Zelda is a very good game, but what if you could change it to make it even better. In this section I have taken the liberty to do that very thing. I will detail enhancements that I would have made in the game to make the playing experience far better. I have been playing video games for many years, and I've always loved the Zelda series, but I always wished that someone from Nintendo would come up to me and say, what can we do to make this game better and more fun for you. I could then in tandem with the developers hone the game into a work unparalleled by any other game on any other system.

First off, the entire gaming environment would be larger. Hyrule Field would have more landscape elements to it. More rocks, caves, natural features, animals, tall grass, etc. Death mountain would have more caves (like Link to the Past) with secrets in them or people. Goron City was OK, but there could be more. That Whole Tunnel thing with the Lost Woods was not to great. There could have been a real dark woods, with dense undergrowth, rocks, fog, and real bad enemies (not those corny Deku Scrubs) hiding in the darkness waiting to ambush Link. The Market was poorly rendered, and could have been converted to 3D Kakariko Village Style. More Houses, more interesting people. More shops, more bottle items, more games. More regular houses with people living normal lives. People would move around. Sometimes you would see them in the market, and sometimes they would be in Hyrule Field walking over to Kakariko or somewhere else. Lake Hylia is more like a pond than a lake, heck there's a bigger lake a block away from where I live, and it's only a retention pond. It could have been far larger. Put a boat in there. There could have been more interesting enemies in this region as well. There would be more secrets in here too. The Gerudo Valley would be many times larger and harder to get to. There would have been Gerudos hiding in crevices that ambush Link if he wasn't careful. Link would use more stealth, than brawn. The Bridge would have been longer and more perilous i.e. broken boards, traps, wind, etc. The Haunted Wasteland would lead to more secret areas, and oasises. There would be a lot more walking and landmarks to investigate as you moved around in the Gaming Environment. There would be so much to do that it would take weeks to investigate at least half of the land thoroughly. I heard it said in magazines that Hyrule in Zelda 64 is SO vast. Well, I was not too impressed with the vastness. It's big, a little above par with Quest 64, but not really as huge as the hype.

More uses for weapons. Knock over trees with the Megaton Hammer. Start a Forest Fire with the Fire Arrow or Din's Fire. More Ocarina Spell-Like Ocarina Songs (These would use magic from Link's Magic Meter) - i.e. "The Song of Life" - Make's plants grow. "The Summoning of Godesses" - FF7 like summon that would make Farore, Nayru, and Din appear to do some awesome damage on an opponent (Lots of Special Effects, and camera pans, similar to Knights of Round) "The Symphony of Love" - Summons a Great Fairy. "The Concierto of Hyrule" - Summons the famous Hyrule Overworld Theme with all its 64 bit polyphonic glory, Increasing Link's damage prevention by 1/2. "The Song of Retribution" - Sends Lightning onto a Z-Targeted opponent. "The Canto of Revelation" - Would Allow Link to see into the Future. "The Fugue of Destruction" - Earthquake opens fissure in the ground and enemy is swallowed. "The Movement of Fates" - A summoning of the seven sages, lots of magic and awesome special effects. Adult Link would most definately be able to use the Boomerang. (For christ sakes, it's one of my favorites, but I only use it a couple of times in the game. ) More Shields. More Swords. More Magic Arrows i.e. Wind Arrow, Rock Arrow, Blade Arrow, Trident Arrow, The Mysterious Arrow (Does weird transformations to enemies). The Battle Axe - swinggg...ssslice. The Jousting Lance (For use with Epona) The Mace - For use with or without Epona. The Lens of Truth and the Mask of Truth would do the same thing - (I don't get why they didn't do that) The Crossbow - Fairy Bow Upgrade.

The Enemies would be tougher (They would need to be with all those spells and cool weapons) and more Mini-Boss types hanging around in the shadows. Enemies would cast magic on you or affect you in a way that would need to be counter effected in real time. This would use more of that Magic Meter, that seems to stay dormant all the time, and would prompt the use of the Green and Red Potions more often. Ganon was way too easy. He's the last boss, make him tough.

Real Voices - This one thing would automatically exclude the game from cartridge based to CD. It would be nice to hear actor's voices playing the Roles of all the characters that you encounter in the Game. Link would actually talk back to people instead of people always talking to him. More environmental sounds would be present. The Music would be along the lines of a celtic/midieval aire while maintaining that internal Zelda theme.

Changes in the Circumstances by day and time. Going beyond the realism of Day and Night, there could be day of week or month, where certain circumstances i.e. people would change on a daily basis. They would almost never say the same thing. It gets boring fast when they always say the same old line. Weather would change with extended time.

New Sword Attacks. Blade-Beam would definitely be in the game. I have since wondered why in God's name would they they take that out of the game. It would have been really awesome to do it. (And no do not tell me it's in the game, or part of the FireS secret code Sword, these rumors are FALSE, FALSE, FALSE!) There would be an attack where Link would run up to the "Z" targeted enemy, leap into the air, come down on the enemy, and do a triple forward slash, finishing with a ending parry. I would have modified the whole charging thing so that each time Link learned a new skill it would make a incremental sword skill meter increase in size, and as link would charge his sword the meter would rise until you reached the desired skill. For instance, Link would charge to the first incrament to get the Blue Circular Attack, the second for the Red Circular attack, and the third for the Blade-Beam attack, and more for any other more powerful attacks that he might obtain. By now you're probably thinking "Limit Breaks" from FF7, but this is something far better, Limit Breaks when ever you want 'em. Remember though in Zelda 64 all the enemies are rather weak, taking only a hit or two to eliminate, so in the current game this would be impractical, but in the Hypothetical Modified Version those enemies would be tougher and these muli-hit combos would be feasable.

I would add a new Mini-Game called Hyrule Knights Battleground, where Link could pit himself against competitors in a Fighting Game style battle with swords, shields, and armor (all Midievil/Hyrulian style of course). Kind of like the battle with Dark Link, this would allow gamers who are fans of fighting games to relate to the game more readily. Hey, their would even be fatalities, in Deathmatch Mode. (No Faires Allowed!, heh, heh) This would give the game much added replay.

There would be a code to play as Zelda. Now THAT would be awesome! She would defininely replace Xena as "The Warrior Princess" I've always been rather partial to Zelda, and think it would be real fun to use telekinetic force waves and the like on enemies. (No, this "Playing as Zelda" thing is also not in the game so don't send me any lame codes or fake tricks on how to do it!)

For a Nintendo 64 Adventure-RPG Zelda 64 is the best game as far as getting the player involved in the Legend, but it does, in my opinion, fall short of some other RPG's. The storyline would be far more in depth. I mean, there was a liberal sprinkling of storyline in this game that could have been beefed up a bit to make the game more. Although Zelda 64 falls into the category of Adventure rather than RPG, I would personally get more out of the game if I was involved in various plot twists, love affairs (That whole, Ruto thing was childish at best), allies becoming enemies, enemies becoming allies, some degree of violence (This game is too squeaky clean, although all Zelda's are geared toward all audiences including small children, it would be nice to see someone die in that Kakariko fire, or an emotionally evokative event like the death of Malon transpire) more connections to future and prior games made, alternate plot developments, and multiple endings. As to not offend younger players my fictitious Zelda would include a lock-out password or code that would dissallow certain graphic storyline elements, nudity, or excessive violence and blood from the game. Older gamers could activate these things to enhance their gaming experience while younger ones would not be overly exposed. (believe it or not, this issue concerns some people, surprisingly Loony Tunes doesn't, Gee...Let's drop an anvil on someone, or hit a dog in the face with a baseball bat Now that's what I call Violence!)

Zelda Virtual Hyrule Chat. Now this feature would be separate from the actual game itself and require some kind of modem attatchment. You would be able to access a Virtual Reality Chat environment of Hyrule where your avatars could be characters from the game. These would be chosen in an avatar Galery or perhaps another selection feature. Players from around the world could communicate with each other via their console gaming systems and simultaneously explore Hyrule. Certain areas could be you and your friend's secret meeting spots like behind the Deku Tree or inside Jabu-Jabu. Who knows! The possibilites are endless.