I would call Legend of Zelda an action RPG. Although it has some puzzles, the main activity is exploring and fighting, your equipment and skills improve as you

I would call Legend of Zelda an action RPG. Although it has some puzzles, the main activity is exploring and fighting, your equipment and skills improve as you advance (allowing you to face against tougher monsters) and part of the challenge is administering consumable resources (e.g. healing items). There’s always been a big overlap between adventures and rpgs… but the article talks about issues characteristic of the purest examples of the adventure genre (most Infocom text adventures, Sierra, Lucasarts, etc)