I know an obvious way to go for the next mainline Zelda game – Reader’s Feature

With the next mainline The Legend Of Zelda still several years aways, a reader has some concrete ideas for what it could do differently to the existing games.

Like every Nintendo fank I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the remake of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time next month. For a long time, I considered it to be the best game ever made and it was really only taken over by Breath Of The Wild, so it’s Zelda of one flavour or the other as far as I’m concerned.

Tears Of The Kingdom will be four years old in May, so it’s not inconceivable that Nintendo will start hinting at what the next mainline game will be next year, especially given the movie coming out and the 40th anniversary celebrations. I doubt it’ll be out much before 2030, but we might get a name or a bit of artwork or something.

In the meantime, it’ll probably be just remakes and spin-offs, and I’m fine with that. Part of the magic of Zelda is that it only comes around once or twice a generation, in terms of a mainline game, which keeps it special and gives Nintendo enough time to make something memorable.

Now, we know for a fact that, unless Nintendo is going to do a U-turn (I doubt it, they’re not Xbox) the next game is not going to be in the Ocarina Of Time style and it’s not going to be Breath Of The Wild style either, or at least will definitely not use its map. This we know for a fact, because they said so, which is a lot more than we usually know going into a new game. Even if it only tells us what it isn’t, rather than what it is.

I’ve been playing a lot of The Witcher 3 remaster recently, so that will give you a hint at where I’m going with this. I’m not suggesting that Nintendo should try to copy The Witcher, but it’s been interesting to me, to see the similarities between both franchises, since they are both big, open world games and while Zelda technically isn’t a role-player it comes pretty darn close.

In fact, one obvious suggestion might be to make it an actual action role-player. The series has already dabbled with this before, with Zelda 2, and while that’s not exactly a series highlight it does show it could be done.

That kind of doesn’t matter though, because whether Zelda has stats or not, it doesn’t really make much difference except maybe needing to level grind. And Breath Of The Wild already had a form of that, in terms of having to get kitted up before taking on Ganondorf.

What I think would be more interesting is if the next mainline Zelda finally made an effort with its story. I’m not expecting The Witcher style seriousness but after all the talk of Tears Of The Kingdom being one of the few direct sequels it barely had any references to Breath Of The Wild and still no story more complicated than ‘get Ganondorf.’ Even the bits back in time with Zelda were pretty pointless.

I also think of the recent Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, which I’m currently working my through but, let’s face it, the script is terrible. It would be so much better if the dialogue and acting was better, but Nintendo just don’t seem to care about that and it all comes across like a cheap, low brow anime.

My idea for the next mainline Zelda is for it to focus on those things that Zelda doesn’t traditionally do that well. Admittedly, that’s not a long list but the story is one and I would say the combat is the other, especially as The Witcher isn’t great at that either. It’s not that Zelda combat is bad, but I’d say it’s adequate rather than good. The boss battles are often good but not the actual combat.

But then, outside of combat, combat is never really the focus in a Zelda game, so I would change that, make it more complex, with more options and weapon types, and push it as far as they can. It doesn’t have to be Devil May Cry but more in that direction would be good.

Zelda has already been reinvented once so I see no reason it can’t be reinvented again. The suggestions I’ve made, plus maybe a new art style, married to the usual gameplay and dungeons and you could easily have another all-time classic on your hand.

By reader Cubby

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