The ideal Zelda game

This is something people have thought a lot about, myself included. The ideal Legend of Zelda game. What would it be like? This thread is about my idea of it.

Fifteen years ago, Zelda featured big (for its time) worlds, with complicated and confusing labyrinths and dungeons scattered across it. There was a sense of exploration and adventure. Yet the newer games in the series, it seems to me, are just a bit lacking in that classic Zelda spirit (yes, even the excellent TP to a small extent).

On the subject of worlds

The world in the original Zelda is small by today's standards, but it was open, not separating the world into clearly defined areas enclosed by a cliff or wall of some kind. The same is true of A Link to the Past. That game has perhaps the most impressive game world I have ever seen in any Zelda. While the design keeps you from exploring the whole world right from the beginning, it feels realistic. It's an open landscape with some important locations, filled to the brim with all sorts of caves and secrets and passages and dungeons. The Minish Cap, basically the model for the modern 2D Zelda, features a small, confusing, mazelike world with a few features that change with kinstones. Before TMC, I thought the 2D Zelda worlds were more like a world ought to be. While The Wind Waker was unlike the N64 titles in that the world was an open, undivided mass of space, it had 49 little islands placed at predictable, grid-based points on a grid, making the world, truly, smaller. With Twilight Princess, I expected some gargantuan landscape, similar to ALttP, riddled with secrets, dungeons, and puzzles, but I was given an englarged Ocarina of Time. OoT's world is well-designed, but it's so small and confined, there's a serious lacking of exploration of mysterious places, outside of going to each little place outside the Hyrule Field hub.

The world in the ideal Zelda would have to be huge, as big as TWW, but even bigger. It would have to be undivided, mostly. Perhaps divided into a few large provinces, as in TP, but have no loading times outside of that (TP had 8-second-or-so loading times between each area, isolating the parts of the world). I would want it to be a massive landscape, complete with unnamed fields, forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers. Of course there would be important locations Link would need to go to, but there would also be all sorts of undiscovered corners of the world, with nameless places to explore, filled to the brim with underground caves and passages. I'm imagining finding a locked door behind some hill, killing a certain enemy on the plain to get the key, and finding a piece of heart or some rupees inside, maybe even a needless dungeon containing some invaluable secret.

Yet there would need to be some kind of direction, right? Imagine the entire Great Sea in TWW opening up to you right from the beginning, with no idea where to go. I suppose the world would need some kind of boundary surrounding it (if not just forbidding Link from going any further and forcing him to turn around, as in the edge of TWW's world). In mostly every Zelda, you're stuck in some place at the beginning, and then the world opens up to you. So, the ideal world would be big and filled with secrets, but would have that perfect balance between open-ness and boundaries.

On the subject of dungeons

The major dungeons in the earlier Zelda games were big and confusing. ALttP's dungeons are possibly my favorite, just because they were well-thought-out and complicated. Link's Awakening also had good dungeons, though the fact that most were limited to only one floor took away just a bit from the feeling of depth that ALttP had. Later games in the series have simple and straightforward dungeons, where you solve a puzzle and move onto the next one. Everything is so concrete and simplistic. Of course, there's usually some gimmick now, like magnetic boots or slicing tentacles with a boomerang. TWW's dungeons were nothing short of cakewalk, and even TP, which was supposed to have deeper puzzle-solving, disappointed me just a bit. In the original Legend of Zelda, the dungeons (or labyrinths) are deep, twisting underground mazes full of fearsome monsters, locked doors, bombable walls, traps, and keys. You didn't follow some path to the boss, you forged your own path. You fought through a big underground maze, often hidden in the most obscure place.

I think the dungeons in the ideal world would have to be big and confusing, especially the major dungeons. Nothing you would ease through in a half hour. I want to see some truly monstrous labyrinths, winding and twisting deep underground, filled with complex puzzles, death-traps, all sorts of nightmarish creatures, and lots of keys and locked doors. Rather than fighting some wimpy miniboss to get an item, then using the item to find the boss key and fight some easy monster, I want to get lost in a complex system of chambers and tunnels, with stairways and passages going in every direction. If there is some key item, it would be obscure and hard to find, buried deep beneath the dungeon's puzzles. Link wouuld forge a path through the dungeon (as in TLoZ), then get randomly ambushed by some beast or group of enemies. The main boss would be hard to get to, and I would imagine it being some horrible beast, in a huge dark den full of skulls and bodies. And then there would be CHALLENGE. Too often, the boss is just some thing that you kill with three hits by exposing its weakness with some clearly-highlited method. In fact, I haven't seen a truly challenging boss since the Oracles.

And yet, with the massive complexity of the dungeons, there would still need to be some sort of direction, as with the overworlds. Even TLoZ points you in some direction (with the exception of the ridiculous Death Mountain labyrinth), you find the compass and try to get to that room where the Triforce unit is. Of course, I wouldn't want it to be so clearly divided into little squares, as it, LA, and the Oracles did. I would want a dungeon where you might have an idea where you're trying to go, but have to find out how to get there.

The overall course and structure of the game

The ideal Zelda would have to have some structure to it. But it would need to be unknown to the player. Perhaps there would be long quests involving collecting a series of pendants or crystals, or whatever else. But that wouldn't be the whole game. There would, of course, be a plot of some kind, to drive the game along in some way, but the game wouldn't revolve around it, as in a lot of RPGs. Zelda has never relied a whole lot on plot, and in that aspect, it's fine just the way it is. But there would need to be more than just going through several main dungeons and fighting a final boss. Whatever happened to adventure? I appreciate that TWW at least is nowhere near predictable, and yet it's so short and simple when you really think about it. If you apply TWW's unpredictability to ALttP's lengthy quest, you'd have a great outline.

On the subject of tools and weapons

There would be some items needed for getting through the game, but the ideal Zelda would also have a lot of invaluable, but helpful, little treasures. One such example of this is the Magic Armor from TWW. You had to go out of your way on some repetitive trading quest (that could have been improved upon) to obtain a helpful treasure. The bigger the sidequest to get an item, the better it would have to be. There would be all sorts of weapons and tools, and some (basically) necessities, such as the hookshot or power bracelet. Maybe the Master Sword (or whatever major weapon Link gets) wouldn't be replaced, but rather improved upon, as in ALttP, where you can get it tempered, and then powered with fairy magic. And I would want there to be side weapons present, that have something innovative about them but aren't needed. Like maybe a fire or thunder sword or something.

Well, that's my idea of the ideal Zelda, what do you all think?

Originally Posted by link2478

the only thing id like to see is more itims

I disagree. Look at TP. There is a large number of items, many of which are rendered useless once you've acquired a better item or completed the dungeon in which you found it.

This is a good idea. I'd like to add to it the following:

• Handicapping
  One thing I'm sure many of us long time veterans have noticed is that the games are getting easier and easier as they are released. This is a travesty. There's no challenge anymore. The Oracle games had the right idea with the Ring System. There was a substantial number of rings that allowed you to put a limit on Link's Power and Defence, specifically the Power Rings, which sacrificed Defence for Power, and the Armour Rings, which did the opposite. Then there was the Cursed Ring, which was wholely negative, halving both your Power and Defence, and other rings like the Double Edged Ring, which damaged Link and the enemy similtaneously, and the Whimsical Ring, which reduced Power, but randomly dealt critical blows.
  What I'm saying is, we need a system similar to this in order to give ourselves a decent challenge, whether because the game gets easier the more you play, or because you genuinely find it difficult from the very start. It adds replay value to the games like you wouldn't believe.
• Limited strength and more challenging battles
  I miss the days when you had to go well out of your way to get your hands on the ultimate weapon. ALTTP and LA are probably the best examples, having to complete certain tasks or collect special items to upgrade your sword to the strongest level. I don't count Biggoron's Sword, since you had the option to choose whether to equip it or not once you acquired it. In most recent games like TWW, TMC and TP, the strongest weapon is acquired as part of the story, and becomes your default weapon. I hate this aspect, because it gives you no means of challenging yourself. Take ALTTP, for example. Get the Golden Master Sword (Lv.4) and you'll destroy Ganon in no time at all. Leave the Master Sword at Lv.2, and suddenly he's a lot harder, especially since only Spin Attacks will damage him. Ganondorf (TWW) and Vaati on the other hand presented absolutely no challenge at all, the reason being they were not creative enough enemies, and Link's attack power was at its maximum by default. This needs to go. I welcome the day when they return to OOT's equipment system.
• Unlockable master dungeon
  A secret dungeon with tough puzzles and tougher enemies should be mandatory at this stage in the series. Dungeons such as the Hero's Cave in Oracles and the Palace of the Four Sword in ALTTP GBA were great additions to the games because of the extra challenge they offered, in Oracles' case because of the prize at the end (Lv.3 Power and Armour Rings) and they just add extra gameplay value. I would find such a place preferable to the incredibly mundane sidequests such as TMC's figurine collection. True, it had a great prize (the Mirror Shield), but the task itself is so long and drawn out that it puts off many players because they don't have the patience. Such things should be acquired by solving truly devious puzzles (Hero's Cave) and defeating a truly difficult enemy (Palace of the Four Sword). Things like OOT Master Quest didn't satisfy to this end. Truth be told, I actually found it easier than the original. The addition of an extra quest or dungeon would really add to the replay value of the games.

That's all I can come up with.