Zelda 1 is actually worse than Zelda 2.
Also, I've been trying to beat OoT for two months now, but I can't bring myself to like it enough to do it =/
I got the same feeling with OoT while playing FFVII. Rationally they should be an improvement over their immediate predecessors, but emotionally something about them hits the wrong chords - perhaps the 2D to 3D shift didn't allow the developers to fully express their visions, so they played it safe, I don't know.