Well, that's what the Zelda series is, though. It's Nintendo's whimsical fantasy adventure series. It's about swords and magic and heroes and princesses. You take that away and it becomes Zelda in name only. Progress Zelda to a Victorian steampunk setting or something vaguely WWI-ish or even futuristic cyberpunk setting and you lose the setting that frames the idea of a boy with a sword and shield fighting monsters to save the princess.
They aren't really creatively bankrupt though. Skyward Sword has great puzzles and dungeon design; its only real problems are the constant hand-holding (Fi) and the interface issues (treasures, shops, etc.). Even combat becomes a puzzle game about angles, and that's pretty cool.