A thought that tends to pop into my head from time to time is how quests and official Zelda games tend to differ in feel. Not just in the writing style, game design, and system limitations of ZC but some other "Zelda-ness". There's something unique about Zelda games, not even something I necessarily like them for, but it's something that's always been there past the first few and I think a big part of it is this: Zelda games love their central gimmicks.
More than just having one unifying mechanic, Zelda games like to be very bold and unsubtle with what they're about. You don't usually have to look past the title and cover art to find it. You see The Wind Waker, that's an item in the game. There's a boat front and center on the cover and behind the title. This is a Zelda game where you sail about and control the wind. Many of the games will do this kind of thing, having one of the game's items be the subtitle. Like Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, or The Lampshade of No Real Significance . Zelda games' covers, I feel more than most, are recognizable and grab your attention, and the first thing they pull that attention to is the central gimmick. I find these gimmicks tend to fall into three main categories:
Glorified Keys:
This would be your Ocarina of Times, your Minish Caps, arguably the Oracles at some points, items that might be cool but mostly involve situations with two states. You see it, you use the thing, and you move on. In a looser sense, you could also consider the Phantom Hourglass a glorified key since it mostly just gives you more time to solve the puzzles in the Temple of the Ocean King.
Exploration:
This is probably the most broad and common category. It could probably do to be split up further, but this would be stuff that changes how you explore the world. Transportation methods would fall into this, cases like ALBW or BotW where it's a small change to Link's core moveset, or even two state stuff like in ALttP/the Oracles. These tend to be the most interesting IMO, but there's also that one time they turned the exploration into actual railroading. Heh.
Weird Mishmashes:
I'd put this as a category for the leftovers where there's a core element in the game but what it does feels less cohesive. Stuff like Fi's various abilities in Skyward Sword or Wolf Link in Twilight Princess. I'd also maybe put Majora's Mask's transformations in here even though that game feels far more intentional.
There's a bit of overlap, and this is hardly a professional, well thought out analysis or anything. What I'm wondering is do you guys think this central gimmick trend is something worth attempting in quests and other fan games? Is there something special to what these games are doing that makes them more memorable or is it just another Nintendo-ism, throwing ideas at the wall until something sticks? Are there new unique angles ZC could bring to the table? Maybe someone could make Zelda Teaches Typing in 2.55.
That last idea. That one's a winner.