This is just a little follow up idea for BOTW I've been brainstorming the last few days. It would not be like a normal zelda game (I mean, it won't be an adventure RPG)

The Legend of Zelda: Reclaiming the Wild.

This would basically be an open-ended kingdom managment sim, where you play as Zelda following the end of the game, where you work to rally your lost hyrulians together, and rebuild the kindom of Hyrule!

This wouldn't require a big team at all, and could hopefully be completed very quickly, in a year or so, like Majora's Mask. This could be a small side team, leaving the main zelda team to work on either the next zelda, or whatever else Nintendo may be planning. The game's map, and NPC's would be reused, hopefully not leaving very many new assets needing to be made. I do know new assets would have to be made for the optional areas of the map that could be rebuilt, such as hyrule castle, castle town, the various town ruins spattered across the map, ect.

The cycle of play would be being in the castle for the day, listening to your advisers, hearing concerns, and getting updates on how the projects you're working on are going, and getting to choose new projects to undertake. followed by being able to wander around areas of your kingdom, talking to your subjects, maybe getting small sidequests from them. You could explore around, and choose to research ruins, if you want to try to utalize some of the ancient shiekah technology, working well with Zelda's personaliity shown in the backstory, with her loving to research these strange ruins and learn about the world and the past, and how to put that knowlege to use.

The different projects you decide take real world time to happen, and require tons of rupees and different resources to fund, so some projects you could undertake could also deal with just being able to aquire these resources faster. Also, you could optionally load up your save file form Breath of the Wild, and transfer any rupees or resources collected in that game, so having Link working to rebuild the kingdom in his own way, by exploring and collecting treasure and things. This may give people a new reason to return to the game, to maybe start a new save, or just explore somewhere on the map they haven't yet, to help fund their endeavers in this new game, and make the projects happen faster.

Different conflicts can come up while you play the game, requiring your decision on how to deal with it. You could take either decision, and they both would come with their own bonuses and consequences. A few ideas for the conflicts...

*Some of the Yiga clan want to denounce their criminal ways, and rejoin your kingdom. Allowing them in would provode you with these new useful subjects, adept at combat, and ofcourse bringing a thousand lifetime's supply of mighty bananas!. But allowing them in would anger some of your other subjects, and of course introduce risk in your kingdom.

*You have the option of tearing down some old village ruins, and rebuilding the village, obviosely providing more room for subjects, and a way of colecting even more rupees and resources, but some are horiified of destroying a piece of Hyrule's storied history. This would be a big decision for Zelda personaly, as choosing to build this town would also destroy the knowlege that you could potentially find and put to use there.

Um, I'm thinking this game could be kind of open-ended, with no real ENDING to it, like a traditional sim-city/ strategy/ management type game. The different decisions you make shape the kindgom, and you'll end up with a different kingdom than a player that makes different decisions onf what to do. I'll try to thikn of more ideas for this game later, but I'll leave it here for now.

What do you guys think of an idea like this? I love my simulation games, and would love to play something like this, personally.

I quite like the idea in theory, it would be cool to have a different experience of the Zelda universe through Zelda herself and a different genre

The problem I think with a simulation in the Zelda universe would be the difficulty balance. If it is too deep and difficult, the general Zelda fans are not going to be interested. Too easy, and it will be a sim-lite game people may not find it deep enough

If you could get that right though it might be cool.

I thought of something similar after finishing the game, but instead of playing as Zelda, doing it with Link as side missions requested by certain characters. You know; peace has come (except for some new evil growing in the shadows, maybe the Yiga Clan getting stronger and trying to bring back Ganon like in Zelda II), so Hylians have come back to their previous, raveged settelements (as you said, the ones found scatered through the map, plus Hyrule Castle Town) and now the need to rebuild them. So you will help them do it by completing all kind of side missions; getting wood and rocks for new buildings, protecting waggons which carry materials from bandits assaults, cleaning certain area rich in resources which is plagued by monsters, defending a small town from an attack by the Yiga Clan, carrying certain materials from an area to a village in a limited time without letting it damage, opening and/or securing new routes for transport and commerce...

I can think of hundreds of posibilities for the DLC (and yet I feel that, if the strictly stick to what they have announced, it is going to be really dissapointing).

Haven't beat the game yet, but this could be a neat idea :p

Not sure how engaging it would be though

So kind of like a Zelda version of My Life as a King? That's a really cool idea!

I've always wanted continue the story after the ending in Zelda game, so I definetely like the idea. I mean it sure sounds better than a new triforce heroes.

An interesting idea. I think as an immediate follow-up to Breath of the Wild, I'd prefer an ambitious expansion in 18 months time. Think something like Link's Awakening or Majora's Mask, in a way; re-using the assets and structure but creating a new game in a new, weird kingdom.

Or I'd take a re-imagining of Link's Awakening as an expansion to Breath of the Wild. Use Koholint Island as the setting and Link's Awakening's story as the basics, but recreate the game using Wild's physics and chemistry engines and non-linear structure.

This... could actually work. Interesting idea!

I kind of had that game in the back of my mind while thinking of this! Loved that game.

Could birng in some more strategy if you could hire on soldiers (Or just adventurers, if you wanna make it like my life as a king) to explore for treasure and defend your lands. Could also have different defences, garrisons,ect you can build around the land to help hold back the monsters and other evils, though make it hard enough, that you could lose a settlement to an attack if it doesn't have enough defence, or the right defence.

Glad that a few of you are liking this idea, too. :)

Honestly, I think it's an awesome idea. It builds off the narrative of a hugely popular title, it fulfills a fan desire by granting Zelda her own game, and it gives Nintendo another under-represented genre.