Well, after SMB3, there was a lot that started to go wrong in gaming. Although a lot that also started to go WAY better. I think RPGs vastly improved in the 16-bit genre, and hit their peak from the late 16-bit era until the late 32-bit era. The RPGs I enjoyed the most in the last 5 years were remakes of 16-bit era RPGs.
Anyway, Zelda; I think one of the major problems with the later games were the additions; the sailboat, the wolf, the fetch quests, large focus on the horse, etc.... These are a bit of a deviation from the formula which really nailed it. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask had many different options, but none of them really took over the game like the sailboat/wolf/horse in Twilight Princess. Ocarina of Time's formula really nailed it, and there just isn't anyone yet who has done it better. While the later games are still good (I loved getting lost on the Sailboat, in a storm, for example) they are still less than what Ocarina did, and are therefore disappointing. While there were many parts of the Post-Majora's mask games that were fun, there were also long areas and sewquences that weren't very fun.
Luckily, the one dark spot of Ocarina of Time, The Water Temple, has been fixed. Not that the Water Temple was bad, but most people seemed to get very lost in it - which created a problem.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
