@matana breath of the wild i think is the one general outlier to this theory because it is just that fucking good. it's probably my favorite as well, but i always separate it from the rest of the franchise because it's so wildly different.

my favorite is wind waker, which is also a bit of an outlier, but i never got to play any of the n64 games until much later because my dad didn't like zelda. i played wind waker at a friend's house lol.