If you have a PS3, I would recommend you get 3D Dot Game Heroes ASAP. It's a little more Seiken Densetsu than Legend of Zelda tbh, but it's really well executed and straightforward. If there's a happy middle ground between old-school and new-school Zelda, that game hugs it like a condom hugs a penis. If you have a PS1, Alundra may be up your alley, too. (Pssht! "If.")
Forsaken Dungeon mode of Ehrgiez for it is wicked cool too, if a little bit grindy; but if you don't have it already, it's a little too expensive for it's own good (Ehrgiez = FF7 collector's merch and all).
You could also check out the Zelda Classic threads in (page 2 of?) the Games subforum. I feel ya there.
As for my ideas...
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One of the two major dev projects that I'm trying to grind out takes a bit of Rogue/Brogue inspiration (guilty as charged) and mix it with some LoZ/Gauntlet influence and strategic randomization.
THE WORLD:
9 biomes that are level-chunked together in 6x4 screen scenes, with neighboring parts that alternate focus between combating enemies, navigational challenges (IE: a watery part may produce streams, and bridges with which to cross them), and booby traps. The layouts have tags for rewards and obstacles, depending on which "type" of room they're in; and each one also has a shuffled array that factors in:
-1 room contains a powerfully monstrous boss, which early in the game, players should avoid and circumvent.
-1 room contains a miniboss ~ something that takes dedicated effort to defeating, but is doable even for basic-level players, unlike the monstrous bosses.
-1 room contains a Gemerald guardian (in 7 of the biomes, and I'm still deciding what to put in the other two). Collecting the 7 Gemeralds from their guardians is the game's collect-a-thon.
-1 room contains a "red present," a weapon variant.
-1 room contains a "green present," a biome-relevant navigation tool.
-1 room contains a "blue present," a Mystery Container which the player can choose to increase one of three meters with (or maybe four, if I make "bombs" a meter).
-1 room contains a NPC (more on that later)
-1 room contains a "cash mystery," a payday hidden by something like destructible terrain.
-1 room is a food stockpile.
-4 rooms contain food.
-4 rooms contain extra disposable items.
Between the biomes are bonfires, which - like in Dark Souls - will restore your life and status, and basically reset any non-permanent factors. The biomes themselves will probably be thrashable at a rate of about 3 every 10 minutes, so a basic runthrough will only take about half an hour, and a full one maybe an hour tops - so I don't think I'll mess with savegames, or if I do, I'll keep it really basic.
To the left of the generated world is your HomeTown where you begin, not a lot goes on there beyond you getting starting equipment, and to the right is the Temple of Judgement, which is the climax of the game/story, and naturally, sealed by the power of the 7 Gemeralds.
THE PLAYER/CHARACTERS
Another instance of a shuffling array, there's 24 roles to play, and 24 core sprites that work with the game. So while the roles will remain the same between games, they're graphically represented differently each time. This includes you, the Hero. The roles:
Hero - The player.
Love - The player's love interest?
Advisor - Gives general hints about the game. Pretty much stays put.
Shopkeeper - Buy disposable items here.
Smithy - Upgrade or refine your weapons here.
Ally - A fellow comrade in arms that will appear in a pinch. Free them and they will offer you assistance and/or rewards.
Trader - Can be used to exchange one type of item for a similar one - like food for food, weaponry for weaponry, etc. You can see in advance what they have to offer.
Traitor - Nearly identical to the Ally, except that in certain events or circumstances, they will try either subtlely or confrontationally to kill you off. "The Enemy Within," for lack of a better term.
Player Hunter - They are not subtle about their intent. They are a direct rival to you, and make no mistake or deception about it. They are motivated by their infatuation with the Love; and wise enough to retreat when they're close to death. Your rival can also recover at bonfires.
Gemerald Guardian x 7
Grunt x 3
Miniboss x 3
(All in all, it would probably work better with 7 biomes, but configuring that would be a little dicey, unless maybe HomeTown and Temple of Judgement were considered the other two...)
GAMEPLAY
You have three bars that regulate your abilities. Apart from mandatorily starting with one on each, you can configure a number of them at the start. Vitality is your Heart Containers, which measure your HP. Stamina is (presently Anvils) which regulate how frequently you can physically attack, and what attacks you can use, and will restore upon cooldown, and some items can temporarily exceed your max until used. Wisdom is Star Containers for use in magical abilities, mostly projectile/ranged combat. Each of these meters usually measures 2 points per container, but can each become cursed and then are 1 point apiece.
The game controls much as you'd expect, but with a bit of (unextreme) momentum play that affects your mobility and some interactive elements of the level design. IE, you'll be able to round curves smoothly, and some areas contain traps or elements that are timing sensitive or speed sensitive. Besides, nobody likes putt-putting everywhere.
There are 4 main kinds of weapons, each with uses that the level design and enemy design take into account. You can equip any two from a bonfire, or hot swap one upon acquiring a new one. Each type of weapon has 8 attacks, structured somewhat like special moves in fighting games, and each instance allows you a normal attack (often associated with tool-like uses or combo pokes) and two of these specials, which vary in damage/hit output and required stamina; so that two swords may result in different movesets.
Swords
-Cut objects like ropes
-Extra effective against fleshy/bleeding enemies
-Specials focus on mobility
-Balanced by having more limited range, and are accompanied by shields that can protect you from front-on projectiles (enchanted shields give a Pong-like effect)
AxeHammers
-Destroy breakable terrain that would otherwise require bombs
-Extra effective against solid enemies like metal/stone
-Specials focus on incurring extreme hit reactions, making enemies jugglable
-Balanced with less forgiving cooldown - extremes in hit reactions make up comboability if connected
Whips
-Can be used to swing around terrain, naturally...
-Extra effective against undead enemies. Obvious homage.
-Specials focus on entangling enemies, reducing or eliminating their mobility
-Balanced by higher windup, better-than-above range, sacrificing your own mobility while using it (kind of a Chessmaster sort of weapon)
Spears/Staffs
-Can be used to pole vault attack across gaps and obstacles, effectively cleaving enemies as you move
-Is especially effective against blocking/defensive types or hoards, best range overall
-Specials focus on zoning/space control, or attacking in multiple directions at once
-Balanced by being fast-acting, but doing only marginal damage per attack (IE: to encourage ranged battle)
Special outputs by level are usually: 1,1,1,2,3,3,5,8. If your starting weapon has high-level attacks, you'll probably want to begin by building up your stamina to take advantage of that. Spells work like that too, but are MvC-inspired projectiles for the most part, with "2" or sometimes a "3/5" being an enhancement effect, based on the type of magic.
Fire is for raw damage.
Electromagnetic is for meter manipulation and hitstun.
Wind is for mobility and pushback.
Water is for status effects/cursing and blessing.
ITEMS
Some core items like navigation tools (other than your weapons, I mean) and bombs are consistent, but a lot of the other items in the game generate effects from shuffled arrays as well. You can collect items, but can only quick-select 4 or 5 (via bonfires) to use at a time.
Books usually bestow certain knowledges upon you; like acting as a "Identify" for specific types of things, although one allows you to mingle with undead.
Potions have strange effects, *one* is a potion of incineration - the others are positive effects like levitation, fireproofing, full recovery. Brainstorming for a tightly relevant fourth, and I'm likely not going to mess with light/dark play.
Scrolls can summon monsters, curse or uncurse/bless (yourself or others), one is simply a map, one returns you to the last bonfire you were at. Going for one more effect here, too.
I forgot to mention food! Eating food will renew a 2:00 timer, that if it drains, will drop one heart container (1 HP if cursed, 2 if not) and reset. It's not immediate death/poison, but enough to maybe motivate players to keep moving around. Food will not stockpile or drop from enemies. It will immediately be applied upon collecting it, but it will also respawn when you hit bonfires. There's 8 types of food you can collect, and there will be one type the Hero dislikes. The effects of the array are:
+ 2 Hearts
+ 4 Stars
+ 4 Stamina
+ 2 Each
+ 8 Hearts
+ 2 Hearts / - 4 Stars
+ 2 Hearts / - 4 to Max Stamina (for :30)
- 2 Each but not fatal (if you dip below 1 Heart, it wraps around - it could be a totally unexpected game-changer!!)
SEARCHING
There will be invisible items in the game. There will be destructible and fake terrain in the game. There will be booby traps in the game. And there will be one important "search" command that upon using, will draw a brief flicker of attention to any of these suspicious details in the screen/level. What it won't do, however, is tell you what is what...
GAMEPLAY
To begin, you get geared up. The big megabosses wreak a little havoc in HomeTown, and Love disappears from there. A note remains: To find out what happened to her, recover the 7 Gemeralds and seek the truth in the Temple of Judgement. See you there!
SPOILER WARNING. There's more to it than that, naturally. But you'll find out about that later...