I still think no ending from any Zelda game surpasses the one from A Link to the Past (SNES). it invites the player to consider that their heart and mind will determine how their wish is granted and then shows what that means, with all the places of the world returning to peaceful balance, all the wrongs of the world, no matter how small, being righted, and the great hero's power being returned to a hidden place deep in the forest where it will rest "forever".

it felt like the world really was saved, finally and for always. not this temporary and iterative resurfacing of evil and good in conflict that has become standard since. rather, the hero in aLttP fixed what had gone wrong long before they were ever born, so long before that its story had been lost to legend while the world slowly decayed into chaos until it became too much to ignore for anyone with any capacity to resist.

the other games felt like unavoidable fate and cyclical conflict. I liked them, but not as much.