Honestly, I'm just now starting the game. I got it a while back, and I got frustrated because I kept falling off the tower. I just started a New Game because I wasn't very far in and wanted to see all the intro stuff again.
I figured out why I don't know the way down the tower, though. Because the game just spawns you on top of the first tower after activating something with your tablet, and expects you to find your way down. If I'd had to climb the tower, I would have known where the platforms were. But I found them this time because someone told me to look for them, plus I found the stairs going down a place with climbable walls. Before, I was just jumping off the side at different angles and looking in vain for a warp pad or something.
I made it through the Oman Au shrine, and managed to get some kind of magnetic power. That's a good addition to the game, too. I always thought Zelda needed more magnetism-based abilities. I really didn't have to fight a lot of enemies in there, either. The challenge is all in figuring out how to use the Magnet rune you get in there. If you figure it out, you can proceed. The puzzles weren't too tough once I figured out how to aim the magnet at things. It seems to involve moving the controller itself around.
After getting through there, though, I ended up playing around in the forest getting Opals from some treasure chests by attacking tribes of kind of red monster that drops Boko clubs. I also learned about cooking. The Old Man really wasn't much help, it seems like he basically told me to stick pins in the map to keep track of where I've explored and where I'm going, but didn't really tell me where to go.
Also, the weapons I'm finding are low quality stuff like Boko Clubs and Rusty Broadswords. They keep breaking, and I have to keep worrying about switching to a new one. Cooking was really tough to figure out, because they don't give you directions at all... I had to figure out manually pretty much to light the torch under the pot, and go into my inventory screen to put ingredients in my arms, and then drop them while standing in the right spot. There is seriously no hand-holding or direction in this game at all.
I hope that it's just a steep learning curve, and that I don't feel this frustrated with the game later on. Although to be fair, I think that's because I'm spoiled to ALttP and OoT-style Zelda games that have been a lot more forgiving and helpful up to now. This is like a confusing and difficult NES game with better graphics and modern mechanics/controls. Honestly, it reminds me so much of the original LoZ on the NES, perhaps with new life breathed into it by cues taken from Elder Scrolls and Assassin's Creed. I suppose they had to shake up the formula eventually. I just hope I can learn to like it. I want to like this game, because I've been waiting for it so long.
