I really don't want any more sci-fi stuff or anything remotely close to it. Twilight Princess felt too sci-fi for my tastes, especially many of the baddies. The entire Twilight Realm, while pretty, looked like something off of the sci-fi channel, and I don't feel like it fit the series in the least.
I do NOT want any more sidekicks! Argh! I miss the days of old when the advice you were looking for could be found through random NPCs and signs and whatnot. I'd like to have that feeling of adventuring and exploring on my own again. I don't mind having another character that has a lot of depth and background, but I really don't want them tagging along. While I'm not exactly looking forward to the "hint system" Nintendo has been talking about for their upcoming games, I think it might be a way out of sticking us with a quest buddy.
I don't want any more "surprise" characters. Sheik was all, "Surprise, I'm Zelda!" Same with Tetra, same with KoRL being the king, and somewhat the same with Ciela being the oh-so-important character. No more, please. I know Zelda has some things that are always repeated, but this shouldn't be one of them. It was fun the first couple of times, but now it's so predictable that I don't even know why they bother introducing these new characters in alternate forms. When I saw Midna, I knew she wasn't what she seemed, because it's been done over and over and over.
And I definitely don't want any more crazy new legends being brought up without revealing information about the ones we're already questioning. The whole "The Oocca created the Hylians!" thing brought up in Twilight Princess really threw me for a loop. While it was indeed interesting, it only raised more questions to issues that we haven't yet received answers for. I understand that the timeline is a work in progress, but I think that they should focus on setting us straight on certain things before they decide to further complicate the legend as a whole.
I don't want any more overly dark tones. Darkness is good in moderation, but c'mon, this isn't The Legend of Gothica. Some serious tones, scenes, and characters are great, but there should be some levity to balance it out. This is Zelda, not some halfassed teenage-angst game, yet it seems like that is where the series is heading. I'm not saying it needs to be all Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy, but Nintendo does need to be careful with the whole "more mature Zelda" move. I understand that it's hard to appeal to both western and eastern gamers.... I mean, western gamers want gritty, angsty, blood baths whereas eastern gamers want cutsey, jolly, kiddie games. It's hard to make both sides happy, especially when games like TP are considered "too easy" by westerners and "too hard" by easterners. I suppose that's why the TWW style is being stuck to the DS and the more realistic style to the Wii, but I'd rather see a nice balance in one game rather than seeing two very different styles separated by consoles.
Lastly, I do not want voice acting. Most anime is a good example as to what atrocities occur when dubs are made. If they plan to keep the Link/Player bond alive, it's best that they don't force dialogue on the main character. I didn't mind the garble in TWW and TP... really, Midna's dialogue was actual voice, just garbled. One example is, "The spirits... it can't be!" There are various clips out there containing the actual voice clips, ungarbled. In any case, I wouldn't mind hearing NPCs speak... just so long as they didn't sound dumb and slow like in Fable/II. But Link speaking? No thank you.