It seems unlikely that Nintendo will ever return to the traditional, linear The Legend of Zelda formula after the success of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, this isn’t just some speculation, either — this comes straight from the source.
In an interview with IGN, series producer Eiji Aonuma expressed how games that force players to follow a “specific set of steps in a very set order” are “games of the past.” He then champions the concept of giving players the reigns to move forward as they see fit.
He was then asked about the community that wants the games to return to a structured story style, but Aonuma dismissed this as just players wanting something they don’t have, likening it to the “grass is greener” mentality. He also questioned why people would want to go back to games where “you’re more limited or more restricted” in how you play.
Now, it’s worth noting that it isn’t impossible for the series to get a more traditional game, as in 2019, we got the Link’s Awakening remake, which went a bit more true to form than recent entries. We understand both sides here — some want the games to go back to the way they played as kids for nostalgia reasoning, while Aonuma seems to believe more story-structured games with a linear path are just not as fun as games that span an open world for players to explore.
“I do think we as people have a tendency to want the thing that we don’t currently have, and there’s a bit of a grass is greener mentality. But I also think that with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the series…there still is a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose. So I think that that is one thing I kind of like to remind myself about the current games that we’re making.
But also, it’s interesting when I hear people say those things because I am wondering, “Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you’re more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?” But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect.”
