Now that would be something.
From a game design standpoint, Botw is such a monumental advancement compared to ww, tp, and ss that Metroid achieving something on that level would be spectacular.
The issues with Metroid are not as severe as with Zelda though. Metroid has mostly stuck to the very successful Super Metroid formula. The slight deviations from it being Prime 3, Fusion, and other M. All of them feel inferior in overall design, with more linear, segmented play.
Mario went from pure platforming to adding exploration in 2d to sandbox in 3d to more pure platforming in 3d. Oddessy seems to be a return to the 3d sandbox, so I'm curious how they've modernized it.
Botws design is more obvious. It's a modern take of the original ideas of non linearity, challenge, adventoruous exploration. 3d Zeldas had devolved into overly linear, tutorial heavy, awful messed focusing only on sequential puzzle solving. The Botw innovations are its interconnected gameplay systems and complete open traversal that lead to open, emergent gameplay.
So... Where can metroid really go? I think it has to be somewhere pretty different. Taking inspiration from horror and games like dark souls I think is a great starting point. Really push the isolationn, immersion, claustrophobia of diving deep underground hunting dangerous alien life forms. Along the way you discover havens of old chozo ruins and tech that empower you. Dunno.
Botw was almost exactly what I wanted zelda to be from a big picture game design standpoint. However I don't know what I want metroid to be... unlike zelda, the prototypical formula has already been nicely done in 3d.
