What do you want in the upcoming Zelda for Wii U?

First of all, first post (yay...). Second, I know that topic posts are usually centered on new announcements, but I thought it would be interesting if GNamer had some more discussions. My question is: what do you want in the upcoming Zelda, what do you not want, and what do you think it will actually be? Do you want a big overworld or a more linear approach like Skyward Sword? Speaking of Skyward Sword, do you want button based controls or motion based controls? What kind of art style do you want? What changes do you want to be made, and what do you want to stay the same?
Discussion start!

First of all, welcome back!

Second of all, rule number 2 of the Internet (after rule number 1, which is Rule 34 - it's confusing): nobody cares who got the first post.  

Third of all, this has actually been done before: but it's all the way back down the middle of the second page, so I don't personally have a problem with this, unless other people think we've discussed it too recently.  (It was more than six months ago.)

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And to actually answer your question(s), no more linearity PLEASE.  I would much rather shift back to a TP-style sprawling overworld.  If they're going to redo the division into land and sky, or land and dark world, or land and anything else, the land has to be continuous.  If they took other inspirations from SS, though, such as the Silent Realm idea, the revisiting of dungeons, or (yes!) the brilliant brilliant motion controls, I would be happy with that.  (I can foresee motion controls with the pad on the side as a map/inventory screen, like Pikmin 3, but then I don't have much imagination.)  As for the art style, WW's and SS' were my favourites, but I'm happy to be surprised with something new.  Just as long as it isn't a reversion to TP's palette of washed-out colours.

And I'll mentioned something that I've always wanted to see, but which will be dead unpopular: a futuristic Zelda.  Link, armed with his olde-worlde sword and shield, finds himself stuck up against Moblins with laser guns, giant robots (which we sort of had in SS' desert-y bits), genetic splices of old Zelda foes...  I'd love it, so long as (again) they don't go down the post-apocalyptic route and make everything all dull and brown.  Lots of neon colours and biodomes please!

Failing that, I'd like to play as someone other than Link for a bit, like in Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door: either Zelda (lots of magic spells, and potentially parkour-running with Sheikh), a redeemed Ganondorf for a slower, stronger change of pace, or Groose.

GROOOOOOOSE:

Also I want the Spirit Tracks train back, to supplement but not replace overworld movement.

Balladeer wrote:

Also I want the Spirit Tracks train back, to supplement but not replace overworld movement.

Get out. Now! Be gone! Come on now go, walk out the door, don't turn around now, 'cause you're not welcome any more.

Anyway aside from that initial heart attack I'm going to wish for almost the complete opposite to Balla:
Twilight Princess style, just imagine how beautiful it will look in HD, it already looked cracking in SD...
Motion controls can go back to the circle of hell they were forged in and I'd love a return to good ol' button presses. Heck I'd even go for Stylus controls over Motion.
I think the map is good in TP but I'd like a better world, a more alive world. I'd love it if they could turn the world into a massive GTA style world with NPCs going about their lives. I suppose that's one of the plus sides of MM, though if there's a time limit I'll punch something.
One thing I do agree with Balladeer on though is how fantastic playing as Sheik would be. I'd take a whole spin off in a Prince of Persia style (possibly because I just want another damn Prince of Persia game) playing as Sheik, the combat can't be a rough as every Prince of Persia game going either!

If we're going for a completely different style though I'd love to see a gritty modern telling of Link, a kid who grew up on the streets of NYC who fell in with the wrong crowd and fell to selling "Fairy Dust" to get by. He can go on a quest with his trusty moped Epona to save his childhood friend Zelda from her abusive mafia boss boyfriend Ganondorf. Would be awesome

Just that it be good and not have the brown-on-brown art style of Twilight Princess (although that is surely what we'll be getting: Skyward Sword tried to straddle the two Zelda styles and Wind Waker HD will have its cutesy bootsies firmly in the cel-shaded camp, so it's time for a more 'serious' Zelda). More to the storyline, as well: Skyward Sword opened things up in a new direction, which I loved. Let's have more of that, and more characterful NPC's, too.

Agreed with ZJ, and strangely not disagreeing as passionately with Andy as I expected to. (I'd actually prefer a horse/dragon/robot/any mount that isn't consigned to rails and isn't a boat to a train, but that doesn't have the same trolling value. ) I mean, he's wrong in several areas, but that only thing that actually makes me baulk is:

andyman949 wrote:

If we're going for a completely different style though I'd love to see a gritty modern telling of Link...

I play Nintendo to get away from gritty games ta much, with the occasional exception of Metroid.

Balladeer wrote:

but that only thing that actually makes me baulk is:

andyman949 wrote:

If we're going for a completely different style though I'd love to see a gritty modern telling of Link...

I play Nintendo to get away from gritty games ta much, with the occasional exception of Metroid.

I think that bit may have been a joke.

You never can tell with PS3 owners.  If so, it's one-all!

Yeah it was a joke, though the more I think about it... It would be bloody awesome!

Playing Assassin's Creed, which had lots of big, pretty-looking forests you don't have anything to do in put me in the mood for a massive, living, breathing, photo realistic Zelda world that's dense with ideas and characters and things to do. Like the Elder Scrolls games with a charm injection and some actual gameplay.

After that they can give us all the funky art styles they want.

also, this needs to happen:

but I don't want to go to Funnyjunk, and even if I did I should imagine there will be more than 1 image to look at!

I for one want the games to go back to a Majoras Mask or Ocarina of Time feel.  It was dark, but at the same time it maintained a sense of cartooni-ness (hooray for my butchering the English language!) and has therefore ages reasonably well.  Other things I want to return is side content that actually means something.  After Wind Waker it seems like they decided to say "screw the special unlockable powers, screw the fun and inventive weapons, just give them health and money that can be used as backup health!" as a incentive for exploring vast amounts of empty plains of nothing.  

That needs to perish in my opinion.  Majoras and Waker were both fun to play around with because they gave you these genuinely fun powers, and offered more of them in a charming world packed full of easter eggs and secrets as an incentive to take a time out from saving the land (or ocean in the case of Wind).  I would also add it would be nice, indeed it would be very nice if enemies actually caused enough damage on hitting the player that it becomes something I want to bother avoiding.  

Another thing I want brought back that was ditched Wind Waker and on is the ability to sequence break.  Even without exploiting glitches it was possible to do some of the Temples in Ocarina out of order to an extent, same with majoras.  Less of plot opening dungeons and more the players abilities that they've unlocked opening the path would be a welcome return.  It makes repeat playthroughs less boring for starters.  

And the final thing I want to return, which I touched on at the beginning, is the cartoony feel.  No more of this wannabe realistic rubbish, it just does not work.  Ignoring the fact I play games to escape the mire I call reality there's the simple fact that out there character designs do not work in realistic graphics.  The result was Twilight Princess's horrible nightmare inducing Ordon children (of which only the blonde lad looked normal).  The out there character designs seen in Zelda works when you go for a non-realistic look, not a realistic one.  Skyward Sword from what little I played of it did an absolutely amazing job of bringing the cartoony style back, and I very much want to see the series continue in that direction.


Oh, and one final thing. I want the gimmick controls ditched.

I can't agree that OoT or MM have aged well. I feel the latter to be near unplayable... I wouldn't really be up for replaying OoT either, though that could just be that the game just doesn't do much for me and because I played it straight after the infinitely superior WW.

Despite how much I'd love to see a return to TP graphics I know it won't happen which is a damned shame as they finally have the graphical power to make it look truly amazing.

I was referring to the art style rather than the gameplay, which I too found rather grating after playing Wind Waker.  I would give the edge to Majoras Mask as far as overall gameplay fluidity goes though, playing the two games back to back (which I do every so often because of the nostalgia rush) it just felt like they had tweaked the engine ever so slightly to make it smoother, or something.  It just felt different to play a little, even as base Link with no masks on.  

And Majoras is no more unplayable than any game from that era.  

Well I'm not much of a fan of the N64 in general (apart from Paper Mario obv) and MM just drove me mad with the awful masks and to me a lack of any obvious place to go at a given time. Not to mention I found the time limit unforgiving and it made the game repetitive when most of your actions get erased by turning back time.

I was on about the CDi games today, and i would quite like to play as ZELDA or at least another character to mix things up. Style i would like realistic like the tech demo shown, and more dungeons unlike skyward lets go back to the same 3 places 9 times. I want more variety in levels and places.

PS andy is nuts the N64 is arguably the greatest console of all time.

If you like bad controllers, graphics and the original Paper Mario then I'm sure it's the console for you! Otherwise I'd recommend every other console ever.

Controller was great,  balla will agree with me here.  Some games graphically have aged badly but the gameplay is still top notch on all of nintendos games (and rares, quite often play a bit of goldeneye). I've never played paper mario on n64 but aspect it's good like pretty much every other N64 game. Only consoles that come close to n64 is dreamcast,  ps1, snes, mega drive and the nes.

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/55054/zelda-wii-u-well-have-various-ways-of-using-the-gamepad-aonuma/

This might not please some, also we have two what you want in zelda U but not actual thread for zelda U if info comes out etc.

"What do you want to see in xxx" threads tend to turn into the actual xxx threads when the games are revealed.  See MK8, SSB4 and "Super Mario Universe". Although it depends a bit whether ILVG ever comes back.

I'm glad that they're using the controller, I think?  I really want Motion+ swordplay to make a return at some point (put those shotguns down, you'll only injure yourselves), but if there's a franchise I trust to make the gamepad feel essential, it's Zelda.  Quite apart from Four Swords Adventure essentially doing the gamepad bit ahead of its time, Zelda is often the franchise to make things click.  PH had great touch-screen usage, even if the game itself was meh; SS showed just how good Motion+ could be in an actual game; and ALBW seems to be doing a great job with the 3D.  I'm sure Zelda U will do likewise.

Wii U pad as the Lens Of Truth.
(Makes absolute sense IMO)

I want voice acting. Not for Link, obviously, but everyone else should have a voice actor. The lack of it in Skyward Sword made it feel old.

They don't need to change the writing style or how you interact with people at all - just add a voice.

I was arguing this only today. I don't think it makes the games feel old at all: just like Zelda. And voice acting is very easy to muck up. No voice acting is much better than bad voice acting.

Get in good voice actors, Claudia Black, Jennifer Hale, Troy Baker, Nolan North etc. I don't want link voiced but most of the others even if it's just cut scenes or something should be.

*sucking air through teeth noise*

Re: Voices: Be veeeery careful what you wish for:



I'm replaying Skyward Sword at the moment, and although the M+ sword is quite accurate, I'm a lazy unco-ordinated gamer; therefore I'd, rather selfishly, want to return to buttons. And - I know it's a cliche - the gamepad should be used for inventory. My goodness I sound like a conservative arse. But I like the Lens of Truth idea...