Does Zelda need a "Reboot"?

[Bboy94]

Ahh, nevermind, I thought you meant non-linear as in, you aren't taken to certain places for the main quest. You have to do them on your own.

[Mysterious F.]

They should also have a few feudal lord states in Hyrule. We have seen feudalism in OOT, but we only knew it existed, not the feeling of it. Each state sohuld have a lord, and in the center a manor, and at the border a foretress. Every manor should havea wall around it for protection. There should be an actual church in each to worship the gods and goddesses. On a hill on top of all but one manor should be the lord's castle. The other manor's castle should be on flat land with a river forming a moat around it.

Each manor should have large fields filled with working serfs, and a small town filled with merchants, workers, and the middle class. The castles should have with knights and servants in every room, and in some rooms both of them at once. The castle should have several valuable arts, like vases, sculptures, and paintings. The lords will each be a different race, although I'd prefer Zoras, Gorons, Gerudos, and Humans with the rest of the kingdom, the Hylain ection, under the rule of the King of Hyrule.

The king should also have half the power over his kingdom, like in the middle ages. The lords would be under his command, the knights would be stationed in every part of his domain, and he could inflict any tax on his people. He is also the richest person in Hyrule, and his oldest son should get the throne.

The biggest town should be near the King's Castle, and should have people from every state and many shops and people. Smaller towns should be in each manor, but still have quite a few things of interest. There should also e minor cases of disease in one or two towns.

There should also be one big church in the center of Hyrule, one that is inspired by actual medieval churches. It should be filled priests and monks, and the one who is in charge of the church would be the religious leader of Hyrule. He has the other half of the nation's power. He rules the religious world of Hyrule, threatening anyone who revolts against his rule, even the king, with excommunication, and can even put a state under interdict. He acts like the king's 'puppeteer', controlling or influincing several of his decisions. The religious leader should also act as the lord of central Hyrule, unnoficially, though.

Trade should be plentiful. Large numbers of foreign food, weapons, and items should be brought into Hyrule. The states should commonly have contact with each other. It might be nice if two of the states were at war with each other. Many people should be around, with careers like public singers and shoe cleaners. Living conditions for the serfs should be bad, the middle class should be normal, the lords be similar to today's upper-middle class, and the king the only true person in upper class, along with the Royal Family.

If you haven't caught on by now, I'll tell you: this will be based around the Middle Ages.

[Penguin dude 2]

That seems kinda like Tales of Symphonia with the church, and Inuyasha with the way things are. In Symphonia, the Pope almost got to be king, and Inuyasha is 500 years in the past, though it has a lot more war.

[Commodore Axilon]

Seems to me more like, you know, the way things actually were in the Middle Ages.

It seems a bit too detailed to me though. Is some of that stuff really necessary? This is a Zelda game, not Civilization/Age of Empires.

[Mysterious F.]

Good point, but we could mix up culture a bit: each state could be representing a different culture from the time. The Gerudos could be like Muslims (except the Crusades and different religion parts), the Gorons South American Andes tribes, the Humans like the Chinese/Japanese/Koreans, and the Zoras.... ? Mabye they could be a lake or coast culture?

[IronKnuckle]

Just becuase Zelda uses mostly middle aged technology, doesn't mean it should be like the middle ages. LOTR uses middle aged tech, but it would be horrible if it were like the middle ages.

[darkphantomime]

How true...

And whocares, have you EVER played any other RPG besides Zelda? Take a look at Breath of Fire II, or Grandia II. Both deal with a big church in the middle that turns out to be very corrupt and misleading the people.  If it were just the way you described, it'd lose its uniqueness, because frankly, we have a LOT  of RPG's that are based around the middle ages model of things.

Secret of Mana? Nope? Didn't think so
Chrono Trigger? Nope? ditto
Grandia?
Breath of Fire?
Tales of Symphonia?
Tales of Phantasia?
Dragon Quest?

Seriously, if you want to satisfy your medieval cravings, go to other series rather than being strictly Zelda and forcing it to be what you think it should be... It'd take out the fun and variety we know to be Zelda.

There's a WHOLE world of games out there besides Zelda.

[IronKnuckle]

Zelda isn't an RPG, its an action/adventure. RPG revolve around stats and usually have multiple people being controled (known as a "party" for those of you who never played a RPG).

You've got a point though, too many RPGs are set in midevil settings. The only ones I can think of that aren't offhand are Earthbound and Star Wars KOTOR 1 & 2, which are also my 2 favorit RPGs (3rd is FFXII).

[Bboy94]

Actually by definition, Zelda is and was the first RPG. FF developed that party system. You can have a hack and slash, single character adventure, that is an RPG. I think Oblivion is like that.

And like JQ said, thats not really Zelda, Whocares. If you want that, you shouldn't really seek it in Zelda. Picture Hyrule field... filled with a bunch of stone walls. And there is never a pope-type figure in Zelda, and lords' manors and several walled in cities, and churches cluttering up Hyrule wouldn't really be fun. Hyrule needs to seem peaceful, kind of helpless. I like the small time village feeling. Where everyone knows each other and it just seems, I can't describe it, but like Kakariko in OoT and LttP, the Kokiri village, Zora's Domain(both), all had this feel.

[Evilslayer]

Zelda isn't an RPG, its an action/adventure. RPG revolve around stats and usually have multiple people being controled (known as a "party" for those of you who never played a RPG).

RPG=Role-playing game. In Zelda you play the role as Link. The player is free to imagine how Link's personality is and what he say. Claiming that's stats is the only sort of "evolution" system an RPG can have is very narrow-minded. Zelda has its own "evolution" system; Heart Pieces/Containers. It also have upgrades, several different items you can use, an Overworld and dungeons.

Even Miyamoto calls Zelda an RPG.

IGNcube: Speaking of Zelda, does the game story parallel that of the movie Ladyhawke?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Our game should not be paralleling that movie very closely, no. That's not our intention. In regard to the animals in the game, it's an RPG and the more of those natural elements -- in this case represented by the wolf and the haw -- the more we expand the realm of the RPG and give ourselves room to grow and fill into. We thought that by adding these animals it would help us create a larger and more realistic world.

http://cube.ign.com/articles/617/617000p1.html