Koh -Vs- Ocarina of Time

[Zero Kirby]

Every supporting evidence you're bring up supports finding the same darn fault, Zelda is too split up in overall level design as a game. Each area is actually isolated rather than a part of the whole. More a group of individual themed dungeons than a whole cohesive game.

To be fair, this is a pretty big fault when games like Metroid Prime and Batman: Arkham City also have very distinct splits in level designs, and yet nobody would imagine one part of the game standing alone from the rest (except the challenge modes in Arkham City but they're on the side and are supposed to stand apart). They make them all fit together as a whole. What you learn earlier in these games (Missiles lock-on to enemies, some enemies are weak to specific attacks, R.E.C. makes thugs swing their weapons wildly around them, thugs will improvise protection and weapons) serves you in the future (you might try Super Missiles on the fast Chozo Ghosts and find them to be extremely effective, or use the REC on an armed, armored thug and discover it sends them flying backwards).

They are better at Zelda games than Zelda, basically. Skyward Sword's a nice step in the right direction thanks to its smaller item cache with much broader strokes, but unfortunately things are likely to swing back into formulaic again and bam - another Twilight Princess will come out.