I'm gonna have to go with Dantz here, this is not very Zelda-like. It's too dark and doesn't have that childish edge all Zeldas have, when his two friends die it really is the thing that stops it from being a Zelda, I reckon you should make this indie, just call it the sage knight, it would be better that way. Zelda games normally have a small farm boy or village kid who is different inside but on the outside seems completely regular. Then a tradgic event occurs and begins Link's quest to fufill his destiny. If you want it to become a regular zelda, with a new turn based gameplay, then scrap guard school, Link never really wants to become a royal guard, and normally the guards seem to be stuck up and ignore Link or just shove him around as a little kid. Link needs to be a child or teen who lives in a village, and then is thrown into a whirlpool of events when he just wants to be a farmer at peace.
Anyway, the Demo has some excellent gameplay and was fun, were you meant to defeat the stalfos though? Don't scrap this project altogether.
Also, Cedric should definetly be around 40 or 50, If he's captain of the guard he has to be old and very experienced and hardened, 10 years after enrolling in Guard academy would still have you slipping up often.