I played the Virtual Console version, but that's not the point. What I mean is that there were no real story sidequests. The plot never really progresses in LttP- the only major event is the Agahnim fight and Dark World thing. There are almost no characters, save Sharashlalashaslablah and Zelda-...
While in terms of gameplay, PH was really a huge failure for me, I really found the earlier three games to be kind of boring mainly because the world was empty. AoL was pretty fun as a standalone game- I played it a bunch on a road trip and learned to appreciate in in small sessions, and it did...