The fast paced combat of Hyrule warriors in mainstream Zelda

[AncientPoe]

Honestly, the combat I'd like to see return is Ocarina of Time. Obviously today's controls are much tighter and responsive, but there was a surprising amount of depth to the fights in OoT. And like good depth, you had to really really look for it, you had to discover the finest points of it largely on your own. So really, I think the moves can largely stay unaffected. What needs to improve is enemy design. Aaron Hanson touched on this in his famous Sequelitis video, but if Nintendo were to create more dynamic enemies, ones that rewarded cleverness or that engaged you in a more active way, or made you more aware of your environment, then that would go a long way in improving the combat. I think the Lizalfos in Skyward Sword were very good in this regard: They usually attack in pairs, they take practice to defeat, they deal a decent amount of damage per hit, they have a variety of attacks and telegraphs, and they usually attack you on small platforms that add danger to the encounter by including the threat of being knocked into hazardous floors. I think Nintendo tends to shy away from designing complex enemies like this because they don't want the enemy to feel tedious later on in the game, while you have to continually backtrack past them. But really, the solution to that is something they've actually been doing for a while, which is to make an item obtained later in the game much more effective against them. Boko Babas in Wind Waker are instantly destroyed by the boomerang. Likewise, the Stalfos can be killed with a single hammer blow to the skull (assuming you can score a hit on the bouncy buggers).

I would love to see more enemies like Lizalfos, Dinolfos, Stalfos, and Iron Knuckles make more frequent appearances as challenging and common enemies, not just as rare minibosses in a few select dungeons. I mean, good combat needs a worthy opponent, right?