I knew someone would ask that question sooner rather than later. It's hard to answer though. Breath of the Wild is so different from the other games. I can say that as a gaming experience it will rank very high. Higher than anything in a long time. As a Zelda game, I'm not sure yet where exactly, it will come down to the main dungeons and bosses (no spoiling please), of which I'm approaching the first one. Even after around 40 hours of play-time, I've yet to visit a single one. I've mentioned which games are my favorites countless times now, but to put Breath of the Wild in context, I'm fairly sure when all is said and done it will fall around here (top 10 only);

1. Ocarina of Time, remains indesputably the quintessential game, balancing out every element the series needs to perfection.

2. Link's Awakening

3-6. Breath of the Wild, if the dungeons are real "Zelda" (again, please no spoiler), it will work in this game's favor, if that part as well is as different from the rest of the series as the rest of the game is it will slightly start to work against it in my all-time ranking of Zelda games. Zelda's my favorite franchise, and it is as such because of a few elements. There will be a point where too much difference indeed is, too much. That point isn't here yet though.

3-4. Twilight Princess, my current #3, which for a sizable part is at this spot because of it's dungeons and bosses. Breath of the Wild can actually beat this amazing game in my ranking if I find it's dungeons and bosses "good enough". This coincidentally also means Breath of the Wild would be in my top 10-15 favorite games overall.

4-5. Majora's Mask

5-6. A Link to the Past

7. Skyward Sword, no matter what happens still, Breath of the Wild is already better than this game.

8. A Link Between Worlds

9. The Wind Waker

10. The Legend of Zelda NES

I'll go with a top 5 for mine.

1 - Majora's Mask - the most interesting and deepest, darkest Zelda. Dealing with death, the struggles of every day life, and a looming doom always present, it was the most unique and enjoyable Zelda I played. Also, the time mechanic was excellent.

2 - A Link Between Worlds - Something about it just felt perfection. I enjoyed every moment of it. I also loved the wall merging mechanic. It made for a lot of interesting puzzles.

3 - Wind Waker - The most stylistic Zelda with the most quirky, but lovable Link. This game was just full of character and personality. It also felt like the biggest Zelda at the time, making it really feel like an adventure each time you set sail.

4 - A Link to the Past - Just an overall fun adventure game, with a big world to explore, fun dungeons, and a bit more freedom offered to the player over other Zeldas

5 - Breath of the Wild - There's just so much freedom and so much to do, it's hard to focus on the main task at hand. Each time I play, I'm excited to see what I'll discover next. It feels like the grandest Zelda yet. And characters are great as well.

1. Wind Waker HD. Love the fast sail in the HD version and the tone and world are just right for Zelda

2. A Link to the Past. The height of 16 bit gaming. Still feels modern and I love the boss battles especially

3. Ocarina of Time: I just really like this template. Some elements have aged poorly but overall I really enjoy the experience still

4. Twilight Princess: Traditional but immersive world and the wolf mechanics are really fun.  I seem to remember a last second "oh that's not the end you have to do all these other things!" that really pissed me off as it felt like they pulled the rug out from under me.

5. Majora's Mask: Couldn't get into the time mechanic as I frequently had to retrace my steps. Didn't really get how to progress and stopped playing

6. Skyward Sword: My god just die in a hole. The motion controls were so laggy I would always swing then he would be holding his sword in the air. So then I just had to do it super slowly to register. So annoying. Motion controls were nice for aiming but that's it.

1. Breath of the Wild: I love the world and everything felt so full of life. I keep playing and continue to always find new things that I have missed.
2. A Link Between Worlds: I loved the dungeons, overworld, and music and I feel it did everything ALTTP did, but better.
3. Skyward Sword: I'm not a huge fan of the motion controls, but I love everything else about it. It has the best dungeons in the series to me and the story and characters are fantastic as well, especially Girahim. Without the motion controls, it would probably be number 2.
4. Ocarina of Time: It was my first Zelda game and it has a fantastic atmosphere and dungeons, especially the Spirit and Forest temples
5. A Link to the Past: Great classic with a huge number of dungeons and a neat overworld.
6. Hyrule Warriors: It was an enjoyable game with a huge amount of content. The story was pretty neat and I enjoyed the fan service.
7. Tri Force Heroes: The game wasn't great, but I played the entire thing with two of my friends, which made the game a much better experience than I thought.
8. Minish Cap: Fun game, but nothing great. There were no major flaws or major strengths in this one.
9. Wind Waker: I loved the artstyle, music, and the large amount of secrets in the game, but the sailing, tri force quest, and beginning made me not love the game.
10. Link's Awakening: It was a fun game but it has aged pretty horribly.
11. Oracle of Ages: It has aged pretty poorly and wasn't as good as Link's Awakening.
12. Oracle of Seasons: Same as above
13. Twilight Princess: I genuinelly dislike this game. I hate the wolf segments, dungeon design is boring, tutorials are awful, etc. Midna is the only redeeming quality of the game.
14. Phantom Hourglass: This boring sailing mechanics are back from wind waker with added annoying touch screen controls and boring, extremely easy dungeons. It was also really tedious to return to the Temple of the Ocean King over and over again.
15. Majora's Mask: I hated the repetitiveness brought on by the time mechanic. There were some fine things about the game, but that just ruins the entire experience for me.
16. Link's Crossbow Training: It was a garbage game that my brother bought for me for Christmas one year.

I have not played Zelda 1, 2, spirit tracks, or four swords.

1) BOTW - I have very high expectation on this game, yet it surpass all my expectation. I have never had so much fun with a game since Skyrim (with mods). This has become my favorite game of all time.

2) ocarina of time - my first zelda game. The time travel mechanic is still very unique.

3) majora mask - I wish more zelda game can have a darker story like this one.

4) A link between worlds - love the freedom

5) twilight princess - love the characters and story, feels like a XL version of OOT (in a good way)

Zelda A link to the Past.
Zelda NES
Zelda Ocarine.
Never played the others.

I'm not far enough in BotW to rank it properly, unless we are going by early impressions..

1. The Wind Waker - despite dropping this game because I couldn't do stealth missions when I was younger, this game truly shines and I really enjoy the atmosphere, music, sailing (yes, I said sailing) and going off to explore more islands

2. A Link Between Worlds - Missing out on ALttP (will play it someday!), this game truly shines as a 2D Zelda game. The fluidity and game design really is great and I enjoyed being able to get all the items early and being free to explore quite early on. ALttP remixed music too, can't really say no to that

3. Skyward Sword - Really fun game, with more RPG elements and upgrading. Overall a really solid game despite me hating the motion controls and silent realm

4. Twilight Princess- I wasn't a fan of the story but when I picked up the game again, the atmosphere really set a tone and the story actually was not bad. Wolf Link is fun to play with especially when you can change between the 2 at any time

5. Minish Cap - don't like this game, but I really liked the artstyle of this game. Classic Zelda with a shrinking mechanic and a lot of weird items :p A lot to explore, but is limited without the right weapons

1. A Link to the Past

2. Wind Waker

3. Twilight Princess

4. Majora's Mask

5. Skyward Sword

6. Ocarina of Time

7. Original game.


So far, Breath of the Wild would go directly to the 6th place, maybe, curiously alongside the original release, though I should note I have enjoyed every minute of most of them, with the exception of the last three games, they all have tedious, boring sequences, and Ocarina also feels very dated. A similar thing is happening to me with Breath of the Wild, so far I have enjoyed very few hours of it.

My list is something like this:

1.- The Wind Waker. Amazing game that blew my mind back in its day and it's extremely fun to replay today. Full of charm, wittiness, memorable sequences and more.

2.- Majora's Mask. Arguably Zelda's darkest game, this is a fantastic game that oozes personality and a unique style, with some mature themes prevalent in it, and plenty of quests to undertake.

3.- Link's Awakening. A very fun game that has a charm on its own, has some really interesting crossovers with other Nintendo franchises and while not taking itself too seriously provides a memorable, almost timeless adventure.

4.- A Link to the Past. A classic, full of adventure, challenges and basically everything you could ask from a game.

5.- Twilight Princess. Solid game, which at the time really provided me with plenty of awesome hours.

6.- The Minish Cap. Like a Link to the Past, but slightly worse. Still pretty fun.

7.- Four Swords Adventure. Best co-op experience ever! Shame the world itself is nothing very elaborated.

8.- Ocarina of Time. A great game that hasn't passed the test of time. I can't really bring myself to replay it, as I find it quite archaic and aggravating nowadays, and I've grown tired of it.

9. - The Phantom Hourglass. This is some okay DS game. I beat it and I was happy with it. Can't honestly ask for much more than that.

10.- Skyward Sword. Boring and frustrating due to the overreliance on motion controls. I doubt I'll ever beat it, nor I have the desire to do so.

1) Ocarina of Time - My first Zelda game, still my favorite.

2) Skyward Sword - Great dungeons, great story, has my favorite artstyle in the series. I had no issues with the motion controls and loved using them. I still go back and forth between this and OoT as my #1 Zelda, but for now, #2 it is. Also, Groose.

3) Majora's Mask - I love the time-travel aspect of it and how it feels different from the other games but at the same time keeps the great gameplay that OoT established.

4) Wind Waker - Fun game, great artstyle, but it's fairly easy and also really lacking in the dungeon department imo.

5) Twilight Princess - It's a great game, but I think the artstyle is ugly and the overworld is bland. Some of the character designs were bad too. The dungeons are good though.

Still haven't played BotW, so no comment on that, but I'll probably rank it at number 4 or 5, replacing either WW or TP.

Bonus: 6) A Link Between Worlds - Only 2D Zelda I've played, it's pretty fun but also pretty easy. The item rental mechanic was kinda lame imo.