| Vini256 said: By the way, here's some thoughts I wrote a while back about how I'd personally improve this new Zelda formula for the next game, seems fitting for this thread: - Bring back traditional dungeons (At least 8 of them. 4 dungeons isn't enough for a map that big). - Less shrines (40-50 at most), but they're bigger and don't share the same visuals anymore. Make the puzzles actually challenging. - Make exploration more rewarding, because tbh once you realize that all you'll find are either Koroks or Shrines (Or disposable weapons), it becomes rather boring imo. - Make voice acting optional if possible. I think Zelda worked better without it, I liked reading the story at my own pace and it was part of the charm for me. Light BotW spoilers: The flower lady cutscene wouldn't have been half as funny to me if it was voice acted, the exaggerated reactions are what made it good. - More enemy variety. Each area of the map should have it's own exclusive enemies (Like Skulltulas and Poes in dense forest areas, for example). - Less "copy-paste". What I mean by this is that I want more unique content in the overworld. Finding a labyrinth doesn't feel special when you discover that there are 3 more of them at the other corners of the map, only slightly different. Same thing for enemy camps. - Main menu: Bring back the title screen, music (Fairy's Theme) and more save slots. - Put music everywhere again. To avoid music getting annoying/repetitive, just make longer and/or dynamic themes (Kinda like how Mario music changes on the fly when going underwater). For example, if you have a theme for Hyrule Field, make it change depending on the weather/enemies/time/riding a horse/etc. - Make the map a bit smaller, but add caves and underwater sections to the game. - Completely revamp the weapon durability or get rid of it (Shields aren't damaged when shield surfing, weapons last longer, make it possible for us to repair them with certain items, etc). - Give us the green tunic at the start of the game again. If people don't want to use it they can simply wear something else, since armor is likely staying for the next game. - Good non-shrine quests, since most of them were just "Bring me X stuff and I'll give you something in return". Of course this is all my opinion, sorry for the giant wall of text =P |
The reward from exploration is not the trinket at the end, it's the journey. To make exploration more rewarding the landscape needs more variety, more surprises along the way, hidden valleys, caves, etc like you said. Better enemy variety helps with that as well.
Less copy paste and more unique content is the way to go. That's a lot to ask though, no other rpg has kept me busy for 170 hours so they did a lot right. But indeed, a lot of shrines felt like filler and you don't need 3 rows of hearts so they became quite pointless as well in the end. I have the same feeling atm with the moons in SMO, a lot of filler and I quit at 570 ish, are there really 999 in the game???
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