That includes the way they look. Most Zelda games have unique art styles and differ in graphical quality. A Legend of Zelda game rarely looks downright bad, but some look better than others.
Zelda has been toying with the idea of a multiverse for decades, but it might be time for the series to admit to its existence in a mainline game.
There wasn’t much direction in The Legend of Zelda. A player was simply given a sword by an old man at the start of the game, who said, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”.