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Where do you want to see Zelda go after Breath of the Wild?

My big addition: UNDERWATER EXPLORATION

Seriously how cool would that be? The possibilities are endless.

I'm a huge fan of the water exploration in past Zelda games. Very disappointed in that regard with BotW. And no actual fishing either, that sucks so much. Catching them bare-hands just isn't the same.
 

majik13

Member
I wouldnt mind a more tighter focused world. More varied enemies, Underwater gameplay, npcs with more noticeable and important schedules. Have night time be even more prounounced ala Dragons Dogma. Like Harder enemies, very dark where fire, torches and laterns become necasarry, etc. Probabaly lots of other stuff too, but they are def on the right track.
 

Malus

Member
I'm a huge fan of the water exploration in past Zelda games. Very disappointed in that regard with BotW. And no actual fishing either, that sucks so much. Catching them bare-hands just isn't the same.

I'm was surprised by Link's general suckiness when dealing with water in Botw. SS had you dolphin diving around like a graceful merman, Botw Link is slow as molasses and drowns after like 20 feet, even with Zora armor. I wish you could at least control your direction when climbing waterfalls.

That said I'm happy the "hunting" is so cartoonish.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Space. Nintendo is clearly interested in the concept of "Zelda + Space" if you look at their concept art for this game.
 

SalvaPot

Member
I wonder if we are getting a Top Down game next, I loved BOTW but Nintendo would need another 5 years to finish another game tis big that feels different.
 
I want to see the next Zelda on the same engine, with a world that's like, a third the size but twice as fleshed out. If Breath of the Wild is the successor to Ocarina of Time, I want the next game to be the successor to Majora's Mask.
 
I wonder if we are getting a Top Down game next, I loved BOTW but Nintendo would need another 5 years to finish another game tis big that feels different.

Probably. Aonuma said there's a definite possibility for a 2D game on the Switch from the other Zelda team.
 

Lemaitre

Banned
I want to see the next Zelda on the same engine, with a world that's like, a third the size but twice as fleshed out. If Breath of the Wild is the successor to Ocarina of Time, I want the next game to be the successor to Majora's Mask.

I think they could make it the same size and still be twice as fleshed out no? I'm sure making the engine took up so much time.

But also expand on the dungeons, perhaps increase their number, and make the boss fights a bit more...creative & difficult.
 
Anything I could suggest would screw wit BotW's balance a lot.

I like how in previous Zeldas, there's a lot of fanfare attached to getting new items in dungeons, and it's something that happens periodically throughout the game. In BotW everything is just handed to you in the first hour. It's important that the game does this, since you're supposed to be allowed to go anywhere at any time, but your prizes for completing quests aren't nearly as exciting. I miss the old dungeon structure, but not the old worlds, and they were really married to each other.

Weapon durability could use some tweaking. I like it as a mechanic, especially for the first 3/4 of the game, but it feels like you outgrow it in the end, once you're fully upgraded and even ordinary enemy camps have bokoblins and lizalfos with royal weapons.

Also I'd like more shrines with actual puzzles in them. The guardian mini-bosses got really repetitive.
 

FZZ

Banned
For Link or whoever the protagonist is to actually have a meaningful relationship whether it be romantic, friendship, rivalry, etc.

I also want a bit more focus on having various advanced techniques you can learn through progression and not just parrying and perfect dodging given at the beginning of the game

Also stronger story

I didn't mind lack of enemy variety and I like the weapon fragility BUT I would like a few unbreakable weapons
 
I think they could make it the same size and still be twice as fleshed out no? I'm sure making the engine took up so much time.

But also expand on the dungeons, perhaps increase their number, and make the boss fights a bit more...creative & difficult.

They probably could, but I'm a bigger fan of small open worlds. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of in BotW is how the world is absolutely enormous. I'd much rather have a smaller world that feels much more bustling, alive, and populated.

Also I'd love to see the Subrosians from Oracle of Seasons return, and with that, a return of the Garo from Majora's Mask. I always connected the two in my head.
 
I'm no big Zelda 1 fan but for a game that was supposed to emulate it's progression, it didn't have the fact that you could discover actual dungeons. Shrines don't provide the same feeling as they are nameless side content.

The overall gameplay and the way items uses physics is great, this is actually the most important part of the game. More themed scenarios rather than having an extremely huge world for the sake of it would be good. After finally delivering on what was a lot of people's dream Zelda game(3D open world), you don't have to focus on making a game bigger than Skyrim or whatnot, just have more scenarized, themed challenges in gameplay. That's an extremely important part of Zelda, whether the game has linear or open structure doesn't matter, it needs to have a good amount of those. No need to add repetitive content to the game to make it as a selling point(120 shrines! 900 korok seeds! Huge open world!), make it that everything as a purpose. Also no need to follow through with a kneejerk reaction from what the loudest part of the fanbase things, that's how you get not-as-good games that feel limited in their design philosophy. Do as you please and surprise us, while learning of the good and less good aspects of past games
 

Dragnipur

Neo Member
Make the open world more condensed, add more varied enemy types, add much longer dungeons with the traditional dungeon formula as well as keeping shrines ( but making shrines slightly longer as well, doesn't have to be as many of them), and add more combat abilities (like TP).
 

Xux

Member
Somewhere else? A more action focused game without stamina and weapon durability, replaces recovery with something more outside of a menu, and drops ammunition in favor of the relic system or an ALBW meter. Something more organic and less copy pasta than shrines thrown everywhere with the same interior tile set. Fitting the dungeons in big dumb mechs felt like a lame and arbitrary restriction to place on themselves. Weapon variety with weapons that have a weight beyond just being slow. On that note, ditch "lootified" purposely imbalanced weapons that are dumb filler 'cause they stapled on a durability system. Lower damage; make stuff difficult without just bloating damage numbers.

A story that takes place in the modern day? I keep watching these flashbacks feeling like I want to play that game and watch the relationships of those characters develop.
 

Platy

Member
I would like the series to take a step back ... more like "A Link Between Worlds".... open world and non linear, but with classic dungeuns and not so big

more focus on story like starting with Ocarina of time but showing the fallen hero timeline starting ... and ganon making some magic so the legend gets fucked up... like making link a girl and zelda a boy since the legend tells about a boy in green. make the story about link proving herself to be the hero of legend. All zelda games it is too much a choosen one story and too little proving to be the choosen one before it.

Maybe ganon summoning Vaati so he, as a wizard, to mess with the legend. Pure zelda timeline fanservice
 
They should expand on the combat, crafting and concept of the giant bosses on the overworld, and basically make a 4-player co-op Monster Hunter style Zelda Four Swords spinoff.
 

kunonabi

Member
Really? I never noticed any difficulty scaling.

And the control scheme shouldnt make a difference whether or not Link is left or right handed. It was fine on the old games for example.



I would love a sequel to SS. Give me that motion control combat.

Botw's combat constantly makes me wish I was playing SS. The inability to aim your attacks or attack while moving bother me to no end.
 

Griss

Member
What I'd like to see:

-A new world: Many of my favourite Zelda games take place outside of Hyrule, where the sights and characters are less predictable. Termina, Kolohint Island, Holodrum etc. So put Link somewhere new, with new races, towns and environments to explore. No Hyrule Castle, no Death Mountain, no Kakariko Village. No Zelda, no Ganon. Brand new from top to bottom.

-More enemies: I don't agree that enemy variety was too low in the base game because each enemy was so complex, with astonishing AI and multiple weapons that changed how they fought. But it's the kind of game where every extra enemy type they add will improve the game hugely, so I hope they double the enemy count for the next one. I'd love to see Darknuts return.

-Proper dungeons: Ones which you can just stumble upon like Zelda 1. This is something so heavily requested that I have to believe they'll do it.

-New runes: At least one or two new runes. The runes were the best thing about this Zelda - they were the best new 'items' we've ever had in a Zelda game, and we got three of them. (Magnesis, Stasis, Cryonisis). If the next game uses the exact same set of 3 it'll suffer by comparison to the first due to the lack of novelty - many of us have used these runes for 100+ hours now. Stasis and Magnesis are so good you imagine they have to stay, but Cryonisis can be replaced by something new, and add one more new rune and you'd be set.

-A better story: BotW had the weakest story of any 3D Zelda by a considerable margin. I accept that as it was necessary to do the game they wanted to do, but in the next one I'd make it so that you can't rush the final boss right away, and therefore can put proper story beats in the game rather than dumping the entire thing on you after the beginning area.

-A Companion: Give Link a companion or let him talk. Link is a black hole at the centre of every Zelda story. It's so stupid to me that there are voiced cutscenes where people chat away to him and he's just mute - it's rubbish to watch. So either let him talk, or do what they usually do and have a partner character emote for him (most humorously with the "Proxi" fairy in Hyrule Warriors which spelled out exactly what they've always been going for with said characters).

-No timeline bullshit: BotW was great for not pandering to these lunatic fans, hopefully this will continue.
 

Anth0ny

Member
you definitely shouldn't be able to fight the final boss from the start in the next game. it's a neat concept but then you realize how much they had to sacrifice to make that actually work. a thing 99% of players won't even do.


a difficulty curve is a necessity, and it's extremely difficult to pull off if they let us play the dungeons in any order, let alone face the final boss right from the start.
 

yophlow

Banned
I hope they stay with the open world and just make improvements on what they started with BOTW. This was Nintendo's first attempt at an open world game so I'm sure they could improve upon it.

I honestly have no idea what you mean. First attempt? Literally the very first Zelda game like 30 years ago was open world.

And pretty much every Zelda since is open world. Yes, Breath of the Wild is more so than others, but it's hardly their "first attempt". Yes, some are more linear than others in that you can't progress without following a certain path and gaining particular items along the way, but that's still true of all open world games.
 
I'd actually really like to see if the expansions/additional content can introduce some new ideas into Breath of the Wild and see where it stands after being expanded before seeing them take to another iteration. Not saying that to be cheeky, I legitimately feel like there's already potential for some Witcher III expansion levels of great additions to Breath of the Wild, introducing new stories and perhaps new areas and mechanics.

For instance, I think it'd be interesting for the expansion coming in the fall to add a post-Ganon state to the world, which has some lore-based repercussions on the game's economy:

- maybe introduce a crafting system that allows players to create ultra-resilient, custom-property weapons and armor. Weapons still degrade, but instead of outright breaking, they just need maintenance/repair using actual materials rather than currency and can be spiffied up at campfires (or perhaps allow players to now generate cooking stations or larger, utilitarian campsites rather than just the plain fires.

- side quests pop up that slowly reunite the various peoples of Hyrule into a more intermingled, unified society -- completing these quests literally shows peoples from Zora hanging out at Death Mountain (in tailored fireproof suits, of course), or Gorons visiting Lurelin Village, or the Bolson construction fellas building whole new villages in previously-ruinous areas like Castle Town -- the more of these quests you complete, the more a new Hyrule emerges from Link and the NPC's efforts to rebuild in a post-Ganon world. We maybe get to see some of our favorite NPCs from the main Breath of the Wild quest line join in the efforts!

- introduce a new threat to Hyrule that maybe isn't as cataclysmic Calamity Ganon that nonetheless serves as a reason for the people of Hyrule to need to unite, give Nintendo some creative story freedom here that isn't locked in the typical goings-on of the conflicts seen in other Zelda titles. I would personally love to see Zelda actively helping curb the threat and uniting the peoples of Hyrule as well -- using her own established, emboldened scholarly personality to do so. I admit, I'm not clever enough to come up with anything more specific myself, but I'm sure someone working on Zelda could think of some new threat that would be interesting to tackle.

... Eh, basically, would love to see the fall expansion actually be a sort of ambitious post-Ganon state of Hyrule adventure, and kind of remix the existing map and introduce a range of new features to what's been established to see what could work.
 

Malus

Member
I think they could make it the same size and still be twice as fleshed out no? I'm sure making the engine took up so much time.

That'd be shocking. This game already has a fuckton of content.

I can see where they had to cut corners or make sacrifices sure, but I'm not expecting a doubling of anything. Then again I didn't expect a game like botw in the first place so who knows.
 

Pachinko

Member
Now that they have this fantastic open world title , how about they do something far more story oriented , linear and combat / dungeon focused ?

I mean, if you really break it down Zelda has fallen into 2 main molds - One which is based on Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 : Links Adventure that only got continued with the latest entry "breath of the wild".

The second main type has been overused - Link the the past, Links awakening , Ocarina of Time , Twilight Princess and even skyward sword all fall prey to this other type. Wind Waker is kind of a mix of both , starts off with the typical Heroes Journey layout (3 dungeons with 3 things) but the back half of the game encourages more world exploration. Makes sense because of how big that world was. The oracle titles as well as minish cap are closer to this mold and despite the slightly more open ended approach, even Link between worlds is still mostly of the same mold too. Majoras Mask happens to be an oddity of it's own design among gaming in general but it still plays like a modified OOT which ... makes sense really.

So , I argue - why can't there be a third newer type of Zelda ? Give me the story scope of something like a final fantasy game (get some outside help with the writing and experienced cutscene /voice over direction too) with the town/city design similar to classic Zelda but the dungeons feel closer to exploring a tomb in a Tomb Raider game and the combat is closer to Ninja Gaiden Black complete with multiple weapons and dodge rolling. Make the boss battles epic crazy events , set the game in a nebulous post ganon world where civilization has thrived without the constant interruptions of evil. Cut back on the world map exploration in favor of having bigger towns and dungeons.

Then, maybe after this super cinematic Zelda is done , go back and make a full on sequel to breath of the wild .. well, a thematic one anyway. Open world but give players more options and tweak the weapon durability system , tone down the size of the map a bit to have more dungeons and proper boss fights. Let people make their own link (boy/girl/skin tone/etc) - refer to this as the heir to the Triforce of Courage , whomever the bad guy ends up being - the heir to the Triforce of Power and finally whoever Zelda is - the Heir to the Triforce of Wisdom. Hell, you could even get really crazy with it and have some kind of simple multiplayer mode , a side game where you could team up to take down bigger enemies or have duels.

Honestly, more than anything , I'd just love to see another Zelda not take 5 years to make but ... it really does show where that time went playing BOTW.
 

Platy

Member
I'd like an evolution of BotW that adresses the common complaints. Particularly, bring back more classic enemies, add new overworld bosses, put some classic dungeons out there (maybe have optional gear upgrades on them). I'd also like a different region or something to have a new place to explore.

...which enemy did you missed ?
 

Nanashrew

Banned
-No timeline bullshit: BotW was great for not pandering to these lunatic fans, hopefully this will continue.

It's clearly in the timeline though. It just hasn't been determined where, but the theory is far future.

Some even theorize it's a convergent timeline.

EDIT: Nintendo's also not just going to abandon Hyrule Historia and the timeline they built. BotW does more acknowledgement of the timeline unlike any other Zelda title.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Hopefully Nintendo reads these threads (they have to, otherwise I don't know where they get the complaints/suggestions people make), but for the next one I would like another open world but with traditional themed dungeons. I want shrines too, but I hope they have varied visual designs. I would like shrines to be like a network of caves (like the ones Twilight Princess had), or inside a mansion/castle, or in a forest, or whatever. Something that doesn't always look the same and doesn't look inorganic.

As for dungeons, I would love the traditional dungeons 3D Zeldas have had. As in, a huge temple hidden within a forest, or in a desert, but also inconspicuous dungeons that you don't always know where the entrance is, like the awesome Bottom of the Well dungeon in OoT. Or a dungeon entrance hidden under a tombstone or a regular rock or under a tree like in Zelda 1.

But wanting a traditional dungeon doesn't mean I want the whole mechanics of them back. I won't want to be collecting compass/map/item/keys thingies. I mean, it's fine if some of them are like that, but not all. I also don't want them to bring back the McGuffins you get from bosses that are allegedly important to the story but they really serve no purpose. I liked how in Zelda 2 you didn't enter dungeons to get anything from the boss, you actually went in to place something (a crystal), which in turn sealed the dungeon shut and once they were all sealed, the entrance to the last dungeon opened.
 

Tevious

Member
I'm going to agree with others that say they should go the Majora's Mask route and reuse the same engine and assets for a new game. Make the world smaller and more condensed. Expand on NPC interactions like MM did, too. Maybe even do a return to Termina or at least some other neighboring land to Hyrule with a different villain other than Ganon (I'm sick of him being the villain in almost every Zelda). I want a return of REAL dungeons and bosses, though. It'd be great if we could just explore and find them like the original game. It'd also be nice to bring back some classic tools like the hookshot. Let's not have all tools just given to you at the start of the game this time. And finally, if it's going to be the same engine and assets, then release it on the Wii U, too.
 

JJDubz

Member
At least give me another top-down Link Between Worlds adventure, too. Ideally an entirely new adventure.
I'm biased as my favorite Zelda is still Link to the Past though, I'll be cool with whatever.
 
It's clearly in the timeline though. It just hasn't been determined where, but the theory is far future.

Some even theorize it's a convergent timeline.

EDIT: Nintendo's also not just going to abandon Hyrule Historia and the timeline they built. BotW does more acknowledgement of the timeline unlike any other Zelda title.

...the hyrule historia timeline is prefaced by a bit that explains that it's still all speculative, but you guys seem to always forget that. They aren't "abandoning the timeline they built" if they never built it in the first place. It doesn't matter in the slightest.

Breath of the Wild doesn't acknowledge the timeline. It works exactly the same even if you assume all zelda games are canon. Breath of the Wild is a celebration of all 30 years of Zelda, not a select few. The mental gymnastics you guys have to go to make the theory work is just insane.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I'm going to agree with others that say they should go the Majora's Mask route and reuse the same engine and assets for a new game. Make the world smaller and more condensed. Expand on NPC interactions like MM did, too. Maybe even do a return to Termina or at least some other neighboring land to Hyrule with a different villain other than Ganon (I'm sick of him being the villain in almost every Zelda). I want a return of REAL dungeons and bosses, though. It'd be great if we could just explore and find them like the original game. It'd also be nice to bring back some classic tools like the hookshot. Let's not have all tools just given to you at the start of the game this time. And finally, if it's going to be the same engine and assets, then release it on the Wii U, too.
Despite advocating for the Majora route, I never considered a literal return to Termina.

Can you imagine if we went to Termina or, say, Lorule, in complete open 3D like BotW has? Holodrum/Labrynna could be condensed into one BotW size map, too. I'd die of excitement. I doubt they'd ever do it though.
 

Nanashrew

Banned
...the hyrule historia timeline is prefaced by a bit that explains that it's still all speculative, but you guys seem to always forget that. They aren't "abandoning the timeline they built" if they never built it in the first place. It doesn't matter in the slightest.

Breath of the Wild doesn't acknowledge the timeline. It works exactly the same even if you assume all zelda games are canon. Breath of the Wild is a celebration of all 30 years of Zelda, not a select few. The mental gymnastics you guys have to go to make the theory work is just insane.

But they did build a timeline even with the preface. They have plenty of direct sequels to show a timeline, especially in the failed timeline and adult timeline.
 

siganddaxter

Neo Member
I really would like to receive items from dungeons that are used in future puzzle solvings.

I don't need an item specifically it can be a new "rune" and it could be used to gate certain things without me getting angry.

I just feel like the dungeons were big shrines, and that's kinda heartbreaking. Or have less shrines but put a couple of the genius ideas from the shrines into the dungeons.

Edit: as much as people like the freedom to go in whatever order, if you saved the rito dungeon for last, my heart breaks for you.
 

GamerJM

Banned
I'd like to see them apply the openness of the combat and the physics sandbox the game has to a more linear style game in the vein of OoT.

This is just what I want in general, I still haven't had time to play BotW for more than a few hours
 

Nanashrew

Banned
I'd like to see River Zora show up in a 3D Zelda. Oracle of Ages is the only game where Sea Zora and River Zora appeared in the same game at once and also established that they're separate species of Zora. There were also NPCs that showed discrimination of each other and that could be a story of its own in a new game.
 

Drewboy64

Member
Okay, I know this is blasphemy to some, but I would actually love to see a multiplayer addition to BotW. Just thinking about everybody's Link having their own unique equipment and look, and being able to roam around in this vast open world and explore with other people gets me excited.

It'd be like Monster Hunter, except better in pretty much every way
 

takriel

Member
A more story-heavy game, set in a world that's maybe half the size of BotW's with the same or expanded physics and chemistry engine. Instead of shrines, have some traditional dungeons in there, as well.
 

Burny

Member
Give me a Majora's Mask style expansion pack/sequel with the same engine, tighter scope, top-quality dungeons, and a more experimental storyline.

THIS!

But never let the series regress to the AlttP template again. It's been done to death and BotW's interactive and open world shows how obsolete it has become.

Okay, I know this is blasphemy to some, but I would actually love to see a multiplayer addition to BotW. Just thinking about everybody's Link having their own unique equipment and look, and being able to roam around in this vast open world and explore with other people gets me excited.

This as well. If they make the battle system more elaborate, pulling a NSMBW on the Zelda games would be terrific. Edit: The impeccable Coop multiplayer part, not the regression to series earlier formula part.
 
For the story, I think the concept that you can fight the final boss at any time is... great for speedrunners but for gamers not so much, I would throw it away to allow the storyline to surprise. In short, make it more focused.

Keep that open world design, but add more variety to it. If you explore, it is 90% certain you get either a korok seed or a shrine (which always look the same), add more caves, secret bosses, other underground structures and make different themed shrines fitted to their enviroment, add more unexpected events such as the (event spoiler on a certain mountain)
dragon at the lanayru mountain

Add more traditional themed dungeons. Nothing needs to be said about this. Everyone begs for it. You can put these in the storyline and in the overworld to explore. For example, how could would it be if the event at the
Lanayru
Mountain opened up to a full fledged ice dungeon inside the mountain?

Add more enemies, like Dark Nuts, Redeads etc

Add a bit more music. Areas that lead up to a major quest event, should have a more melodic theme, Gerudo Valley for example or the lead up to Zoras Domain. Other than that, I really like the approach of the sound design in this game. Just a little bit more wouldn't have hurt.

Other than that, the game is basically perfect. Build on it and add all that and you have the ultimate Zelda game.
 

thefil

Member
Something fucking weird. Their best idea that would normally be rejected as too out there for a mainline Zelda. Nobody could have predicted Majora's Mask - give us something similarly impossible to expect.
 

wandering

Banned
Either go full in with the voice acting or get rid of it entirely. The half-measure is just tonally jarring.

And if they do continue with the voice acting, it could use a lot more polish.
 

Myriadis

Member
The problem with the complete open-world structure is that you get every important item right at the start and everything after that has to work around these items for the rest of the game.

I'd prefer a open structure where you can still explore a lot but not everything, where you will need the items from previous dungeons to get to the others. In Zelda 1, only 5 out of 9 dungeons are directly reachable, for the other 4 you need some stuff from previous dungeons. I want them to get closer to that.
 

siganddaxter

Neo Member
Another simple idea is that I'd like to find vast hidden areas. Examples : cave in mountain leads to large hollowed mountain with a city inside of it, they could be odd farmers who grow some strange crop in the darkness.

Another example would be an underwater bubble that you come across like Hyrule in wind waker, I don't want to be swimming but an underwater zone is always cool to discover.

I feel there was just a surprising lack of caves in this game all together.

I'd really enjoy temples that you just accidentally start as well, like oh what is that massive fort, and as you approach you have to go in the front gate and then you get a small key and realize you're in a temple.

Stuff like that.
 
More overworld bosses, more enemy variety (where are skulltulas, deku babas, redeads, gibdos, tekitites, etc), caves, underwater stuff, and having the dungeons resemble Hyrule Castle. The latter was amazing, and I'd love to see it become a model for the series' future dungeons.

Honestly I'd be very okay with a Link Between Worlds esque sequel that's set in the same map but with modifications that make the game different/it's own thing, with the above changes made to the game.
 
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