If I was to run a D&D-type game in the Hyrule setting, I would downplay a number of the gimmicky video game elements, and focus on a rich enviroment of strange creatures and cultures.
I did have an idea sometime back of a campaign sourcebook called
The Unsung Heroes of Hyrule, were long after the events of
Zelda II: Link's Adventures*, people are heading east to the uncharted waters beyond the
Zelda II map on rumors of great treasures and powerful magic. Countless brave adventurers head out, but a luck few return rich... But many vanish into the great unknown! The players would encounter monsters that make-up the first few games and them some. They would be fleshed-out creatures with their own habits, customs (if Intelligent) and strange abilities and weaknesses (even if they would be made-up for the sake of this game). And much like the older game manuals and the
Nintendo Player's Guide for Link to the Past (aka the best damn game guide ever), such a book would have little tidbits and art to help the players get the players better immersed in the world.
Much of the old legends (like would would have been recorded form the newer games**) have been lost, fragment and/or bastardized with time and untold conflicts. So, players cannot rely on the games for meta-gaming knowledge, thus adding mystery to otherwise established elements. For example, the players encounter some Gerudo men and one of the players says
"Wait, I thought only one Gerudo male is born every one-hundred years?", then the men laughs and then one of them replies
"Yes, we male Gerudos are not that common, but we are also not that rare ether. That is just an old Hyrulian myth." This needs not be the case, but the points is to have the players explore the world with a new-found sense of wonder.
I never got around to making it do to how my writing skills sucks, but it would be a different approach to all the other video game-based RPG adaptations out there.
*Placing it in The Decline of Hyrule and The Last Hero -- aka The Hero of Time Defeated -- part of the timeline.
**It should be noted that games like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, or anything looking like Wind Waker are not in this timeline.