I finally started Breath of the Wild about two weeks ago and I have been playing it here and there. I have heard from different people how great this game is and why people find it ingenious. There are definitely moments of brilliance here, like how you create a bridge by cutting down a tree towards the beginning of the game. That said, the more I play of it, the less awe inspired I feel by it.

The shrines are fairly scattered across Hyrule and feel too short to have a lasting impact. There were multiple times where I thought, "Oh, that's a neat mechanic, I wonder what's next...Wait, is that it?" The combat doesn't feel difficult, brutal, or even unfair, but rather how someone turned the damage slider up too high. Knowing how every other enemy can take up 50% or more of your health has created a weird scenario where I mash with my melee weapon in order to kill enemies before they can kill me, without blocking or dodging, or I stand up on a hill and throw bombs until that becomes unfeasible.

So far I have been exploring the open world, just to see what's out there, but so far that is not worthwhile. It feels like it can take me 30 minutes before I reach another shrine. The combat encounters feel pointless, since you aren't leveling up any stats and the primary reward is more weapons, which are going to break shortly anyways (This aspect doesn't bother me anymore, but I'm not thinking "Oh man, finally!" whenever I pick up a new weapon). Despite how BOTW feels like a weird loot game, I have so far only found one piece of gear (an Axl Rose bandanna). I'm sure I'll find stuff down the road, but I'm just surprised I haven't found more exploring the open world or at the merchants I encountered.

At this point, I think I am going to progress through the main story and take it from there. Usually the way I play open world games is I wander around, do all of the side quests, and finally finish the story as a grand finale. That pursuit hasn't been rewarding so far. Once I visit more of the towers I naturally bump into, go through the Divine Beasts, and gain more stamina and hearts, maybe some of those opportunities will open up more. Or who knows, maybe I'll just mainline the story and be done with it. I don't want to be too down on the game, especially since I have been enjoying the exploration aspect of the game and some of the puzzles have been fun to solve. That said, the best time I've had with the game was the plateau, where you solved a couple of puzzles back to back and are introduced to mechanics like cutting down trees and the hot and cold mechanics. After I glided away, the game just started to lose some of that magic, as those moments are more spread out. Not every place is open to environmental hijinks or has a clever puzzle to solve; sometimes there's just three lizards that can one shot kill you...followed by yet more lizards.

I hear you, I'd say that for me (played through 3 times already) the magic is in the map. When you start this game, you have NOTHING indicating where to go when. Playing the cartographer is so satisfying to me, and they built the world to entice the player to check thigns out. Three trees lined up on an icy mountaintop will be a Korok seed at the very least, and will probably give you a view towards another something to check out. I enjoyed the bite-sized nature of the shrines, especially because of how many there are, but i can see someone wanting a bigger chunk of puzzle. Basically if the cartography/environmental puzzle solving doesn't do it for you, this may not be your game.

Breath of the Wild is very much a game about exploring, looking around, seeing the sights. And I do mean "the sights" - if you're not the kind of person that can stand on a mountain and go "whoa, this view is awesome!" then Breath of the Wild maybe isn't going to do all that much for you.

It's also a game about playing around with mechanics and gameplay and seeing what all you can get away with. If you think you can or should be able to do something, chances you actually can do it.

If I could change some things about Breath of the Wild, I definitely would. Its ridiculous and unwelcome weapon degradation mechanics are the nuisance that actively keep me from playing any more of it and which will definitely keep it out of my personal #1 spot for 2017 GOTY. I do wish it actually was an RPG, instead of this psuedo-RPG where you're fighting encounters and taking quests and getting better gear but not gaining any levels or anything. Cooking up recipes is a pain - I like the idea of placing everything in your hands and dropping it into a pot, but that doesn't mean we can't also have a much easier, much faster menu-based method of doing it all. I think crafting should be a thing in this game - I'd love to be able to make arrows and the weapon degradation wouldn't bother me all that much if I could craft, improve, harden (i.e. extend lifespan), and repair weapons. I wish I could climb while it was raining, too - if they wanted to keep that mechanic in, they could have put in a cooking recipe for something that negated it or put some armor in the game that negated it or something.

But I put 65 hours into this game in the span of a few weeks. I stayed up super-late to play more of it and then woke up early to get in some time before work. I left it running during the weekend while I hurriedly finished chores so I could get back to it. I never do this with games, I usually set aside a block of time on the weekends to play games and an hour on weekdays, but I couldn't get BotW out of my head. There was map to explore, things to see, weird stuff to find and discover - it's an open world that expects you, the player, to meet it halfway instead of just going to the arrow and doing the thing. That's what makes it so compelling.

I would recommend sticking to the main quest until you get the camera, just to get your bearings straight. That's not too far in the game and you'll discover two very useful villages on the way there along with fast travel points next to them. After that, go off and do your own thing. Taking care of the Divine Beasts does net you some very useful powers (the one in the top left of the map especially), but getting to and finishing off the Divine Beasts themselves isn't a highlight of the game.

That Axl Rose bandana makes you climb things faster, so that thing is actually worth keeping.

I'd also recommend that you keep playing, but if you're just not feeling it then stop. This is one of those games where some people will just wonder what the hell is so damn special. A lot of what BotW is is evident from the beginning.

The game requires a lot of creativity and desire for freedom on the players part. If you see a combat encounter and immediately settle on just throwing bombs for 5 minutes at them and then mashing attack then that's kind of more on you. The game allows you to do this, but it also allows you to do a lot of other fun things too. You could soar in the paraglider above the camp, drop bombs from above, release the paraglider and then rain arrows from the sky I'm slow motion to take out the camp. You could shield surf down, firing arrows along the way until you get within melee range and then mash A or whatever. Those are just two examples. The games gameplay loop is literally "Can I do this? Woah I can!". If you never ask or enjoy the question "Can I do this?" Then you're going to have a boring time.

The exploration, distance, and length of the shrines is also something that has to be to your taste. There's a lot to see and a lot of mystery in the world. If you focus on the destination, however, you'll find that a lot of the destinations are mostly within just a few categories. You'll see a lot of mechanics from the shrines return in more complicated ways, so if you feel like they aren't using something enough remember that there are a lot of shrines and you could see it again if you find more.

In terms of enemies or loot...there drops will be important if you want to improve the gear you find. And it's not really a loot game. More like a game that had a number of different armor sets. You won't see like a bandana of the bear that gives you endurance compared to a bandana of the bull that gives con. It's just one bandana, and once you have it you have it and can choose to upgrade it if you like that item and have the materials to do so.

Ha! I'm basically in the same boat, except I have just started to come around to this game.

I finally worked through my backlog to start the game about a month ago, took a vacation to the U.S., and came back to be frustrated by this game. The first 5 hours or so are something else. The buttons are awkwardly mapped (B for run & X for jump), aiming was driving me nuts until I turned off motion aim, weapons degrade way too quickly, and stamina starts out a little too low. I kept playing, because... well, it wasn't the worst thing ever and I was curious to see if I got used to it. And I did. Sorta.

What really changed for me was the mentality. BotW is part survival game. Kind of like Minecraft or its derivatives, but without the building. Even the music is a bit like Minecraft with that sparse, airy feeling. Anyway, the point is that Minecraft is mostly about exploration and finding cool new things. You want to explore to find new materials to create new weapons, armor, buildings, etc. BotW sort of has that. Except you're exploring to find the weapons, armor, money, and items themselves. The degradation system is still a little too quick, but it does get you constantly foraging for new stuff and seeing what is around the corner. And the game rewards you for that. Rarely have I explored a place and not found some cool hidden thing. The maps are absolutely rife with cool hidden ideas. They really put a lot of time and though into almost every aspect of the map, and that may be the star of the show.

Also like survival games, the combat is less about getting XP (which Zelda games have never had) and more about survival. Sometimes you'll kill something for materials, but more often than not I am just finding a way to go around combat towards my goal. It's a bit more realistic in that aspect, as I don't think warfare is about cutting down every person in your way to make yourself stronger. I butted heads against the first Yiga Clan member I found, until I realized I could just go around him to get to the temple I had found on the map. Beating him wasn't as important as my exploration, even if my video game ego did take a slight beating.

You definitely die a lot in the early game, but the save system is so generous and frequent that I have never really lost progress. Again, survival game mentality. I hear that you get so ridiculously strong in the end that you just run around slaughtering everything, but I haven't gotten there yet. I am just about 7 hours in, with 14 spirit orbs, the Axl Rose climbing bandana, and about 3 towers under my belt. I still haven't gotten to the tech village thingy... place.... location.

This is less of a traditional Zelda game and more of an amazing mix of survival games & open world games, with a dash of Zelda for flavoring. At least I think that's how you have to approach it.

It's honestly a really boring game. Every Zelda game I have played has always had something that kept me hooked and they changed what that was in each entry. They changed it again for this one, but since I primarily play open world games, it really fell flat for me. I'd be running across the world trying to discover anything and it would be just the same hills grass and bokoblibs over and over. I probably sunk 10-12 hours in trying to get a feel for the game but I end up wanting to play another open world game that was more interesting like the witcher. I hated the weapon system and I thought the controls were too awkward for me to pull off all the cool paragliding slide tricks I'd seen on videos. And I had no real reason to want to learn it save for looking cool while playing a single player game. I hope one day revisit it and find all the magic others seem to be loving.

I had this issue after I hit the 40 hour mark during my first playthrough. I enjoyed the challenge at the beginning from having to watch my health and taking on challenges that I wasn't suppose to be hitting just yet. Like getting all of the towers first with three hearts, which was pretty fun. The downside was when I decided to go after shrines before the main questline. After getting to the 80 shrines mark, I found to be more of a chore than anything else. The game became easy and frankly pretty boring.

There are some fun quests that help; getting the memories, helping build the town, getting your own place. I just wished there was a bit more of that to be honest. The best shrine in the game is getting to the island. But even when I beat it, it is still a shrine at the end of the day.

I have some other complaints about the game, but I enjoyed it for what it is.

I'm not a fan of complex combat mechanics. Past Zelda games were always my ideal. What made Combat fun in Wind Waker was the options and creativity. You could use any weapon in your inventory, or toss enemy's weapons back at them, even pick pockets with the grappling hook. Breath of the Wild builds on these ideas and adds physics to encourage player creativity.

True, for most fights you don't need to be creative and you may find yourself skipping many encounters. But that all goes back to player choice.

Lynels are an intersting example of how the game pushes you to be creative. I was blown away on my first encounter with one. He hit me so hard I didn't see how it was possible to defeat him. I was forced to learn to utilize my tools and the environment to take him down.

How much should you 'mainline' early on?

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I restarted my playthrough after putting it down for a while. So far I've gone to Karakiko village and met Impa, the game wants me to go to Hateno village. I am kind of just exploring and wandering around at the moment, but it's not feeling particularly compelling. I too am still waiting for it to 'click'. The tricky thing is that there are so many games competing for my attention at the moment, (which is only going to get worse). I think BoTW could be a cool game, but it's not hooked me.

I'm in exactly the same boat. I love how exploration rewards you and I like doing the shrines, but it feels like when I play it for an hour or two at a time 50% of my time is just trying to methodically get from point A to point B. There's not a lot of depth to the combat and it feels punitive. A Witcher style horse or something would help a lot. I just don't get the appeal of spending 30 minutes trying to get to a tower or shrine and probably dying because I ran out of stamina or some bullshit.

The side quests really don't give you much in rewards. Exploring the world is the main reward. Side quests are just flavoring the lore and world.

One thing I will say that changed my experience with BotW's combat is buying the Soldier's Armor set and upgrading it. Every tier is a huge leap in your survivability. I went from getting one shot mid-game by Lynels to having each hit only take 1/4 heart (with level 4 armor). Seek out the main village vendors, and do every shrine looking for secrets. This is where the bulk of the armor comes from. I did get to where I actively avoided combat in the overworld, since as you observed it really gets you nothing in the long run, other than practice with those enemy types and crafting mats. Guardians in particular were hell on my shield inventory (though I did eventually get the hang of the laser deflection timing).

@captain_insano: I just started it and kind of had the same feeling of "when is this supposed to get good?" For what its worth, I've got to the first boss of my first Devine Beast and its very much starting to worm its way into my head like some others have suggested. For me, it was just about mainlining the story to the point that I felt comfortable with my items, abilities and general knowledge in order to make exploring as fun as some of the other comments have suggested.

I felt the same way until I started doing progressing the story. Wandering around felt aimless, though still fun in discovery. Once I got through the story a bit, I had reasons to go to these places beyond looking for shrines, kurok seeds, and intrinsic achievement. You also start getting context and lore of the world, as well as structured/directed spectacle. The world and exploration of it is nice but it needs something to compliment it, and the main story (plus surrounding quests) are just that.

Start with Rito Village, then go to the Zora. From there, it's up to you.