All of Hyrule is turned into a dungeon.

So what if in a future Zelda game, there was an overworld (much like Hyrule field) but Link could access it. Instead, Link has to use a series of secret underground tunnels to travel between places. These tunnels would be like a dungeon. They would have locked doors, enemies, puzzles, etc. They would also have warp points. There would be multiple paths in these tunnels, which would allow exploration.

The towns themselves would also be dungeons. They would be full of puzzles and some buildings would need keys. Those same buildings might have useful items. The towns would have been overrun by enemies, which would put the citizens in danger. Sometimes, Link would need to defeat all of the enemies in a district in order to get the people to open their doors. At least one town should have a sewer that would act as the basement floor.

With this idea, Link would always be in a dungeon. So much of Zelda gameplay takes place in dungeons. Dungeons are essential to the Zelda games. So why not make the whole game a dungeon?

I think this is a pretty cool idea. Different and cool.

I don't think Nintendo would go for it but you never know.

It would be interesting to see how it would turn out.

And the idea sort of reminded me of the Underworld in the Zelda cartoon where there were many entrances and it was large.

Though the idea is nice, wouldn't that seriously decrease the freedom that the other Zelda games have?

If the entire game would be a dungeon, you always have to look for a certain next key or room, and aren't really free to go walking around.

Interesting idea, but wouldn't that get tiring after a while? I'd rather have it where the game was more interactive with the characters and the existing dungeons could seem less like dungeons, like the puzzles would seem less obvious.

Kind of like Four Swords Adventures right? The whole game was about 20 levels of different settings filled with enemies, puzzles and locked doors. Even the villages had puzzle solving and stuff. It's a pretty okay idea but it destroys part of Zelda's genre as a Action ADVENTURE game. FSA is one of the only non-adventure Zelda games, and it didn't sell well either (Though that was probably because of the GBA thing) I personally loved FSA, but perfer an Overworld.

Hmmm, OP, you have a very original idea for a 3-d Zelda game. I think several underground areas should link parts of the overworld together, with items and keys to get into certain regions. It actually sounds like something that might be in the next Zelda game.

Interesting idea, but would that not defeat the purpose of the overworld?

If it was a regular overworld with certain puzzle-obstacles, maybe it could work, but the puzzle-obstacles would need some sort of way to bypass them after doing them 1 or 2 times.

Very nice idea...

However, I often enjoy "getting out" of the dungeons for a while.

You see, I think the overworld gives it a more "real" feel. Because he actually has a huge area he can run around in, like a real adventure... it makes the zelda world seem bigger too.

Neat idea... but I would get tired of it.

Originally Posted by Machina

Interesting idea, but would that not defeat the purpose of the overworld?

I concur, the overworld is a nice break from all the dungeon crawling. I actually spend an hour or so between dungeons doing myriad tasks, like searching for Pieces of Heart, and the other secrets among the overworld such as Golden Bugs and the like. The novelty of the idea would soon wear off.

Maybe Hyrule field could be the scene of the final boss battle. The boss would make Hyrule field also seem like a dungeon of its own some how. Maybe he could throw rocks onto it that would act as walls or something.

The lost woods would also be like a dungeon.

This reeks of Phantom Hourglass, where you had to keep returning to the same dungeon. I don't think it would work... Nice try though.

we kind of saw that in tp, the whole provice was a dungeon, and it was pretty cool, you would just need it to be, after you beat the town there would never be an enemy there again.

Originally Posted by Feere Gorone

This reeks of Phantom Hourglass, where you had to keep returning to the same dungeon. I don't think it would work... Nice try though.

This would be different from the master dungeon in PH though. This wouldn't have enemies that you could rarely defeat. You wouldn't have a time limit either.

I can see this really working. Imagine this if you will:

Link and Tetra are searching for their new land when they dock on an unknown island. They set off to explore with few safe havens in the form of primitive villages. You can fill in the rest...

Sounds rather tedious, like a game I can remember from the past.

Originally Posted by Aziel Satori

Sounds rather tedious, like a game I can remember from the past.

??? And for those of us not akin to this train of thought. (Is thinking either ALttP -no sense just the "from the past" thing- or AoL -cause it would make sense)

No, it wasn't a Zelda game, I can't remember which game exactly, I think it was on the SNES.

Originally Posted by Aziel Satori

No, it wasn't a Zelda game, I can't remember which game exactly, I think it was on the SNES.

Oh, just a random game... there are millions of those.

Alot of them are crappy that's the problem.

Making the overworld restrictive just doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

I like that you can explore in Zelda, it would be cruel to remove such a wonderful thing.

Originally Posted by Aziel Satori

Alot of them are crappy that's the problem.

Too true...

Making the overworld restrictive just doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

What would you call the current overworlds? Ever since AoL there have been limits.

I like that you can explore in Zelda, it would be cruel to remove such a wonderful thing.

I liked that you could explore in Zelda. With recent installments being far more linear and stopping you from going here there and everywhere else you want to. I understand some limitation, but really it's insane. (especially in TP in which there is so little to explore so late in the game... yeah...)