If it were not for Fallout 3 being fun, but not quite capturing the previous games I might agree. Also, I think the Bethesda/Bioware thirdperson rpgs are getting to feel quite a bit the same. Each one is a great game on its own, but after you play several they blend together. I don't think Zelda should try to be more like a increasingly stale genre.

It's like saying Mario could be better by being more like Ratchet and Clank. I like both individually, but they really are different games with different styles of gameplay.

I'm willing to wait and see what Nintendo produces. They often surprise me.


Oh, and there was one time where nintendo radically changed the gameplay of the Zelda franchise.
Link's adventure , a game I like, is considered by many to be one of the weaker installments.

^that's because most people thought it was hard. They don't like challenges. I for one loved Link's Adventure, and I was only 6 when I first beat it.

^ Shadow link sucks.

I played that game forever as a kid, but my point was more that a radical departure from the previous installments is not guaranteed a success or even destined to be a great game. If they reinvent the wheel and stray from known Zelda gameplay and elements they will have just as many people unhappy about how it isn't really a zelda game.

Personally I think Zelda should look at Demon's Souls for ideas on how to integrate online and multiplayer into it's gameplay without sacrificing the single player. Not the gameplay, aesthetics, or anything else, just the ideas behind the online components.

Could you expand on this for the Demon's Souls-less?

Well in Demon's Souls you are constantly online, but normally this doesn't affect you very much. You'll see hints and messages written on the ground, you can watch other people's deaths by clicking on bloodstains, and you'll see ghosts of other players as they play shift in and out of existence but you are still in a single player experience. Sometimes though you can be attacked by an invading player, or summon them to help you by clicking on signs they leave on the ground. There is also a boss that uses the online aspect very creatively.

I think this general philosophy could be adapted into a Zelda with some pretty cool results.

Huh.

I'll have to think for a while about how that could be applied to Zelda

I could definitely see how this could help Zelda, though it would be awkward to implement given Zelda's mythos. At least in that form.

zelda is beyond fallout

The Legend of Zelda becomes a wasteland? That would suck.