Gone Forever

[Hyrulian Hero]

Here's a thread of lamentations. What do you love about Zelda that's never coming back? I was thinking about it recently and I loved the Keatons. They were mythological, sentient, mysterious, they even had their own theme! Unfortunately, I don't see much of a chance that we'll see them ever again. What about ring trading or transformation masks? I miss these things and it's entirely likely we'll never see them again. Tell me what else isn't going to see a return?

 

[Dizzi]

they might come back in the future.....

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

tingle tuner, a thing that I was able to make use of back in the day and was a cool experience, but I don't think there's a single chance nintendo would bring something like that back

 

[VikzeLink]

We'll never know for sure what could come back.
In terms of things I miss, that hasn't been around for a while, but still seems viable for a comeback; magic is on the top of that list for me.

But for things that will probably never come back... The feel and artstyle of the N64 games, sprite-based graphics for the 2D-games and perhaps Vaati

 

[GZ Zelda]

The Harp of Ages. No more fun time-travel puzzle-solving for me

 

[Hyrulian Hero]

The Harp of Ages. No more fun time-travel puzzle-solving for me

Dude, BotW is the first game in a minute that didn't include an important musical instrument! Except maybe Kass' squeeze box I suppose but I'm not counting it. Honestly, even the Wind Waker (the item) seemed to be jumping the shark just a touch but I miss the mechanic. I'm entirely sure people would pitch a fit but I'd be 100% down with the return of the pan flute. The Harp of Ages was unique and useful and allowed for overworld problem solving, it's a good choice.

 

[twilitfalchion]

Dunno if it's a permanent exclusion, but I'll agree on the absence of an instrument as a main mechanic. It's just nice, even if you could insert any macguffin to replace a flute, baton, or whatever, the musical element in Zelda makes my inner music nerd happy.

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

You just have to have the instrument have multiple uses, and I could see it coming back.

Like El Kabong demonstrates why guitars are also called "axes."

Or, as your conducting baton, this choir teacher shows it can serve another purpose as a Nerf gun.

 

[GrooseIsLoose]

Loftwings

 

[Vanessa28]

The old system to place items on your buttons. I mean....switching from hoover boots to Iron boots by going in the menu. We all miss that terribly don't we? Lololololol!!!!

 

[The Dashing Darknut]

The masks in MM, an awesome and unique mechanic and one of the coolest things about MM along with the time travel and atmosphere. Yes technically in games like TP there’s the whole wolf gimmick, but even I feel like that’s just not as cool as was the Goron Mask rolling at high speeds, Zora mask for swimming, Deku mask for flying in the air when it jumped out of the Deku Flower, and becoming a fierce deity of power to absolutely wreck the final boss. I just really liked collecting every one of those masks in game, doing side quests for them, using them to get collectables and heart pieces and the like or to continue the main game. It was such a cool mechanic, but it’s never gonna come back.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

Item based progression
Musical instruments
Iconic recurring gear
Dungeons to get bogged down in
Flimsy excuses for why the hero wears green

 

[Mima_sama]

Even though I love BotW and how it shook things up, I miss the more traditional Zelda formula. I hope we get another 2D game after TotK is released, even if it's a remake of the Oracles games or Minish Cap. Speaking of Minish Cap, I miss Vaati (to no one's surprise), but I do hope he'll turn up eventually.
Also, musical instruments. I miss them.

 

[Jotari]

We'll never know for sure what could come back.
In terms of things I miss, that hasn't been around for a while, but still seems viable for a comeback; magic is on the top of that list for me.

I'm going to second this. The magic meter was a great mechanic for given an extra spin on certain items and giving you another resource to manage. It's been 20 years since we've had it, over half the series existence, and that's a crying shame.

 

[Mamono101]

The essence of why I enjoyed playing them.