Borkachev on 26 April 2008
1. Story. Reboot the series. Start fresh and from the beginning. Really create a strong history and mythos for Hyrule that can be explored and built upon with each sequel or prequel instead of this messed up thing we have now that tries to vaguely connect each game but not really.
What kind of history/mythos do you mean? An overall story arc that's slowly built up from game to game, while still doing the new world/new Link thing each game like they're doing now? I could go for that, but not much more. Bringing in a new Link every game (or almost every game) is much more interesting than having one Link going on wacky adventures every Saturday morning. And the landscape of the world has to be reworked every game, or else it would get dull fast.
The main thing I want from Zelda is better combat and more RPG elements, some of which you touch on. The games should bring in some kind of stat upgrades -- maybe tie them to rupees, because as you mentioned there really needs to be more uses for those. And take a cue from other action games and make the combat more dynamic (in Twilight Princess it actually got pretty decent toward the end with all the new moves and more challenging enemies, but it was awful before that). Right now, there's really no reason whatsoever to even bother fighting enemies, unless they're directly in your way. These are huge areas of untapped potential in the game, and they could be realized without any huge disruptions to the Zelda formula.
5. Items. Cut down on items, really only have a few that make up the core of the game. Give the player these core items early in the game and upgrade them if applicable and really use them to their fullest through the game and its puzzles. Focus on the bow, boomerang, hookshot, iron boots and bombs and intelligently upgrade them or apply twists to their design to really let the player use them throughout the world and make it rewarding for the play to experiment with these items, dont make their use so cut and dry.
I could go for fewer quest items, but an equally good solution would be for them to better put to use the items they've got. The clawshot in TP, for instance, was used constantly (which is good, because it's a good item), while things like the spinner were hardly good for anything. Maybe that's the inevitable result of bringing in a lot of items -- not all of them can be clever and useful -- but it's really the root issue that needs to be solved.
I wouldn't mind seeing more non-quest items, though, which goes along with "more RPG elements" that I mentioned before. What they do isn't too important. Just make them do something worthwhile, and make them cost money.
4. Dungeons. Dungeons need to be trimmed down. We dont need 9 random dungeons strategically placed throughout the world for Link to tackle one by one. Bring down to 4, maybe 5 at the most. Have them be structures in society that have a real purpose and function within the world, not isolated temples set aside for Link to go from point A to B and fight the final boss. Take a page from Metroid and make them big since theres fewer of them and allow for multiple avenues of exploration and dont allow them to be tackled in one run.
Here I disagree. I'll take more, shorter dungeons any day over fewer, longer ones. A change of scenery is essential when they start to drag on.
