You and I had better hope that Monty isn't around because while I agree that Okami is a very good game, I feel it's lacking something that I can't quite put my finger on.

If Shadow of Colossus had more bosses and some enemies on field, it would be on par to me...

Nothing would kill Zelda hype. Zelda is Zelda. Just like not even Forza could kill GT hype, etc.

It's reasonable to think it but it is also reasonable to think that Zelda will still continue to be one of the greatest franchises in the history of gaming even so many years after the first game int he series.  Seems like a mute point eh.  Obviously I'm quite a huge Zelda fan (even admittedly to that of Outlaw as a fanboy) but when it comes to Zelda there is just something special about it when you play a game in that franchise... someting I don't feel too often for many other series.

I'm not going to argue against another series possibly (or maybe already) having the potential to be better than a Zelda game, but I just want to make sure that series knows that it isn't just facing any great series but one of the masterpieces of the gaming industry as a whole.

You're right, the most "basic" aspects of Zelda may have been equalled in a few occasions: combats with impressive bosses, immersive quests, huge worlds to explore, light puzzle or platforming elements, all of these may be found in many other (good to excellent) games...

But the Zelda's puzzles and the use of the weapons, the way they're designed in the dungeons and become one of the main ingredient of the serie, that's something i've never experienced elsewhere, not even in Okami or Metroid Prime...

And in the end, the sum of all its parts has that little bit of extra magic, something "special" i just can't name, but bring me joy and fun... :)

Now, i'd like to be wrong, and i'd like to play more and more games in that vein... as many said, Okami was one of the only very good example... and the Team Ico games are also awesome: but even then, there should be at least a handful of these to make me buy another console...

If PS3 had a decent backwards compatibility, i'd definitely buy Ico and Shadow of the Colossus in addition to the Last Guardian... but when you look at the numbers of games released each year, on all consoles, that's not much, not much at all... 4 or 5 games in that vein and of this quality, in the last 10 years? And with the exception of Okami, they're not really "Zelda-like" anyway...

And no one to say the gaming industry is lazy, of couuurse...  :)

The fact is, it takes a lot of time and lot of talent to create a 50 hours-long adventure of such a quality, and the genre isn't as popular as 1st person shooters or RPG's... plus, if you create a really original game, with a deep story and a unique visual style, it may alienate a large part of the "hardcore mass market", as we've seen with Okami, so... no guarantee to make profits... that's sad, but it must be one of the main reason, i guess...

its impossible to kill Zelda hype.. i mean that game has been around for years.. the game is immortal to gamers eyes lol

SIXAXIS redux?

I dunno.. Have you seen Sony's list of launch games for the wand? It's a freakin joke! Definitely tells me they don't care much about supporting the wand so I doubt they'd take the time to make an epic Zelda like adventure game for it.

I personally thought -for example- that Okami was a better Zelda than Z:TP. It had creativity and good design in spades, though my experience was marred by some pacing problems.

As for "basic" platformers, I've often wondered why it isn't a much more trodden path nowadays. I love playing LBP with friends, but it's more of a physics-based controlled chaos -fun- experience than a skill rewarding one.

Edit: I see that the Okami case has been furthered by others as I was slowly jumping between the compiler window and typing. I'll take your responses to those other posts :)

Yea.. I can totally play a PS3 game on my Wii.