An awesome idea I have for a future Zelda game

[Hylianhero91]

Ok.... So the game should start out with Princess Zelda getting captured by a new villain from a mysterious faraway land that is physically connected to Hyrule (This is an important detail). I don't want it to be a parallel world where Link warps there like other games in the past. I want it to be a place that Link has to physically travel to. The journey to this distant land should be the game. I don't want it to have the standard formula where Link goes to different dungeons and solves puzzles and defeats the boss. The landscape Link is traveling through should be the puzzle.. Imagine having to figure out how to cross a wide river with a swift current etc... And Link should encounter boss-like monsters at random points throughout his journey.... Imagine if he encountered a certain monster and didn't have the proper weapon to defeat it? He would have to backtrack and find it....it should be an 80-100 hour journey at least and it should just be Link trying to find his way through the wilderness to a distant land. I don't want to see any annoying sidekicks or other characters. I just want it to be Link going it alone. Think of Metroid, but in the Zelda universe.. That would make for a truly epic action-adventure game in my opinion.

 

[ectoBiologist]

Ok.... So the game should start out with Princess Zelda getting captured by a new villain from a mysterious faraway land that is physically connected to Hyrule (This is an important detail). I don't want it to be a parallel world where Link warps there like other games in the past. I want it to be a place that Link has to physically travel to. The journey to this distant land should be the game. I don't want it to have the standard formula where Link goes to different dungeons and solves puzzles and defeats the boss. The landscape Link is in should be the puzzle.. Imagine having to figure out how to cross a wide river with a swift current etc... And Link should encounter boss-like monsters at random points throughout his journey.... Imagine if he encountered a certain monster and didn't have the proper weapon to defeat it? He would have to backtrack and find it....it should be an 80-100 hour journey atleast and it should just be Link trying to find his way through the wilderness to a distant land. I don't want to see any annoying sidekicks or other characters. I just want it to be Link going it alone. Think of Metroid, but in the Zelda universe.. That would make for a truly epic action-adventure game in my opinion.

That's a pretty interesting concept. It would definitely stray from the norm of Zelda games, but that may not be a bad thing. Having the journey be the game would work well, I'd say, but I disagree with 2 of your ideas. First, I'm not sure about 80-100 hours at least, because the average Zelda game is less than that in straight up story (Going from place to place). Maybe that amount of time to find everything and 100% the game, but not for the main story itself, I'd say. They couldn't possibly produce that much content while keeping Zelda the way it is. That would be more like a Skyrim style game with tons of side quests, and stuff. Also, for the idea of not having a companion or sidekick with you, I don't think that would be as fun to play. Considering Link is pretty much a silent protagonist, not having a sidekick would limit a lot. Like Midna from TP, she was the one who talked to you, and had the majority of the dialogue outside of cutscenes. It would be very boring just being by yourself, but that's just my opinion. Everything else sounds great! Nice idea.

 

[Hylianhero91]

That's a pretty interesting concept. It would definitely stray from the norm of Zelda games, but that may not be a bad thing. Having the journey be the game would work well, I'd say, but I disagree with 2 of your ideas. First, I'm not sure about 80-100 hours at least, because the average Zelda game is less than that in straight up story (Going from place to place). Maybe that amount of time to find everything and 100% the game, but not for the main story itself, I'd say. They couldn't possibly produce that much content while keeping Zelda the way it is. That would be more like a Skyrim style game with tons of side quests, and stuff. Also, for the idea of not having a companion or sidekick with you, I don't think that would be as fun to play. Considering Link is pretty much a silent protagonist, not having a sidekick would limit a lot. Like Midna from TP, she was the one who talked to you, and had the majority of the dialogue outside of cutscenes. It would be very boring just being by yourself, but that's just my opinion. Everything else sounds great! Nice idea.

I don't see why Nintendo couldn't make an 80-100 hour Zelda game. Keep in mind i'm envisioning a big world where you have to overcome obstacles like crossing rivers, defeating monsters etc. I got to thinking about this after I played Skyward sword back in 2011. As much as people griped about it, I thought it had a lot of good things. I liked that meaningful gameplay and story events were happening outside of dungeons. I also liked that the journey to the dungeons was often a puzzle in and of itself. It actually took work to get to dungeons. That got me to thinking about what if dungeons were taken out of the equation entirely and you just had to journey across a dangerous world full of monsters that was a puzzle in itself. And about Link not talking.... That's why I mentioned Metroid.. Samus doesn't usually talk either... She goes it alone in dangerous worlds and has to find clues on her own. I want that element of Metroid in a future Zelda game.. I want it to just be a young boy/man trying to find his way and survive in a dangerous land. The original Zelda kind of had that going for it and that was a great game, but it would be nice to see that expanded upon in a full HD 3D game.

 

[Lozjam]

Hmmm.

I must say, I expected something a lot worse. I actually quite like your idea. It would truly be a testament to the Legend of Zelda.
However, I do foresee some potential issues. First. Linearity in Zelda games is not very well liked... For example, people did not like the linearity of Skyward Sword. That very much resembles the format of SS, as SS's world was indeed an obstacle course. Which was pretty bad in Zelda standards. This in itself may jeopardize exploration too. So with this idea, you really need to be careful.

I think this could be a very well done LoTR style epic however, as that is the series Zelda takes inspiration from anyways.

 

[AncientPoe]

Yeah, looks like Lozjam and I were thinking the same thing. I have the feeling that the gameplay you describe would encourage linearity. Also, I think one of the fun things about Zelda games is being able to backtrack to other areas once you obtain new items and defeating old enemies and opening new paths and hidden things. If your progress is always forward, I don't see that sort of backtracking being very intuitive or manageable.

 

[Hylianhero91]

Guys,
I don't see my idea encouraging linearity at all. As for backtracking I clearly mentioned backtracking in my original post. In my vision of the game the world would be open from the start for the most part. You can travel as you please if you can figure out how to overcome obstacles that might be in your path. A scenario I mentioned earlier was encountering a powerful monster and not having the proper weapon to defeat it. In that scenario you would have to backtrack and search for that weapon so you can proceed beyond the monster.
I feel like this idea is recapturing the feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do like one had when they first played the original NES Zelda. If you can remember that game you'll recall that the world is completely open, but there are tons of secrets you have to figure out before you can beat the game. That's what I want this game to be like, but in a huge 3D world. This game will require one to actually think and strategize about where to go next. If one goes to the wrong area and encounters monsters they cant handle they will get killed. Again, this is a throwback to the NES Zelda where if you went in one of the latter dungeons at the beginning of the game you would get killed real quick.

 

[Mipha]

I'd like it to be a mix of this and other Zelda games, as I still want to beat dungeons and stuff.

 

[the8thark]

@Hylianhero91 we already have this ni Majora's Mask. Travelling from one area to another and working out everything to do in each area, also working out how to move to each diffeent area is all there.

I believe something similar to what you want is Xenoblade Chronicles X. It has an open world, where you have to think how to get to each area. It has 80-100 (or more) hours of content because of the side quests. The game also features none of the standard dungeon type areas you don't want in the game. A lot of peopel have seen XCX and thought "what about XCX x LoZ"? That kind of thing I believe is the future of Zelda games. But there would have to keep at least a basic dungeon structure. Majora's Mask did this. The dungeons were only in MM because fans want them. If MM had no dungeons and instead, more outside content, the game would have been just as amazing. But it'd have been a commercial flop, because people want the dungeons in it.

I'd like it to be a mix of this and other Zelda games, as I still want to beat dungeons and stuff.

That's exactly why Majora's Mask N64 didn't sell so well. People want to do this or that in a Zelda game. If it's not there those people who wanted this or that are disappointed and sales drop for the new Zelda game. That's why Zelda games can't be too innovative. To use your example, no dungeons is lost sales. No change from the previous Zelda games is zerp innovation though. SO you need a mix, some innovation and some of the old to generate the required number of sales to break even on the project.