God of War is one of the few Action-Adventures where I can say that the puzzles fit perfectly in the game and are fun to solve. In Prince of Persia, for example, the puzzles are good, but they are sometimes pretty long and it can become sometimes a bit tedious. In Devil May Cry they simply detract from the game and arent fun at all.
On the button mashing part, I simply can't understand why anyone would say this. Since the combos are easier to execute than, say, DMC, you have to resort less to button mashing. In fact, I never button-mashed in God of War, as the combos are easy enough to execute that they let you plan what you're doing. Sure, the game perhaps can be beaten with square-square-triangling all the time, but what's the point when you can do everything easy enough?
I can't speak of Zelda, though. I've only played Ocarina of Time, and didn't like it very much
