The candidates – Light fantasy
While not necessarily part of the traditional Zelda formula, a light fantasy setting is a hallmark of all Zelda titles. It is also common in Zelda clones.
Here are a few franchises Nintendo could use if they stuck to the fantasy trope:
Child Ikarus
Let’s start this list with perhaps the most obvious and feasible option.
Kid Icarus is a criminally underused arrow in Nintendo’s quiver. Despite the series only featuring three games (for the NES, Game Boy, and 3DS), Pit is a recognizable video game icon who could easily step into Link’s sandals. Kid Icarus: Uprising revived the franchise as a pulse-pounding arcade action title, but it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine a Zelda-like entry in the Kid Icarus universe.
The biggest challenge Nintendo will face is finding a way to distinguish a Kid Icarus Zelda-like from Zelda itself. And who knows, the prospect of reinventing Kid Icarus might be enough to bring Masahiro Sakurai out of early retirement. That is, if Nintendo hasn’t linked it to ‘Smash Infinite’ yet.
Glory of Heracles
Believe it or not, Kid Icarus isn’t Nintendo’s only Greek-themed series. In 2010, Nintendo published Glory of Heracles for the DS, a JRPG developed by Paon DP.
To this day, Nintendo retains the copyright, although we haven’t seen a hair of that since the DS release. It seems unlikely, but maybe old Herc can be convinced to star in a Zelda clone. After all, those seven works will not accomplish themselves.
Fire emblem
Kid Icarus gets our vote for purely nostalgic reasons, but Fire Emblem wins for name recognition alone. If Mr. Iwata were here, we think he’d side with Pit, but… [straightens tie] a spin-off of the Fire Emblem series would be a solid business decision.
Not only has the franchise already ventured into other genres, including JRPG (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE) and hack and slash (Fire Emblem Warriors), but Intelligent Systems has proven time and again that they are capable of creating stone-cold classics. in any genre. See Mario Paint, Panel de Pon, Paper Mario, Pushmo/Pullbox and the underrated Battle Clash for a few examples.
And just imagine what puzzles Intelligent Systems could come up with for their Zelda clone!