I never said I want Zelda to be a clone of other games. But there are ideas and elements from other games that could be incorporated into Zelda. I suggested some ideas from Xenoblade as concepts that would work well in Zelda but that's doesn't mean they should make it the same thing. If Nintendo was more aware of well, ANYTHING, outside their little bubble, they could be inspired by other games. Maybe see an idea that would fit Zelda well or an idea that they immediately think of a way to improve it. Sandbox games like GTA have REALLY changed the idea of how a videogame world can be presented. Same with the post-Morrowind Elder Scrolls games. Nintendo could probably learn a lot from those. I'm not saying to make Zelda in GTA or Skyrim, but these days Skyward Sword's world doesn't come across as epic or expansive.
One thing I noticed in SS is that I felt the story was (at least until Zelda got kidnapped) so much better than a typical Zelda game. There was actually a sense of romance to Link and Zelda's relationship. Of course this was like Playstation era RPG storytelling at best but still a big step up from Nintendo's usual. So good for you, Nintendo. You're now only 15 years behind the rest of the industry in storytelling instead of 20. It comes across exactly like what it probably is - a very isolated company discovering storytelling techniques on their own and coming to the same conclusions someone else did 15 years ago. Only the rest of the industry noticed when Square figured that stuff out back then. Isn't this Nintendo's whole problem with online? They're five years behind the rest of the industry and are slowing figuring this stuff out themselves. Only that's fucking stupid. How about they just do some research, figure out how the rest of the industry does things, catch up and then go forward from there?
Nintendo is going into HD for the first time. So are we going to get cutting edge stuff or is Nintendo going to be cranking out games that feel like they're from 2006? Look how long it took orchestral music to make it into Zelda games. No way Nintendo actually paid any attention to what was being done back in like 1997 and decided to just wait until now to go with it. They're in their bubble and they missed out on the CD thing and it took a long time for them to discover what was already discovered.
You really think they weren't aware of CD's? You don't remember the SNES CD addon that was being worked on? We all know the reasons why Nintendo stuck with cartridges over CD, and no it wasn't because 'Nintendo were stuck in a bubble". I love your whole rant about "Nintendo being behind the competition" I suppose that's why Sony and MS came out with motion controls after the Wiimote. Monolith created one of the best JRPGs of this generation but somehow they are still behind (And yes, Monolith is Nintendo). You really think Nintendo developers are locked in boxes and not aware of other games? Takahashi was quoted that he wants to make a game on the same scale as Skyrim.
I want to see these story masterpieces you talk about, how story telling in gaming has somehow made a quantum leap. Seems to me it's hardly changed besides character models having recognizable facial features. Besides, what RPG or JRPG has an amazing story that isn't cliched or been done before, there are some exceptions such as the Witcher but most seem to use the same tropes (WRPG heavily influenced by high fantasy) and JRPGs have many cliches. I frankly don't see how Nintendo are '20 years' behind in story telling. Also Zelda is hardly a RPG so I don't see why you are comparing them against them. Action Adventure games hardly need a compelling story, take Darksiders for an example. War in the first game is a pretty uninteresting character and the story on the whole is a standard 'character x is set up and attempts to clear his name, plot twist occurs towards the end'.
We can't judge the online yet, need to see what the Wii U's online infrastructure is like. But the Wii's online was dreadful and obviously wasn't a priority for Nintendo. The 3DS has decent online so they are improving in that regard.
If your claims about Nintendo were true they would have died years ago.