Why has there been so few Zelda clones?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I think botw is a great game but the next one they are making needs dungeons. lots of them. Or i aint buying it. Well i probably am but i'm not gonna be as happy about it

Agree completely. Also bring back item progression. They pretty much gave you all the items up front with the do it all nintendo switch.

[Zmagoslav]

What's a zelda clone? And what's a zelda game anyway?

From the sound of the OP we're looking into 3d action platformers with goofy graphics. So here's a few franchises:
Spyro, Ratchet n' Clank, Jak and Daxter, Rayman, Banjo Kazooie, Psychonauts, Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, most lego games (SW, Avengers, Marvel super heroes, DC,...), tak games, the hobbit,...

Disclaimer: they come with varying mixtures of action vs puzzle gameplay. I'm also not trying to say which of the above were inspired by Zelda or vice versa, just listing some games which feel a lot like what OP describes.

[Deathknightish]

What's a zelda clone? And what's a zelda game anyway?

From the sound of the OP we're looking into 3d action platformers with goofy graphics. So here's a few franchises:
Spyro, Ratchet n' Clank, Jak and Daxter, Rayman, Banjo Kazooie, Psychonauts, Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, most lego games (SW, Avengers, Marvel super heroes, DC,...), tak games, the hobbit,...

Disclaimer: they come with varying mixtures of action vs puzzle gameplay. I'm also not trying to say which of the above were inspired by Zelda or vice versa, just listing some games which feel a lot like what OP describes.

Sure. An adventure game that focuses on exploration and puzzle-solvering over combat. Curiosity is rewarded, while combat takes a backseat (but it's still present).
At least a semi-open world with interesting areas that rewards the curious mind. To this, dungeons that are isolated in and of itself are isolated in the corners of the world that amplifies the feeling of "hmm, what do I do now?", rather than "Hmm, who do I kill now?", together with you encountering a gimmick of the dungeon in the middle which is then used to complete the final half, together with it's boss. These dungeons are also to be themed, like forest, lava, water etc. Some light Metroid-vania elements adds to it, such as the areas in OoT before Zora's Domain where you can add deku seeds and return later to get some neat bonuses add to the whole sense of exploration.

Also, while not needed, a big part of the Zelda franchise are comfy activities such as the fishing game in OoT. I honestly spent too much time on that fishing mini-game alone for it to be considered healthy as a game. That music.

The music is also a big part of what makes Zelda a Zelda game. Now this is hard to describe, but anybody who has played a lot of Zelda knows how much the soundtrack adds to it.

/10charsarerequired

[Zmagoslav]

/10charsarerequired

Yes, 10 chars are required mainly to forego the lazy attempt at an edgy reply you just did.

So you are not even gonna acknowledge the rest of my reply where i listed a plethora of game franchises, out of which most have 3-4 games fitting the description you just provided?

[Deathknightish]

Yes, 10 chars are required mainly to forego the lazy attempt at an edgy reply you just did.

So you are not even gonna acknowledge the rest of my reply where i listed a plethora of game franchises, out of which most have 3-4 games fitting the description you just provided?

Ok, let's go through them.

Spyro = platformer, one of the earlier 3D collectathons. Comparisons with Mario 64 would be better.
Ratchet and Clank = action games. Colourful and I love the style, but they are action games with some platforming added to it.
Jak and Daxter = platformer (first game) in the style of Mario 64 turned into a cartoony GTA action clone for part 2 and 3, with some platforming intact.
Rayman = Pure platformer
Banjo-Kazooie = 3D collectathon platformer, one of the best. Again, better to compare with 3D Mario.
Psychonauts = This one I haven't played, but from the looks of it, another platformer focused game.
Crash Bandicoot = Pure platformer.
Sly Cooper = Again, haven't played, but from the looks of it it looks more of a platformer with stealth elements added to it.
Lego games = fun, cartoony action games.
Tak games = ??? What are those?
The Hobbit = Again, haven't played it, but from the looks of it it's definitely the closest to the Zelda formula of the ones you mentioned.

[Shakou]

I think I can can think of a lot of better action/puzzle/exploration games than the Zelda series, but I actually can't so you should just disregard my opinion about this because I'm clearly biased against Zelda games.

It's always better to just be honest. It's okay you don't like these games bro, no one is gonna judge you. But you are out of your god damn mind if you think Zelda isn't the king action puzzle explorer game series.

Everything else that is that exists because of it. This is not really even a matter of opinion. It's like saying that stupid Rock movie Rampage with the giant white gorilla is better than King Kong.

[Vash The Stampede]

Look at me go, editing someone else's post with grammatical errors. You should disregard my posts because I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about and I have a picture with a mustache that I twirl thinking evil thoughts.

You don't have to agree with my posts, which would obviously make for a dull conversation if everyone here was just making one big giant echo chamber. You don't have to go to ad hominem lengths to basically make a post of nothing. The Zelda franchise is just inconsistent in terms of what it is, and nobody with a straight face can say that it's the king of action, puzzle, and exploring. Breath of the Wild wasn't so much exploring as it was mostly empty space with a lot of tiny puzzles thrown around. The seeds were stupid and while they were a puzzle they didn't emphasize on exploring like older Zelda games did.

Lets take a critical look at Breath of the Wild and see how it compares. It's certainly an action game as the combat is actually really good. Especially since you can use physics as a tactic to kill enemies. It certainly has puzzles because you have shrines and seed puzzles just everywhere in this game. But exploring? Nah, the game is designed to waste peoples time when you explore. If this were like most other Zelda games then you'd have dungeons that you can explore and find unique items and fight bosses. Don't tell me that's not what makes a Zelda game because even Miyamoto mentioned about exploring caves is the inspiration of the original Zelda. It's pretty clear that Breath of Wild's development was ended early to push for release because otherwise players would have access to things like the hook shot which would make traveling across the game much faster. Due to the lack of content, the hook shot would make for a quick game, and hence it was removed.

I'm not saying that Zelda games are terrible, but to me it seems like Nintendo is still trying to find a good spot for this franchise. Hence why it introduces new elements and then doesn't always reuse them in sequels. But there are better action puzzle exploring games like Prince Of Persia and Tomb Raider series. I would even include the Thief series, which is largely forgotten nowadays but are still amazing games in terms of action, puzzle, and exploring. Skyrim is still king, even though the claw puzzles in the game are rather weak.

So again, there's no Zelda clones because there's no uniqueness of the Zelda franchise besides aesthetics. Even Rise of Fenyx which the OP mentions as a good Zelda clone is on Yahtzee's 4th most bland game of the year. Again, the OP means Breath of the Wild clones as Zelda games in general are just all over the place. We're talking about 2D top down side scrolling Zelda clones or 3rd person perspective clones? How about clones of Zelda games where you have two worlds to explore like Ocarina of Time's time travel or Twilight Princess dark and light worlds?