Daily Debate: Would a Resident Evil Style Zelda Game Be Good?
Posted on April 05 2023 by Alexis S. Anderson
With the release of the Resident Evil 4 remake, I couldn’t help but wonder what a Zelda game might be like if it was a gritty-but-goofy survival horror game. Nintendo is very unlikely to make such a game, but with Breath of the Wild being open-world and the Hyrule Warriors games bringing the franchise into the hack-and-slash genre, whose to say whether a survival horror spinoff might be in our future.
It should be stated right up front that I have not played a Resident Evil game, I’ve watched loved ones play Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4— so my thoughts will follow from that foundation (that said, those with more franchise experience should chime in on the potential for a Resident Evil Kakariko Village in the comments). But as I watch my S/O play the Resident Evil 4 remake I find myself longing for a Zelda-version of the game. I love the colorful, cell-shaded charm that most Zelda game aesthetics provide, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a moderately darker Zelda spinoff.
There have been plenty of creepy settings in Zelda games– Ocarina of Time’s Bottom of the Well, Twilight Princess’ Snowpeak Manor, Majora’s Mask’s Ikana Castle– and they all have this wonderfully eerie feeling to them like anything could be hiding around every corner. So much of Majora’s Mask has that tense, unearthly air to it which gives me hope that a full Zelda game could pull off the same stimulation that makes survival-horror games great. But what might be most effective is a segment of a normal Zelda game that plays out like a Chapter of a Resident Evil game– over the shoulder camera, running from an unnaturally strong bad guy while battling your way through Stalfos, making use of items (arrows, weapons, etc.) stashed along the way and hiding spots built into the map.
Set against a more upbeat Zelda backdrop, that moment would be much more impactful, but then its horror-level would be mitigated. A full spinoff, rather, would be entirely in that style and have the right to get as violent as it pleases. I am not a huge fan of gore in video games, but where visually striking, brief, and slightly over-the-top (like the instant death attacks in Resident Evil) it is effective. So I might enjoy a Zelda game that really came up with some tastefully-done gore. It would be hard to see Link or even any given Bokoblin suffer like that, though.
Ultimately, while a Resident Evil-style Zelda could be a fascinating and effective game that plucks out all of the horror elements of the franchise and ratchets them up quite a few notches, it would likely fail. It would probably be too much of a departure from the series for most fans to be comfortable with and I’m not sure how it could set itself apart from other survival horror games. But I stand by the idea that as either a mini-game or a segment of a larger more traditional Zelda game, it could really shine. (In truth, I think all I want is a Link alternate costume for Leon in the Resident Evil 4 remake. And sidebar: hair has never been rendered better than in this game!)
Do you think a Resident Evil-style Zelda game would be a hit? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Alexis S. Anderson is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon who joined the writing team in November, 2014. She has a JD from the UCLA School of Law and is pursuing a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with her parents, twin brother, and family shih-tzu.
