Embedded nodes and views Let's say I have a general content type called "Zoo". A Zoo may have several animals (animals will have a title, image, and description). Now at first, it may seem like I should just have an "Animal" content type and then somehow relate them, but all animals are unique to the zoo. (If two zoos contain a tiger, they will be completely distinct tigers, with their own images/titles/descriptions).

I have a view (already working), that lists the animals. I'd like for the animal titles to link to a page where the animal information (image/title/description) is available.

Because each image (animal) needs it's own respective title and description, and a Zoo may have several images (animals), I've tried to find a way to relate the information, since simply adding fields to the Zoo content type is fruitless.

The closest module I've found is Field Collections, and I'm technically able to reference the information correctly. The problem I'm having with it is, in the view list, I can't figure out how to show the titles of the animals and have them link to somewhere useful.

This "useful" place they link to is what I referred to previously, somewhere with the animal's information (image/title/description).

I know this example seems a little convoluted, and almost like I should use the node reference module. But the real use case requires not having to make separate nodes in separate areas and relating them, but rather making all of them at one time.
I would advise node References and Entity Views Attachment 


Create 2 content types: 1) Zoo - 2) Animals
Animals has a "Node reference" to a Zoo
Create 2 views: 1) Zoo - 2) Animals -  Attach entity contents by relating them and contextual filters on nid


This way you can create Zoo pages [node] with all the animals in the zoo
On the animal pages [node], you can show which zoo(s) the animal belongs

You can also create pretty overview [views] pages