Miyamoto wants shiny new and fresh Mario and Zelda games, totally digs Portal

[Pip Boy]

I agree with that last bit. Some games like Quest 64, some Zelda games, and a few others are made to feel very empty because there are only 2 or 3 cities, none of which do you spend any great length of time in. At least most final fantasy games have plenty of action going on in the cities and have some in-game social encounters involved.

[ironymaster]

Zelda just seems to improve in ways that Sonic couldn't, the same goes with Mario. The fact is, Nintendo is far more innovative then Sonic Team. Miyomoto seems to know how to appeal to the crowd that he targets. Which is why these two game franchises are so good. Let's hope he does well with the next Zelda and Mario games.

[Regulus Tera]

Originally Posted by MFD

Eh, I thought Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game to seriously bring that third dimension feel to it. That was pretty awesome.

You never played Ocarina?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I agree with fleshing out cities. If you take TP, maybe expand the world a bit and threw in some large cities with heaps of sidequests and stuff to play around with, that would make me pretty happy.
And made it harder. Now that I think about it, the Cave of Ordeals in TP was pretty cool especially the lower levels where you had to fight liek 3 knights and things. So they can make fights that test skills and things. More of those, and make hits do far more damage.

[MFD]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

You never played Ocarina?

I've played the shit out of Ocarina. Twilight Princess had: walking on ceilings and walls, looking at reflections in ice-floors for enemies above you, a vastly improved swimming mechanic that allowed the creation of Zora's Domain the way it should have been, and claw-swinging through ruins in the sky.

Ocarina occasionally made you aim manually.

I would argue that Twilight Princess is when the series finally achieved the true potential of all three dimensions.

[Kim]

No, here is what you do.

The setting? Prohibition Era. The bustling metropolis of Hyrule. Throughout the game, you read and hear all sorts of legends and stories about the Hero of Time and the King of Darkness, though they aren't considered anything more than legends by people.

As a young kid working at his uncle's bar, you are walking home, when you are confronted by a blind beggar who runs up to you panicky and not making much sense. He says you are the Hero of Time reborn and tries to give you a rusted sword, which you refuse. As you are walking away, you see some mafioso walk up to the beggar and pull him into a car.

The next morning, you wake up to your uncle arguing with some people outside, and when you look out the window, he is gunned down by the mafioso from the previous day, as well as a tan, Italian mob boss, who everyone just calls Ganon. Molotov cocktails are thrown into the window and you have to escape the burning wreckage as Ganon and his men leave. You have nothing left.

You collapse in an alleyway from exhaustion, and when you wake, a little light is floating next to you. The ghost of your uncle. He tells you he is not really your uncle, that he found you, and that the tattoo on your hand, the one of three golden triangles, has been there ever since he found you.

The rest writes itself, though I have yet to come up with an adequate roll for Zelda. You largely get the items from the other Zelda games, with maybe a few exceptions, but you find the items that belonged to previous Heroes of Time in ruins beneath the city.

It's either horrible or awesome. Or both!

[MFD]

Look, here's how you shake up the plot of a Zelda game.

There is no Zelda.

Let me say that again.

There is no Zelda.

You introduce the United Hylian Republic to the canon. At some point, there was a revolution, and the Royal Family died out. There are Anastasian rumors concerning a branch of the royal family tree descended from Zelda, but nobody knows for sure.

It's a legend of Zelda. Got it?

The crime boss in NonCon's pitch just calls himself Ganon. The real Ganon may be coming back through him, but he's not Ganon. Just some punk like Aghanim or Zant who thought they could summon the great evil and keep it contained.

The game will imply that the gun moll who betrays Ganon is part of the royal bloodline, but nothing is explicitly said.

[Bells]

Or maybe they could pick up were Twilight dropped off, and now we could have QUEEN Zelda and her personal Knight Link...

You know... less mario on the Zelda plots

[Roland]

Y'know, I'm thinking that something as radical as the ideas presented here isn't going to cut it. No offense, guys.

What I'm thinking is that they should just stop with this "Ganon the King of Eeeeviiiiil" stuff. As much as I love G-Man, he needs a break. Hyrule's a big kingdom even if it doesn't feel like it, and there's plenty of room for more villains. In fact, if Zelda's going to be in the game and be important they should give her a break from her otherwise daily routine of being kidnapped or imprisoned, too. Of course what this means is that the writers can no longer rely on G-Man breaking his seal and wreaking havoc/Zelda doing something dumb, so ideally we'll get a plot/story that's fresh, creative, and interesting.

Then there's the overworld: I'm sick of the "big space with a solid rock wall or a big long cliff/pit around it" stuff that we've been getting in the 3D games since OoT. I don't see why we can't have an overworld that's at least somewhat seamless. If it's supposed to be an actual geographical feature (fun fact: That canyon in the Eldin region? It empties into Lake Hylia) then sure, but I should still be able to get over to the other side.

Tying into that: Hyrule is a big place, Nintendo! Remember Zelda II? It took place in Hyrule but the landscape was completely different than LoZ's? It's because there's a North Hyrule. So Hyrule is BIG and it should BE BIG. I can't be any more blunt about that, I swear. A place doesn't have to have important to the plot so long as it makes the world feel less empty and more alive.

And finally, one thing I liked about Majora's Mask that they don't seem to have touched since then: characters actually "doing" things. They don't need things like Oblivion's Radiant Ai bullcrap or some random scripts that tell them to eat/sleep/drink/stroke the player's ego. All they need for me is a schedule that they'll follow.

[ironymaster]

Prohibition? How about a cyberpunk LoZ game instead? I know some might be against it, but it could be viable if done properly.