Nintendo

Assuming we get a third game in the botw run, I would love to see link travel back to early Hyrule like Zelda did. Nintendo could use the blueprint of the depths ruins as the backbone for a thriving Zonai civilization. Aboveground would be a truly wild Hyrule similar to what the depths are now. No sky islands as this would predate their creation. Instead we could have a 'dive' feature that lets us visit an ancient Zora, spread out in the waters in and around Hyrule. All new characters (except maybe Raru and friends), but many characters could be ancestors of current characters so they would be familiar in some ways. I would love to see the ability to tame monsters, more complex Zonai devices, and yes, perhaps real dungeons.

Also I could even see a fourth game in this series that totally turns all of the formula on its head. It would actually star Zelda, and she would travel through time to different eras of Hyrule. We'd get to see areas and dungeons from ocarina of time, twilight princess, skyward sword and even many of the 2d titles, redesigned with botw graphics and controls. The focus of the game would be for Zelda to help Link. She must stay out of sight, navigate dungeons to place keys, compasses, maps and/or key weapons that the link of that era will need to defeat whatever evil he faces. I think this would be super cool.

Although I might be in the minority, I hope that they try to make a story-centered game like Twilight Princess. I loved how deep the characters felt and the atmosphere so much. I think they could mix in more story telling and maybe even some kind of friendship/affinity system with NPCs. I don't think it would interfere with the core mechanics too much.

Didn’t Miyamoto say that this is the new template for Zelda? Or at least something along the lines that this is the direction they will be heading in.

I’m expecting the next to be quite different in some extend (not as equal to BotW/TotK), but I am expecting the open world to be here to stay at least.

I like the idea of more open world games, would still like the dungeons to be a bit stronger, though totk was an improvement. I think a return of the great sea is a natural extension and could give an opportunity for different powers that would be more helpful on the open ocean, kind of like how ascend was a natural complement of caves and the depths. I think keeping autobuild and ultrahand and extending it further to boats or maybe even airships in the endgame would be really neat. Could also see them building on time powers even more. Maybe a return to termina?

A Link to the Past it up. Give me Hyrule in the distant past, now, hell, even the future. Design the puzzles around it. And give me a Hookshot as well

I think they need to find a way to merge the BOTW open world with the more traditional structure of Zelda games. The issue is that those two philosophies are sort of at odds with each other, with BOTW and TOTK not wanting the player to be locked out of anything while exploring the world while the traditional structure has you unlock items throughout the game in order to solve puzzles, which there are much fewer of outside of dungeons. It can work though, if Wind Waker is any indication with its side islands.

I feel like they did everything they could open world wise with TotK, would love something smaller with more focus and detail like Majora's Mask again.

If Nintendo makes a third game based off the BOTW map, I would love to see an expansion of towns/villages. One thing I was slightly disappointed by in TOTK was the lack of new villages. I’d love to see a revitalized castle town as well as repaired villages that were once in ruins. Maybe in that way the third game could have more focus on the different npcs and side quests like Majora’s Mask. I think in that way it would help the world feel more alive and we could see progress on the return to Hyrule at its heyday.

I'd love to see what they could do with a Wind Waker-style game nowadays. With how successful they've been at crafting an open world, opening that up to the high seas could be a lot of fun.

I would like it if their next game would be more traditional 2d style, something akin to Links Awakening. Personally I like both the 2d and 3d style games, so alternating between the two would be great.

For the 3d games I'm not sure for the direction they should take, but I think a blend of the open world style combined with the more traditional dungeons would be great.

After ToTK, I am begging for something less open, though I doubt we see that

With Nintendo, I feel like it's almost impossible to know which way they're going to innovate - but in hindsight it's all so clear. Really the only claim we can almost bet for is they're not going to compete in the graphical fidelity market.

What I would absolutely love and they could leverage would be to mix both their new open-world and visual style with going back with the sea and island (and more cartoonish) elements of Wind Waker. I adored that game, where each island had its own flair, this could be expanded upon so much with the new engine.

I like the more metroivania style too of finding an element in a dungeon of island and then having it unlock more possibilities later elsewhere. I feel like giving all the powers and tools at the beginning of the newer games has put a damper on this side of the usual formula.

(I didn't played TotK)

I think sea will come again. Like a BotW focused on island (each having it's own biome), caverns and sea, giant ship battles, etc. Dunno why.

Should they ? Mmmh, my concerns are not about the “yet another open world”, but mostly on the game design of the various things to do and the story to keep player engaged. I have no problems with shrines, I have problems with dozen of them.

I would also love to have many more advanced quests, like MM had. Longer quest that had an actual visual impact. This brings some depth to the universe.

To speak just to plot, I think there is one direction they could move towards next.

In this series, we have yet to even hear whispers of the Triforce. What was previously a central pillar of prior Zelda games has fallen by the wayside. So, the Triforce can come back.

In Tears of the Kingdom, we learned interesting facts about how dragons are made. We have three dragons who have been there since Breath of the Wild: Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra, who correspond to the goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru, who created the Triforce. Presumably, these "goddesses" were people once, who ate secret stones and turned into dragons, and they could be key to unlocking the mysteries of the Triforce. If we can un-draconify them like we did Zelda, it would be interesting to have these entities be actual characters in the story.

As far as threats, it's hard to say. Could bring back old man Demise if they want to stick with the progressively scary Ganon line of villains, but they could easily bring in someone else new or old as well.

If nintendo keep the exact same formula, a Botw3, then that would be very out of pace for Nintendo and very disappointing. One of the most disappointing parts about Totk is that it's very much botw again, fixed in many ways, with some new ideas. But Nintendo usually like to change things up much more than that.

I very much hope that the creative spark for something different is still there

I don't really have an answer for that, I was thinking that myself, where can they take the series from here, but one thing I don't want is another game on same map and continuity. I am loving TotK, but I want to see a new world, and see what the devs can do with it.

As for games like older designs, I haven't played too many older games, so I won't mind those either, but if they do that, they should make that a separate series, like we have different Mario series. Keep one for BotW style games, and one for older styled games, but I don't think they will go that way. I think this is the kind of game they will keep making.

The two major things I loved about BOTW and TOTK were the flexibility of the puzzle solutions and the story; I think if those aspects can be put into a new world and setting, I would be very happy.

Also in both games if a puzzle is too hard or you’re just not in the mood, you can step away and do something else; I loved this, it lets your mind refresh so to speak. I want the new game to feel this welcoming.

Assuming we get a third game in the botw run, I would love to see link travel back to early Hyrule like Zelda did. Nintendo could use the blueprint of the depths ruins as the backbone for a thriving Zonai civilization. Aboveground would be a truly wild Hyrule similar to what the depths are now. No sky islands as this would predate their creation. Instead we could have a 'dive' feature that lets us visit an ancient Zora, spread out in the waters in and around Hyrule. All new characters (except maybe Raru and friends), but many characters could be ancestors of current characters so they would be familiar in some ways. I would love to see the ability to tame monsters, more complex Zonai devices, and yes, perhaps real dungeons.

Also I could even see a fourth game in this series that totally turns all of the formula on its head. It would actually star Zelda, and she would travel through time to different eras of Hyrule. We'd get to see areas and dungeons from ocarina of time, twilight princess, skyward sword and even many of the 2d titles, redesigned with botw graphics and controls. The focus of the game would be for Zelda to help Link. She must stay out of sight, navigate dungeons to place keys, compasses, maps and/or key weapons that the link of that era will need to defeat whatever evil he faces. I think this would be super cool.

I’d like to see more open world games for sure. How about along with that, we get some 3d re-imaginings of the original Zelda and Zelda 2? The graphics could be similar to that of the remake of Link’s Awakening.

With the success of BotW and TotK, that style of game is probably here to stay. But I would really like to see another more 'grounded' classic 3D Zelda. Not like Skyward Sword. More like Twilight Princess.

I hope they go a really strange route. Like, how Mario Wonder looks like some kind of zany trip. Just really hit us with something out of left field and creative.

#1 hopefully a new map in whatever the next game is

In BOTW I spent months exploring the world, eventually getting every shrine, just enjoying the beautiful landscapes. BOTW definitely had some detriments but the exploration of the world eclipsed those down sides. I remember my starting experiences well. The initial release trailers, E3, looking out from the great plateau at this giant world. Eager to get out an explore. My hero's journey touches most parts of the map.

For me, TOTK doesn't have that same spark to explore. I even completed the game without unlocking all the map first, despite taking my time. But I got to the point where I felt the next step was to beat ganondorf. In comparison to BOTW I basically feel like I'm done with the game now.

#2 I think they can continue to improve the narrative even in an open world experience. I think you can see the primitive pieces in TOTKs quests from purah which could be expanded further for more narrative and maybe even make a more linear experience in tackling dungeons.

I do not think they will go back to linear adventures. I hope that the experience that they have gained in TOTK will allow them to integrate linear sections into open world zeldas. The benefits of linear sections being the ability to teach something and then ramp up the difficulty in applying it.

#3 better temple The temples in TOTK were

I understand that part of the 'temple' now is just about unlocking it but I feel like we had that in twilight princess + a dungeon.

There are a lot of possibilities I think for a semi-open temple. Imagine having even four temples which were similar to the great plateau - areas designed to sandbox and let you muck about solving puzzles but with constraints. Or just a continued evolution of the designs from BOTW -> TOTK, but have more terminals, branching paths and puzzles and unique designed combat challenges. Add in a new ability which you use to solve the dungeon and need it to get into the next one?

TLDR Needs new map. Likely to stay open world Hopefully keep evolving open world and add in more linear or more constrained areas including better temples

I want a hook shot, for sure. I’ve always thought that a futuristic Zelda would be cool, but maybe that’s jumping the shark. I wish they’d do a new top down—although I’d settle for remakes in the vein of the new links awakening.

TOTK is really a perfect game, except I do wish that the dungeons were longer and that there were more of them.

Can they keep with the same new formula?

Yes, absolutely.

Should they?

I'm on the fence about this. On the one hand, it's a great formula, and many current Zelda fans have grown up with and have known little else (except maybe Skyward Sword HD). Nintendo has had great success with it, so I can't imagine they'd depart from it soon, as much as attempting to predict Nintendo is a futile endeavour. On the other, I have my gripes with it, and I dearly miss the classic formula.

I think at the very least, they're going to turn this into a trilogy within the same Hyrule. I don't know if it's my imagination, but the oceans and Eventide Island seemed a lot more fleshed out this time around, so maybe they'll do a Wind Waker type thing to be a counterpart like BotW is to Zelda 1 and TotK is to OoT/MM.

Based on some of the BotW concept art, it's clear the team is capable of coming up with a lot of ideas. The "Modern" Zelda concept almost certainly inspired the Master Cycle DLC, and the "Hyrule Invasion" concept potentially also inspired the Zonai stuff. So I think they'll come up with neat stuff regardless.

(Edit for Typos.)

If the want to keep on the "freedom" route they could add mechanics to destroy/build the scenario. Destroying rocks in some TOTK caves gave me Minecraft vibes. They could allow players to dig anywhere. Also they could generate the world procedurally so we'll move from the current each player experience Hyrule in a different way to each player actually getting a different Hyrule.

I personally don't like much the Zeldas on the Switch. I'd rather get a more classic Zelda that follows the item-dungeon-item-dungeon pattern.