Ingram Kasuto seeks to usurp the throne and become the next King over Hyrule. Nay, he seeks to declare himself Emperor Kasuto and conquer their neighboring nations as well!
Needless to say, this is a decent plot setup for a complex narrative. Siblings pitted against one another by rivaling houses that each seek to supplant a puppet ruler or to heed the King’s dying command. A lesser house seeking to take control of the throne for themselves and thinking that they are in control, when in reality Lord Kasuto is being used as a pawn for the true villain of the game : Malladus! Yes, the same Malladus from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. In the Downfall Timeline, he has breached his seal and seeks the Golden Power of Hyrule. A desire he keeps secret until he betrays Ingram Kasuto. And in the end, it is the presence and threat of Malladus that helps convince the other remaining houses to abandon their ambitions and reunite once again to face this evil head on! What better way to unite a nation than have some comradery on the battlefield against a common foe?
Though the end of this game is not as it seems.
Something is wrong...
(~foreshadowing~)
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11 - The Legend of Zelda: Dawn of a New Light
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was one of the most acclaimed titles in the franchise. Its success had warranted discussions about the possibility to make a sequel to the game that lie mostly separated from the main narrative, similar to how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a sequel story in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. However, such a game did not come to pass. Instead the project was set aside and in time, the sequel that fans received was an on-the-rails shooting gallery game - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Crossbow Training. I seek to re-ignite this potential sequel idea for Twilight Princess and make it a reality. And we already have the plot setup to do so.
Ganondorf has been defeated, slain by the Hero of Twilight. Midna, her form restored, returns to the Twilight Realm and shatters the Mirror of Twilight permanently. Zelda is able to turn her attention towards her kingdom and begin to rebuild. But all is still not well. Zelda possessed the Triforce of Wisdom. Link possessed the Triforce of Courage. And Ganondorf possessed the Triforce of Power. With Ganondorf now dead, his piece of the Triforce abandoned him. And according to a Seer that Zelda had consulted, the Triforce of Power was no longer in Hyrule! Instead it has been attracted to a dark power in a far off land to the west.
Zelda knights Link for his bravery and efforts, as well as Auru, Ashei, Rusl, Shad, and Telma. And she tasks Link with a journey out west to another nation. He knows his goal is to search for the displaced Triforce of Power, seeking to prevent its destructive potential from falling into the wrong hands and causing irreparable damage to the neighboring nation of Neris. Venturing west across the dangers of the Gerudo desert, Link will collapse on the far side of the sands in the easternmost regions of Neris. Taken in by a kind family of local Neridi, they reveal to Link their plight. There is a darkness that is casting its shadow across the land. Night is eternal and Neris is now swarming with monsters! The people are afraid. Link thanks them for his hospitality and sets himself to work. He will not let a power from his kingdom cause destruction in another.
And at the end of his quest?
With the Triforce of Power back in Hylian possession, Link turns back to the East to return to Hyrule.
Walking into the sunrise as dawn breaks.
A new dawn on the horizon as a new era dawns for Hyrule and Neris.
The Dawn of a New Light.
This sequel game invites the opportunity to work with scrapped content. A new landscape means that you have the chance to encounter new monstrosities. Take the Blins for example. The Bulblin tribe of Blins were featured in Twilight Princess; with King Bulblin implied to defect to the Hylian side of the conflict by the end of the game. This new region could see enemies implemented that were not in the final game in Twilight Princess. Moblins for example could be an enemy type. And the Bulblins could be unexpected allies for Link to have in the story. Not to mention enemies from the other games can be implemented in this new country of the world that were not featured in Twilight Princess, such as Hostile Zora and the like.
This game would also play very much akin to Twilight Princess and share a similar art style, allowing the transition from TP to DoaNL to not be jarring visually and gameplay wise.
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12 - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening is a Four Swords game that is both single player and multiplayer. Played in the traditional top-down zelda fashion with Toon styling, players can play through the main game in single player OR in multiplayer fashion with other players dropping in and dropping out at any time of the game. Adding or subtracting players will slightly rework the enemy encounters in the overworld and tweak the puzzles in dungeons so that they are balanced and more enjoyable for all players involved.
The story of this game is a simple one. Link is reincarnated as one of the sons of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Eons have passed since the events of Four Swords Adventures. The tales of a hero split in four fighting a dark wind mage have long since passed. Fading from Tales, to Fables, to Legends, and finally into Myth. This has resulted in the Royal Family neglecting their duties in tending to the Four Sword Sanctuary and performing the rituals and rites with the Maidens to ensure the seal is maintained. In time the shrine eroded and the seal’s strength waned. One day, Vaati was able to break away from his seal and encase Hyrule Castle in crystal! Thankfully Link was not home at the time, instead visiting Insmuth the Blacksmith on an errand.
Now Link, knowing of the myths, sets out to the Four Sword Sanctuary to find the myths to be factual truths. The Four Sword and its seal kept away evil, but no longer. But the Four Sword is without its magical light it once held. He can split into four, but they will not always be at his side to help him conquer the obstacles that stand between Link and the salvation of his Kingdom and family! Link must search for the heirs to the maidens to receive their blessings and he must also search for another sword of magical power to melt down and enhance the Four Sword to no longer merely seal away evil but to slay it. He must seek out the Magical Sword from another long-bygone myth. Only then can he break through the crystal barrier of his home castle and face off against Vaati.
Though the end of this game is not as it seems.
Something is wrong...
(~foreshadowing~)
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13 - The Legend of Zelda: The Hylian Odyssey
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was an ambitious project. An open world Zelda title in the 3D formula established by Ocarina of Time, one with a massive overworld and a new console to utilize in order to render it. And yet, the game had plenty of scraped and cut content. Plenty of islands weren’t featured that were planned to be, some story bits had to be rewritten slightly to work around unfinished content, and the under-sea exploration that was planned was abandoned entirely for a linear section on the seafloor. The Game Cube could possibly fit all of this effort in… but there were many factors to consider otherwise.
I offer a game to be the successor to The Wind Waker. Sure there was the actual sequel on the Nintendo DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. But that game was a sequel in timeline and not so much so as a sequel that greatly expanded on what the original promised. We explored a new sea in that game with an entirely separate set of mechanics and controls. What I propose instead is a second attempt at an open-world sea adventure within the Legend of Zelda franchise. One that, yes, is a sequel that takes place on the Adulthood Timeline but also seeks to fulfill the goals set by the original.
The Legend of Zelda: The Hylian Odyssey is to be the endgame of such an ambition. The premise is simple:
Set hundreds of years after the events of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, New Hyrule is now just referred to as Hyrule. The peace has been broken by the occasional crisis in that time, but it was always settled by a hero who stood up and took it upon themselves to fight for peace once more. But now the Royal Family is deeply concerned. The waters at the shores of Hyrule have suddenly receded a significant amount, the beaches extending by nearly a hundred meters! The Royal Family knows of the secret that is sealed in stone in the Hylian Archipelago and fears that this ancient evil may have breached his seal once again! And so, a voyage is arranged to return to the Hylian Archipelago and investigate.
Link is but a knave who is an apprentice to Sir Linebeck, a knight that was entrusted to be a part of this voyage for the Hylian Archipelago. And so, the Fleet of Red Lions sets sail. After months, they reach the old archipelago. The map is the same as The Wind Waker, only since the waters have receded, the islands are now larger and have more to explore and offer to the players. New islands are discovered and settled by the peoples as well. The public story is that Princess Zelda Aryll Hyrule is away on vacation to the archipelago. In truth, she is there to research and assess what is happening in the archipelago to cause the waters to recede. And Link? Well, shortly after arriving in the region the Fleet of Red Lions is attacked by Pirates! Link fought valiantly but is one of the captured few by the pirate gang! He will escape their clutches and begin to explore the archipelago in search of the fleet… and guided by a spirit of an old man who seeks to reveal the greater threat and narrative.
The Hylian Odyssey is to be a more modern attempt at an open-world sea adventure in the Zelda franchise, a modern second attempt at making a open-world sea adventure starring Link. Players get to have a rush of nostalgia as they explore old islands from The Wind Waker, now larger due to the receded waters, as well as new islands. Much more to discover on the seas rather than very empty waters and the occasional small island to stop at once and then perhaps never again. Each square of the map has plenty of water but also a mix of land to keep things interesting and the seafaring to not be too boring.
And then there is the seafloor. There will be plenty of regions of the sea where Link can “warp” down to the seafloor and find the sunken Old Hyrule. Exploration abound in this underworld where Link has different enemies to encounter, the Zora peoples to meet with, and a new threat unveiled that will cause destruction if not stopped. A threat that seeks to drain the oceans in order to conquer the world. Though it was halted by Spirits of Light, they could only hold it back for so long.
At the end of the game’s narrative, Link thwarts the evil but the seas still recede. No longer does Hyrule have to fear from the evils of the past so the gods deem it necessary to cull back the waters and let the people reclaim the land. The Hyrule that they had left behind, the one with the Sprit Tracks, is now inaccessible due to high altitude differences. But the royal family knew that this could be a possibility. And so, Lower Hyrule is established… and in time it too shall be known only as Hyrule.
Of course, this game would be rendered in the Toon style, however, since the story will take place over a wide period of time, we will finally see Toon Link in his more adult form as he grows from a knave at sea to the Knight of the Ocean!
As a twist of the narrative, Ganon is revealed to have been broken free from his Stone Imprisonment, the top of his tower is now a small island that can be visited. And a character that is an old man is revealed to actually be Ganondorf himself. Although it is a bit obvious when you first meet him. After all, not many characters in the franchise have dark skin and fiery hair. But having been sealed away for so long, the Curse of the Demon King has passed onto the current main villain of the game. Time has allowed for Ganondorf to review his history and allow his hatred to subside. A changed man to be more of a pacifist who is choosing to help the boy he recognizes to be the reincarnation of his ancient foe. He is the one who provides Link his small boat that he sails the world with and a recurring character that reappears often enough in the story to provide a guiding hand, taking on the role of King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule - The King of Red Lions. A nice surprise change in character.
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14 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Across the Ages
My most ambitious title yet.
A Breath-of-the-Wild style 3D Zelda where the world is open and vast.
The first Zelda game idea I had ever come up with, ironic that it occurs at the end of the parallel timelines.
The start of this game links up with the endings of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening.
It is revealed that a Sheikah scribe by the name of Takeda Yiga has betrayed his creed.
Sheikah are usually born with Red Eyes that when trained and focused can see the truth behind deception magic.
But Takeda Yiga is not your typical Sheikah. He is one that is born every fifty years, born with Lavender Eyes.
With the timeline split of Ocarina of Time, the Sheikah started having children on occassion that possessed these lavender eyes. Eyes that were gifted the Sight of Hylia.
To put it simply, the parallel timelines reside so close to one another that these Sheikah are able to see through the thin veil that splits the timelines.
Where one will see a sunny day, one with the Sight of Hylia would possibly comment about the rain they are seeing in another timeline.
With this gift, the Sheikah appointed it so that every Sheikah born with the Sight of Hylia is to be made a scribe and a scholar. They would be tasked with wandering the world and record the happenings of the alternate timelines. Their records of the events that transpire will help the Sheikah investigate possible disasters and prevent them from occurring in their own timeline if possible. A task that Takeda Yiga took in stride!
However, he was also a bookish type and loved to read. His curiosity endless and his status as scholar allowed him access to the most secretive texts the Sheikah possessed. And as he red these ancient records he became enraged! His people were tasked with the safety of Hyrule and its Royal Family. They were masters of technology and magic, dispelling countless curses and dismantling many harmful rituals. And yet, he found no record of an attempt to rid the world of the Curse of the Demon King! It frustrated him... and sparked a dark ambition.
Takeda Yiga would, in secret, aim to dispel the Curse of the Demon King. But that was no easy task. To dispel a curse, you would have to break the pillars that support it and bind it together. The Curse of the Demon King had three such pillars.
The Spirit of the Hero
The Hatred of Demise
The Bloodline of Hylia
The removal of the Spirit of the Hero would not be ideal. Link's ever reincarnating soul was a vital power that helped defend Hyrule from invaders from outside nations as well as solving the crisis. Sure it would break the curse to somehow rid the world of his Spirit. But then Hyrule would be subject to more wars that do not involve the one who would inherit the Hatred of the Demon King.
The removal of Hatred itself was also out of the question. For when Naryu created the Law of the world, she created it in perfect balance. Removing hatred itself sounds like a good thing until you realize that the natural law would fall into disarray without it. A fox cannot hunt if it has not a smidge of hatred for a rabbit. The removal of hatred would end in a total apocalypse in the long run. Takeda wanted to prevent apocalypses.
These first two options required the Triforce to even make happen. A closely guarded secret only known to the Royal Family. Unobtainable by any real means he could muster.
That left only one option... slaughter the Divine Bloodline of Hylia.
It would go against the creed of his people.
But it would also dispel the Curse of the Demon King. Perhaps this was why his people never dispelled the Curse? They were unwilling to break their creed, their oath to protect Hylia and her descendants.
This brought even more anger upon his own kind.
Takeda Yiga made his decision... He would set aside his pride and his oath. For the betterment of Hyrule and the world, he would undo the Curse of the Demon King by breaking his creed and ending the very bloodline he swore to protect.
But this task was also not so easy.
The Royal Family is heavily guarded by soldiers, knights, honor guards, and the Sheikah peoples. And that would require an army to get past to eliminate all the noble houses of Hyrule and the Royal Family, all of which share descendants of Hylia among their bloodlines.
There was also the fact that Takeda Yiga realized that he could see through the veil that separated the three timelines. He grew fearful that if he were to simply end the Bloodline of Hylia in his own timeline, the existence of the Royal Family in the other two timelines might still uphold that pillar of the curse. That would mean killing the royal family he swore to protect would be a futile effort as when the Evil to inherit the Hatred of the Demon King would clash with the one born with the Spirit of the Hero, they would surely lose this battle as the Royal Family was always there to support and stand beside the Hero in the crisis.
Doom would come for them all.
But Takeda Yiga was not thwarted by this notion.
Instead, he found an unexpected solution and the unlikeliest of allies.
Those born with the Sight of Hylia can meditate and focus their will. In time, they can make an apparition of themselves in other timelines, essentially Astral Projection across the veil of time.
Takeda Yiga would then conspire with Malladus and Vaati, convincing them of the ultimate plan he had come up with.
Step 1 - Locate the Gate of Time in each of their timelines.
Step 2 - Perform a ritual in synchronize the timelines using the Parallel Gates of Time as conduits and focal points.
Step 3 - With the timelines unified, the Demon Armies of Malladus and Vaati can coordinate and eliminate each of the Royal Families of each timeline. Two Demon Armies bearing down on a single army that is prepared for only one Army of Evil.
Step 4 - Separate the three timelines once more. Malladus gets his own Downfall Timeline once again to subjugate and rule. Vaati will receive the Childhood Timeline to spread his dark magics across. And Takeda Yiga would turn himself in for his crimes, satisfied that he saved his own timeline from the endless cycle of evil. And in time, Malladus and Vaati will die off and the other two timelines would eventually reach peace as his had done. He would cause genocide in three timelines in order to spare every generation that followed the massecre from further cycles of death and despair.
That is the plan.
That was the plan.
However, the final battles of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors - Crisis of Succession and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Awakening had caused the ritual to be interrupted in the Downfall and Childhood timelines.
And Takeda's plot was discovered and interrupted in the Adulthood timeline by his fellow Sheikah.
The Timeline merger was incomplete and rifts where the three timelines bleed into one another now exist.
There are Three Kingdoms of Hyrule.
Three Castles in the world.
Two armies of Darkness wandering the world.
And Three incarnations of the Spirit of the Hero :
- The Grand Knight of House Lynelheart (LoZ: HW - Crisis of Succession)
- The Reforger of the Four Sword (LoZ: Four Swords Awakening)
- And the new Link who you play as in this game.
Link and his sister Linkle were adopted by the Sheikah clan, their home ravaged by an attack of monsters
(an early attempt by Takeda Yiga at amassing his own army of monsters with basic summoning that proved to be uncontrollable and not the solution he was looking for.)
Impa saw something in the twins. Link and Linkle, at the ages of eleven and nine, had fought to protect themselves as the attack happened. Their mother passed long ago and their father fell in the sudden attack. And yet, the two were left standing. Crying, but alive against the odds.
Adopted by Impa, they were trained to be Sheikah. Link excelled mostly in swordsmanship while Linkle was the better with the bow.
With the coming crisis, the Sheikah moved in to secure the safety of the Hyrule Royal Family. Link and Linkle were part of this mission party.
And his close proximity to Princess Zelda has revealed that Link is the one who reincarnated with the Spirit of the Hero!
He is then tasked with investigating why other castles have appeared on the horizon, why the world shook, and what these strange areas surrounded in light are supposed to be.
Their first clue is the Ancient Temple of Time that Takeda Yiga had been found at, having been the cause of this madness.
Link will investigate this Ancient Temple of Time, and accidentally stumble into the Gate of Time - Emerging into the far past. He will exit a temple that is familiar to Skyward Sword players and approach a statue to Hylia shortly before it rises to the heavens. A divine light emanating from within draws him in. Link then comes face to face with Hylia and... his original incarnation from LoZ: Spirit of a Hero!
Seeing the Link from the future standing there, Hylia concludes that one specific possible timeline was now declared to be absolute. All other possible futures collapse. Knowing this, she gives Link his instruction and asks of him to meet with his dying first incarnation. This grants him three hearts and some new combat techniques. And then Hylia gives him his instruction towards success and sends him back to his time period.
In this game, Link will travel between the three timelines and into the past to discover the means of putting and end to this crisis.
Link will meet each of his known past incarnations after their times of adventures are done to gain power and learn where a valuable relic of their adventures is located in the overworld. Two hearts gained from each and some new combat finesse. Memories of their adventures as well, since it is technically his own soul synchronizing with past versions of itself. They will also unlock items that he can find in the present day overworld to help him further on the journey.
This is also a co-op game. Player two can join to play as Link's sister, Linkle. Link is superior with swords and moderate with the bow, while Linkle is best with archery and moderate with physical attacks. Link is more of a frontline while Linkle is more stealthy and ambushes the enemy easily.
The endgame will result in the three timelines merging into a singular timeline.
Survivors of the three royal families will unite into a single bloodline.
Takeda Yiga's foolishness will be unveiled as he misunderstood the method behind The Curse of the Demon King. Had he been successful, they would all be doomed in that timeline until the end of days.
Malladus and Vaati will re-awaken the corruption that Ganondorf had abstained... only to have Ganondorf absorbed them both into his own being.
A duel between Link and Ganondorf breaks out but it changes when Link reveals the reason behind all the puzzles he solved in all his lives. Teh reason why Hylia sent him out to obtain the memories of his past lives. It was to accumulate wisdom and how to truly break this endless curse.
Link releases Demise from his seal within The Master Sword, the Demon King absorbing all the power from Ganondorf so that his might can be increased by three fold as the hatred from three parallel worlds is now in one being.
Let the duel begin as Link pulls out all the stops once again.
Demise will be truly slain rather than sealed, for sealing him is what caused his hatred to radiate out and latch onto those worthy of its strength and poison. The Demon King was sealed away, but his hatred couldn't be contained.
But as one final blow before death reaches him, Demise will curse Ganondorf with the blood of the Demon King itself... Malice.
Ganondorf will be fought and sealed away.
But the Malice will continue and endure.
In time, the Great Calamity will come and another incarnation will fight it - The Hero of the Calamity.
And 10,100 years after that... the Hero of the Wild will have his adventure!
(I thought of the concept of a timeline merger game back when the timeline was revealed in 2011. And with Breath of the Wild having details from all three timelines, I think its existence only enables the creation of my timeline-merger game even more. Players that enjoy the timeline want to know where Breath of the Wild even fits on it. And I think this has allowed me to come up with a proper title to ensure that placement.)
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And there you have it.
11 Zelda Games
3 Bundles
3 Remastered / Reimaginings
And HERE is how it would all fit in the timeline -
Sooooooooooooooo.... Whaddya think?
Boredom at a receptionist desk on a slow day with a 12 hour shift+ inspiration + motivation + admiration + a bit too much coffee perhaps = Nintendo should hire me?
Is my math right on that?
What are your thoughts on this and which is your favorite?
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