Nintendo has been experimenting a lot with their IP, especially when it comes to The Legend of Zelda, We have seen crossover games such as Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule that blend genres, and there is room for it to be done again. ARPGs are a popular genre, with the most well known being Diablo, and other popular names including Torchlight, Path of Exile and the recent Minecraft Dungeons to name a few. After spending some time thinking about it, I have realized that The Legend of Zelda would be an interesting fit for the top down dungeon crawler ARPG genre.
The game could be a crossover game with the developers of other ARPGs, like Neocore, developers of Warhammer 40 000 Inquisitor Martyr, Grinding Gear Games, the developers of Path of Exile, or with the developers of Torchlight perhaps, or as an experiment with an indie developer possibly. This idea is not an inane as one might think, as there are several ways to include multiple classes and weapons to find, in addition to having a precedence to follow. After all, Hyrule Warriors changed the gameplay dramatically and allowed you to play as multiple different characters, each with their own abilities. For the best way to utilize the classes, a different playable character could represent each one. Link would be the warrior, Zelda a mage, Revali for an archer or hunter, Nabooru for an assassin/thief type character, a Goron like Darunia for Barbarian and Sheik could be the monk type class. The roster could be taken from a variety of characters across the franchise run and become a celebration of the series.
As for the gameplay, it would essentially follow the mold of games like Diablo III, Path of Exile and Torchlight, but set in Hyrule and allow you to fight enemies from the Zelda franchise new and old, and get loot for specific classes to make yourself stronger while also having the loot reference the lore of the series. That said, there would need to be an injection of Zelda tropes and concepts into the gameplay in order to make this a true crossover. Towns should exists in some form, as should puzzles that actually take time to solve, item management, dungeons ( with shrines also working as smaller dungeons), sidequests and a narrative that is not shallow at all, just to name a few basic concepts from the series. This could be like the aforementioned Warhammer 40 000 Inquisitor Martyr which actually did innovate on the genre, adding in ideas like cover based attacks and incorporating strategy elements from its parent franchise. An isometric Zelda ARPG could do the same, and inject the gameplay ideas of the Zelda franchise into the ARPG genre and make a proper merger.
In the end, this is just one idea for a path the franchise should take, but it is one I think would go over very well. What do you all think? Would you play such a game? Let us know!
I think Nintendo should call it The Legend of Link and mainly play as Zelda.
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There should be more crossing over between games period but the copy rights between the companies keeps them from this new potential method of gaining profits. Depending on your progress in game A when you want him to crossover to game B will allow you to make progress there as well. For example I have on my Switch The Legend of Zelda Breath of The Wild and The Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim. If Link travelled to skyrim he would have to learn magic but stamina and health will be dependent on Breath progress. In skyrim Link can learn to smith weapons and take a few back. In breath they still well break but depending on what you smith your weapon and enchant it with well determine what you bring to Hyrule. Most likely it well look like “Royal Guard Sword 115 damage extra durability”.
ARPG is not the only cool genre that would be nice to come from Zelda. I really would love to play a Real Time Strategy probably based on the war that happen just before Ocarina of Time. Like most RTS games you build bases, gather resources, train an army. The world map should look like a Civilization 5 map and you move troops from one territory to another until you meet your opponent. Then you load up that map and play a real time game and either conquer or be destroyed or retreat if you see victory not possible. Like a certain RTS LordOfTheRingsBattleForMiddleEarthRiseOfTheWitchKing every territory you move troops to you either gain the territory if it is unguarded or unclaimed, but if there is either a garrison or you meet the opponents army there you have to fight. Ganons forces probably call them the Gerudo Army should have a huge advantage in the desert but in the grasslands The Hyruleans have the advantage. If you take over quickly enough an enemies base you can use it to train your own forces, not quite like the Command & Conquer series where you train enemy type units, instead taking over an enemy base will give special upgrades to remove weaknesses to your opponent’s armies. Therefore for example if Hyruleans take over a Gerudo base quickly then the hyruleans can upgrade so that they are equal to gerudos in the desert. Taking over a base must be very difficult and the game needs to be will balance between the factions, like Starcraft level of balance. The resource gathering probably be mining and grass cutting.
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Skyrim and Ys Viii Lacrimosa of Dana are both Action RPGs and I really enjoyed both of them. I looked at the number of games that have received Game-of-The-Year and most of them are either Action Adventures especially The Legend of Zelda or are Action RPGs like Skyrim and The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Only one was a RTS game and that is Starcraft Brood War.