How would you feel if Zelda Switch went full sci-fi?

[Sheikah_Witch]

The Zelda series has been flirting with tech in many previous installments. We got the advanced Occoo in Twilight Princess who built a city in the sky. In Skyward Sword, technology became even more prominent and featured heavily in the gameplay in the form of the Lanayru Province.
Here, players could use TimeShift Stones to alter the environment in order to travel between the dusty, primitive present and a highly technological past: introducing elements of electricity along with a very futuristic looking aesthetic.

Breath of the Wild took an even greater leap, and made sci-fi a huge part of it's identity with the Sheikah technology being a large part of it's gameplay elements and world building.

With more and more guesswork concerning that Zelda Switch will be something else entirely, something that takes the series in a completely new aesthetic direction, the possibility of a futuristic Zelda seems at the very least considerable.

The possibilities are many. Will it just be an evolution of the Sheikah tech from Breath of the Wild?
Steampunk?
Cyberpunk?
Will Nintendo go as far astroturfing to introduce space ships and huge cities? Guns?

And how would you feel about all of this? Is it an exciting possibility for the series to evolve, or should Zelda stick to what it has always been?

 

[Spirit]

I think Zelda has been flirting with the advanced technology concept for far too long to not deliver a proper cyberpunk-like game eventually.

We hear in BotW that Hyrule was very advanced with Sheikah tech until the King kicked them out.
With all the sexy neon blue and cool weapons in BotW (laser chainsaws!) I would love to see a fully advanced version of Hyrule.

We have seen too many open fields in Zelda, give us a nice neon civilisation living in Hyrule.

It is time, Nintendo!

 

[weirdinin]

I’m more than ready to see a game that is far from traditional concepts. I’m not against another medieval Zelda but it would be fun to see something totally different. Sci-fi would be perfect choice for a couple of reasons.

First, personally I like tech and science and my fav colour is blue. Seeing more Sheikah sci-fi stylish ancient technology of BoTW would be perfect. Especially the cage like things of monks in shrines looked very cool. The shattering of the cage was so beautiful. Secondly, it would be easy to implement sci-fi even for the next zelda game as the groundwork for making a great story is already done: Before BotW there was this ancient society whose technology was forgotten. The next game could be about those times. How did Calamity Ganon happened 10 000 years ago? How did the wars between Sheikah and Yiga clan go? How did Yiga clan evolved? What was the part of the Hero? How did Mountain of Twin Peaks happened? Was there like so powerful weapons back then that they could even split freaking mountains in half?!! What if the enemy tried to release the guardians buried under the mountains (in one cut scene Sheikahs are digging up a guardian under the mountain) and that resulted in holes in mountains. BotW really left a lot unanswered questions.

Technology could be really, really advanced. Like flying vehicles, ray guns, huge sci-fi cannons orbiting in the sky/space, space shuttles, space stations, parallel universes... okay maybe that’s too far. But we already saw teleporting in BotW so the technology should be quite advanced. Regarding how technology should look, I’d say they could use the aesthetics they used in ancient weapons in BotW. I really liked it. We could get very good looking Zelda if they went sci-fi.

But how sci-fi should be implemented? For all civilisations? If there was sci-fi Zelda, Imo tech should be accessible for Sheikahs only. Other civilisations should have their own more primitive weapons. That way we’d have also traditional medieval aspect in game.
Earlier I was like I want to see sequel to BotW but after thinking sci-fi option, a prequel to BotW would be even better.

 

[thePlinko]

I think it would be alright but we would need some natural progression. It would make no sense to me for the series to be all medieval one game and then the jetsons the next. I think the best way to do it would be to put it in the adult timeline, as we’ve already seen some technological progression there.

 

[DarkestLink]

Disapointed...but tbh, I feel it already has at this point. They just haven't completely ditched the medieval setting.

 

[weirdinin]

I think it would be alright but we would need some natural progression. It would make no sense to me for the series to be all medieval one game and then the jetsons the next. I think the best way to do it would be to put it in the adult timeline, as we’ve already seen some technological progression there.

What do you think if they used BotW’s groundwork? I mean the ancient tech of Sheikah. Isn’t that already progression toward sci-fi or do you need more to make it natural?

If they went for sci-fi without any groundwork, it would be a mistake. Sci-fi zelda without any connection to already seen tech in BotW would feel weird.

 

[Sheikah_Witch]

Technology could be really, really advanced. Like flying vehicles, ray guns, huge sci-fi cannons orbiting in the sky/space, space shuttles, space stations, parallel universes...

I'm all for this. Given that Nintendo likes to toss ideas from Mario and Zelda in between one another - as, for example, they did with the open-endedness of Super Mario World that was inspired by ALTTP. - I kind of get fizzed a little bit about Mario Galaxy-inspired exploration of multiple planets. So instead of BotW's 13 provinces you could have 5 provinces per planet or something. And the space could be a tripped-up version of the sky from SS. Ideas, ideas, ideas ..

 

[Dizzi]

next game could be in past when they had all the tech available to them and finding out what happened to make tech redundant...

 

[GirKart64]

How would you feel if Zelda Switch went full sci-fi?

 

[DarkestLink]

next game could be in past when they had all the tech available to them and finding out what happened to make tech redundant...

We already know what happened. According to the Sheikah, the Hylian King became paranoid and rather than asking that the Sheikah share their technological advances with the rest of Hyrule, demanded that they stop using it altogether. The Yiga, deciding that it wasn't worth ditching modern 21st century technology to live as primitive cave people, defected from the clan.

 

[GirKart64]

DarkestLink hates it so it must be good idea. You know what to do Nintendo.

 

[weirdinin]

We already know what happened. According to the Sheikah, the Hylian King became paranoid and rather than asking that the Sheikah share their technological advances with the rest of Hyrule, demanded that they stop using it altogether. The Yiga, deciding that it wasn't worth ditching modern 21st century technology to live as primitive cave people, defected from the clan.

I'd like to see that

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

We already know what happened. According to the Sheikah, the Hylian King became paranoid and rather than asking that the Sheikah share their technological advances with the rest of Hyrule, demanded that they stop using it altogether. The Yiga, deciding that it wasn't worth ditching modern 21st century technology to live as primitive cave people, defected from the clan.

...and went to literally live as cave people

 

[Azure Sage]

I really love the blending of fantasy and magic tech. BotW does it spectacularly. I'd like to see it return again. As for how far they'd go, I would welcome huge cities and stuff, but I would be upset if we lost out on the cool nature and cool swords and stuff we got in BotW in favor of going completely sci-fi. I would say keep in blended but still get creative. I mean, BotW had giant mechs for Hylia's sake! The Divine Beasts are probably the most visually striking things in any Zelda game ever. I would love to see them try and top that. But still keep it blended. For the sake of my appreciation for cool natural environments and cool swords.

 

[AncientPoe]

I would hate it. Its just not Zelda to me, and steam/cyber punk are my least favorite genres.