Having the entire game set in Hyrule Castle

[DuelMark]

So, the other day I was watching a review of Super Mario 64 and remembered how one of the original concepts with Ocarina of Time was setting the game in Ganon's castle. Now, after some thinking, I began to think maybe this concept can still work.

In-game, the reasoning being a kidnapping and a defensive shield was put around the castle to prevent the kidnapper from escaping even with magic. But since they've disappeared, that means they are still in the castle.

Now, how would this still work for a Zelda title, which focuses on exploration and going to different locations, if the game is set in one place? Well, a number of ways come to mind:

Shrinking: Much like The Minish Cap, if Link is smaller, he can find tiny races like the Minish themselves living in the garden or in the attic. Dungeons would in fact be small structures hidden where the larger Hylians could not travel.
Paintings: Like Super Mario 64, in fact I think this idea was in the original Ocarina of Time pitch too. This idea always intrigued me.
Dreams: Link could enter people's dreams like Psychonauts, with plot important characters being the ones with dreams that have dungeons.

Do you think this idea could have merit?

 

[YIGAhim]

It could work.

I don't know if I'd like that or not though. It's a 50/50

 

[Castle]

It's not a terrible idea so long as the castle looks more like Twilight Princess' castle and less like Rodger Rabbit's Toon Town Disney Land castle.

It would be in line with the Zelda series core tenant of exploration and puzzle solving. After all, there've been plenty of games like that set in castles or haunted/zombie infested mansions. Resident Evil, Castlevania, practically half of every old school classic adventure game ever. Really the only thing that would change is the level structure would become more Metroidvania, which ninty already did with Suckward and that would have been fine if Suckward didn't kinda.... suck. Actually, it might be neat to have a sorta inverse overworld field/dungeon dynamic going on, where instead of open overworld fields leading to dungeons you'd have a dungeon leading to overworld fields. That would be assuming such a game would feature the portals to other zones a'la Mario 64 like was originally considered for OoT.

I imagine a scenario where not only has Hyrule castle been conquered but the land of Hyrule has been divided by some sort of barrier like the curtain of twilight in TP. Link is trapped in the castle and the dorf or whatever villain is held up in the central tower somewhere, but whatever spell's been cast to curse Hyrule has also opened portals in the castle to the various regions of Hyrule: Lake Hylia, Death Mountain, the forest, etc. So instead of traveling over land Link has to fight through the castle to discover and unlock the portals to these places.

 

[Spirit]

It could work. Metroid has done it enough times with space ships.

I think that it'd be a concept best suited to a 2D game though.

 

[Ninja]

It would have to be a pretty big castle and a lot of content, but I think it could definitely work.

The game would take place and would progress througj multiple parts of the castle. Each main room can be it's own themed dungeon, with the royal throne room being the final boss fight area.

What if Ganon took over the castle and made it into his evil tower, and through generations many have suffered his reign in a completely devastated and ruined world.

One day, a chosen knight is born with the courage of the Hero. The civilians are slaves, and the knights are manipulated and grown as Ganons army. Our hero secretly trains to be a master sword man and somehow is introduced to the secret shadow clan known as the, you guessed it, sheikah tribe, disguised as fellow knights, with the plan to overthrow Ganon and restore peace to hyrule.

The Sheikah puts Link through various trials and sends Link to the four or five main rooms which are themed dungeons to slowly release Ganons manipulation through the castle. The bosses would be up for discussion, perhaps corrupted knights?

The climax of the game would have our Hero finally releasing Ganons control over the Hyrulean army, and they all band together and storm the upper portions of the castle to finally overthrow him. Zelda role is up for discussion. Nintendo could ass pull her being the sheikah knight leader at the last moment, etc.

Ganon gets pwned, Castle returns to normal and the post game would unlock, giving our Hero access to Hyrule Castle Town or the outside world.

Could totally work as a 2d game because they generally can scale a castle into a big overworld. Putting it in a 3D environment would make it seem too small.

I'm slightly drunk so sorry if this doesn't make sense.