Do we need a cheery, upbeat and light-hearted Zelda game next?

[Sheikah_Witch]

Breath of the Wild's sequel seems to take a turn for the darker side of things, with a scary trailer featuring some kind of resurrection of a mummy Ganondorf.

Breath of the Wild itself was a rather serene and desolate adventure, having Link roaming the post-apocalyptic Hyrule like a ghost.

We've had the twisted surrealism of Majora's Mask and A Link to the Past and the bleakness of Twilight Princess and Link's Awakening, even Ocarina of Time had it's scary and tragic moments.

Of the 'mainline' series, the ones I think that can be perceived as cheery and upbeat are The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword - but that was 10 and 20 years ago. In the HD era, with the freewheeling open-air approach as the new standard for Zelda going forward, would you like to see a cheery, bright, fairy tale-esque game with little to no scary moments or melancholia, and an emphasis on quirky humor and goofy moments?

 

[Spirit]

The only time I've found Nintendo to do quirky humour right was in Wind Waker, and for as cheery as that game looks and sounds and sometimes genuinely is, it's still a post apocalyptic tale about losing history and leaving a loving home.

I prefer dark stuff, and I think Zelda is better suited to a darker tone than a light one.

Plus I guess Tri Force Heroes could be described as light hearted and cheery and look how bad that game is.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

ignoring the dark undertones, the LA remake was easily a cheery, upbeat zelda, and I'm not partial to that so my answer would be nah, I'm also more keen to the more upfront somewhat mature part of zelda
I don't really need the next zelda to be on the same level of dark as MM or potentially botw2, but more something along the lines of ocarina of time

 

[Castle]

Do we want Final Fantasy without the sappy melodrama? Eeeeeh...

no.

If we're going on this grand adventure to save kingdoms with themes of finding courage running in the background, then there has to be something at stake. Can't have courage without something scary to face off against.

 

[Dio]

Quite a few Zelda games are pretty upbeat and BoTW was definitely one of the lighter entries. It didn't really dwell on the doom and gloom and everyone seems to be getting on with their lives with the divine beasts and monsters mainly being an annoyance rather than something which makes everyone live in terror.

I'd much prefer a darker entry which focussed more on the fear and doom. Majora's Mask style.

 

[Kirino]

I'd definitely prefer a slightly darker and more mature tone. In terms of art style especially, I'd like to see a game that takes after Twilight Princess or the Wii U tech demo from a while back. If nothing else, it'd be a nice change of pace given the relatively lighthearted nature of recent games.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

No. The heroic journey should ultimately be about sacrificing something or someone in the journey to victory. The journey means less if it's just a lighthearted tale of a differently abled mute boy hitting things until they die.

 

[Ten Thousand Needles]

Naw, we've had enough consecutive cheery Zelda's. BotW is great, but I hope after the sequel Nintendo ditches the cel-shading for at least one entry and goes with an art style closer to the N64 games or TP.

 

[thePlinko]

A cheery artstyle and dark tone aren’t mutually exclusive things. Neither are a dark artstyle and a goofy tone.

Twilight Princess easily had the darkest artstyle (dark as in I can’t see what I’m doing) yet is full of goofy moments and is quite hard to take seriously at times. Conversely Majoras Mask has easily the darkest tone in the series, yet is incredibly bright and colorful.

That being said if I had to choose I’d go with the kind that has a bright and colorful artstyle and a dark tone. I don’t want the artstyle dark because then the game is going to look hideous (*cough* Twilight Princess *cough*), but a darker story and atmosphere is a nice contrast to Nintendo’s usual style, and I’m glad that Zelda tends to be the series that provides it.

 

[MapelSerup]

I prefer a slightly more cartoony design than games like TP. BOTW and OoT/MM are the perfect balance for me. I really like darker Zeldas, MM being one of my favorites; but it’s not just the themes, it’s that Link feels out of place. The fact that young Link was forced to deal with doom is what makes me truly feel that he exemplifies the Triforce of courage.