Which would "ruin" zelda more?

Ok, I just got this idea from various debates, where I've been noticing various people claiming "this would ruin zelda", "that would ruin zelda", blah, blah, blah. So anyway, of all the Future Zelda ideas on the poll, which one do you think would "ruin" the series the most?

EDIT: When I say a female or non-Link character, I mean player character.

...Well I wanted to pick several answers but I went with making Zelda casual, which would probably be more of a nightmare than anything else. But keeping everything traditional, making Link a chick and dumbing down the story are all major issues I'd have.

I also wanted to pick a few.
--Making it casual.
--Setting it in an FFVII-like setting.
--Keeping every Zelda "traditional".

Making spinoffs like they did with the Mario series

Tingle's Ruppeeland/Balloon Fight? Link's Crossbow training?

I voted too quickly and I choose the wrong one. The worst one would probably be trying to make Zelda different genre.

Adding optional voice acting
Keeping every zelda untraditional (like MM and WW)

I'm strongly for both of these. Voice acting is a must in this day and age, and Zelda's should always be new and innovative like MM and WW.

Setting Zelda in a modern day/futuristic setting, like FFVII
Introducing a female or non-Link character
Making a zelda game in a diffrent genre (Zelda MMO, Zelda FPS, etc)
Making spinoffs like they did with the Mario series

I'm ambivalent towards these. I think the EAD3 team could pull off an excellent steampunk/cyberpunk Zelda, but it wouldn't make the games better/ruin them, it would depend on the quality of the steampunk/cyberpunk world created. Introducing a non-Link or a female Link as the main playable character, I'm similarly ambivalent to - as long as they are a deep character, I don't mind. However, I would like the option to play as a female Link. Different genre, again, I reckon EAD3 could pull off most genres excellently, and look at the Metroid series, which changed genre beautifully. I think tLoZ could make an excellent RPG if well done. Some Mario spin-offs arguably outshadow the main series, notably the Paper series, so if the Zelda spin-offs were high quality jobs, I wouldn't mind.

Dumbing down and simplifying the story
keeping every zelda "traditional" (meaning like Alttp, OOT, and TP)
Making Zelda Casual

These would ruin the next Zelda for me.

Haha some of those would be horrible, and I'll be honest, some of them I'd like to see

Adding optional voice acting
Setting Zelda in a modern day/futuristic setting, like FFVII

These would be daring, especially the second, but I think would reinvigorate the series

Introducing a female or non-Link character

And this, frankly, I'd never considered before, but now that I think about it... a female Link would be really cool. Certainly unexpected. And Link's character is definitely not gender-exclusive by any means. I know plenty more adventurous girls than I do guys anyway.

And I'm not even against a first-person Zelda... Metroid Prime made a believer out of me that adventure can work beautifully from that view-point.

I would personally love to see Voice Acting and a futuristic setting.

Anyway, I think what would be the worst is keeping things traditional. Each zelda should be new and innovative.

If Zelda stays as boring and uncreative as Twilight Princess I will never forgive the Zelda team.

1) Aside from Phantom Hourglass as it compares to The Minish Cap, no Zelda game (aside from Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, which were both designed to be primarily mutliplayer and so this is no surprise) has ever really had a more dumbed-down story than its immediate predecessor (TMC as PH's handheld predecessor), so I don't expect them to start soon. Perhaps the story hasn't appealed as much to me or felt like a cheap rehash, but in terms of raw content the stories have usually grown exponentially between games.

2) There's a voice acting thread on this board, check it.

3) Zelda has been casual since The Wind Waker.

Simplifying the story would kill me. Zelda is renowned for its storylines, and if you take that away... well, you don't have Zelda at all.

Most of those would make Zelda a travesty. The story needs to be more complicated, the difficulty needs to be raised, and there needs to be more **** to do, among other things.

Originally Posted by Artemicion

1) Aside from Phantom Hourglass as it compares to The Minish Cap, no Zelda game (aside from Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, which were both designed to be primarily mutliplayer and so this is no surprise) has ever really had a more dumbed-down story than its immediate predecessor (TMC as PH's handheld predecessor), so I don't expect them to start soon. Perhaps the story hasn't appealed as much to me or felt like a cheap rehash, but in terms of raw content the stories have usually grown exponentially between games.

I know that, this is a hypothetical what if thread.

2) There's a voice acting thread on this board, check it.

Thats where I got the idea. Also, this is a compleatly diffrent topic.

3) Zelda has been casual since The Wind Waker.

I mean casual as in wii sports-like, not easy.

I don't mind a female Link, I don't mind straying from orginal story driving formula, or keeping it the same, I would LOVE (optional) voice acting, i don't even mind spin offs (as long as they are good, and not too big in the Spin-off:core game ratio.

What I would HATE, is the deprivation of story or character developement. Ever since Majora's Mask, i've been craving whatever it was that "drove" that story. I was motivated to play that game, and learn every secret i could and defeat that vile demon. In TP, however, i couldn't attach myself at all. Zelda needs to maintain good story! No half-ass go here-go there, SLAY DAT MONSTERRRRR!!! go here-go there......

I voted dumbing down and simplifying story.
Its called the LEGEND of Zelda, without a good and interesting story, zelda is empty.

But I also think a casual or another traditional Zelda would ruin Zelda.

Oh god.

So many choices on that poll I wanted to choose, but I ultimatly had to go with the genres, Zelda should remain an adventure game.

And this thread, so many comments I want to discuss :|

Zelda gameplay has been ok these years on my opinion, but to be honest newer Zelda stories are dumber and dumber everytime...like Majora108 said:

Its called the LEGEND of Zelda, without a good and interesting story, zelda is empty.

Yeah, Zelda needs a fresh and original story and should leave Ganondorf out this time. They overuse them way too much and it seems like they are starting to use him as a "filler in" if they run out of ideas. I vote for a new freakin' bad guy!!! I would also like it if it was set in a place other than Hyrule just like Majora's Mask...

Originally Posted by Mask Collector

Zelda gameplay has been ok these years on my opinion, but to be honest newer Zelda stories are dumber and dumber everytime...

Let's compare the newest console Zelda to the oldest console Zelda then, since it should by your account, be the best.

The Legend of Zelda: Ganond has taken over, find the peices of the triforce to beat him.

Twilight Princess: Some children get kidnapped, you get turned into a beast and need the help of Midna to get out of that shape, the world is being covered in Twilight, and as the beast you have to remove the twilight from the world. As the last of the twilight dissapears, Zant appears and nearly kills Midna and turns you into a beast permanently. You are forced to seek help from Zelda, who revives Midna and dissapears in the process. She does reveal that you must find the Master Sword to recover your human form, and upon finding it you and Midna travel to the desert to defeat Zant in the twilight realm. There you learn of Ganondorf is in the twilight realm and in possetion of the ToP. You also discover that the means of reaching the Twilight realm is destroyed, and must travel the world to find the scattered peices. Once in the twilight realm, you discover that Midna is the real Twilight Princess, and that Zant is an usurper powered by Ganondorf. After executiting Zant, you go to Hyrule Castle to rescue Zelda and defeat Ganondorf. After his ambiguous defeat, Midna decides to destroy the only path between the twilight realm and the light realm to prevent further problems.


Don't make me have point this out even more clearly.

Ganon/dorf is only in half the games, and he IS the main antagonist of the series.

There are multiple things I'd like to vote for. Dum,bing things down and simplifying the stroy are a couple. Not sure how I'd take a different genre approach. I don't think Zelda follows one strict genre in particular, though I believe it's mostly an adventure game.

Some of the choices, like voice acting I would actually like to see implemented. Though maybe keep it optional at first. Definitely start out with every NPC character.

I'd like them to keep a mix of the traditional and nontraditional stuff. Not strictly one or the other. I wouldn't mind a futuristic setting. At least, I don't think so.

i couldnt vote. too many choices. this should be a multi answer poll. but what would ruin it the most would be it being in present time and a non link character.