I personally found at one point that Zelda was THE action adventure series. Its influence is vast. Every time Zelda did something neat, someone did something similar and soon, everyone was doing it. It happened with the original Zelda. It happened with Zelda 2 and rpg side scrollers. It happened with Link to the Past and its vast dungeons and puzzle solving. It happened with OoT and its 3d world that no 3d game before ever saw. When I think of Zelda, I think of a franchise that yes, sticks to a familiar formula, but very often comes up with new ways to solve old problems or new ways to play them period, games like LttP, Zelda 2, OoT.
I look at Zelda SS and it just looks...so safe. And then I look at games like Fallout: New Vegas with huge sprawling worlds with tons of shit to do and see with a keen attention to detail, and it's like, when did Zelda start feeling this underwhelming?
I was fine with it when I played Twilight Princess, because Twilight Princess felt like a swan song in many ways, a tribute so to speak. Even by the end of that game I found myself growing tired of the same old.
I'll be playing it no doubt, but it's kinda disappointing after Mario Galaxy that, as far as I've seen, Nintendo seems to be hamming it up with this new Zelda.