I say let her be playable but not wield the mastersword, have her be a primarily bow user with an unique bow, perhaps the goddess bow?

From what I understand, she won't be playable, but will go on adventures with Link and help him solves puzzles and stuff. They should make her playable and finally have the games live up to the title.

I think the obvious route would be spellcasting. This iteration of Zelda has already been shown have magical prowess, and having her with a completely different playstyle would make more sense than having her use Link style combat. Of course, that would involve a lot more design work than her using the same basic toolset as Link with some tweaks, but I think it would be far more interesting if she had completely unique mechanics.

Something similar to her Hyrule Warriors incarnation.

It would never happen, but I'd love it if she played like Sypha in the Netflix Castlevania show. One of the very few pieces of media that actually made a magician fight in a cool and interesting way and not just sit back and channel spells at range.

Give her gun feet and call the game Bayonetta 3.

@doctordonkey: Now I'm disappointed because I didn't realize how much I want that to be a thing. That would be incredible.

Cyborg Ninja, OBVIOUSLY.

oh my god yes. but only if they resurrect urbosa as rodin.

BOTW 1 already had more or less a magic system with the Sheikah Slate powers, and I'd like to see them expand on that with a full magic system. Not enough games focus on interesting magic (as opposed to boring spells that just do damage in different elements) and I think that Zelda could really do that well. I'd love to see a complex physics based magic system with the ability to play even more cool tricks than the first game allows. It wouldn't have to be super elaborate or complex, just give me enough tools to get creative and fun.

Making her a spellcaster would be a lot of fun, lemme do all the stuff she can do in Smash Bros in BOTW 2. Maybe I'd actually enjoy the combat this time.

How about spellcasting elementalist or some such? One of the coolest things in BOTW were the physics puzzles, have Zelda's spells do even more of that (if the Switch hardware can handle it).

I do like the idea of her focusing more on a mastery of those sheikah slate powers. Though it would take a lot of reworking to that games mechanics to not have something like that be hilariously broken.

A badass, like Bayonetta; the fanboy tears would be delicious.

Have you ever played Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. Zelda should be like the Mummy... kind of. In a puzzle focused sense. Not setting herself on fire sense.

Do you remember how you could switch between active and the stopped time turn based styles in Transistor? I'd like to see something like that.

I've wanted a game starring Zelda forever. I was excited for BOTW in the initial trailer because Link was so effeminate looking I thought he was Zelda at first. I'd like her to have some unique melee weapon in addition to magic and a bow. I don't have anything against her using a sword, of course (she had one in Twilight Princess, if I recall) but the Master Sword seems so attached to Link that if she used it frequently it wouldn't differentiate her much as a character or in terms of gameplay. But something else - like a staff, maybe? Or just hand-to-hand? It'd be especially cool if she had could turn into Sheik.

She's also much more interesting as a character than Link. I'd hope they would drop the silent-protagonist conceit with her and let her speak her mind.

I don't expect she'll be playable, but I think I'd like to see a version of Shiek, some kind of a agile ninja or rouge. Or a magic-knight maybe she learns spell instead of collecting items.

If they do, I can see them use it as another tool where Zelda can do certain things that Link can't while Link can do stuff that Zelda can't. So maybe you can switch between them on the fly to complete puzzles and combat encounters. It'd also be a good chance to add in co-op. I am not necessarily assuming one way or another as to whether she'll be playable though. I can see it going both ways, but it would be cool if she was finally taking more of a role in the adventure.

Exactly like in Wand of Gamelon.

The answer is yes and she should use a spear/bow. I want to switch between her and link, GTA 5 style.

Weapons don't degrade when she uses them and she's immune to the effects of rain when climbing. Really that's all I ask of the game regardless of who you can play as.

Well, like Sheik. Acrobatic, knives.

Basically a ninja.

I mean we already have Zelda's style via Sheik, most notably from OoT.

Oh no, I non-ironically was confused at the question thinking "but she's always been the main character in the games...".

I think I'm getting old.

I'd love for her to have a way to recruit some enemies to her cause, Shadow of Mordor style but with fewer head explosions.