Futuristic Zelda - Why so against it?

Why go into the future for technology? I may be the only one, but from playing all the zeldas, it almost feels like this medieval world they live in isn't how it started.

The reuins of great cities with robots, elevators... LAZER GUNS, suggest that the world was once very high on the technical scale. Maybe even far past our tech.

They could make a game about the olden times, back when these people were still alive. Was there a link that far back? There wasn't a ganon (At least I don't think so.) Was there a link before ganon? Did he fight other evils?

Was there another hero? feirce deity?

I'd like the series to take a somewhat big leap in its time line by first presenting a not so distant future. I'd like to see a Baroque and Rococo-like Zelda:



It'd be a much different setting, opening doors for more interesting plot and a different game experience. After that, I'd like to see the time move forward. The future of the LoZ universe can be very interesting, and it's so hard to understand why so many people refuse to think about and rather keep wishing for the same setting and environment.

Ignis, I can agree with that. I'd also like to see a Zelda that seems 1800s frontier-ish, perhaps even steampunk

Originally Posted by Spoon Link

Wow. That just gave me an idea in which Link, Zelda and Ganon wind up in New York City and Ganon tries to find them, using his Triforce of Power to destroy everything along the way. Zelda uses her Triforce of Wisdom to look like a city girl and Link gets thrown in jail for "disturbing the peace" just by unsheathing his sword.

Ganon caused 9/11

Meh I dont see how changing the settings going to unstale the game at all. They just need to implement new angles and think outside the box.

It could work. It really could. The question is HOW to create a storyline that captivates the Zeldagamer so used to the middle ages formula...

Personally, I'm against it. I like Zelda the way it is, but I have to admit that Futuristic Zelda could work.

I would like a futuristic Zelda but references to previous titles would be needed to ensure that the game feels like a Zelda title and the Zelda universe would need to have taken a different road on the way to progress with similar but different technologies.

In truth, I just want to see air traffic: dirigibles or hot air balloons.

The concept would be best done in a post-apocalyptic setting where the industrialisation is caused by some evil tyrant. Kind of like Saruman.

Originally Posted by KiKi

Why go into the future for technology? I may be the only one, but from playing all the zeldas, it almost feels like this medieval world they live in isn't how it started.

The reuins of great cities with robots, elevators... LAZER GUNS, suggest that the world was once very high on the technical scale. Maybe even far past our tech.

The idea that civilization is constantly improving is quite a new one relative to human history. Many older societies believed that things were just getting worse and worse after some kind of 'Golden age' in the distant past. Zelda reflects this ideal, in that every game hints heavily that there was some greater, more godly race around just before Link popped up (Link to the Past and Twilight Princess in particular).

As far as a futuristic Zelda is concerned, I don't think it will happen, since if there's anything that Nintendo has completely messed up in regards to continuity, it's advancement of technology. Yet even with such tenuous grasp on the subject, Nintendo still revert every game to some quasi-medievil fantasy tale, so I don't see it going anywhere more advanced anytime soon.

Originally Posted by UltraLight

It could work. It really could. The question is HOW to create a storyline that captivates the Zeldagamer so used to the middle ages formula...

Personally, I'm against it. I like Zelda the way it is, but I have to admit that Futuristic Zelda could work.

Rock on, it's important to master both look and feel.

The problem is, for a franchise like Zelda doing something this drastic to the setting, the game could either be really bad, or mediocre.

Originally Posted by Dark~Knight

The problem is, for a franchise like Zelda doing something this drastic to the setting, the game could either be really bad, or mediocre.

Wait, it can't be good? Whyso?

EDIT:

Originally Posted by momento

Meh I dont see how changing the settings going to unstale the game at all. They just need to implement new angles and think outside the box.

Well, by 'unstale it', I mean open new doors for those new angles and improve Nintendo's ability to think outside the box, instead of having the same kind of constraints every. single. game.

The thing is, Funcom, that I, for one, consider those constraints the very essence of being a series. Are they always good? No they aren't. You don't have to look far for proof. Zelda games seem much like a copy+paste operation for the last few games. I still love the series and it's always satisfying and wonderfully designed, but it has grown stale in its mechanics. So much that we could go around trying to find solutions to un-stale it, which is precisely what you're doing, and I not only approve of that as I also agree with many points you've made throughout this discussion.

Things get a little complicated when I stop to think that this kind of changes would probably lead to the same game structure, same gameplay we've grown somewhat tired of through the last 11 years, only in a different setting. The focus would shift entirely to the setting, leaving the gameplay, which is, to me, the one area the series really needs to innovate, as stale as it was before. Asking a development team to, at once, shift the setting of a game and revamp its gameplay entirely is much akin to asking them to just make a new IP. Which I'm always open to, but that's not the case.

I just don't see it alone allowing the revamp the series needs. Quite the contrary, I see it messing with the few things that actually aged wonderfully and haven't grown old so far, as far as I'm concerned.

I am not totally against the concept. Maybe there are a bit too many futuristic games (I really like those with historic feel in them more) out there, but it would work if they get good and innovative ideas to use in the futuristic setting.

The wind waker did kind of move Zelda away from the overused middle ages formula, and into a more pirate-like "high seas adventure" forumula.

With spirit tracks and phantom hourglass you could argue that the franchise is moving even closer to steampunk.

It would be interesting to see one side of the timeline go into a steampunk era, while the other maintains that traditional folklore style. That way, we can get both!

Originally Posted by MrBaconsock

It would be interesting to see one side of the timeline go into a steampunk era, while the other maintains that traditional folklore style. That way, we can get both!

Yeah, but the one I want to play is on the DS, not the Wii. Unfortunantly, I dislike hand-held consols.

Many people, including me, play zelda SPECIFICALLY for its medieval fantasy setting (as well as gameplay)

I wasn't too wild for the futuristic elements they threw into Twilight Princess. The sky canon and the whole Twilight Palace thing was very sci fi. I enjoyed the Twilight Palace because it was so different from anything I've seen before...ever. But I really couldn't wait to get out of there. =/

The sight of too much brown and grey annoys me as well. The Goron Mines and even Kakariko's new rusty metal plating annoyed me too. It can work definitely, but it would be yet another think the fanbase and I can whine over. =/

I was pretty adamantly against it at first, but, time tends to make me rethink things. Now, I really don't think that a Futuristic Zelda would be that bad at all. I don't mean to completely reboot the series or anything- maybe a one-time thing, or perhaps a spinoff series. That is, as long as it's done right. Besides, a complete shift in direction might be exactly what the developers need- something to jolt them back to the basics and re-think what Zelda games are really about. People have seriously been complaining about staleness and sameness in Zelda games as of late.

^I had the same view-point, myself.

The reason I say that Futuristic could work is so it could provide more varied game-play, such as giving more item possibilities and different style dungeons.

Originally Posted by Zeldablue777

I wasn't too wild for the futuristic elements they threw into Twilight Princess. The sky canon and the whole Twilight Palace thing was very sci fi. I enjoyed the Twilight Palace because it was so different from anything I've seen before...ever. But I really couldn't wait to get out of there. =/

The sight of too much brown and grey annoys me as well. The Goron Mines and even Kakariko's new rusty metal plating annoyed me too. It can work definitely, but it would be yet another think the fanbase and I can whine over. =/

I can understand about the Twilight Palace, but for me it was just extremely repetitive. And when I walked out of there, I didn't feel like I accomplished anything or got any rewards. Sure, I beat Zant, but that was just a poor preview of Gannondorf. There wasn't any item to get from it, so I walked out exactly the same as I did when I came in...and that annoyed me.

Well, I disagree with your assessment of The Goron Mines, as that's one of my favorites, but as far as to much 'Brown and Grey'...who said the Future can't be super colorful? Personally, I want to see alot of colored almost pristine stuff.