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Three Elements You Look for in a (new) Zelda Game

This thread can pertain to current and future Zelda titles...

The question is simple; which three things must a Zelda game have in order for you to view it in a positive light?


For example the three things i always want in a Zelda game are:

Adult Link - I didn't really enjoy playing as Young Link in OoT or MM (which is probably why i love Fierce Deity so much, it was a way of not being young Link)

Connected Overworld - I didn't always look out for this because i didn't think i'd ever need to but here we are. Following SS i'm always going to be highly suspicious of overworld design, hopefully it isn't something that will repeat in the futre.

Familiar NPCs - call me a creature of habit, but i don't think i could feel at home with a Zelda or really consider any future games a 'true Zelda' unless they had a few characters that I have seen before. Obviously we have Link and Zelda but what of Malon, the Gorons and Zoras and the enemies we know and love?


So thats me, how about you guys?
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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Akkala
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Replayability - If the game feels like it drags on its knees and too much tedium, the game just won't be seen positively by mine eyes. You know why? Because, at its heart, Zelda is a video game series, not a theater movie series. I don't want to play the game through once and throw it to the wind; I want to be able to play the game practically endlessly because of the fun I get from it. xD

Enemies that KILL, not STALL - See, there is a great deal of enemies that populate each Zelda world. It's okay for Stalfos and Gerudo to exist here and there, but not Bokoblins. Case in point, I want enemies to be out to kill me, not to stall me from their inevitable deaths. If a Zelda game has enemies that stall, I'm PROBABLY not going to view it positively.

Simplistic Story - This is a recent gripe since Skyward Sword released, however, I don't want my Zelda game to have a convoluted story that just makes no sense as a majority. It's okay to have plot holes here and there, and an overarching THEME that doesn't make any sense, but when the story is so contrived and all this, I won't view the game positively. Just a minor gripe there.
 
Interesting thread, Spirit. I always desire refreshing action adventure experience when playing a Zelda game and am always searching for ways to advance exploration and ingenuity on display.

Intriguing gameplay gimmick-I'm a sucker for innovation and while every Zelda game should remain the same at its core, items like the Ocarina of Time and Rod of Seasons as well as transformations including Picori and Wolf Link serve to spice things up a bit.

Connected overworld-This is a view I share with the OP. The overworld shouldn't be unlocked in portion triggered through scripted story events. The worst transgressors were the DS games and SS were new elemental areas were unlocked following completion of a dungeon. The overworld should flow leaving the player unsure where he or she will travel next and when.

Unique and creative items-While debating the usefulness of some of Link's recent tools, I'm always down for a new toy to play with in the hero's arsenal. The cover items from OoX, gust jar from TMC (gust bellows in SS), Ball and Chain, Dominion Rod, and Spinner from TP, ST's Sand Wand, and SS's beetle stand as some of my favorites.
 
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Joined
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Location
CA, USA
For me, the three most important elements in a new, or really any Zelda game are:
Compelling Story: In my opinion, this is the most important element of any Zelda game, whether it be an upcoming release or not. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed Skyward Sword, it had a wonderful story, and it told it well. If the next Zelda has an interesting, fresh storyline and unravels it well, I will overlook many other flaws it may have.

Well Designed Towns/Hyrule Castle: I really want the next Zelda game to have towns and/or a Hyrule Castle & Town. Especially if it's on the Wii U, I want it to be a sprawling town, that feels large and energetic.. In the same fashion as OoT. I would personally love there to be several different, amazingly made towns in the next installment. TP had a large Castle Town, but even
though there were people all around, it still felt empty. I love virtual towns.

Side quests: Side Quests! I love side quests, MM obviously did this in the best fashion. SS had some, but not enough by a long shot, and I really didn't care for many of them.. I think that is where SS was the weakest. I hope the next title will have a good amount of side quests, that have depth and purpose, as they did in MM.
 

SavageWizzrobe

Eating Link since 1987
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The Wind Temple
1) Dungeon and Sidequest balance
In Zelda games, dungeons and sidequests should deserve an approximately equal amount of attention. What I mean by "attention" is both quality (creativity, length, etc.) and quanitity. To illustrate, I will use my top 3 Zeldas: OoT, MM, and SS. OoT is a dungeon-heavy Zelda. MM, on the other hand, is a sidequest-heavy Zelda. SS is sort of a middle ground between OoT and MM as far as dungeon-sidequest balance is concerned. However, OoT also has a few good sidequests, and MM has very well-designed dungeons even though there are only four.

2) Music
I love the Zelda soundtrack, so it's only natural that I expect a new Zelda to live up to the same standard. Not much more to say here...

3) Items
Of course we have Zelda staples such as the Bow, Bombs, Boomerang, and Hookshot (or Clawshot), so I'd expect a new Zelda to have at least a few staple items return. However, this needs to be balanced against new, creative items in order for the series to remain fresh. Also, item usage should be reasonably balanced throughout the game. TP is notorious for having many items that become essentially obselete (ex. Slingshot, Spinner, Dominion Rod, etc.) at certain parts of the game, which contributes to my mild disliking of TP.
 

willsfairysword

links assistant in combat
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in korki forest
one a good story a good story is the foundation of a game (thats mostly why I hate CoD) and for zelda it need a really good story take a house for example if it has no good foundation it will fall over on it self

two Replayability I've always loved game with replayability and I have only a few zelda games I'd like to replay (OoT and MM) but i'd like newer zelda games with a bit replayability

and last music now zelda has a lot of good music don't get me wrong but some music in SS wasn't that good for zelda music standards so i'd like a newer zelda game with awesome music
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
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Jan 10, 2011
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On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
New and innovative ideas - I like a Zelda game to build off the ideas from the past and add in new ones to mix things up and keep things fresh, especially in a next-gen title. This is something I was disappointed that the GameCube games didn't have. I know they did a FEW neat little things, but there weren't really any ground-breaking additions to the formula, and that's something the series had come to be known for with A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Skyward Sword shouldn't have been the first Zelda to introduce things like dashing and a Stamina Gauge. Pretty much every new addition (save the motion controls) from that game should have been introduced back with The Wind Waker, or at least have the ideas spread out between The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. (Which, of course, would call for Skyward Sword to improve on these ideas and add even more new ones.) It's always a good thing to move forward. A series shouldn't abandon its roots -- so long as its roots aren't heavily flawed -- but it shouldn't stay exactly the same throughout all eternity, either. A series that doesn't grow and evolve is a series that dies. That's just how the gaming industry works.

Improved storytelling - Simple stories can be cool, and all, but a Zelda game with a well thought-out and in-detail story would just be freaking amazing, and it's something I keep hoping Nintendo moves to. Skyward Sword took a step in the right direction with this, but the details on the game's backstory were still vague and left up for interpretation. Zelda can only benefit from more involved plots, so I hope the improvements keep up and that the detail aspect of things is stepped up much more in the future.

Challenges - Yeah, just one word. Not anything specific after it. I just want challenges in general. Difficulty isn't something I care about too much, but games like The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass -- even Ocarina of Time in some areas -- are too easy even for my standards. Thankfully Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword have stepped it up in this category with, well, pretty much every possible aspect. From puzzle-solving to basic enemies to bosses and back, these two games have given me what I want out of a Zelda game, and it's one reason I like them so much. I only hope that Nintendo keeps this up and eventually adds difficulty levels into the franchise, that way multiple playthroughs can get tougher instead of easier.
 
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Vanessa28

Angel of Darkness
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Hmmmm lemme think.

A connecting overworld: With all respect but what i didn't like in SS was the way the three provinces were connected. When you wanted to go from Eldin to Lanayru you had to flyu up to the sky first. I didn't like that. I somehow wish there was another way to reach the other provinces. So I really would like a better connection. It doesn't have to be there from the beginning but when you get further in the game there should be a shortcut or some kind of connection which makes it a lot faster to travel back and forth.

A skip function: When I first play a game I like to see everything. I want to know all details and so when there are cutscenes I want to watch them all. Maybe after a second time perhaps too. But what really bugs me was in games like OoT and SS you couldn't skip the cutscenes. You had to watch it all the way even the lengthy ones. In TP there was the skip function. I really hope they will have this function in the future Zelda games. Especially when you play a game so often you don't need to go through all the cutscenes again

The option to play online: You can multiplay but you cannot play online. I would love to see the play online option so you can play it with friends all over the world and then maybe have some secret levels and more challenges you don't have in single player mode. With all new posibilities many consoles these days have it would be a great thing to add something like this in Zelda games.
 

Dan

Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Gender
V2 White Male
An attractive Zelda
I enjoy looking at things that attract me.

An attractive Link
You do after-all want a good looking protagonist to look at.

An attractive Ganondorf
Same goes for the Antagonist too.

This is really want I look forward to most. Deal with it.
 

Random Person

Just Some Random Person
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Wig-Or-Log
I actually didn't realize I had standards until I played SS. It made me take a hard look at what I really value in a Zelda game. And those things are...

A good story
In regards to both in the Zelda series and outside of it, Zelda games need to have a relatively good story. Because the Zelda series is a modern adventure game, which means it goes into the adventure genre, it implies that it will tell a story. And adventure stories are put on a higher pedestal than other game stories, that's why adventure platformers go so in depth with theirs. Now that does not mean the story has to be complicated. It just means it should be well thought out in its literature. Shadow of the Colossus is regarded as one of the best stories in gaming by many, and it wasn't complicated at all. Zelda games that have many bad/cliche story elements, again both in and out of the series, I will dislike moreso than others.

Exploration
A Zelda game needs to make me feel like I'm looking for secrets that I don't have to. Its not enough for it to have secrets, but I should have to leave what I'm doing to find said secrets. Games like MM and WW where you had to take the time and look around if you wanted to find even a quarter of the content it offered are more fun to me than games like SS where you find almost all the secrets along the way. This can include side-quests, mini games, or just finding stuff like heartpieces. If secrets are placed right in front of me, I feel cheated out of a challenge. The challenge being easy (though I'm against it) isn't as big of a factor, so long as finding said challenge is not "wow... this boulder that was along the trail that I was required to walk on had a heartpiece behind it... How anticlimactic." However, said not easy to find secrets should not be required to finish the game, because now you have too much of a good thing and people can get sick of it. (WW's triforce quest is a good example)

Ingenuity
I realized after I played SS that a Zelda game requiring me to think isn't enough. The concepts in Zelda should be creative and not allow me to be able to predict what I'm going to see next. At the same time though, these concepts should keep to a root formula. It's interesting to have to put two opposite things together and it may be difficult, but I've felt that almost every Zelda I've played has kept this concept so I'm not about to let that expectation change. So while blowing up a wall should still be in Zelda, things like bomb-chu's or strapping a bomb to an arrow to allow you to blow things up at a higher level really help enhance the game play.

And there are more, but I had to do my best to choose the top three.
 
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r2d93

Hero of the Stars
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Lost Woods
PLEASING TO PLAY THROUGH: includes a good soundtrack, good visuals, and aspects of the game that actually make it fun not just a chore (ex: side quests and mini games)

WELL DESIGNED AREAS: including just towns/ villages, and overworld. I need a good, generally open overworld with connected areas. NOT like SS's overworld

GETS YOU HOOKED : I can't stand the feeling of playing a Zelda game and thinking "ugh I don'twant to keep going". If the game is discouraging to push forwards, it won't be fun, and it will have little replayability
 

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