The Legends of Zelda (or taking a page from Eternal Darkness' book)

I was thinking (as I usually am), and I realized that the way Eternal Darkness' story works would be perfect for the Zelda series.

For those who haven't played it, the main character reads a bunch of stories about her ancestors and the history of all the events that caused what's happening in the present. Every time she reads a new chapter, you play through that chapter as that specific character in that time period. By reading these stories she finds out all she needs to know to do her part.

If we had this in Zelda, we could explore Hyrule over several centuries as different people related to the current game's story and stories of past games.

This game would be the perfect way to explain the parts of Hyrule's history Zelda fans so desperately need explanations for, because really, anything goes.

Any character you play as could die, and that would just be the end of the chapter, you just go on to the next story from there. This could make the story completely unpredictable, which I think we could use by now.

You could play each dungeon as a different character with different abilities (from a possible different race, kinda like MM's transformation masks). The boss of each particular dungeon could be the main evil force of that time period. Each character could find the past character's stash of equipment so we would keep all the items we've obtained in the past, or this could just be an opportunity for a wide variety of weapons, with each person having their own.

We could play as Ganondorf fighting Link, we could play as someone in the era of the flood, the possibilities are endless. The stories could be small prequels or sequels to the games we've already played, but they would have a bigger impact on the current story.

The main character we play as would probably be a Link of the future who finds these stories by going on his own adventures, so we'd still have some good ol' fashioned Master Sword brawls and whatnot.

It would also fit with the whole 'passed down by legend' theme the series already has.

What do you guys think?

I actually really like this idea. Though, i'd prefer if they made like 4 chapters really long rather than 15 short/mid length experiences. There'd be too much changing and not enough of X time period to explore.

Well that's the thing, I'm not really sure about exploring. If they let you go all over Hyrule in every time period, they'd have to make multiple whole Hyrules, which I don't think would happen.

Because of that, they might only want to have you go through a set area.

All parts of Hyrule could be explored in the past, but each one would have a different story. For instance, you could play as a zora boy and the chapter could be about an important time in zora history, and your playable area would be Zora's Domain, Zora River, Lake Hylia, and whatever dungeon you end up getting into. You would still see other parts of Hyrule off in the distance and get an idea of how they changed over time, but exploring it all each time would be too much, and unnecessary.

Each section of Hyrule would have an explorable past and present, but each past would be in a unique time period important to the area or race. Maybe a few areas would overlap and be in multiple stories, but not many.


Another thing I just thought of, we could have a story in there about Termina. And if this game were to take place in the adult timeline, going to Termina in the present would be crazy. It'd be a charred black desert with no life and a giant moon sticking out of the ground. It'd be a good place for a final battle, actually.

that sounds pretty sweet cuz i would play it and the moon out of the ground sounds like it should be in the next ssb game

I made a quick drawing of the future Termina idea:




I think it being colorless helps the feeling of lifelessness, like WW's b&w Hyrule Castle.

About the whole time travel thing; it's a really good idea! While I wouldn't exactly want to see a whole game devoted to playing as someone else besides Link, some control of characters would be a nice addition. What if, instead of taking forms of people, Link visited these times without anybody around him realizing it (like in Harry Potter, with the memory jar and whatnot). Having Link watching the Great Flood roll before his eyes, with people drowning and frantically running to the mountaintops, knowing he could do absolutely nothing, would be extremely powerful and emotive. And Lord knows this would make a excellent plot.

Oh BTW guys, I'm new here. Guess I'll say hi. I've been on ZU for about a half a year (never registered, just read forums), and I absolutely love Zelda. Wouldn't be here if I didn't.

I really like this idea, actually. The thing about terminated Termina (O WATE I JUST GOT DAT) as a final battle area sounds completely epic, I love it. The only thing is, I wouldn't want Nintendo trying to tie in every single thread from every single game...it might feel a bit hokey.

But on the whole, this idea sounds fantastic. I'd love to see it happen.

Originally Posted by Send Link

About the whole time travel thing; it's a really good idea! While I wouldn't exactly want to see a whole game devoted to playing as someone else besides Link, some control of characters would be a nice addition. What if, instead of taking forms of people, Link visited these times without anybody around him realizing it (like in Harry Potter, with the memory jar and whatnot). Having Link watching the Great Flood roll before his eyes, with people drowning and frantically running to the mountaintops, knowing he could do absolutely nothing, would be extremely powerful and emotive. And Lord knows this would make a excellent plot.

Well it'd be important for the player to be the one actually changing the history of Hyrule, not witnessing it. The cool thing about this formula is that you get to be in the right place at the right time in all the most important parts of history.

I can see what you're saying though, Link is important to Zelda. He would have the biggest part, that's for sure. I mean I think the stories he's reading would be about this immortal or time traveling entity that has caused all these problems in the past, and Link would be the one to actually put the pieces of the puzzle together to defeat him/her/it.

Originally Posted by Ohmygasha!

I really like this idea, actually. The thing about terminated Termina (O WATE I JUST GOT DAT) as a final battle area sounds completely epic, I love it. The only thing is, I wouldn't want Nintendo trying to tie in every single thread from every single game...it might feel a bit hokey.

True. I went a little overboard with the possibilities, but I think if this game really happened they would keep it somewhat vague, because that's Nintendo's way. It would probably create more timeline questions than answers, like most new Zelda games.

Originally Posted by Ohmygasha!

But on the whole, this idea sounds fantastic. I'd love to see it happen.

Thanks.

By the way, I updated the sketch a little bit, just because I got more interested:

This is the best idea I've seen in future zelda in a really long time!

My personal suggestions for settings/characters

• A Interloper warrior You would be fighting agianst the hylians for control of the triforce. You would have all kinds of amazing magic attacks, and combat would play out kinda like a Star Wars:TFU trailer.
• Sheik during the 7 years link is asleep. You would be a fugitive constantly on the run. Combat here would consist of mainly hand to hand stuff. The chapter would end at the point right where Sheik meets link right after he wakes up.
• A mercenary during the Great War (the war between all the races right before OOT). Since there are several races to choose from, I don't want to be limited to one. As a merc you can choose which race to fight for. The ending would be diffrent for your character depending on your actions.

Thanks for the compliment, but it sounds like what you're really looking for is like an MMO (or some other three letter acronym genre) taking place in Hyrule's past. That's not really what I had in mind.

What I'm thinking of would still have Zelda gameplay. Exploration, puzzles, dungeons, a little combat here and there.

I love ED, and using the same "structure" in a Zelda game could be great. I agree with SheikahSage, it's one of the best ideas I have ever seen.-

Originally Posted by CPW

Thanks for the compliment, but it sounds like what you're really looking for is like an MMO (or some other three letter acronym genre) taking place in Hyrule's past. That's not really what I had in mind.

What I'm thinking of would still have Zelda gameplay. Exploration, puzzles, dungeons, a little combat here and there.

An MMO doesn't describe what I'm talkingh about at all (an MMO stands for Massive Multiplayer Online, and describes stuff like Runescape and WoW). Maybe your thinking of an RPG (even though that doesn't decribe it either)?

Anyway, I of coarse would want the gameplay to be the same. There would still be dungeons, puzzles, bosses, etc. I was just giving suggestions for times and places.

By the way, I haven't played ED in several years. Wasn't that the one that constantly screwed with you? I seem to remember that ED was the game that did stuff like pretending to erase your memory card, screwing with the volume control and giving you the blue screen of death.

Well, two of your suggestions were about fighting in wars, and you had a thing about choosing your race. Those don't seem to fit with the genre or what I'm saying. I mean you could play as a character who has a quest while there's a war going on, but that's different than fighting for one side.

Anyway, yeah, ED (geh, I always think "erectile dysfunction" when I abbreviate that) has the insanity effects when your sanity meter gets low. One of my favorites is when you're walking around and appendages just start falling off your body.