Breath of the Wild is an open world Legend of Zelda title that changes a lot of the pre-determined notions of the Zelda franchise, offering players a huge world to explore. Players will be able to do many things while they traverse the landscape, such as gathering materials, fight enemies, find dungeons and much, much more.
Exploration
Players will begin the game after waking up in a mysterious place, then venture outside into the open world. The first area that you will see is called The Great Plateau, which will be the beginning of your adventure. What you see in this world will be able to be explored, including climbing mountains, diving into bodies of water, and anywhere else you can imagine (within reason, as there are actual boundaries on the map's edges).
There will be some clothing inside of the mysterious cave, but not much else, so you are on your own. Breath of the Wild could be considered a survival game, as you will need to scrounge up pretty much everything you need to use, which includes armor, weapons, food and other things. You have a button for running, but you can't run indefinitely, as you have stamina. Stamina decreases whenever you run, climb or are using the paraglider; there is a way to increase the maximum stamina you have, but that requires besting the various Shrines you find around the map.
If you look at your map by pressing in the right analog stick, you will notice that it is divided into regions. Shortly after waking up and meeting a mysterious old man, you will learn about some big towers. Climbing up these towers and using your Sheikah Slate at the top will reveal the layout of the region you're in, but it won't exactly fill in a lot of details other than general topography and maybe the names of some general areas in the greater region.
As already mentioned, Link will need to scavenge for food, weapons and armor. Food can be cooked, alone or with other food, to increase its potency or even create new dishes that have different effects, such as peppers making a dish that can help you resist some cold. There are also pieces of armor that can mimic these effects, but some of them have to be earned or even bought. Weapons, shields and bows can be picked up and added to your inventory, although you have limited space in the beginning of the game. As you use them, though, the durability will decrease and will eventually break, meaning those pieces of equipment will be lost forever. However, don't let this deter you from using them, as you will find a lot of weapons and the like throughout your adventure.
Shrines
As you're exploring the land of Hyrule, you will come across these places called Shrines. You will be required to do the four Shrines on the Great Plateau to progress the main story, but the others are all optional. When you place the Sheikah Slate on the pedestal outside, the Shrine will now be activated as a fast travel point. The first four will grant you some tools that will prove useful for adventuring, but all of the others fall into one of two categories, as they will either present a puzzle or a battle challenge. The main purpose of the Shrines is to finish them and gain a Spirit Orb. Four of these orbs can be presented to a Goddess Statue for a chance to upgrade your health by one heart or an upgrade to your stamina.
Battling Enemies
Battles in Breath of the Wild take place in real-time, meaning whenever you see an enemy, you will fight them right then and there. Usually, all of the enemies in an area will come to attack you at once, instead of one-on-one. However, it is possible to sneak up on an enemy unnnoticed and perform a Sneakstrike, which will deal some huge damage. The damage depends on the weapon equipped at the time of the strike, so it's in your best interests to equip your most powerful weapon if you do this.
When you normally fight enemies, though, you want to utilize the lock-on mechanic, which is done with the ZL button. This is useful in a one-on-one fight, but can be bit of a hazard when fighting multiple foes, as the others can attack you from a blind spot. Note that the ZL button will also raise Link's shield, should he have one equipped. Your current weapon can be swung with the Y button and by pressing certain directions in conjunction with the B button, you can do a sidestep of backflip.
Dodging with the right timing can be extremely beneficial, as it can slow down time and enable the use of the Flurry Rush. A button prompt will appear on screen and repeatingly pressing the button will allow you to deliver a flurry of strikes on the enemy you dodged. In addition to this, you can also perform a Perfect Guard, which can stun the enemy and in the case of a specific foe, reflect their attacks back at them.
