With E3 coming in a couple months, and we have already heard confirmation that Nintendo will be showcasing the next Zelda adventure, its gotten me in the mood to go back and play some previous Zelda games in anticipation of getting to see what the next edition will be like. I have recently been playing Twilight Princess, and while it is probably Nintendo's largest Zelda adventure to date, it also showcases some areas where Nintendo simply needs to progress.
For example, the land of Hyrule is pretty large in Twilight Princess, but its also pretty bare. I would like to see a more people, houses, mini games, and shops scattered around outside of the main villages. And for the main villages, I would like to see considerable effort made to make those villages a bit more believable. Even Link's home village only houses a handful of families. I dont think they need to go full on massive RPG with 100's of characters in every village, but there is a happy medium in between that and where Zelda games have sat so far.
I would also like to see them include various items and abilities that are not necessary, but are extremely useful. Basically stuff that makes various task much easier to accomplish. I would also like to see Link's leveling come from a variety of task, and not leveraged so heavily on completing a dungeon. The majority of leveling up has come from getting the heart after completing a dungeon, perhaps getting rid of hearts and replacing them with a health meter. The difference being that you acquire various types of armor and upgrades that increase the damage you can take. Instead if side quest being a novelty, they would then become much more pertinent. You could choose to not do them, but at the cost of durability and perhaps in come cases convenience. Convenience items would be things like your horse or perhaps a transportation device.
Aonuma has already commented that Zelda has become a bit to linear over the years, and is looking to mix things up with the next game. I think they are going to get away from having to do dungeons in a certain order is going to go away. Instead of always finding items in dungeons, they may be moved to quest outside of those dungeons, and acquiring those items allow you to gain access to that area. Somewhat similar to the hookshot in OoT, you got it in the graveyard, and then that got you access to the forest temple.
For example, the land of Hyrule is pretty large in Twilight Princess, but its also pretty bare. I would like to see a more people, houses, mini games, and shops scattered around outside of the main villages. And for the main villages, I would like to see considerable effort made to make those villages a bit more believable. Even Link's home village only houses a handful of families. I dont think they need to go full on massive RPG with 100's of characters in every village, but there is a happy medium in between that and where Zelda games have sat so far.
I would also like to see them include various items and abilities that are not necessary, but are extremely useful. Basically stuff that makes various task much easier to accomplish. I would also like to see Link's leveling come from a variety of task, and not leveraged so heavily on completing a dungeon. The majority of leveling up has come from getting the heart after completing a dungeon, perhaps getting rid of hearts and replacing them with a health meter. The difference being that you acquire various types of armor and upgrades that increase the damage you can take. Instead if side quest being a novelty, they would then become much more pertinent. You could choose to not do them, but at the cost of durability and perhaps in come cases convenience. Convenience items would be things like your horse or perhaps a transportation device.
Aonuma has already commented that Zelda has become a bit to linear over the years, and is looking to mix things up with the next game. I think they are going to get away from having to do dungeons in a certain order is going to go away. Instead of always finding items in dungeons, they may be moved to quest outside of those dungeons, and acquiring those items allow you to gain access to that area. Somewhat similar to the hookshot in OoT, you got it in the graveyard, and then that got you access to the forest temple.
I bet they did that just to mess with people on the internet... "Raaaargh! Link has always wore green!" *Rageragerage type angry posts on forums* 
