Linear Zelda games are “games of the past” says Zelda Producer 

I 100% prefer the old style of Zelda more, but that doesn't mean my solution is 'it has to be that old style' you can very much open the game up without going full open world as well. It's sad that the creator doesn't understand exactly what it is people miss from the old Zelda games that his newer games clearly lack. Even many die hard BotW and TotK fans I see often will mention the same things that the fans who prefer the old games feel is lacking. You don't need to go back 100% to the linear Zelda style, its about learning what makes them compelling and finding why to apply it in a way that both old and new fans will feel the game is far better off for both of them which I feel is completely possible.

you dont have to go back to the linear formula as it was, just for the love of god, the story doesnt have to be a convoluted expositioned mess , randomly carpet-bombed around the world

I've never been partial to open worlds, but if they did it more like Wind Waker or Twilight Princess, where sections of the world open up as you go, I'd be more okay with it. That and scale down the size of the world a bit, but since open worlds pride themselves on how big their maps are, I doubt they'll do that. I just don't want half the game to be collecting materials or repeating the same physics "puzzles" over and over. I've seen a lot of talk about Zelda inspired indie games but I wonder how many really go for the traditional 3D Zelda. I've seen so many BOTW inspired games like Sable, Genshin and T'chai, that it wouldn't be too surprising if they just kept copying that game instead.

I’m probably the only person to feel this way, but I’m so disappointed. I miss the feel of the old games

The difficulty of the new zelda's is decreasing

I just want the Hookshot/Clawshot back.

I don't have any issues with open world, in fact I love it. However they need to essentially do what elden ring did but more. Hidden lore, harder areas that discourage you going that way, quests, and throw in some classic Zelda dungeons.

Make it more linear, but still keep open world if you want ti

if its botw again it's a no buy for me

I was thinking I'd like a Zelda game similar to The Legend of Zelda, with the open world with the linear temples/levels Link has to explore, like the time he had to collect the 8 pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom expect all in 3D.

They can still have linear missions inside an open world game.

I haven’t played BOTW or TOTK, but I have played Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and got about halfway through Skyward Sword. So with that background established, I’d like to give my thoughts on linear vs open world games. I think there’s some value to a linear world. For one, the story has a better sense of pacing than in an open world game, and there’s a more natural difficulty curve from start to finish because the developers know what you will have at least and at most, and can then craft puzzles and combat encounters around that. But I don’t know if I would say that the worlds in previous Zeldas (apart from *possibly Skyward Sword) were linear. You still had a plethora of things to do in towns or in the world in side quests or minigames. To help illustrate, let’s take a look at Dark Souls, because it has both linear and open world progression. The first half of the game is a steady flow from one area to the next, with a couple offshoots here and there that lead to optional bosses. The second half (after you get the Lordvessel) gives you four objectives and lets you go at them in any order you want. While the first half has a difficulty curve, going from Undead Burg to Anor Londo, the second half has a difficulty plateau, because you could tackle any of the four areas first. On top of that, each of the Lord Soul bosses drop 60k souls when you beat them, which helps highlight how similar the difficulty is. I think that’s something that’ll happen to some degree in open world games, which is why (to my knowledge) most people who’ve completed Dark Souls say the first half is great, the DLC is great, but the Lord Soul part is meh. The feeling of improving and getting better, either through player skill or better gear for your character, is hamstrung. Not to mention that linear games and dungeons can have interesting puzzles and challenges to overcome. And I think that’s what’s missing from BOTW and TOTK. It’s one thing to be given all the pieces and left to put them in their proper place, but it’s another thing to have players essentially make the pieces themselves to fit into the puzzle’s outline. I imagine that, while novel, the ultrahand, build anything you want mechanic, would wear out its welcome eventually, and players would just start taking the path of least resistance to get through it. At some point, it stops being challenging and ends up being a chore. That was something that was underscored in the BOTW reviews I saw, that while clearing enemy camps was fun, there’d come a time where you would be breaking your best weapons only to be rewarded with a worse weapon. So to me, I think that open world Zelda is a great idea, but the best open world Zelda is going to be the first one from 1986. I don’t think we’ll get one that beats it out because these games require a lot of time, resources, energy, and money. That’s not a slight against the Zelda devs at all, but it is just an acknowledgment of the world we live in. It’s why 3D Zelda’s tended to have weak exploration compared to the 2D games. Ocarina didn’t have a secret dungeon with a mini boss at the end and some cool reward because it cost a lot of resources to create the game world. It’s why you go everywhere on the map in order to beat the game. And free exploration usually amounted to going into a small hole, opening a chest that had 20 rupees, and then leaving. I think what players want is a feeling of craftsmanship while playing. That encounters and drops and dungeons and side content have been crafted by an artist for them to solve, rather than just the copy paste caves of old, except now that’s a third of the game’s content. If they can get that down in an open world game, it would be fantastic. But as it is, I reckon most players are going to have that nagging feeling in the back of their mind that recognizes something is missing, but they can’t figure out why.

I liked BOTW but it isnt my favourite Zelda game not even in my top 3 and i hated TOTK

The God of War reboot (and presumably Ragnarok) is basically an M-Rated traditional 3D Zelda game, and it was excellent.

I want to see a super solid balance. Skyward sword was great for story but at the sacrifice of exploration. Breath of the wild also had a great story but you were forced to explore to find all the little details. Ocarina, twilight, and waker all had a balance while remaining linear. I personally tend to like that better. I loved TotK and still do. Breath of the wild is more just a beta tears. Though the fact that you can cheese 90% of it has left a sour taste in my mouth. It removed challenge. I actually find my self looking at a link between worlds as the standard they need to scale up and try to achieve. It isn’t linear beyond the first dungeon. Though it builds upon the overall story with the completion of every dungeon. No matter what dungeon you complete.

I feel that these new zeldas felt more limited than the old ones. Look at the witcher or arkham. Your weapons never break mid fight and you certainly can keep a better pace with the grapple hook or roach. What the hell is the stamina wheel? I'm pretty sure it was the worst part of skyward sword

I think that in game design, rules are as important as freedom. TOTK’s puzzles and level design can just kind of be bypassed, and I don’t think that’s especially satisfying. It’s not even satisfying to break it. Looking at BOTW, a game I don’t particularly like but had a better grip on this than TOTK, there are a lot of puzzles you can’t just jank your way out of and actually had to engage with them on their terms (also the case with most other Zelda games). Or if you do find a solution the developers did not intend, you felt clever for breaking the rules. You wouldn’t feel especially clever if there were no rules for you to break. Freedom matters, but so too does structure, and Aonuma’s flippant tone deafness on the matter worries me.

It’s not that nostalgia aspect more so the store writing is just shit look at Elden ring for example open world with a little bit of restrictions and deep lore rather than the story working around the open world

After playing BoTW and ToTK I do not want to go back to top down or linear games. I do not like Ocarina of Time mainly because I played that game after I experienced BoTW and it felt very disappointing and annoying. Everybody ranks Ocarina as no. 1 Zelda game but for me it's not even in my top 10 Zelda games. I don't like that game at all. The controls and gameplay and everything feels very irritating. I want more open air Zelda. I want as much freedom and I really dont care about the story either. And what I really dont want is definitely traditional dungeons. I never liked a single dungeon from any of the previous games. I loved the ToTK ones and the Divine Beasts.

The Old Zelda must return to some extent at the very least. Denying the qualities of old Zelda is foolish. Miyamoto needs to spank Aonuma for his remarks or force another director for the better future of the franchise. Let's remember Ocarina of Time had 5 directors and that's what led to its success. A team work instead of a solo vision. And both Koji Kondo and Miyamoto were involved. It's ironic even that always the best games in the history of gaming like Zelda or Final Fantasy had some close relationship between the composer and the director. In that way Koji Kondo often was a voice for Miyamoto's vision on the dev team. And Nobuo Uematsu was a voice for Sakaguchi on Final Fantasy. And they did great projects. The new Zelda completely ignored original music, and thought they could subjugate good sound with airiness and an incidental piano. Sorry it doesn't work without proper music. The leitmotifs were so strong in the old Zelda. Also what's sad is how they are constantly forcing a lootbox logic and an infinity of meaningless costumes. Back in the day you had 2-3 suits that made for a very consistent design. The ideas were less experimental but very clear and structured. The items also gave purpose. In Majora's Mask, the masks had purpose. You had meaningful companions, Navi, Tatl, Midna or Fi. Everything of old Zelda was colorful and full of meaning. And new Zelda just replaces that with Fortnitization and Minecraftization. It's off-putting and doesn't satisfy old fans. Where are music instruments? Why do I need to use towers to find parts of a map? Why give technology to a setting that doesn't need it to that extent. Why build commoditization and give Link a camera, wouldn't that shorten his attention span. What if he starts following Zelda's ZikTok reels? Zelda should be unanimous, universal and for all generations. A family game, not something you give to Gen Z just because they are the core numbers in the purchasing games demographic. There is so much more to building a long-lasting legacy. Zelda is not just for kids. We were kids many years ago, and Zelda is much more than just gameplay, open world, or freedom. It's about story, it's about a legend and a fresh idea that should survive the test of time, and not just a tool to boost sales, because it makes new gamers feel free. Sometimes less is more. And Zelda badly needs a step back to move forward.

I feel totk combines linearity with freedom of exploration and choice of what to do next perfectly well.

Linear story? I absolutely loved OoT due to how out of order you could beat that game.

"it wasnt until 2013 we got our first glimpse and an open world Zelda" what people dont realize is that the first LoZ was open world, and thats what Nintendo always wanted for the series. Miyamoto and Aonuma have both said the reason the games didnt stay open world was hardware limitations. But this series was founded on Miyamoto's sense of wonder and exploration from when he was a child exploring Japan's country side by his house. BotW/TotK capture that feeling, that sense of wonder and exoloration, better than any other entry in the series. Side note, Zelda stories have always been kind of meh and what BotW/TotK showed me is i like the sense of exploration way more than having my handheld by a fairy or imp telling me exactly where to go and what to do. They also gave me a better appreciation for the 2d titles due to how focues on gameplay they are while making me dislike the older 3d entries due to how restrictive they are

missing the "old magic" is literally nostalgia. of course everyone loves OOT but that old formula was dying out. the fans asked for this formula now theyre mad. this is the best move they made... totk and botw are CLASSICS no matter how much they hate on it. zelda NEEDED this new era... i agree with the dungeons needing to be longer and more difficult. but leave it the way it is... we cant get the same OOT game repackaged everytime, it wont work