So, what'd you want for the new Zelda?

[BlackFire]

I was reading some stuff about the new Zelda game for the Wii at IGN and I agree with them at some points, for example:

1) Harder difficulty: Since Wind Waker, Zelda games become funnier.. but a dissapointment when talking about difficulty, finding the triforce charts was very iasy in WW and in TP all the temples were really easy, very very logical paths and easy bosses.

2) Damage: As they said at IGN, enemies do very low damage reducting the difficulty level. And the bosses, WTF!? they die around the third or fourth round of hits and like always, with the weapon you foun at the dungeon.

3) Lenght: Ocarina of time was really long, you can still play it and get bored after 3 or 4 hours, but TP though I loved it, it bores me 30 minutes after playing it, IIRC Miyamoto said that you'll spend aroun 120 hours to complete it to 100% ...took me like 80.

So, what do you guys think Zelda needs?

[hyde]

Well, for someone who's not a real fan of the Zelda series, TP was amazing. It was very easy to get into and it sucked me in for 5 hours straight the first time I played it.

Majora's Mask on the other hand, I stopped playing after an hour because it was very vague and I had no idea what to do. It might've been just me, but for the less "hardcore" Zelda fans this new approach isn't that bad.

[burning_phoneix]

1)No more saving the Princess
2)Some Non-linearity
3)More shit to buy, cause I'm a pack rat that way.
4)More expansive world.

[camus the dark knight]

My two favorite Zelda games were the Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past. I am really not sure why those stood out (possibly Nostalgia), but even so, I think I would prefer a newer game closer to those.

And yes, some enemies that took more then 1 heart would be nice.

[BlackFire]

Also, more groups of enemies to come and attack, just two regular monsters is boring.

And as burning_phoenix said, more stuff to buy. it sucks when you have 1000 rupees and there's nothing else to buy..

[Charliecane]

I'd like to see more 2D goodness. 3D Zelda isn't very appealing to me.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

1)No more saving the Princess
2)Some Non-linearity
3)More shit to buy, cause I'm a pack rat that way.
4)More expansive world.

This.

I personally like impossibly large inventories. The interesting items you got in Ocarina really drew me in, though now I wish find that there the inventory is too limited for my new tastes.

Though I do think that Princess Zelda should be somewhat crucial to the storyline, saving the damsel in distress, whether directly or indirectly, gets kind of old.

Difficulty has been noticeably reduced; it's okay for first-timers, but it becomes a cakewalk to veterans.

[Ferry Fer the Dancing Queen of West New Orleens]

I think I typed out a rant about this a few months ago. Long story short:

1. Wind Waker's combat system. Battles there were the most dynamic out of any Zelda to date. It's too bad it was gimped so badly in TP.

2. Twilight Princess' dungeon aesthetic. Many of the dungeons in this game, rather than being some dime-a-dozen Temple where you needed to collect some medallion or crystal, are actually points of interest that you'd actually revisit. Wind Waker started doing this (although partially unintentionally) and Twilight Princess developed on it. I'm hoping the next Zelda game goes even further and completely breaks the cycle of collecting X mystical artifacts before triggering some major plot revelation that either causes you to repeat the process or fight the last boss.

3. Keep dungeon linearity. I hate the pre-Wind Waker dungeons that have multiple branching paths, all but one of which lead to anything interesting. It's a waste of time and detracts from from the main draw of the game: solving puzzles. Super Mario Galaxy did this to the previous two 3D Marios, and it worked out wonderfully.

While I'd like them to keep puzzle difficulty on the level of Majora's Mask's, it's not a big issue for me. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess still manages to make them fun and interesting to complete despite being balls easy.

[Black Knight]

I personally like impossibly large inventories. The interesting items you got in Ocarina really drew me in, though now I wish find that there the inventory is too limited for my new tastes.

I actually thought one of the weakest parts of Twilight Princess was the abundance of items. The stupid gear-top thing and the dominion rod come to mind particularly. If they had multiple purposes it would be interesting, but they were just examples of the classic Metroid-esque "Now you have this tool which allows you to open this door" mentality, and not much else. If you could use the dominion rod to posses enemies or something it would have been a lot more interesting. By the end of the game I felt like I had a few items I never used except in very specific circumstances where the game put in one of the simple puzzles from the beginning of the game back in, just to make sure you're paying attention and remind you that "see! This item isn't completely useless!"

I want to see actual puzzles, not just situations where you see a treasure chest across the room that you work towards and once you get the item the door opens to let you into a room where you use your new item to get the key and open the door at the beginning of the level which lets you get the big key to open the door at the end of the level where you face an easy boss that is conveniently beaten by the item you found in his fort. I recognize not every game can be Portal, but frankly I haven't seen a real challenging puzzle game in a long time. Twilight Princess felt like playing a movie, you just had to keep walking and swinging your sword from time to time and you couldn't possibly miss the end. (although don't get me wrong, I loved every second of it.)

I'm hoping for a lot better, and if Nintendo could take some risks with the plot line, and bump up the ingenuity a notch (And that doesn't mean figuring out how to make shortkeys by waving the Wii-mote around in different ways), something more along the lines of Mario Galaxy, then we're talking. In any case, I'm sure the game will be exceedingly entertaining no matter how it turns out, I guess I'm just hoping for something that's a little better than entertaining.

[burning_phoneix]

I actually thought one of the weakest parts of Twilight Princess was the abundance of items.

True, but what I meant was not lots of types of items but rather more versions of existing items.

I'd like to see more than three swords or tunics in the game to equip. Different swords would give you better moves or abilities (ie, short single bladed swords for compact moves in indoor areas or large broadsword similar to big goron's Knife...ect.) and the ability to upgrade a weapons with extra abilities ( longer chain for hookshot or more damaging claw..ect.) things of that nature.

Though I do think that Princess Zelda should be somewhat crucial to the storyline, saving the damsel in distress, whether directly or indirectly, gets kind of old.

Yes. When I saw the character art for Zelda in TP holding a sword, I was excited that Zelda would have a major role to play and perhaps even control her for small part of the game but she gets owned by Zant really early in the game. Boo!

[Neofox]

I'm not sure if playing as someone other than Link is such a good idea... He's supposed to be an in-game representation of the player, after all (hence why he doesn't talk... yes, believe it or not, Freeman wasn't the first to do that). Zelda? Rescuing the princess is supposed to be your main motivation for leaving the starting area. The series isn't exactly known for in-depth plots, anyways.

[Mizekel]

The only thing I dislike about games with a variety of items to use is that they're usually only useful in very specific situations... Each item should offer an alternative way of progressing through the game, not just be a simple solution for one or two small puzzles. For example, the Spinner would have been a viable mode of transport, and great for clearing large masses of smaller enemies  if it didn't suddenly crap out on you shortly after getting on. I would have loved it if the Dominion Rod let you seize control of common enemies instead of just specific statues. Obviously you couldn't control Bosses/Minibosses, but wouldn't it have been cool to use it on a Beamos statue and start frying everybody?

[G-ZGoten]

I would love for more dungeon variety. Once you do one dungeon the other 7 are just larger copies of the same dumb puzzles. Also I wanna see more sword variety like in Majora's Mask. Another thing would be more original new items like the ones you get in Minish Cap, the claws, the gust jar, etc. Smarter enemy AI and also make them a bit more ruthless. Bosses need to act like bosses, and be though. I don't mind that the average enemy can't kill me, but I at least want the boss to kill me once or twice before I bring him down. Also how about a less linear world, like the first Zelda where you could go into any dungeon you found and unless you got the items you wouldn't get very far in it but you still got to explore as much as posssible before you realized it was futile now that made the game challenging and unpredictable

[Kick@55_3000]

-Well, what I was disappointed about in TP was that some items are utterly(or nearly) worthless after you clear the area from where you found that item (e.g. Spinner ad Slingshot),  I would like to see all the items have a decent amount of use in the next Zelda game.

-Also, make the bosses harder; let's say, the first boss does like a full heart of damage per hit, and later bosses deal 2, or 3, and so on. I liked how some of the boss fights were structured, but they are too damn easy (loved the Argorok fight, but it was too easy)!

-More use of Ruppees. Let's say...more side-quests that require a lot of money or make crucial items such as fairies only obtainable through buying?

These are just some of my thoughts.

[Mizekel]

Maybe there could be a Mechanic that mods your items for massive amounts of rupees. For example, get a special hook installed into your Hookshot, so when you fire it at an enemy instead of merely stunning him, it also pulls him over to you where you proceed to slash him up with the sword. Or maybe the Ball and Chain is made more aerodynamic, so it goes faster when you throw it or swing it around. Who knows.

[Bob Jr. of Bob Sr.]

Maybe there could be a Mechanic that mods your items for massive amounts of rupees. For example, get a special hook installed into your Hookshot, so when you fire it at an enemy instead of merely stunning him, it also pulls him over to you where you proceed to slash him up with the sword. Or maybe the Ball and Chain is made more aerodynamic, so it goes faster when you throw it or swing it around. Who knows.

==I would be interested in that. Greater individual customization would lead to some interesting situations.

[Pink Mag]

I'm a fan of Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and Link to the Past.

- I just liked the fact in Link to the Past once you finished the Light World's dungeons then you go to the Dark World and see more dungeons and how some dungeons in the light world affected the dark world and vice versa (I think).  As for four swords, I found it fun to play with my friends who sometimes acted like -------s by pushing you off the edge just for the stupid factor.  More teamwork would be nice to see.

[Areth]

I guess I'm easily pleased, but what I'd like to see in a new Zelda is the option to choose Link's hand preference.

I'm sure that quite a few people liked the fact that Link was right-handed in the Wii version of Twilight Princess, but I know a lot of people didn't like it as well. To satisfy both parties, let the player choose the hand preference...

[Neofox]

-More use of Ruppees.

Didn't that one set of armor in Twilight Princess take care of that issue?

[SirChristopher]

-Moar sidequests
-Moar items
-Moar uses for those items
-Moar shit to buy
-Less linearity (but not dramatically so)
-Moar difficulty curve
-Moar damage, from and too Link. Enemies need to be strong, bosses stronger, and there needs to be more than just 2 damn swords and 1 or 2 shields.
-Moar puzzles and longer, more convulted dungeons. Zelda 1 had some dungeons that were literal MAZES. Lets bring those back!