Dueling Analogs has put up Aaron Diaz’s proposal for a Zelda-centered Link game.
To be blunt, I think it sucks. In this proposal, Zelda is Link in drag, and Link is an effete poseur. It’s just a Link game reskinned, without any attention to what would really make Zelda different.
But me being me, I’m not going to just opine on the subject. I’m going to propose a different alternative: Princess Zelda.
Seriously: the Tetra incarnation aside, Zelda is a princess. What do princesses do? Keep in mind that Zelda has no brothers and sisters, so she’s the heir to the throne. She should be groomed to rule.
In no particular order:
- Running your kingdom.
- Lead your people in war.
- Direct “special” operations.
- Negotiate treaties and alliances.
This leads to several different mini-games that I can see:
- Sim: Hyrule.
- Zelda: Tactics.
- Link-in-a-Dungeon.
- Dancing (as in the latest version of Sid Meier’s Pirates!).
- Princess dress-up.
Given Nintendo’s occasional paired releases, you could release this as two games: the traditional Link-centric game, where he’s running off getting the artifacts like he always does, and the Zelda-centric game, where she’s fighting a war with Ganon. The two games would have common cut-scenes wherever Link and Zelda interact. (Obviously, if you make this a console game, rather than a Gameboy game, you’d merge the two threads.)