I can understand, from a different perspective - I think the Final Fantasy stories are subpar, where people swear by FF games.

Besides obvious technical advancements, I personally think that 3D Zelda's have gotten worse since Ocarina of Time was released. While I deem Majora's Mask to be on equal ground; Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Twilight Princess all lack in certain areas that prevent them from being a complete experience, and certain design choices make them less memorable, and less engaging than their N64 counterparts.

For what it's worth, though, I do agree that Link's Awakening was the best 2D Zelda, narrowly edging out A Link to the Past.

Well, its kind of a different setup.  Zelda, until Twilight Princess that is, focused on gameplay, exploration and gaining clues through character interaction.  Whereas Final Fantasy focuses on Storyline and graphics directly, in a very linear fashion.

Zelda is more comparable to a series like Dragon Quest, where both try to focus on gameplay, character interaction and item collection, but don't really focus so much on story (except for rare cases like DQIV and V or Zelda Ocarina and Twilight).  Final Fantasy would be more comparable to a series like....well, none of the Nintendo series.

I sort of agree with your remark about the 3D Zeldas, I think OOT & MM were both amazing, but TP is better. WW, while being one of my favourite games on the GameCube, felt like an incomplete game at times to me. It was obviously rushed too much. PH just felt barren, for a Zelda game. But I still liked it. :) Of course, that's all imho.

And yes, LA DX is the very pinnacle of 2D Zelda gaming, no shred of doubt about that. Words cannot express my love for that game.

graphics will never hold up.. ever.. well, not unless your shenmue.. ocarina is an AMAZING game.. poo on u!

Personally, A Link To The Past is the greatest zelda game ever

I don't agree, not too long ago I replayed Ocarina of Time, just after finishing Wind Waker and playing the beginning of Twilight, and I was impressed by how well this game holds up. I think it's better balanced between adventure and exploration, Wind Waker has too much navigation and Twilight has a very boring beginning.

Most people loved Ocarina back in the days before reviews became obsessed over.  And WELL before Metacritic came around.  In other words, people were in love with Ocarina before the 'Internet' age came and made everything about how hyped a game was due to reviews and marketing.

By the same argument, you could say Metal Gear Solid or FF7 on the playstation deserves lower scores and less hype.

Well yes. Of course. When I talked about LA, obviously I was referring to the DX version. ;)

This is a legitimate viewpoint to take

But I suppose I really meant in technical terms