Things We Want In The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Nintendo stole the show at E3 2016 with its new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This anticipated return to Hyrule has been in development since 2013, and sometime in 2017 we'll finally get to see Nintendo's hard work come to life on the Wii U and the mysterious NX console. Breath of Wild's demo on the E3 floor let attendees play around with all kinds of new features: a seamless open world, an RPG-like equipment system, cooking, and other mechanics we haven't seen in the series before. Let's sheath the Master Sword for a sec and wish upon the Triforce for other features we'd like to see in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The E3 trailer for Breath of the Wild featured a voice presumably belonging to Princess Zelda. We can only assume this because, well, The Legend of Zelda series has never featured full voice acting before, so we don't know what the character really sounds like. If Nintendo was able to get full voice acting in Star Fox 64 two decades ago, its introduction is long overdue in the land of Hyrule. We're not talking about Link's battle cries or Zelda's giggles, either: we want full scripts of dialogue with some competent voice actors behind them. The Morph Ball is in your court, Nintendo.

Ever since it debuted in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, fishing has always been an important minigame component of the series. With such a big focus on an open world, collecting meat and ingredients, and cooking, we'd like to see fishing make a huge comeback. We don't care for Nintendo integrating motion controls for fishing (more on that soon), so we're totally okay with reeling in a trout the old fashioned way—with the buttons on your controller. Nothing beats wearing Iron Boots and walking onto a lake's floor to scope out the fish, and we hope we'll be able to do that again.

Sorry, Nintendo, but we're getting really tired of you trying to shoehorn motion controls or other GamePad gimmicks into every major game (e.g. Star Fox Zero). We don't care for aiming Link's bow or slashing his sword with a Wiimote or GamePad. We just want the game to play really well. All of that focus on motion and gyroscopic controls just becomes a hindrance to the gameplay after a while, and we'd rather explore Hyrule without having to worry about aiming at the system's Sensor Bar or losing calibration. It is nice to have your equipment menu and map appear on the GamePad screen, but that's as far as we'd like to see it go.

For over three decades, Ganon has been the main antagonist of The Legend of Zelda series. Of course, we want to see him return, but we'd also like to see someone else surpass Ganon as the most evil force in the land. Better yet, we want to see the return of Demise, the villain of Skyward Sword. What if Demise, or some other powerful villain, forced Link and Zelda to team up with Ganon to stop him? If Bowser could do it in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, so can Ganon.

With such an expansive landscape, we hope there's some sort of fast travel system available to take us to various points in Hyrule without taking too much time. Of course, this wouldn't have to be unlocked early in the game, but the magnitude of Breath of Wild's map suggests we might need more than a hand glider or a horse to traverse the world in a timely manner. We'll always be big fans of Epona, but we don't want to trek back and forth across the entire world map just because we forgot to buy potions back in town or something like that.

The new equipment system offers a level of customization for Link that is completely new to the series. Now you'll be able to find weapons and gear in the wild and equip them. This offers a level of role-playing gameplay to the Zelda series that wasn't there before, along with the ability to change Link's visible look. Take notes, Final Fantasy—equipping various pieces of armor and gear should make your character's appearance change.

We'd like to see even more in terms of character customization. How about different hairstyles and looks for Link—perhaps new earrings and other accessories? We couldn't imagine his boyish face with a mustache, but it couldn't hurt, right? Numerous fans are asking for the option to make Link a girl, which would be a nice change—but the LoZ series has always featured a boy named Link, just as the Super Mario series always featured a rotund plumber with a mustache. Should there be a Prince Zelda option if we make Link female? We don't have to go changing around the genders of Samus and Donkey Kong, do we? How about we just go with whatever Nintendo intended for now, but instead add...

Two overused tropes in the LoZ series are that Link is a silent protagonist and Princess Zelda is always the helpless damsel in distress. With voice acting, we're hoping that first trope is broken, and we'd like to see that second one gone too. Hyrule Warriors proved that Zelda can hold her own on the battlefield, so why can't she gear up and venture out into the world like Link? We'd like to see a segment where Link gets captured, and it's up to the Princess of Hyrule to take up arms and save him for once—just as long as we get to play as her. The series is called The Legend of Zelda, right?