Here's my pitch for what Nintendo should do for Zelda U

The conceptual problem is "how do you get back to NES-style basics while still doing what a modern game is expected to do, without overtly doing a "retraux" game like NSMB or Link Between Worlds?" How do you create the "feel" of the NES games (desolate and intensely hostile), with the window dressing of the Zelda U Tech Demo?

My answer "Silent World." The story would be almost like the part of Twilight Princess where the whole world was covered in Twilight and so all the "light-worlders" were ghosts, except taking it a step forward. Ganondorf/whoever's evil plan has come to fruition already, and everyone who isn't an animal or a monster is dead. (Everyone. Stalfos. He won't need that saw anymore...) No corpses or anything, to keep it at least T-rated, just vanished off the face of the earth. Everyone but Link. No explanation is given at the start of the game, except a wordless dream cutscene that implies that Link's mission is to go to the dungeons and conquer them to make things better again.

The world would not be as drab or over-saturated as Twilight Princess, it would be colorful like Skyward Sword's, but all wild and desolate. Villages would be overgrown and Hyrule Castle town would be run down. The fields would be infested by Bulbins and Moblins and Lizalfos, the towns by Stalfos, and very few places would be safe. Maybe there'd be one enemy like Metroid Fusion's SA-X or RE3's Nemesis, completely unbeatable, who would randomly roam around the world, occupying only one "area" at a time, and you'd have to run like hell whenever you got on the same spot in the map, and as the game advanced, more than one would appear.

The overworld would be like Monster Hunter, except all interconnected. One giant map, but no big open field or hub (sky or sea), to recreate the "grid-like" maps of the older Zelda games.

It would double as an excuse to not have voice acting. Link is the lone survivor, and is *really* the lone survivor, with the ending being that the magical whatever creates a new Princess Zelda, with an implied Adam and Eve-style reboot for Hyrule.

This game would promote exploration the hard way, because there is no-one, anywhere, to talk to you (which, yes, is more extreme than NES Zeldas, but that's the point). Signage could be placed at the pertinent points to give in-game explanations for special moves or items that would not appear self-evident, and like Link Between Worlds, you could "buy" things (maybe Owl Statue Beaks like in Link's Awakening) that would serve as an extra assist if you *really* need extra help (Super Guide, basically). Maybe you would earn points through hours played and game-overs that would let you buy the super-guide beaks.

Thoughts?

Joke, right? Lol, Silent Hill Zelda.

:/ Hadn't thought of Silent Hill.

Not a joke, though. I think it would be a good way to promote what made the NES games so good (without getting into "Adventure's" maddening difficulty) while still having the grandeur of a full-scale 3D game, and providing a reasonable excuse in-universe why there's no-one around to help you or provide any more plot than what you can derive from the world itself. No more "exposition fairies", Great Deku Tree, Happy Mask Salesman, Tetra, Midna, Impa, Ravio: Everyone's dead. Nobody can tell you anything.

More of a BioShock/Metroid Prime ripoff in that regard (though even BioShock had "normal" folks in small numbers). The gameplay would be important, but i'm thinking more about a good setting to justify the "classic" gameplay and the harshness of the world.

I'll love it. Just keep the brownish palette of the Twilight World in TP and I'd buy it at launch.

Hmm, very interesting idea. I do want Zelda to be more mature and "Scaryish"

But I did like the Sea concept in WW cause it made the world feel big and epic so maybe keep something like that. I want a Zelda where there are much bigger islands but also a Sea that you can travel across to get to more islands and etc.

With that being said... What I really want the most is to play as Zelda at some point... Link is awesome but just as I love playing as Luigi in Mario, I would like to play as Zelda in their next game cause playing her in brawl is awesomeee

That should be a spin-off game. Zelda wouldn't be Zelda without other characters and an actual story. I think it might fit an RTS game.

Very interesting ideas, but it might be a little too extreme for my tastes. I do really like the idea of a desolate, hostile landscape confronting the hero, though.

I agree that Nintendo doesn't need to "make" an excuse for no-voice-acting, just that people seem to love some post-apocalyptic stuff, and this would likely shut up hardcore whining about the lack of VA.

The villain could be mindless Ganon, more monster than man and incapable of speech, damaged himself in his final spell.

As for "unbeatable" enemies, it wouldn't be too tough to implement or too hard on players if they did it like Monster Hunter. Occasionally when you're just out looking for regular supplies, a monster will be in the area. It generates a minor annoyance because you don't want to go to the effort of fighting it off, but if you try to ignore it to do what you want to do in the area (pick mushrooms, etc), it'll probably kill you, or at least mess you up pretty badly.

The nemesis wouldn't chase you from area to area, just move around at random and create a little extra headache from time to time, like if you're badly wounded and trying to get to a healing fountain, but it happens to be in the area just before the fountain.

Also you could fight it to drive it off (just not kill it) later on.

Think "Deviljho" in Monster Hunter Tri.

That sounds a lot like Dark Souls and I think it's the perfect idea for a Zelda game. Dark Souls does so many things right and harkens back to an older era of videogames, it's as retro and modern as you can get and it's perfectly balanced in both fronts.

A Zelda game that took notes from the Dark Souls franchise could potentially become something truly special. But as long as the game is in charge of Aonuma I don't see this happening.

Sorry, but this don't look like a zelda game in any way. Sound more like a metroid game(desolation, no one around, etc).

And I'm really worried that a good amount of people want zelda to be dark souls on combat, and start acting like something different is a let down.