rejj
I hope I can help with the Breath of the Wild enjoyment! To preface my tips, and provide some insight, my favorite Zeldas are Link’s Awakening and Wind Waker. I like LA for it’s incredible game design, and I loved WW because the sense of exploration really impressed me, despite the sometimes-frustrating boat/wind system.
With that said, I consider Breath of the WIld a close second to those classics. I would just spend hours roaming around, looking for nothing, but expecting something. In the beginning, the limited stamina is an impediment and the weapon durability felt frustrating until I understood why. I realized the game was almost forcing me to explore it. It did not want to make me feel too comfortable, because it wanted me to feel WILD. So wild, I went and deided I would put on my explorer’s hat and just go, because I could. I wanted to test the designers’ claims of being able to go anywhere at any time and to my surprise, I could, only if I could figure out how. There really isn’t anywhere in the map that is closed off from you after the intial “tutorial” section. This is when I realized how fun the problem solving was in this “Open World” Environment.
There is no one way to beat the baddies in this game. Some of the most fun I’ve had with the combat was trying to find silly ways to defeat the goofy goblins. You can shoot hanging torches to burn them. You can drop a giant rock on them. You can roll a log onto a group that might be sleeping. If you can think it, you can probably do it.
It may be disappointing that the game doesn’t offer any of the traditional dungeons, but what they’ve done instead is essentially tear the walls down and offer you micro-moments that you’d find in those dungeons in the form of the unique combat situations, shrines and more.
The land is so vast, and I loved the anticipation of discovery around every corner. When I had a similar moment as @thiccnick with the dragon, I was flabbergasted because I knew I would figure out what to do eventually, and that I just had to find out the answers from someone, somewhere. All I had to do was pick a direction and go.