oh, i know that its not as easy as other more formulaic games.
But i feel like 2-3 years is reasonable, if you dont have to make a massive game like TP or BotW and can reuse assets.
(Majoras mask, wind waker also had not that much time. 3 years seems also like it was more or less the maximum development time for most 2d zeldas)
And even Majoras Mask back then, while reusing asset, did push the n64 to its limits, and used the tools from back then.
Purely from the technical perspective it should be easier.
Design wise... tahts a different question, but i also did not mean games as expansive and detailed.
I mean, would be great to get games that can rival MM, but my thought where way lower.
Wind waker created a completly new artstyle, everything new, and one of the most beloved zelda games (i know, it was technically rushed) in 2.5 years. BotW was 5 years and 300 people.
Im confident that it would be possible (depending on who) to have teams between 25 and 50 people and create those type of smaller skale zelda games in 1-2 yearsif they are more relyant on reuse.
Again, im not talking about full fledged new entries made from the ground up...
in regards to "be happy to" if nobody would want to, i am against pushing them. its more of:
you want to, you feel you can do something? shure, have at it.
There for shure are also members that would be fine having a broader reach over a smaller project to.
I feel like im not managing to convey what im thinking of well enough. oh well.
Oh, i was never talking about economic sense. They could sel remakes of OoT every 5 yers and would still sell tons of it.
But if you propose me a port of OoT 3D just in HD...or a remix that is kind of a new entry with new dungeons and stuff...yeah, the first one im 0 interested and wont buy, but the second one? for shure.
As you say, they chose not to... and why? because even tho they are "smaller" in the sense that the world is not as massive as BotW, Skyward Sword and TP where big expensive games. They cant just do them in that fashion next to BotW.
I mean in my dream they would just have more zelda teams that we dont have to wait 5 years between entries. At first it was thought that new games and remakes will fill the space between the big ones, but we had... 1 remake that was almost 1:1, and a muso spinoff and remasters.
Then theres the aspect, that they are less open to weirdness. Smaller scale projects could fill that and be a testbed for ideas before they use them fully fledged out in a big entry.
And "coming up with cool stuff thats essentially a rom hack": i compared it to those.
But i still think that a team of people being paid to do it will create more then people working on weekends in their free time.
Even a small budget is more then no budget. And they can then sell those, rom hacks cant be sold.
I am aware that this comes mostly from my wish for more zelda gameplay and experimentation with mood, narative and characters, and the big zelda games are to expensive and big in scale to do that. so the only way that would be an option is a lower budget subseries.
But then we are back at what nintendo does now: if a series is established, they are kinda skitish in regards to not mass marketable ideas. Just see how 2D mario homogenized since the DS/Wii.
Would those sell as the big ones? no, they would not sell as much as BotW. but im confident that they would be financially viable. The problem is less feasability or money, more the overall controll over branding that they want to keep tight.
I feel in that regard you can compare them to disney.
I do hope that those unique aspects and locations are more this time around.
For BotW it worked. Its one of my favorit games, its a 10/10...but its far from perfect.
i could think of a f-ton of improvements, and that was in the first week after release.
But it made so much, and what it made was such a well crafted look for me, that it was great.
For a sequell i do hope for more refinement. The biggest hurdle could be them not wanting to
get to complex for players that are less mechanically inclined and more narative and atmosphere interested.
I just really hope they indulge in their ideas, and dont try to make them to systematic again (the 4 beasts where structurally the same,same interior design, all shrines had the same design,...).
I dont know, the rain rarely was that much of a problem. or lets say it this way: the rain was the moment where i started to dig into my resources (stamina food, stasis tech, using waterfalls and the zora armor, moving over to horse travel, realis gale), or simply searched an alcove to light afire and sleep till the next day.