We’re playing through Echoes of Wisdom, which is extremely charming, and I’m wondering what other games would suit Zelda’s character?
I’d love to see a strategy game, where she’s playing the proper role as a ruler of a kingdom, so maybe a Civ-like where you have to build alliances with the Zoras, Gorons, etc, while defending from Gannon’s forces, and other beasties. Not sure if it should include a tower-defense type or Dynasty / Hyrule Warriors element.
I like this idea because it’d develop her character in a meaningful way, and provide a good excuse to build more stories and lore into Hyrule.
Considering Nintendo were brave enough to do a tactics shooter with Mario, I’d hope they can keep expanding their IP into new genres.
You’re right though, Tower Defense would be actually a great fit, considering her role is to protect her castle and lead her armies. Like you’re saying it could really be fun to have a Romance of the Three Kingdoms-style large strategy game where you have to make alliances and do basic trading and colony building. Hyrule is taking shape as a consistent geographic place in the last several entries, where Gerudo village is in the Southwest, Lost Woods is in the North, etc and I think it could be a good strategy game map. I think Nintendo might have a problem sending Hylians to die by the hands of Rito villagers, but it would be fun.
I think she was playable in Cadence of Hyrule, right? I never played that one but I’m fully in support of Nintendo loaning out their IPs to indies who have visions like this. Games being created by fresher minds outside the sphere of predictable mainstream genre conventions. Makes me wonder why they only did that once and don’t seem interested in doing it again – were the sales real bad or something?
what about a Phoenix Wright style game where she’s a copyright attorney in the mushroom kingdom who aggressively shuts down fan projects and prosecutes rom sites and hackers with extreme prejudice
I was hoping that after BotW we’d get a kingdom building sim. TotK got my hopes up with the construction sites dotted around, as if completing each puzzle would start a new village. Sadly not.
The psychological escape from Ganon’s lair could be good for the 100 year lock-in before BotW: what skills and psychological tricks did Zelda have to figure out to keep Ganon at bay.
A Crusader Kings type game (with a better UI) where Zelda is in charge of leading Hyrule through generations. She has to work with the leaders of the different tribes, mediating disputes diplomatically, approving their leaders (or not ), setting up marriage alliances, and strategically deploying Link/Impa (the young Sheikah version) and other Hyrule warriors (see what i did there ) to repel Ganon’s armies.
Every few hundres years a red moon will threaten Hyrule and shell have to shore up the defenses of the kingdom to survive the attack.
All this actually just makes me want a Hyrule mod for Civ/Age of Empires.
Edit: lol didn’t read the rest of the thread. Seems like we’re all on the same page here.
Great question. I’ve been thinking a lot about how TOTK could work without the emphasis on combat; like would it still be fun if you just added more NPCs and story oriented quests, got rid of the map and objective markers, doubled down on exploration and puzzle-solving? These kingdom/village building elements people have listed would fit right in. It feels like Zelda would definitely be a natural main in this.
Alternatively, Nintendo takes the gameplay and speed from F-Zero and Zelda stars as an up and coming racer in the newly formed Hyrule Grand Prix races, with tracks around the sky, land, and depths of Hyrule! The only thing stopping her from total victory… Max Verstappen.
I want a game with a calendar where you’re Sheik playing a Thief like at night, and a Disco Elysium who done it during the day as Zelda.
You’re nighttime escapades are to inform the investigation. You find leads on where to find clues/evidence at night to progress the investigation during the day.
I was just going to say (and my only lore justification for this is that Zelda uses a bow sometimes) that I’d be interested to see Nintendo do a third-person cover shooter. Splatoon and Breath of the Wild sort of made me fall in love with gyro aiming to the point that I add it into any Steam game that I can, but for some reason it’s still never quite taken off. Maybe all we need is one good Nintendo take on Gears of War before devs start adding it as an option themselves! Or at least for them to stop locking gamepad input when using the mouse so it’s less annoying for me to do it
), setting up marriage alliances, and strategically deploying Link/Impa (the young Sheikah version) and other Hyrule warriors (see what i did there 
) to repel Ganon’s armies.