Gossip Stone: What Could the next Hyrule Catastrophe Be?

In just about every Zelda game that we have seen, there seems to be some sort of world-changing incident that rips normal life from Hyrule’s citizens and confronts Link with a depressing situation. We have seen a variety of choices in the past, but it might be time for Nintendo to start mixing it up a bit.

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Although in most Zelda games, the event in question is Ganon/Ganondorf fiddling with the triforce and creating a “hell on Earth” for everybody but himself, there are a few exceptions. For example, Wind Waker gives us a flood scenario in which Hyrule is completely buried under the Great Sea, leaving nothing but mountain tops for Link to sail between. More recently, Twilight Princess uses a more complex take-over style with Hyrule being invaded by another dimension. I can’t help but draw parallels to the ultimate goal of the Negaverse in the first season of Sailor Moon. Instead of a magical wish bringing ruin on Hyrule, the usurper, Zant (with the help of his trusty friend *cough*cough*), decides that the world of light has been allowed to exist for long enough.

If you need more examples, there is always Skyward Sword, where the creation of floating isles while the Earth itself falls into ruin and becomes infested with monsters. Even Link’s Awakening had an “evil” that took on a whole different form, leaving the world in question, nonexistent. These are all well and good, but the prevailing mindset and ultimate reveals from the games, remains that of Ganondorf utilizing some person or object to achieve his goal of total domination in just about every world he’s been in. Even Demise was way too closely connected to Ganondorf to truly be considered an entirely separate villain.

All this being said, perhaps Nintendo just needs a new villain, and a new face of Evil, to provide a springboard for more striking global collapses. With all of the dystopian novels exploding into box office revelations in the last few years, maybe Nintendo should take a page (literally) out of modern literature for some inspiration.

Do you think Nintendo should re-think their premise formula, or have you been wowed by every twist and turn they have provided in their Zelda games? Let us know what you think in the comments below!