That being said, I think that giving Zelda a more RPG-ish feel will ruin the Zelda games we’ve all come to know and love. I think the freestyle action fighting like in OoT/TP was pretty good.

Asides that, I completely agree with the darker plot. I mean, we can’t feel any pressure anymore. Okay, sure, Zant’s turned all the Twilis into big ugly things, so what’s the rush? I think Majora’s Mask was the darkest: Moon’s gonna fall, you have 72 hours to break a curse, get some masks, beat some zombies, and stop the moon from falling and destroying everything. OoT comes second, like you said, with the “I feel like the world’s sorry state rests on my shoulders” thing.

Then… The difficulty. I think… Majora’s Mask was the hardest out of all 3D Zelda games. Dunno who, it just was. Twilight Princess was too easy. I think they should make bosses more complex, enemies harder to defeat, and most of all, lots of useless sidequests that make it SEEM like the game is harder…. (I was kidding about the last one).

Then, the Voice Acting. I think VA’s would just ruin the Zelda “feel” we’re all used to, because when the game is silenced, you can put yourself in the Hero’s place, and think out loud what you would’ve said in his place. If there is a text, or VA’s, there are less openings to all the things the Link could say. I think silence is okay, because it gives you more things to think about, and gives the game some deeper feelings.

Sides that, I’m completely with the thought of having more open endings. Maybe even go as to having multiple endings possible? Or at least have something else than the usual “realize you’re a Hero, save a Princess, save a land, defeat an Evil King, get the Princess, and BOOM, game’s over.” sequence. I mean, Majora’s Mask and TP were variants, and OoT had spectacular twists to the cliche plot, but maybe they could alter Link’s goal a bit? Not just “Saving the Princess, Beating the Dark Lord”…

As for soundtracks, I don’t really mind, because time after time, Legend of Zelda has surprised and enchanted me with many new and creative melodies that engrossed me deep and led me to do many things. The magic of Zelda is partly int he music, and I think… They should keep at what they do best.

That’s what I think, anyhow. Let’s see if our expectations will come true in the next Zelda games to come.

~Heroine of Time

And as for the Voice acting, I agree as long as there are good voice actors. Bad voice acting can truly ruin a game for many people. Hell, I have a friend that refuses to play Final Fantasy X because of it’s god-awful voice acting, and Sonic the Hedgehog’s voice acting makes ears bleed. Yes to GOOD voice acting, but if you have bad voice actors, it can ruin the game for many people, no matter how good the game is.

First and foremost, the HUD in Twilight Princess bugged the heck out of me. It took up about half of the screen, giving me almost no room to look around. There should at least be an option to let you take things off the HUD if you want.

But to aid in this effort, I want the gameplay simplified. The other thing about Twilight Princess that got on my nerves was the insane number of gameplay mechanics: horse riding, wolf form, and the dozens upon dozens of items, just to name a few. It just created a really schizophrenic and almost scripted game, taking the fun out of experimenting and exploring. I want the next game to focus on just one gameplay aspect instead of incorporating dozens.

When I talked about adding some RPG elements in the next Zelda, that doesn’t mean turning the battle system to turned-based. They have to leave the battle system ( free-roaming) and as I said, let them add a level up system like the one in Fable. Bioshock have some RPG elements(upgrading plasmids), COD 4 have some RPG elements (perks). It will give more depth to the gameplay and to the combat in particular. Upgrading and leveling up are the RPG elements I want to see in the next Zelda.

I totally disagree with adding RPG elemets to the game, cuz it will simply change the whole genre of the game and I don’t want a drastic change in Zelda games, their good as they are. I also disagree with adding the voice acting, I just don’t want to take out the unique feeling from the game, I don’t mind if they added more grunts and moans to the characters thou. The last point that I really really disagree with is making the game darker, a Zelda game is a magical experience, one that you would enjoy and be mesmerized with, I really hated the twilight and darkness stuff in TP, on ther other hand I was really fascinated by the experience I had with Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, it’s bright not dark, but it’s sensational.

I would like to add one more thing that I would like to see in the next Zelda game, I’d like them to make it more story-driven and both Zelda and Ganondorf play a big part in the story, and not just get squeezed forcibly in the story just to please the fans, also I would like the story to unfold the truth about some gaps in the history of Hyrule and the triforce, these things are integral to the zelda franchise and would make an epic story that will not feel like a filler story such as the case with TP.

Sorry that I let my fanboyism get the best of me, but the criteria that Nintendo is following now with the casual gamers, makes me really frustrated cuz they’re forgeting us.