The Next Zelda Game Should Abandon A BOTW & TOTK Staple (Unless There’s A Big Change)

Between them, ’s two most recent titles, and, have established and maintained a variety of popular gameplay features. However, it may be time to set aside one such staple of the games unless major changes are put into effect to keep the gameplay fresh. The franchise constantly provides new experiences, but this also means that many individual mechanics seldom appear for more than one or two games.

regularly reinvents both its setting and gameplay, giving rise to many highly unique adventures despite their common setting and characters. The next game will likely leave ’s Link behind, and his version of Hyrule with it. Many other changes are sure to accompany such a shift, as the franchise refreshes itself for a new era. Even the most iconic and beloved parts of and could be replaced or discarded, although this could also lead to the revival of other traditions in turn.

One of the most notable parts of and which could soon find their time coming to an end is the Koroks. As amusing as the denizens of Korok Forest are, two Hyrule-spanning games of puzzle-based hide and seek for inventory expansions may be more than enough for most, especially if the ultimate reward for finding all the Korok Seeds would be the same; it would be repetitious, and simply not worth the effort. If the next title is another open-world game, then at the very least, changes to the Koroks will be needed to keep them interesting.

There are a total of 900 Koroks to find in, and then 1,000 more in .

If the Koroks are too popular to remove entirely, they could still see a reduced role in any new game, especially if the next adventure is a smaller one than its predecessors. Assuming that their puzzles are kept as the core of their in-game functions, there could still be far fewer of them to find, or else a difference in how rewards are handled for solving them. For example, instead of inventory expansions, finding a set number of Koroks could instead reward Link with rupees, ammunition, or even items