Nintendo has been pursuing collaborations heavily lately, with games like Pokken Tournament, Fire Emblem Warriors, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE and Hyrule Warriors just to name a few. This has me thinking about other collaborations Nintendo could do.
Nintendo’s collaboration with Koei Tecmo for Hyrule Warriors was considered strange at first. Yes it was a good game, but the fact is that it may not have been the best collaboration for Zelda. For Fire Emblem, it made perfect sense, but Zelda is a bit different. When it comes to the Legend of Zelda series, I feel there is one collaboration that would work more than all others: Hyrule Fantasy. A crossover between The Legend of Zelda and Final fantasy series would be the union of two of the greatest gaming series of all time.
A Zelda crossover with Final Fantasy may seem strange but it shouldn’t. Zelda has dabbled in RPG elements before, as seen way back in Zelda II, and the Final Fantasy series has gone into action at times. This theoretical game could be played as an action RPG similar to the Mana series, or more akin to classic Final Fantasy games. It could combine the series in a variety of ways, either by having the worlds merging elements like in Mario + Rabbids or merge gameplay elements like Hyrule Warriors. Another method could be a Zelda game that is simply much more RPG oriented and has references to Final Fantasy, with some enemies and such appearing, or some of the series staple weapons and abilities showing up. Finally, this could be a new Zelda setting that has Final Fantasy elements already, since alternate timelines and universes exist in The Legend of Zelda series already.
But then the question is, why do this? Well because as I said, these are two iconic series and are often compared strongly with each other. Zelda may not be an RPG series (Adventure of Link’s RPG elements not withstanding) but a spinoff game that delves into the genre would be welcome. Hyrule Warriors has shown that Zelda can work as an action game, and Nintendo’s previous collaborations with Square have shown that a an RPG spinoff game of an existing series can work wonderfully like with Super Mario RPG. In addition, this could be a game that celebrated all of The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy as a whole, maybe even bringing in elements from the more obscure games in both series. Not to mention, the music this collaboration could bring us would be something absolutely amazing.
Of course this is just my opinion on what the best Legend of Zelda collaboration would be. I would like to know your opinions, so please share them.
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The above was the opinion solely of the author and does not necessarily represent that of Real Otaku Gamer or its staff.