I’m looking for any games on PC (preferably Steam) that plays like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Mainly, I’m looking for large, open-world games, with lots of things to do, with an over-arching narrative/destination available. Think Minecraft, with but an actual definitive objective to complete.
I’m aware of Fromsoft’s work (Elden Ring), but I’m looking for non-soulslike games.
Genshin is the only one I know of. Its monetisation is predatory, but it’s a huge open world action-RPG with tons of discoverable chests and environmental puzzles. Also it’s very f2p friendly if you’re not susceptible to hype and FOMO - I’ve been playing for 4+ years with most areas 100% explored (and 70+ characters unlocked) without ever spending a pence.
Tower of Fantasy and Wuthering Waves also kinda do the same schtick.
Would emulating Wind Waker be an option?
Besides that I would say Genshin is probably your best bet.
Sable
It’s like Breath of the Wild without combat.
It’s not exactly the same because of the turn-based nature of it, but play Baldur’s Gate 3 if you haven’t.
It’s a massive world with a shitload of things to do and a definite objective (or rather 3 as each act has a major one)
With respect, Baldur’s Gate 3 is nothing like what OP is asking for.
I’ve found Palworld to be a lot like that, and it’s hitting 1.0 in July or so.
Palworld isn’t bad, but I feel like it doesn’t respect my time with how grindy it is. It’s about as grindy as some major MMOs, which isn’t what I’m looking for right now.
Palworld is so good. Feels like everyone forgot about it but the game just gets better and better
Genshin impact
Does Genshin run on Linux?
Look up the “Twintail Launcher”. Pretty easy entry point for several anime games. Theres even a version of proton, dwproton, that’s recommended for several of them.
Did this on Steam Deck. Holy shit 100GB download just to start the game followed by another 16GB download once logged in + glacial “verifying integrity” progress bar…
Enjoying the menu theme music though :)
Have you tried Legend of Zelda: Vreath of the Wild for PC? They even have it for Steamdeck. I love my Nintendo Steamdeck. I even got a Nintendo Steamdeck 2.
Please provide every link needed to make this possible. Thanks!
I haven’t played this, but Crimson Desert seems pretty close
It’s not. It’s like playing breath of the wild on three different consoles and it also being every game idea (and none of it very fun).
It also feels like the controls were designed by someone who’s never played a video game before
Totally.
What made me give up was opening radial menus. After contorting my hand into a sign that should’ve caused a spell to be cast IRL, the game didn’t slow down. the whole point of radial menus is it slows down the game. that is why they exist. but no, everything still running, boss still doing its nonstop attack animation. best part was when i highlighted an item it didnt become equipped because I didn’t press the button to select it. other best was that I hadn’t selected the item to be in the radial menu.
Then it was like “okay, now it’s time for colony sim management for some reason.”
Morrowind, Fallout, and Dragon Age are all quality contenders.
Elden Ring really gave me botw vibes.
All that exploration, shrines, random story lines and gigantic map and biome variety.
OP said they don’t want soulslikes
V Rising. It’s basically goth Terraria. You’re playing as a vampire who just came out of a thousand-year hibernation, and your whole goal is to find and kill Dracula. You start by bullying skeletons with your bare hands to harvest their bones, and go all the way to building an enormous automated castle that can process thousands of units of raw materials.
The oft forgotten
Gods and MonstersImmortals Fenyx Rising is a shockingly good BOTW-like. Booted it up the other day because I noticed I had it from when they gave it away for free some time ago, and it was such a pleasant surprise. In some ways (combat, traversal, dungeon design, writing) it’s even better than Zelda. Do yourself a favor though and remove most of the HUD and puzzle hints via the ingame options and pirate it if you can so you don’t have to deal with Ubisoft Connect and Denuvo.Crimson desert. You’ll never finish it.
Probably because you’ll just get tired of it. After the initial whiz bang faded, the HUGE beautifully rendered world was not enough to carry the absolutely dogshit story, repetitive unvaried encounters, and overwhelming plethora of shallow, poorly explained systems.
It’s a very casual take on BOTW - basically exploring and traversal with no consequences. Enemies are cardboard.
It has some nods and jokes referencing TLOZ. I found it charming as hell and played it to 100%. I’m looking forward to playing the expansion.
Another one to consider if you prefer less intense (i.e. frustrating) combat is Swords N Magic and Stuff. It’s on Steam in early access and is a steal for about $25. It offers the large open world and tons of exploration along with a variety of play-style options, crafting, and farming. The only thing it doesn’t really seem to offer is the over-arching narrative but there is definitely lore to discover along the way.
I checked out the demo and it seems good. Some controller issues and gameplay issues (Bow aiming sensitivity is too high), but otherwise quite cozy.
Yeah I am hoping the Dev improves the controller support since I noticed the same thing; I believe that is on the to-do list before 1.0 release. I switched to mouse and keyboard controls and have been playing for over 40 hours with a ton more to do in the game.











