I'm right there with you on Breath of the Wild in most respects. However, as I play it, I do think it's as much of a Zelda game as any other game in the series, and an incredible Zelda at that, even with all the Fallout sci-fi trappings and the breakable weapons. Its overworld is my 10-year-old imagination (the year I played the original Zelda) brought to life.
2017 definitely blows away 1998. Both of my favorite games of that year (Ocarina of Time and Xenogears) got their latest sequels this year. Breath of the Wild is absolutely incredible.
That's pretty awesome, even though i myself am an Applebot. :)
You asked for our takes on the state of the generation, so here is mine.
The bad:
The Wii U's failure. I enjoyed my system, in some years more than I did the PS4. It had great games like Bayonetta 2 and Super Mario Maker. I also enjoyed the remasters of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, since the Gamecube was my favorite Zelda console overall.
Microsoft's disastrous handling of the Xbox One. I'm a PlayStation guy, but still.
EA keeps pimping the whole "games as a service" model. On the one hand, it doesn't affect me directly since I have avoided EA for years. On the other hand, EA is so influential in the industry that I am concerned that more companies will buy into this nonsense. Other companies have tried to lesser degrees to push games-as-a-service.
This generation started off kind of slow. Most of that, I think, was hangover from the worst excesses of the PS3, 360, and Wii eras.
The Good:
The PS4 has recaptured a lot of the glory of the PS2. The PS3 was great, and to its credit, Sony worked hard to right the ship on the PS3, but it was still a stumble.
Nintendo is having a great deal of success with the Switch. As a Sony and Nintendo gamer, these developments make me happy. I also like being able to choose to play games on my TV at home or on the go.
For all that EA continues to suck hard, console RPGs and Japanese games in general have really made a comeback this generation. Last generation was kind of barren for a lot of the types of games I enjoy until nearly the end of the generation. This generation, we're getting Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Zelda, a new Mario, and even Valkyria Chronicles. Sega has really been knocking it out of the park lately with Persona 5, VC, and Yakuza.
Neutral: Incremental mid-generation iterations of consoles (i.e. the New 3DS, PS4 Pro, and Xbox One X). While I could see good points to this, a part of me really doesn't want Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft going the Apple/Samsung route and releasing a new version of their hardware every single year.
Overall, I'm enjoying 8th gen more than 7th gen. Single-player games and Japanese RPGs are more plentiful this time around, and I'm happy with the PS4 in particular.
Bee Wary never got a dedicated blog. It just got a blurb in my TRS-80 blog and the video,
That's no surprise. I think Tri-Ace helped develop LR.
Buy 1,000,000 gems to win the game for the low, low price of $99.99.
Yeahhhhhh... good luck with that. 
Kids do change gaming habits. I know that from experience. Sounds like the Switch is more adaptable to those changes than the PS4 by nature of being portable and being able to put it down at a moment's notice.
I've played Seiken Densetsu 3 on an emulator. It's much better than Secret of Mana. The battles are a lot better, for one thing. I didn't like how awkward the battles in SoM were compared to Zelda or even later Mana games. I see why they didn't release it on this since it never got an official English translation.
I never was a huge fan of Rare. I'd have traded Rare for Square, Capcom, or Namco in a heartbeat. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were the best FPS's on consoles at the time at least.
I'd actually like a GameCube Classic more than a N64 Classic.
