How am I supposed to have fun with this game...

So basically, I should stop trying to do the story ASAP and just go fuck around for a while, morrowind style?

I was afraid the enemies would be scaled by region to soft force me to go through it in a certain order. Random exploring sounds a lot more fun than forced fights and linear paths.

bro literally do whatever you want it's a sandbox game

Yeah just fuck about. I made it a point to find every tour first, since that gives you quick warp to all regions. While looking for towers, you'll come across quests and other shit. Lynels will body you but it's kind of fun to beat one with only three hearts for pure bragging rights

Just mark shit on your map as you go

the trek from inogo bridge to the domain is one of the better sequences in the game so if you didn't enjoy that i dunno if the game is for you. also, are you just mashing y with the combat? are you parrying or perfect dodging for flurry rushes? are you using all weapon types and their power moves? are you utilizing the shiekah skate runes? lots of bow and arrow shooting?

the combat has some layers. when you're using everything at your disposal to defeat enemies the combat is pretty fun i think. it is boring if you just mash the y combo on every enemy, but doing that will kill you too against silver and above enemies, so the game discourages it.

>So basically, I should stop trying to do the story ASAP and just go fuck around for a while, morrowind style?
The fact that you even considered rushing thru' the plot is kinda depressing to me.

>I was afraid the enemies would be scaled by region to soft force me to go through it in a certain order.
Nope. There are stronger foes in many areas, but nothing's stopping you from beating them very early and and looting them.
The Lizalfos in the mountains had high-end steel gear capable of 1-shotting me for the longest of time (I was legit 3-heart fooling around with just the rookie gear you get withing the 1st minute), but boy was it satisfying to loot that shit, find some stray fairy, and then retreat to the Plateau to restock, bring in some spheres for potential upgrades, and plan the next move.

>Random exploring sounds a lot more fun than forced fights and linear paths.
Obviously. And there's no game more fit for random exploration than BotW.
Every single turn seems to want to represent you with distractions that can make you take detours for hours.

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I don't play sandbox games all that much, I prefer having clear goals usually. I usually just do the story and then move on with these kind of games.

Calling BotW a "sandbox game" is a bit misleading. It's just a TRUE open-world game for once, instead of some generic Ubishit clone that only has big landmass map meant to pad-out the otherwise very linear and handholding campaign.

>So basically, I should stop trying to do the story ASAP and just go fuck around for a while, morrowind style?
Go where ever you think is interesting. Having said that, I would recommend stop by Karkariko village and doing the little bit of story stuff there, as it gets you some nice early game goodies. But in general go where you want
>I was afraid the enemies would be scaled by region to soft force me to go through it in a certain order.
If you kill a strong enemy you can take their good weapons, which will make killing other strong enemies easier. Some enemies will be very punishing even with good weapons, and require some skill and familiarity with the combat system, but in general you should be alright to explore anywhere you want. If you encounter stronger monsters with higher level weapons, take advantage of the environment and stealth to get easy kills on the tougher monsters with good loot, and then go from there.

Well I was told that the game gets more fun with the upgrades from the story, and I assumed the story was the fastest way to get strong enough to start being able to actually have fun with the game, so I was trying to just do all the missions one after the other. I tried doing a bit of exploring between between kakariko and hate no, but I didn't really find anything. Interesting besides korok and enemies that I'd rather not fight, so I decided to put it off for later. I just got the impression the game was a lot of boring space between story locations and cities. Like, what was my incentive for roaming around aimlessly, when the story was gonna be where all the interesting stuff was.

I think you're baiting, but if you're having trouble with the Lynel, just try to understand his pattern and keep at it. Cook a couple of big hearty radishes for overheals and cook a 3x defensive buff if you have armoured bass or something. Everything else is having good equipment plus pattern recognition.

Also, if you're not having fun with the game, just drop it. Maybe soul just isn't for you.

I know I should be using food, but I was really hoping I could just get by without it. I hate crafting systems and this one is especially slow and uninteresting. I wish there was a way to just quick cook basic recipes so I wouldn't have to waste so much time with it.

And you're right, I'm probably not gonna like this game, but I figured I should try. Age of Calamity made me like the characters and I just want to see more of them.

Your entire post made me very sad.
I know I shouldn't take this so heavily and personally, as there's as many ways to play and enjoy BotW as there are people on this planet, and no two playthroughs will ever be the same... but I'm gonna say it none the less:

BotW is at its best when you are doing anything BUT story content.
Most of the excitement and joy comes from overcoming the various challenges with your own wits. Exploring curious locations not because you were told to, but because you wanted to.
It's the players' own desire for adventure that fuels BotW's experience, and the fact that we finally got a game with no invisible walls and mid-game story blockades that enabled this sort of exploration, in the terms very original meaning, was unbelievably delightful to me.

Yes, you do get stronger as you progress through the plot points, but I'd say that the skills you acquire outright break the game, and ruin its wilderness-survival aspect. You can get hella strong just with the stock looting + cooking feats, but the strongest players are those smart enough to exploit the pile of interactive, emerging systems of the game.

Unlike in literally every other AAA open-world game, the world itself is like a main-character of its own in BotW. It is absolutely the polar opposite of "empty land mass"; it's outright hand-crafted like an oldschool video game level at times, just to enable and require usage of the game's features.

>I was really hoping I could just get by without it
You can, and that's again the game's beauty.
Once again, different strokes and so on, but I find it quite disheartening to hear people wanting to skill such entertaining and practical features such as cooking in a game like this.

>I hate crafting systems and this one is especially slow and uninteresting
I'm honestly curious how you can think like this.
I found it exhilarating and satisfying to try out new ingredients and seeing what I could come up with.

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Pro tip, the recipe doesn't matter. All that matters is the initial description. Add a bunch of mighty food together and to get attack buff. Armoured for defence. Doesn't matter if you Add 2 bananas, a fish, and some crab, you'll get a solid attack buff. Different types of food do give you more points towards reaching thresholds (porgy are the best), but you can generally just throw whatever in.
Things like Milk and Acorns are there to extend the time limited of the food. If you get yourself some Dragon Horn, adding one of those will give you 30 mins on your food buff, regardless of everything else.

>I know I should be using food, but I was really hoping I could just get by without it.
Well, you can. It's the usual pattern recognition stuff that games force you to learn. The only other consideration is that the Lynel has X amount of HP and that your arsenal can only deal X amount of damage, so you might not have enough "weapon ammo" to throw at him. You can make the "weapon ammo" last longer with attack buffs.

>And you're right, I'm probably not gonna like this game, but I figured I should try.
There isn't a single game that is made for everyone. I positively adore Breath of the Wild, but it's really silly to expect everyone to like the game. If you're not having fun and you gave a good old honest college try, then just don't insist on it. Maybe revisit it in a couple of years, maybe it'll be more to your taste who knows. I think it's a charming game and even a masterpiece despite of its flaws, but of course it's not for everyone.

your biggest mistake was thinking (or at least being told) that there is a 'right' way to play the game, it really is designed to be as open-ended as possible. Approach it how you want to approach it. See something off in the distance that catches your eye? Go for it. See an enemy that looks imposing? Kill it. Hear a susipucious sound nearby? Investigate. It's up to you, but there's stuff everywhere and the world is so satisfying to explore when you sink your teeth into it. I agree with 100% - go about it your own way.

>The fact that you even considered rushing thru' the plot is kinda depressing to me.
Can you blame him? Especially since Skyward Sword and the other 3D Zeldas were story centric, it’s hard to go into BOTW without any expectations of what a 3D Zelda should be. I’m glad that BOTW broke the mold, but I hope the sequel irons out the kinks and adds more depth to the story

>Can you blame him?
Yes, I can. Even in the SS (which I only got around playing in early 2017), I could spend hours doing the side content.
And don't get me even started with the older titles and their fishing mini games.

Sure, it might just be me, but I always explore and try to find the "limits" of every single game.
BotW was a huge positive surprise in this sense, as the limits really don't hit you until hours upon hours of deliberate experimentation.

The game never "gets better", what you see is what you get. If you don't like it, just go play something else. You probably think you're missing something because of the insane amount of critical praise but believe me, you're not.
You can just wait for BotW2.

It took me about 60 hours to truly “get it”, but I now consider it one of the best games I’ve ever played. Once all of the different mechanics click and you come to appreciate the pacing and the late game progression. If you’re hitting your head against a wall, go explore somewhere else and better prepare yourself. For once it isn’t just mindlessly grinding numbers. You’re collecting ingredients, cooking helpful dishes, solving puzzles, exploring at your own whim. Pure ludo.

>I'm honestly curious how you can think like this.

Because no matter how much time and effort I put into cooking, it's still just gonna be health and stat buff. Just bigger or smaller numbers. I'm already not a fan of consumables in games, but especially if they don't do anything interesting. Temporary stat changes are the most boring reward and I'd rather spend my time getting tangible rewards, like outfits.

>late game progression
lol what

It's a shame that all the unique recipes just heal, wasted potential as fuck. No reason not to just smash some truffles or bananas together.

>it's still just gonna be health and stat buff.
What else could they even provide exactly?

>I'd rather spend my time getting tangible rewards, like outfits.
Stat boosts and resistances ARE tangible benefits though. They also boost or compensate for the shortcomings of suits.
Also the food looks tasty.

What would you consider a sandbox game, then? BOTW gives you infinite choices and possibilities to play with.

Minecraft.

BotW is akin to Zelda 1; an open-ended single player adventure game, with a clear campaign and "win-state". It's not just survival for the sake of survival, nor some virtual Lego simulator.
There's a fine line between OW and sandbox, but it's there.

I see. I was just confused, because other adventure games get the sandbox tag quite easily, too.

On the other hand, BOTW leans more into a "realistic" portrayal of physics and the elements to create a gameplay loop that's very different from Minecraft. I'd consider both games "sandbox games", because both offer the player endless and unique ways to fulfill tasks and make progress.