I just want Zelda to really feel like I am exploring a big living world again. I feel like Xenoblade has proven to me that massive open spaces are not bad, especially if you have quick and/or fun way of travel. OoT, WW, TP, and SS all had huge open spaces to explore, though not even a fraction the size of what Xenoblade offered and yet it was still too much open space. Simply because what is explored would have been forced on you anyway with more mandatory story as the only reward.
I want to be able to run up a mountain path in Zelda just because I looked at it and wondered if I could even go there. There could be barely anything along the way, except a few puzzles and items of interest but there is a really nice pay off at the final destination. More of true exploration and being mystified at what could be out there. I'd argue Banjo Kazooie did it better than all the 3D Zelda's combined.
There is something very fascinating about seeing a cave up on a cliff, getting to the last boss and thinking, what the heck was back there all those hours ago?
Skyward Sword showed me that I can hang with motion or buttons, they are both fun. It showed me that when they want to create creatively difficult puzzles that wont require me to light a single torch with a stick they can. The puzzles in Skyward Sword were such a breath of fresh air and I hope it continues in that direction.
SS and TP both showed me that traveling and fighting on the backs of the animals can be fun. Only thing is where am I traveling too? The Loftwing should be able to take me from town to town. From the top of a mountain down to the edge of an ocean. The Loftwings hardly interacted with their hylan partners at all, it was as if they didn't exist if they weren't flying. I should be able to fly to and from multiple towns with ease. Flying to places of interest like the under side of a hanging cliff or sky island castles, towns and bean stalks littered throughout the world. By the end of the game I would want freedom to fly just about anywhere, it could easily be limited in the beginning with magical storm clouds that launch devastating lighting bolts before you completed certain tasks to move on. Still with just enough extra space that isn't mandatory.
It wouldn't have to completely over shadow a horse either. Imagine a thick forest in the over world where the canopy is too thick and thorny to be flown through. So while you can fly over and past it, the only way to explore it is on foot or on your horse where special horse shoes keep Epona from destroying her feet are needed. Too realistic? Make it some enchanted forest where it's upper portion is very Parana plant like, so anything over head gets chomped up, but down below near the base and roots of the enchanted forest it's safe. There are plenty of BS reasons to limit the travels of the animals, but not letting them fly to the ground because they are afraid is BS I won't accept.
So yeah my biggest concern is the actual exploration. I thought the condensed areas of SS were great too for on foot exploration, but having that and HUGE over world exploration would be amazing.
Last thing is that I could care less what the land marks are called or how the towns are named. Just make more of them. I really liked TP's Hyrule Town. You couldn't talk to everyone but it seemed like a place people lived in. But then every other town with people is either severely under populated or the other intelligent races live in literal holes in the ground. There should be towns full of NPCs that look lived in. It always seems like one big town with a few slums scattered about.