I just feel like I have no direction. Usually when the game is linear and captivating, I want to finish it from beginning to end without playing other games.
I have the Witcher 3 (half way through main story in 2 years) and GTA 5 (barely started campaign in 2 years).
Perhaps I should just focus on the main story so I don't become jaded by the overall experience and overwhelmed.
Hmmm, it's hard to straight up compare BotW to those two, though GTA is closer. For the former, Witcher 3 has immense strength in it's narrative (not saying it falls short in other aspects), whereas GTA as a franchise likes to overwhelm you with distractions.
For what it's worth, I never beat GTA 5 in the similar vein that you mentioned here, just never got too into the main campaign before burning out, but I did sink considerable time in. I'm going off the assumption you did play both those games for at least a while before burning out.
BotW is one of Nintendo's best examples of tackling the concept of emergent gameplay. By definition, it is constantly (and I mean constantly) looking to grab your attention, but uses the most simplisitc visual designs to attract you into exploring. What it does differently than many other open-world is to not waste your time as you explore. The notion that Skyrim is as vast as an ocean, but as deep as a puddle is a bit harsh, but kinda applies. Skyrim, and many First Person games for the most part, boils down to you finding notes/texts and learning stories through that same method ad nauseum. They occasionally use visual cues to show rather than tell, but they're in the minority to the other method I mentioned. With BotW, you don't have that. You have virtually none of that. Everything you go to explore is going to try and push an aspect of gameplay at you, rather than story. You follow some smoke, you find a camp fire, you find the campfire is surrounded by enemies. You see a suspicious metallic metal block, investigate. You find the recently ruined remains of a settlement, something
nasty is nearby, you hear an accordion play, you know the coolest guy in the game is nearby.
If it's story specifically you're after, I am sad to say BotW is as basic as you could ask for a fantasy story, but it is weirdly one of the more adventurous Zelda titles in thinking-outside-the-box in
how it tells you it. By hour 1, you've more or less got the gist of what's required of you. The more interesting facets of the characters (of which, like every Zelda, are one of the strongest parts of the story) are opened to you as the game encourages you to explore. Zelda is, however, one of the few gaming series where I believe it is totally acceptable to jump in first with nearly
any of them, so there is nothing that you are specifically required to know about the lore prior to going in.
It's also worth stating that it plays so much better than either of the Witcher or GTA 5 (opinions here, but only MGSV gives you this kind of control of yourself and your surroundings). Hoping this helps you a little bit before you plunge into the game.
Edit:
Move aside Sidon, Wolf Link is best bro.
I was genuinely kinda bummed when I first used the amiibo months ago, since TP Link is arguably my favourite designed (both in normal form and wolf), and one of my favourite aspects of the series was the lessons from the Hero's Shade, and learning who that is. Having Wolf Link show up from time to time to help would've been like keeping up with a tradition he himself benefited from once.
