The next Zelda game should be a full-on proper RPG – Reader’s Feature

Should Zelda switch genres? (Picture: Nintendo)

A reader suggests that Nintendo switch things up again for the follow-up to Tears Of The Kingdom, and create their own take on a JRPG.

I’ve been playing Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom pretty much non-stop since it came out and I still haven’t 100%-ed it. It’s an incredible game, just like Breath Of The Wild and, to be honest, most of the Zelda series. But where did you go from here? It’s impossible to top Tears Of The Kingdom in terms of size and complexity without spending 10 years making it (or reusing the same map again, which I don’t think anyone wants).

The predictable suggestion from certain parties is that Nintendo should go back to the old formula but I’m against this. Every franchise should always be moving forward and while I’m all for remakes and spin-offs, I don’t believe the mainline sequels should ever go back to the old ways. Apart from anything it doesn’t make any financial success, because the last two games have been far more successful.

So, it needs to be something new, but what? My suggestion is that Nintendo take inspiration from the Mario series, which also has the constant problem of keeping itself fresh. What I would do is make a Zelda role-playing, not in the style of Mario RPG or Paper Mario, necessarily, but a relatively traditional Japanese role-player, but with a Zelda spin.

This would have several benefits beyond just being something different. It’d allow for you to have a playable Zelda, at last, as well as other recurring characters that are always in the games but never really do much except talk, such as Impa, Beedle, the fairies, and dare I say Tingle.

Obviously, you can add in lots of new characters, but I’d like to see something new and interesting for the combat, maybe something more similar to Fire Emblem but with a real-time element. Something that feels both old-fashioned and cutting edge, which is basically the whole appeal of Zelda.

People often mistake Zelda for a role-playing game, but it isn’t. Apart from armour there’s no stats and even that was only in the last two games. But as well as character stats you could also greatly expand the way armour and weapon upgrades work, adding crafting and customisation more similar to magic systems in game like Final Fantasy.

Magic has never been a big thing in Zelda, at least in terms of the abilities you can use, but here you could go wild and that’s not really something you’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game before. I’d imagine you’d have less platforming than usual but perhaps more puzzles and definitely more dialogue.

For me, Zelda has got to the point where it needs to move into full voice-acting now. They’ve hung on as long as they could, and I appreciate that, but it’s starting to seem weird having these long talks that are just text and a few grunts from the character. In an RPG you could have proper dialogue choices and conversations.

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It’d also be nice to have a proper story too. Even the last two games have barely had that but while I don’t want the whole thing to be overtaken by cut scenes and dialogue a story that makes sense and is interesting, with a decent script, would certainly be something Zelda has never had before.

That’s my suggestion anyway. Hopefully Nintendo can come up with a lot of new ideas that I can’t conceive of, but I’d really like to see their take on a traditional role-playing game. They’ve kind of done it with Xenoblade Chronicles but Monolith are fairly separate to the rest of Nintendo and I’d like to see what the people that made Tears Of The Kingdom would do with the idea.

By reader Claiburant

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A reader suggests that Nintendo switch things up again for the follow-up to Tears Of The Kingdom, and create their own take on a JRPG.