That would ruin who Link is and would ruin the whole feel of the series. IF they did end up doing it, they better keep Link a mute.

Link and Zelda kiss. Either that or the Link that is the main character in this game is actually the child of Link and Zelda from a previous Zelda game.

As far as I've seen, there's never been a single town in a single game that matches Termina. It's other games that need to catch up with Zelda in that regard. I don't see why a village in Zelda U has to be 60 people large. The size of Termina's town is fine for a world as big as the one in Zelda U.

Speaking specifically about dungeons, one hope I have that not a lot of people have mentioned is that I hope that the dungeons are all one, large, connected space. The only dungeons that came close to this were the ones in Skyward Sword, but even they were separated into a handful of areas. I want to be able to travel to a dungeon, go into that dungeon, beat that dungeon, and leave that dungeon without experiencing one loading/black screen.

To me, that would even be more impressive than the "open world." Already had a technical open world in Wind Waker's over world, so the over world in Zelda U doesn't impress me as much as a massive, seamless dungeon absolutely will. I can't even fathom that, to be honest. Only the Souls games have offered me something that feels like that.

As long as the story isn't bad and pace halting as Skyward Sword's was, I won't mind. But if "story focus" means "another Zelda game where it takes an hour of unskippable exposition and tutorial before you can start," definitely no thanks.

I haven't decided on my answer yet, and I haven't read anyone's comments yet, but I've read the OP, and I have to say that I really enjoyed both the Silent realms and the tadtones quest in Skyward Sword. I'm all for skipping the excessive tutorial sessions at the beginning of the game, and things like the triforce quest and the tears of light missions can go, but I want the SS sections the OP condemned. Without the silent realms, there would hardly be any stealth sections at all in over 50 hours of SS, and there was hardly any other section in that game as challenging as those. And the flooded forest where you take the tadtone quest is one of the most beautiful environments I've ever seen in a game

Why would it ruin anything? Link doesn't have to speak, and voice acting is implemented in most games now. The fact that Zelda hasn't done it yet makes it feel antiquated more than anything else. Text bubbles aren't conducive to a game like Zelda. It's like the only modern AAA game that still doesn't do it. And that's not a good thing.

For me, what I hate about those sections is that I'm basically playing a collect-a-thon in a Zelda game. That's not fun in any game, but it is the complete antithesis of what should be in a game like Zelda. Zelda isn't a stealth game; it's an adventure game. You're supposed to be adventuring, not collecting 20 pedals or 40 tadtones. It's a chore. It's busy work for the sale of busy work.

There's no reason Zelda can't have beautiful environments without being crippled to tedious, bad gameplay like that. The stealth section in WW was better than in the Silent Realms. The stealth sections in ALBW were way better than the Silent Realms. Hell, the real stealth section in Skyward Sword was better than the Silent Realms, because that wasn't a collect-a-thon.

It's not the atmosphere of those sections that need to go, it's the tedious collect-a-thon mechanics behind them. I'm all for something that feels as uncomfortable as the Silent Realms as long as I'm not being forced to do some mundane collect-a-thon or fetch quest while I'm there. I'm all for swimming in an area as beautiful as the flooded forrest as long as I'm not being forced to do some mundane collect-a-thon or fetch quest while I'm there. I'm supposed to be on an adventure exploring, not on a scavenger hunt collecting tokens.

I like the idea of dungeons being connected together somewhat, but I think making them all connected would maybe feel a little bit forced.

Looking at how Epona won't run into a tree because real horses don't do that I'd say it would be cool if some of the dungeons were connected, but not all of them, because in the real world not all caves are connected and enlessly big, it kinda goes back to what I was saying about not being big just for the sake of being a huge thing, they're epicly big to serve the purposes of gameplay they offer and because they work realistically within the kind of world Nintendo are making for this game.

Underground locations can definitely be big, connect to a bunch of others, maybe some walls are blocked off and you have to chop your way through some or some stone or other super tough materials block your access to another area underground until you find a strong enough bomb or defeat some massive enemy, like a troll or a rock monster with a power you have to progressively gain.

I totally agree on making transitions into and out of dungeons seamless to navigate to, like you find a tunnel and you go into it (whether it's climbing down ladders or just walking into a cave and traveling down naturally formed paths), walk around in the caves and dungeons, complete the objectives you need to, in order to progress and then you come back up to the surface, no loading times, just movement through the game world.

I assume what you basically mean is like in Minecraft, everything is one world and it all connects in some way?

If so that would be awesome, I don't see why that can't happen in this game.

The prospects of this just blow my mind as a gamer, I hope this is what Nintendo has been making.

I can agree with the bolded, though I really don't mind collecting things. Maybe platformers have trained me so. I also disagree with the underlined, because while it can be abused, it can also be a great mechanic when used well (SEE: purple comet levels in Mario Galaxy)