Wind Waker is the overall better package for me. TP has what I love the most about Zelda: Actually 9 dungeons, not 4, but I take issue with how TP linearized the design of some of its dungeons, where every previous Zelda including OoT/WW/ALttP have more "boxed rooms" layouts for their dungeons, where you start from the middle and branch out. In TP a couple of the dungeons feel more open and shut. You just go the only place you can, collect keys along the way and open the immediate door. Temple of Time is literally just "Walk all the way up... then all the way back down with a statue" and it starts to feel gimmicky.
The overworld is better in Wind Waker, where there's more systematized content in the ocean due to the treasures, random encounters, and how each acre has something that's either part of a side-quest, earning rupees or getting Heart Pieces. And each island being somewhat unique (except for the eye-reefs) makes it fun if you WANT to do the side-content. TP forcing you to ride across the routes of Travel in its enlarged and rather empty Hyrule feels boring over time, and the side-content is too sparse to make the map size that much larger than it was in OoT.
But in the end it's the story itself and how it escalates that WW wins in favor over TP. I find that the games OoT, MM and WW specifically, tell stories that mean something. Like, Nintendo is telling you the child gamer, something with those narratives. OoT is about how time passes, and how the greatest reward moreso than a "Zelda Adventure" is to be given your childhood back and live the best years to its fullest. WW is about tradition, and how the perspective of aging people becomes nostalgic to a world that no longer exists; that's what Hyrule under the ocean is to the King and to Ganon. That's why the King gives an admission at the end, comparing himself to the antagonist, and why he doesn't come back up with Link and Tetra. It's a story about how you must never allow tradition to trample over the unique innocence of children and how they find their own, new values that are not something you necessarily understand, but something we all recognize with each generation. As a millenial, I see zoomers have this unique fascination with "Liminal spaces" and wax nostalgic about Minecraft. To me Minecraft is great, but it's a game I played when I was already an adult. "Nostalgic" is a bit loaded to say in regards to that, and I couldn't be less interested in abandoned supermarkets or the creepypasta you see in them. But I do associate them with horror movies. My younger sister doesn't even LIKE movies, and I have to accept that's how things are moving.
TP on the other hand, it fumbles a bit. It has a strong in-universe payoff in Midna, but there's no theme to Ganondorf in this iteration. Unlike OoT or WW there's no "catastrophe" to the narrative regarding Hyrule Castle or its Town at the end. He has the castle in a big diamond shield yeah, but the citizen are right outside and lulling about, like they're not aware of it. You have a completely isolated 4-phase bossfight that ends on Link, Zelda and Ganondorf fighting by themselves in a vast empty field. But OoT had the time-skip that leaves the Castle Town torn up, full of ReDeads and every character had to flee to Kakariko Village. There's a wrong to be righted there. And in TP, there's the Twilight Realm. Yes, we have to defeat Ganondorf for his meddling, but he's not sitting on a throne of power. I already cleaned up the Twilight gaps in the "Light World" in the first 3rd of the adventure. I've been on a victory-lap this entire time, and I'm not exactly encroaching on him. He's not even trying to bring together the 3 triforce parts that are so clearly still on their hands like it was in OoT. In OoT AND in Wind Waker, that's what Ganon was trying to do by capturing Zelda. Capture her, so that Link has to go there, and once all 3 are there, the Triforce is attained, and he can fully doom the world with it. Not in TP. He even technically has it, but it's not even mentioned, and the fight is just a "fight". In OoT, the fight was a moment of justice, finally taking back Hyrule Castle and its town from this tyrant, and him underestimating Link, and when he is beaten, and the castle collapsed, he turns into a beast. In Wind Waker, he's already failed by the time the final boss phase happens, and he's just trying to take Link and Tetra down with him as water pours down from above. That's extremely dramatic.
And in TP it's like they're trying to force the dramatic. Oh no, he's too strong, Midna has to use her full power. Oh no, he has defeated her. Oh no, he's trapped Link in a cage match. Holy shit. You killed Ganondorf. It feels less profound this time. But in OoT you're the essence of the child, represented by the Master Sword, striking down the "cruelty of man". In WW, you're the innocent children supposed to be playing pirates on the 7 seas, who is taking back their own future from a disgruntled old man trying to take it away from them. In TP, you're simping for Midna, and Midna's a great character but she's like the ONLY good character in the entire game.
I can't help but feel that TP was missing something essential to the success in the Zelda formula. And I believe that is moreso why people go tired of the "Zelda formula" than because it was repeated too much. WW is not obviously better, but it is better the more you reflect on it, IMO.
