I want Nintendo to create a co-op enabled 3d Zelda where you can play as both Zelda and Link, and the story revolves around Zelda fighting to save her kingdom as Ganondorf tears it apart from within and turns the people on the royal family and on one another.
Do you remember the very ending of Ocarina of Time where Zelda helps you defeat Ganon with her arrows? The same thing happened at the end of Twilight Princess I think, well they should make an entire game out of that but give her all the cool mechanics she should have, make her fight for Hyrule, make her the heart of the story.
Create a story where the kingdom is under attack politically, agriculturally, and economically from Ganon but he maintains a feared and uneasily tolerated spot on the royal council (Ganondorf is the leader of a large Gerudu tribe that has a voice on the council). He's secretly using dark magic to cause droughts leading to famine, paying pirates to raid merchants leading to people blaming the crown for not protecting them, he's taking control of the temples and dungeons and using the wealth inside to pay people off and coveting the magic inside the temples for himself, he is poisoning the minds of the court and corrupting people, in effect taking Hyrule down from the inside, leading to pieces of the kingdom to be usurped or rebellious to the crown. The game is spent trying to gather people around the world to your cause as you quest throughout the lands, build a case against Ganondorf to make the people see his false nature, and prepare for a possible war with him and his minions if it comes to blows (which it will). You have to earn the public trust in the way Fable 3 was trying to do and succeeding in some ways, failed in others.
Zelda games have always been hero-stories but the ways they tend to unfold have gotten stale so they should keep that hero-story but tell it differently by offering sidequests and main quests that show Hyrule in a desperate way, present a lot of chances to develop empathy for the citizens of Hyrule, fight to create a trust between Zelda and the people, and fight to overcome the plots of Ganon as he's on the brink of ousting the crown, insighting rebellion, and coveting power for himself. That's the kind of Zelda I want, it's not M rated, it's not super different but I really like hero-stories when they're done well and I'd like them to rethink how they're telling it. I believe you could add some certain elements of Game of Thrones to Zelda in the sense of magical high-drama world building and more intimate personal character drama, except without the cursing, sex, or gore that would lead to it being T or M, and without it becoming too overly complex for most players.
If I was making the next Zelda I'd have the game start with the King of Hyrule being assassinated and then a power vaccum develops, a series of demonstrations or localized rebellions begins due to people being unsure if the current royal family really cares for their plights and their sufferings (which have been subtly orchestrated by Ganon). Just enough people around Hyrule are untrusting enough of the royal family that the power doesn't end up transitioning smoothly to Zelda as it lawfully would. There has to be a way to make that kind of a scene without making it too adult. Violent and tragic things happen in a lot of Pixar films while being inclusive to a wide audience.
Oh, and Link and Zelda would have to be voiced and have personalities created for them, I thought that would go without saying but since the series is so set in its ways of silent protagonists I think I have to say it. They need to talk and be relateable people.
A princess full of pride over the heritage of Hyrule and compassion for her people and their suffering, and her fierce champion in Link whom comes from humble means and has a loving grandmother and younger brother to care for in his forest village. Link's parents were killed by Ganon's pirates when he was a few years younger and his brother was just a baby, and they were both taken in by the grandmother. The first time you take control of Link his story begins in the forest much like OoT and you help your grandmother accomplish homely tasks, and you get a quick brush with the co-op mechanics by interacting with your little brother, which later translates to some of the mechanics you'll be using with Zelda when she and Link cross paths and join forces. During that intro to Link and his forest roots the place gets attacked by pirates again, the village is burned, and Link's family runs for refuge inside the sacred Deku Tree which protects them and uses its old magic to cause the forest's trees to attack the pirates and protect the villagers. Link's grandmother and little brother are both injured in the attack and the grandmother dies in Link's arms inside the Deku Tree, but not before giving him a key to a secret passage hidden in their home back in the village. She whispers into Link's ear that there's something inside the home that could still save the little brother, she could also whisper something he has yet to learn the meaning to, typical fun cryptic stuff.
Link exits the Deku Tree with his rudimentary sword and fights his way to the village, into his home, and finds the secret room. It ends up having a shield, sword, a healing item of some magical nature to save the little brother and the sequence is where it's revealed to the player that Link's family has a special but yet unknown heritage, and over the course of the game you learn that the reason Ganon's pirates attack the forest people over the years is because they believe somebody born with the Triforce of Courage lives somewhere therein and Ganon desperatly wants to covet it like he would. You learn that the grandmother wasn't just some typical homely old woman but incredibly brave, clever, and working to protect Link and his little brother while putting on a very modest face to hide her history and the history of their family. I haven't thought much beyond that or when Zelda and Link would cross paths and find common cause. Maybe the switching between Link & Zelda can freely happen after that Forest intro and Link gets his gear, they both meet up because Zelda is out of the castle with her knights trying to avoid violence and assassination in the Castle, out on their mission to build evidence against Ganon and rally people. Link gets overwhelmed by a new monster type and Zelda and her knights come across Link and save him, they patch Link's wounds and tell him of their quest and Link feels he needs to join causes with Zelda to protect his brother and personal interests in the Forest from Ganon, and also as a debt to Zelda for saving him. Link joins her and helps her instead of it being the other way around, and they bond over their adventure as they each have a piece of the Triforce within them. Shit, maybe I'd even kill Link when I felt it was most impactful, as he's fighting side by side with the princess to defeat Ganon in the Castle at the end. Link's little brother whom you saved back in the Deku Tree picks up the family mantle in the sequel lol.
I want to make a Zelda game, or at least something similar. There are ways both narratively and mechanically to make Zelda feel a bit fresher and stimulating to the heart and brain, and I believe it doesn't necessarily have to be wildly different or alienating either, or M rated. Maybe those particular ideas are too conservative or not experimental enough, it's mostly just like taking a stab at making a better OoT but I think you could tell a somewhat traditional Zelda hero-story in ways that feel emotionally engaging, satisfying, and fresh. The general premise is predictable and traditional Zelda in most ways, but it's all in the execution of it that could make it really good.
