Gossip Stone: Is Hyrule Getting Stale As a Locale?

Hyrule is a classic kingdom that has gone down as one of the most memorable places in gaming history, in any one of its many iterations. Nowadays, it even has Hyrule Warriors named after it. As much fun as it is to revisit, though, is it time to move on to new and interesting places with different elements? Join the discussion after the jump!

Hyrule is always different. The geography of the world changes with every new game, along with the towns, people, and areas. But, the atmosphere and core elements remain, making it the familiar kingdom that has become a Zelda staple. Races like Gerudo, Zora, Gorons and Dekus have reappeared several times, and have their own input to each game’s story.

Zelda games have departed from Hyrule before, but not in the most noticeable fashion. The first time there was a large movement away from the usual kingdom was in A Link to the Past in the Dark World. It was certainly a great idea, but it was still just a copy of the entire overworld with evil creatures, like what Twilight Princess did much later with Twilit Hyrule. This was similarly done in A Link Between Worlds, only Lorule was made to be its own world with its own elements and style. Though, when things are back to normal at the end of the game, you began to realize that it is essentially the same kind of place, as it is an alternate universe version of the usual kingdom.

Some games have taken place in their own places. Majora’s Mask is likely the most notable, taking place in Termina. This was a welcome departure from Hyrule, since, while it shared many familiar races and people from Ocarina of Time, Termina still held its own traditions, landscape and lifestyles. Link’s Awakening was also very different with Koholint as it’s new locale, but with less memorable elements. The Oracle games, though, had brand new races and places, and Oracle of Seasons, like Link’s Awakening, did not involve any sort of kindom, which made for very different stories.

The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass simply overhauled the whole world and used oceans with various islands with their own systems of life. The Wind Waker had Hyrule, but only as a secondary element of it’s large, brand new world. Many found the oceans broken and overly sparse, but others thought it was a nice change from the usually similarly structured versions of the same old kingdoms.

The developers of Zelda Wii U claims that it is going to change the conventions of Zelda, so perhaps it is not going to take place in Hyrule or any other sort of kingdom. maybe it will be like Skward Sword and have a world with no defined system – one that has yet to form into a kingdom, or whatever else.

So, what do you guys think. Based on what has been seen in certain Zeldas, and what might come about in the future, can we expect fresh locales in the Zelda series, or do you think Nintendo will, or even should, keep the famous kingdom of Hyrule as the central world in the series? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

new “Zelda convention”?