So I feel like a crazy person. I absolutely love the Zelda franchise, and I was really enjoying this one at first too. However after getting about 5-10 hours into the game I feel like it's losing me. The fact that they give you all the runes up front was cool at first but then I realized I don't really want to explore. There's nothing I want to find. More shrines? So far they all look exactly the same and have average Zelda puzzles in my opinion. Which is fine when I'm in a dungeon and get through a room with a lame puzzle i just move onto the next one, but when I climbed up this damn waterfall to do a puzzle that amounts to put chest on switch I feel let down.

The worst part for me is that I never feel like I'm getting anything I want by exploring. Heart pieces (which is what the spirit orbs amount to) were always a side thing that I would pick up on my way to the next encounter not the main draw. What am I going to find in the next chest? A weapon that breaks after 1-2 fights? I can find plenty of weapons off the regular enemies that do enough for most enemies. So far all of the cool weapons I've found I never use since I'm waiting for the next super enemy I can't beat with my random weapons I find on the side of the road.

So the reason for this post: can someone please tell me there is more to look forward to? Do you unlock new abilities later on? Am I going to find gear worth upgrading? Do you get anything that makes exploring worth it? I'm enjoying the story bits and lore but the actual gameplay loop is really bumming me out. Is this just a case of this game not being for me or do I need to give it more time? For reference I haven't found any of the divine beasts and just unlocked the camera and memories feature.

This game is for those of us who can enjoy directionless and kind of meaningless games. Luckily for me, I love those kinds of games.

Sounds like maybe it's not for you. Still, I'd say put it down for a week and pick it back up next week, see if some time and thought on what you already have played helps.

Yes, you get new abilities later on by advancing through the story.

Also, you have to break yourself of hoarding weapons. You will always find more weapons.

If you are not satisfied by exploring, let the game guide you by doing the story quests, during which you'll be exposed to tons of new shit. Keep in mind that you are at the Ocarina of Time equivalent of leaving Kakariko Village right now. Relative to the game's length and breadth, you've barely played it.

There is some gear that is worth looking forward to, but if you're not enchanted with exploring Hyrule then it might not be for you. For me I love rounding a corner and seeing something new, glowing, and colorful that I didn't expect to be there. Still I would take @justin258's advice and maybe meditate on it awhile.

It's not for you.

So I do explore quite a bit in this game but every time I start to get bored with exploring I just start heading towards an objective. They did a pretty good job of peppering paths between places they're pretty sure most players will go with little side things. It's in those situations that I feel refreshed on what I'm doing. You could try giving that a shot. If it's not doing it for you then it might just not be for you. No shame in recognizing it. That's where I got to with FF XV. I just wasn't having fun with it and moved on. Who knows, maybe I'll come back to it in a couple months and be more engaged with it.

Kinda in the same boat. I think it's really cool, but not what I'm looking for right now. I bet I'll be way more into it when there's less stuff coming out. The weapons and stamina are just a smidge too frustrating at the moment.

Go do some quests and see how that fits you.

lot of people are pretty down on this game (press lied to us etc etc) so you probably arent feeling it either. this game has a bunch of weird idiosyncracies that you either feel are part of the game's weird charm and a unique way of handling tried and true mechanics, or a bunch of problems that add up to an underwhelming experience. sounds like you may be the latter so i probably wouldnt invest too much more time in it.

There are many useful upgrades to work for, other than shrines. I haven't finished the game yet (busy with the big world) but weapons get more durable, and not like the crappy tree branches and clubs you get in the beginning. Also you learn what weapons to pick up and use, and which to not. Clothes doesn't suffer from durability and you upgrades are helpful, (like really).

This is however not a game that you can (should) play with one eye closed. To get the most out of it you really have to invest into it. Plan, solve stuff, analyze, explore, fail, think, experiment, succeed, fight, get good, laugh, grow and so on. But to do that you need to care, and be curious. This game wont play itself for ya.

If you think Ubisoft games like Farcry 3 and AC is stimulating enough I would recommend those instead.

At first I was like "i don't know...too many open world games lately" but I think the climb anywhere aspect and also the fact there is no "leveling up" helps a lot. I typically don't ever want to finish open world games because it becomes too much of a grind/collect X items/ Find these icons on a map. This game has hooked me.

Thought I would come back and update this post since people gave me some good advice in this thread. After taking about a week without playing it and readjusting my expectations I am having more fun with it. I don't think it is as good as other people think it is, and would really have rathered a more traditional Zelda game but it is fun. So far having only played through the Vah Ruta dungeon I find myself wishing they had made less shrines and put more effort into the divine beast dungeon. Maybe this isn't indicative of each one but Vah Ruta felt pretty underwhelming.

There is a lot of stuff to enjoy in the game and the open nature is great, but I feel like the things I come to Zelda for are spread a little thin for my taste.

Breath of the Wild is increasingly becoming a "do a thing for 30 minutes a day" type of game for me. The game in general is good but when you think about it you kinda just do the same things over and over for dozens of hours. See a shrine, go there. See a chest, go open it. Fight a big monster. Whenever I turn the game back on, I set myself a small goal, do it, then turn it off for the day.

Unfortunately the Divine Beasts do not get better. I loved Breath of the Wild, particular the open world which I think is possibly the best the genre has to offer. However, as a huge Zelda fan I was extremely disappointed with the dungeons. The shrines are fine, but like you I would have gladly accepted the total number being cut from 120 to like 50 if it meant that instead we got around 8-10 dungeons of the complexity, originality, and quality of the ones from Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.

It's not for you. I felt the same way and played the game for 80 hours because I thought I HAD to be missing something. I wasn't. I hated the lack of direction and the world felt as needlessly large devoid of meaningful content to me at the end of the game as it did at the start. That doesn't make BotW a bad game; it just means not everything is meant for everyone. I'd move on if I was you and save myself some time.

Nah, you can probably stop. There's certainly no shortage of great stuff to be playing. I'm seeing it through to the end (I like the shrines), but I agree with Jeff's sentiment that it feels like a zero sum game a lot of the time i.e. My reward for fighting is a cool sword that will break in a couple fights.

The thought I keep having with this game, and why I'm still playing it, is how they looked at other games. It seems like they took a quick look at where open-world and survival games were at. Not looking very long at open world games did them a favour. It feels refreshing to mark your own spots on a map and not really knowing where everything is at when you climb a tower. The shrines are actually a nice bite sized puzzle every time you find one (minus combat). Also, I had the same cutting down the tree moment to cross a gap; "Oh hey, this actually worked". Not looking very long at where survival games were at hurt them. Why can't I upgrade or craft my own weapons? I can cook but its really tedious. They should have spent longer looking at how a lot of games have way more efficient menu design (e.g. craft multiples at once and keep known recipes). Like you mentioned the game never feels rewarding. Multiple times I thought exploring would get me something awesome just to find another shrine and orb (shrines are good but they don't feel special).

I would say maybe try a Divine Beast before giving up (one in the Zora region is my favourite). The dungeons are a stand out in the game for me, but no, the reward loop never really gets better. As you can tell, I'm very back and forth on this game.

Yeah, I feel more or less the same as you do. I think it finally dawned on me that I don't actually like zelda games that much. I keep buying them because the Wind Waker is one of my favorite games and I want that feeling again, but none of the others I've played since then have grabbed me.

From my personal experience I absolutely hated the first, maybe, 6-7 hours or so of the game? Until you get updated inventory and push through the not fun and totally garbage first few hours of combat it can feel like an utter slog. That being said I am several dozen hours into the game and one issue I have is their idea for rewards is heavily skewed towards "there really isn't a point in you doing this quest".

I love Zelda games to death and I enjoy this Zelda game a bunch but its not even in the top 3 Zelda games. I hate the amount of time you have to spend in menus in this game. Far more than even games like Diablo 3 or loot driven games.

This game is getting a lot of praise and has "earned" a zeitgeist for two reasons:

1. its a Zelda game, that's just a massive reason. Zelda games are almost always scored well even when those same people generate a backlash for the game 6 months later. Look at all the massive crap flung at Twilight Princess. When that came out the vast majority praised it but 6 months to a year later and people started talking like it was always looked at as a disappointment. This is the Zelda effect.

2. its a Zelda game that's different and its a change to the open world formula that's been around since last generation.