Well, the not being Link was just a suggestion.  I agree if he's refreshed that would be fine.  Maybe playing as a more evil Link?  Or maybe a spellcasting Link, or just a redesign of Link's abilities (more ninja-like maybe?).  Give him some more personality, but never have him talk.  Voice acting for the rest of the characters though would be nice.  

I think physical expressions are definitely the way to go in expressing Link's emotions.  They did a great job in Twilight Princess, but there is certainly room for improvement.  I want something similar to May and Newland in The Age of Innocence where you can understand everything one's thinking and feeling from the look in their eyes.  It's amazing how Romantic you guys want this to be.  You want Link to be more of an antihero ("more evil Link"), you want Zelda to be a independent woman archetype, and Ganon to being this dark and brooding villain with a shady past.  It's certainly got potential, but I think that betrays Zelda's Nordic roots.  I can see Zelda having more to say about what happens, but I like Link and Ganondorf's current roles.

Another possible thing is to take the FFCC route and begin the game with Link already cemented as a hero and build from there (this would work especially well in a Hyrule that is at war).  It's certainly a fresh take on the series, but keeps the integral core of the game the same.  I love me some humble kid becomes great hero, but the potential for a slight change in the basic story is undeniable.

I agree that the TP storyline while good in a lot of aspects did feel somewhat too similar, esp compared to OoT. However moving in such a radical direction like a WWII or modern setting is a horrible idea. Half the charm of Zelda is the quirky world of zoras and other creatures.

That said, what I think is that instead of moving away from the zelda storyline, they should move more into it. There's so much potential strong plotline/history behind the story. They can bring the original 3 gods who created hyrule back as a storyline feature to explain the nature of the triforce and why there's 3 legendary wielders (i.e. the glowing sign on their hand in TP). They can go into a deep storyline on why Ganon/Link/Zelda are always in conflict and why they keep being "reborn" against each other. They can explore the history/creation of hyrule and the original battles over the triforce that caused the creation of the dark world (maybe a light vs dark war kinda thing) and the eventual triumph.

Whenever somebody mentions a new Zelda, this video comes to mind.  It's an April Fool thing.

 http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/31/april-fools-alert-1-wii-tvs-future-zelda/

I wouldn't mind if Zelda went into such a radical new Final Fantasy-esque direction, but the typical Zelda theme works for me as well.  Voiceovers wouldn't hurt either.

Who cares about the story and characters? The story and character elements have only been increasing from Majora >> Wind Waker >> TP, and these are the games people are increasingly displeased with. Solution = more and bigger? Huh?????

Another thing which doesn't matter is 1:1 swordplay. How does that freshen the adventuring and puzzle-solving elements at the core of Zelda?

Here's what I'm thinking...

The camera sits somewhere between the above camera of classic Zelda, and the behind camera of current 3D Zeldas... You'll see why this is the best...

The first item you get is the sword. To attack enemies, you point at them and press A. Hold A and draw a quick circle around yourself to do a spin attack.

Within the first three dungeons of the game, you traverse through most parts of Hyrule. In the process, you collect practically all of the normal items: Arrows, fire arrows, bombs, bombchu, boomerang, hookshot. You can use the pointer to precision-throw bombs, to draw bombchu and boomerang paths, and to aim with the arrows and hookshot. However, this all leads up to getting the marquee item: a magic wand.

The first wand power is simply to attack. You can switch between the sword and wand on "A". With the wand, you can hit far away enemies, as well as far away objects. (Towards the end of the game, this could be combined with your sword to have that Oni Link style infinitely long sword.)

You add to this another wand which can pick up, move and manipulate small objects, including grunt enemies.

The third wand summons three spirits of dead heroes (or something), each of which can use a few of your items. You can switch between them simply by clicking on them. This way you can control 4 characters at once and have to figure out how to use them all to advance.

The moves with all of these powers would be very simple to learn--mostly point and click--but the fact that they are at least kinda new, combined with a slightly different camera viewpoint, means when you first see Hyrule there is no element of "I'll have to come back here when I have the hookshot." Instead, you won't even see the puzzles the first time you pass them, or at best see them and end up totally confused.

For example, there could be a treasure chest on a distant housetop, but you can only get on one roof, and there's a stack of boards outside that house. Each jump between roofs is slightly too far, and the hookshot doesn't work. With the second wand, you can use the boards to bridge the gap between roofs.

Then later, you could have the same scenario, except that you need to hookshot onto the first roof, and from there you can't see the boards. You'd have to send a spirit dude onto the roof, and then build a path in front of him.

Maybe these aren't all the best ideas or best examples, but one would hope that Nintendo thinks along the lines of using just motion/pointer oriented items (whether old or new) to create fresh puzzles. A movie-like story, 1:1 sword-fighting, or a change in setting are just obvious, and IMO ultimately distracting and unimportant additions.

erik aston,

wow. completely disagree about story, characters, and 1 to 1 sword swinging action not being important. i mean hell, the idea of 1 to 1 motion controls is the main reason why we all bought a wii. i'm sure just about every nintendo fan first thought of swinging the controller to swing a sword in zelda when they first heard about the wii.

as for your idea how the game should be like, its another good idea. their have been a few really good ideas and a few really bad ones (time change/wwII setting) so far on this thread. but its ridiculous to negate development of the characters and storyline in a franchise that is supposed to be an epic adventure. those two elements are key in such a game.

and people aren't complaining about the recent games because they have a greater focus on characters and storyline than earlier zeldas. people are complaining cuz the series hasn't changed much at all in 10 years and 3 installments after ocarina and needs to reinvent itself.

it doesn't need a major overhaul, it should still be the same zelda, link, hyrule and everything that we know. but perhaps branching storylines that change with how you play the game and give different end results, more character development and diving into the stories of ganon and zelda and what is going on in hyrule rather than just focusing the story 95% on Link. As some have suggested, a war torn hyrule where you help lead an army against ganon would really pull the gamer into the game more by emphasizing that you are in fact fighting for the kingdom of hyrule and all its people. wheras usually theres not much sense of fighting for the kingdom against an evil that endangers everyone in the land. smater AI, MUCH harder bosses/enemies, 1 to 1 motion control, hyrule on a more epic and interactive scale, new moves for Link (the first of which should be a jump button or motion), and maybe a different take on how you progress through the game changing up the normal dungeons-layout of the game. not saying get rid of dungeons but something different than just going from dungeon to dungeon. add in some new enemies, weapons, items. all of these things would make a new and better zelda most likely. the series doesn't need a revolutionary change but several smaller changes to make the next evolutionary step for the series. cuz most people would agree there hasn't been much evolution of the series since ocarina of time.

Just because 1:1 Zelda sword-fighting is the first thing that pops into your head with Wii doesn't mean it's a good idea. I personally don't see how it's really intuitive or where the potential is for freshening the exploration/puzzle aspects of Zelda which should be the most important. It seems better suited for Mario and Sonic fencing, IMO.

The adventure of Zelda has never come from the story. The story has always been invented to suit the shifts in gameplay they've wanted to make. TP had the biggest story yet, and felt less "epic" than comparitively tiny games like OoT because it was too linear. The "epic" feeling in the best Zeldas has come from the level of interactivity with the world and the growing sense of accomplishment that comes from solving it's puzzles.

And overall, I would much prefer Nintendo surprise me with something fresh than give me exactly what I expect or think I want. I might not always say that about the next videogame company, but that's what Nintendo have always done at their best (and what they failed at during the GC years).

One thing I certainly agree on is having tougher bosses... Overall, I thought TP's bosses (and most of the puzzles, too) were extremely clever and a ton of fun, but were way too easy; at worst, taking two attempts.

TwiPri had some fine moments, but it was weighed down by a disappointingly thin storyline, very little character development, and surprisingly limited use of the Wii controls.

In terms of controls, the Zelda design team should sit down and play through "Okami" and take note of the amazing interactivity of that game, despite the limitations of the DualShock controls and the aging PS2 hardware.

In terms of storylines -- they should play through Final Fantasy 12 and think about creating an accessible adventure game which evokes the same issues of personal development, social responsibility, and sheer jaw-dropping wonder.

Another idea, along the lines of past spin offs, would be to have Zelda be the main character you play in the game! But it should remain a more adult story along the lines of Twilight Princess and not goofy like Super Princess Peach and her crazy emotional phases... :P

I completely disagree with erik aston. There has to be more story in TLoZ series. Hell, the plot in TP was on Mark of Kri level imo. If only they would give the game more depth, no one would say a word about freshening the series. As for the controls...1 to 1 sword wielding would probably fix the diffuculty setting s that people sometimes complain about. With better enemy AI, who's to say that having to wield a sword and finishing of the enemy will be easy? for instance, take the full body armor soldiers from TP, with their defence being good as is, do you think that it would be easy to effectively control the way Link wields the weapon? I'd say that it would take a long time for anyone to actually learn how to fight properly.