PC Games like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.
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Horizon Zero Dawn is on steam. Amazing game. Open world. I haven't played the second one yet but I need to.
I really don't get the appeal of Horizon Zero Dawn. I made it more than halfway through and then I quit.
It just felt like I have played the exact same game before just with another coat of paint. It felt completely uninspired gameplay-wise.
You shoot dinosaurs with a bow. Also, the storytelling.
The story gets really dumb at the end. Plus, the final boss is a type of robot you kill about a dozen of on the way to it, yet for some reason it's super powered
Agreed, Horizon: Zero Dawn is a truly excellent game. It's saddled with the usual Ubisoft design elements (map full of things to tick off, towers to unlock areas, etc), but none of that gets in the way of how fun the gameplay is and how good the story is.
It's one of the few video game stories that has really, really stuck with me. Some moments in that game are genuine gut punches that will leave you reeling.
They both check the boxes here. First one I got near complete. The second one I'm still working through. Lots to do.
I believe it's the first 3D game I ever got all of the things in. All the little items and collectathon stuff. Germany I don't do that I don't really care enough but I just enjoyed walking around the world and sniping and setting traps enough that it was worth it. Even the DLC was great and worth it
How I understand. I can't imagine having to collect every item in Germany
lol I didn't even notice that. I believe I meant generally. But I guess now I got to take a flight and it's going to be a while. Wish me luck
Viel glück ! Auf wiedersehen !
Slowly working on my newgame+ run. This game is 10/10
There was one called Immortals Fenyx Rising that I remember being quite similar to BotW. Unfortunately it's Ubisoft
Occasionally Ubisoft will make something worth playing. Immortals: Fenix Rising is one of them. It's BotW without weapon breaking and no weather to make travel miserable.
I worked on that one, it still makes me happy to see good comments about it, and annoyed that ubi went on to cancel the sequel.
And refreshingly light and humourous dialogue
Ubisoft makes good games that they then riddle with bloat and grindy upgrade paths to encourage micro transactions.
That's a fun one. The DLC is pretty cool too.
Just looked it up on wikipedia, one of the negative comments on it was that it was considered too similar to BoTW 😂
The reason why I don't buy and play the game on Steam is, it "Requires 3rd-Party Account: Ubisoft Connect Account". Didn't even bother purchasing it for 4 Euros because of that.
In my opinion it is good that we have alternatives on other platforms, not just buying switch.
The Outer Wilds
All due respect to the other recommendations in this thread (The Witcher 3 is in my top 3 favorite games ever), but I get the sense you're looking for a similar vibe - that self-paced, quiet, almost lonely exploration where, though you do have a goal, the point of the game is to wander the world and discover things. While most of these recs (and most open world games in general, so it's understandable) have a strong story focus, The Outer Wilds will give you that quiet, unguided exploration BoTW does so well.
(And I know explicitly turned down souls-likes, but Elden Ring also hits that vibe super well. If you're really stuck for something to play, it might be worth a try with one of the magic-focused builds that significantly reduce the skill needed)
Seconding this. Regardless of what op is looking for everyone should at least give outer wilds a try. Beautiful game.
I personally could not get into the gameplay loop of that game. Not a fan of the whole groundhog day thing. Also, the game is nothing like BOTW lol.
I see you got down voted but I completely agree. It's absolutely nothing like a Zelda game (Majoras mask, maybe? But barely). And I also couldn't get into it. It's the kinda game you need to write down everything you discovered and then slowly piece together the puzzle - and one mess up and you need to start all over. I didn't find it relaxing at all
Exactly, Shadow of the Colossus is a better recommendation than Genshin Impact because of this. I'd also like to give a shoutout to some metroidvanias that fit the vibe and have big maps and lots of abilities like Aquaria and Knytt Underground.
3rd this,
Great game don't look it up just play it. It's awesome
If they are looking for what you just described, then I would have to recommend Animal Well
I'll definitely look into this. Thanks!
I would imagine horizon zero dawn and the Witcher would be what you're looking for.
I've found Palworld to be a lot like that, and it's hitting 1.0 in July or so.
Palworld is so good. Feels like everyone forgot about it but the game just gets better and better
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.
I don't recall it being any more grindy than Minecraft, but I absolutely get that. No point in working all day, then coming home and doing something that feels like just as big a chore.
As I played I slowly increased the exp rate via the settings so that it wasnt such a grind. There are also mods that can help reduce the grind of different things not just experience related
Here is a few I can think of that are a bit similar
Btw, you should definitely try Elden ring if you haven't already
Bastion is so fucking good
I really enjoyed Sable. It's not the biggest or most complicated game, but it's beautiful, thoughtfully written, and really pulls you into its world. I loved just zooming across the wastes on my bike wondering what I would explore next. Incredibly chill.
Planet of Lana, while kinda neat, is a linear story. There are almost no places to explore other than the scripted path. It's not even a Metroidvania, so I don't think it belongs on this list. With that said, the story is pretty interesting and I played and beat it and look forward more to PoL 2.
I kind of cringe at suggesting this, but Genshin Impact is if Breath of the Wild used a gatcha payment model instead of $60 up front.
But with a lot more yapping
I played for a couple of hundred hours a few years ago and didn't spend any money at all on it. It's perfectly fine to just ignore the gatcha stuff outside of the free pulls (or whatever it's called) you get every now and then. I also don't like Anime at all but this was one of the few things where it was alright.
yeah I'm not into anime art, but Genshin's landscapes are breathtakingly atmospheric
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Sable
It's like Breath of the Wild without combat.
Enshrouded
This game keeps on giving.
Ugh I got to the last biome and loved it sooo much, then got HEAVY (like 80+ hours a week, recovering from almost dying irl lul) into modding Valheim after playing 200 hours of vanilla. I’m now almost 1000 into Valheim and taking a lil break.
Waiting now for Enshrounded to go 1.0, and starting over. Sooooo psyched!
dude, glad you made it! 🤘
Thank yoooou! <3 It was very interesting!
Never tried an opiate before (by choice—I’ve tried everything else!) but they asked me if I wanted something for pain, and after my partner chastising me a lil bit about me minimizing my pain (“oh, I’m at a six or so” “RAI, you’ve been curled into a ball crying for two days. YOU’RE IN HOSPITAL!” “…okay, maybe a nine. I’m still conscious so it’s probably fine”) I said I’d love that. They injected me with morphene which was neat, then a later nurse was like “oh strange, they marked you down to get (other type of thing with morphene in the name but more words before it), do you want to change or stay with what you’ve got? It’s quite a bit stronger.” I figured I’ll proooobably (and very hopefully) never have that chance/option again, so I happily agreed. That was a very floaty week.
Enshrouded and Palworld feel a lot like BotW/TotK to me, but better overall gameplay and worse dungeon puzzles!
I went straight from BotW to Elden Ring and ER was like exploring BotW but every part of the map had interesting things everywhere, made BotW feel really empty in comparison.
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.
Have you tried Legend of Zelda: Breath 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!
Nice try, Nintendo...
Crimson Desert is very inspired by BOTW/TOTK, and a bunch of other games, rolled into one. It's also on PC*.
*it uses Denuvo tho.
I want to play it so vadly but I just can't afford it :( Also can't use a hyprland bypass as I play via cloud streaming.
Waiting for it to be >$20 in a few years myself
and AI-generated art during its development :/
Skyrim
Admittedly it's a bit older
older? it just released like 5 years ago, and 8 years ago, and 12 years ago
I just tried to mod Skyrim earlier, but doing so on Linux is really painful.
Mod Organizer 2 (MO2) runs fine under Proton, but it doesn't support collections, so I would need to manually install hundreds of mods, which is not worth my time.
As for Vortex, I couldn't even get it to install.
So, I gave up on modded Skyrim. For comparison, on Windows: It's click, install, done. I wish it was the same on Linux under proton.
Morrowind, Fallout, and Dragon Age are all quality contenders.
Horizon zero dawn is live action breath of the wild
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.I haven't seen Sable suggested, but it's a very pleasant indie game with a lot of BotW in its DNA. It's not as large and content filled as some of these suggestions but it does have a great sense of style and is more tonally similar to Zelda.
Palworld full release is coming next month
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 :)
That’s where it’s good to get an SD card; and set it up so that other flatpak apps install there (might need to mess with Flatseal to configure filesystem permissions)
Yup.
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.
TUNIC! Play Tunic!
This is a really good game that is almost completely unlike BotW.
Darn, my brain read Zelda and ignored the botw part. I see Zelda I think top down isometric spelunking.
That's understandable. I enjoy the 2d Zelda's more than the 3d ones I think, and everyone needs to play tunic.
I love Tunic but it's probably not what OP is looking for. If "Minecraft with a goal" is what you want I'll recommend Terraria. It's dirt cheap for the amount of content you get.
Not even remotely like BotW
I enjoyed botw and totk, so you might also enjoy Enshrouded. Open world, lots of craft ability, base building and combat is fun and challenging. It's a little less cartoony than Zelda but definitely not as intense as Elden Ring. They are still in early access but the next big update should be 1.0.
I checked out the game's store page, and it looks interesting. Definitely wishlisting it!
Honestly. Try Dragon Age Inquisition. It isn't "open world", but it has MASSIVE regions (that people complained were too big). Lot's to explore, plenty of side quests and puzzles. A base you can customize. Armor too.
Edit: Honestly, play on easy if the combat is too annoying.
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.
Sounds like Crimson Desert
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.
No Mans Sky comes to mind
I wasn't exactly crazy about the story personally, but its there, and the game feels fairly Minecraft-y to me since you also mentioned that game.
I didn't play it at launch, and I know that left a bit of a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths, but in its current state I think its pretty amazing.
Really enjoying outward right now. It feels like a mix of botw Elden ring and a healthy dose of modded skyrim
Crazy that I didn't see anyone else mention this one, but you should check out Cloudheim. It has a free demo on steam.
I haven't actually fired it up in a while, but Gedonia might be up your alley.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1114220/Gedonia/
Looks like a sequel is currently in early access, too.
Maybe Kena Bridge of Spirits? Its not full open world if i remember correctly but it goes into the Zelda direction and i had a lot of fun with it
Saints row iv.
Well no, not really. But it does unexpectedly have some commons.
You could also go for dying light. Both feature the points you mentioned though.
Hytale is really good, but it's still in early access and the overarching objective isn't there yet. Still keep an eye on it
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.”
Lil' Gator Game
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.
Avowed
Not the MOST open world but the new tomb raider games are pretty great. Exploration, crafting, axing badguys in their stupid faces. Friendship, Bow and arrows. It's a good set of games.
Agreed! Not something I'd think of or expect to be recommended but definitely fits. Lots of exploration, puzzle solving, secret finding, hunting etc.
Not quite Minecraft but open world and lots to do.
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I’d imagine The Witcher 3 falls into this camp? Maybe Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 & 2 as well? I can’t be incredibly sure, as I haven’t actually played them.
You mentioned Elden Ring, but it’s much more combat focused and less mini-dungeon puzzles. Though fighting a boss can feel like a puzzle sometimes.
Wuthering Waves might fit your bill, but it’s a free to play gacha game so that comes with its own can of worms. It’s also a bit more combat focused that BOTW and ranged combat + gadgets don’t really exist.
You may like some of the Assassin’s Creed franchise if you never played that. AC2 was my favorite of those, but it’s been a long time since I touched that franchise.
Much smaller scale, but Smushi Come Home kinda gave me BOTW vibes
Ocean horn 1 + 2
Elder scrolls games (Morrowind, oblivion, Skyrim) are classic examples and games that came after they inspired like cyberpunk.
The thing about Elder Scrolls games is that they tend to be mostly RPG while BotW is mainly a sandbox game with some RPG elements. Most people I've seen trying to get the "BotW feeling" from an RPG ended up dissapointed.
You can mod ES games extensively to make them feel more sandbox-ish, or simply ignore quest lines and freeroam but it's not quite the same.
Switch emulator with eden and play the other two newer zelda games. I stopped playing them cuz they seemed like the same exact game as botw. They even have mods for zelda games on emulators.
Pine? Pine
I came here to say Pine, but also to say Pine isn't very good. I played 5 hours, and it just was not that good.
The reviews are mostly positive, do you want to expand on why you didn't enjoy it? Is it a poorly made game, or is it just not a game genre you don't like? Poor art, slow controls, or a boring story?
Wait wait, I remember. It was a combination of the load screens and the combat. Combat felt unfair. I even looked up guides. And every time you died... Load screen. Very long load screen. I even tried turning down graphics to a minimum to improve load times. Didn't help much.
Thanks for sharing!
It's been years. I remember playing it after BoTW and hoping it would be similar, but just being very disappointed about everything. It felt clunky. The visuals are noticably worse, but that didn't really bother me. I don't remember why, but I think the sticking point was the combat. Ultimately I didn't care enough about it at the time to even give a proper review, I just gave it a thumbs down on steam.
Aer: Memories of Old was pretty excellent. I think the scale might be not quite what you're looking for, but the inspiration from Zelda is very apparent.
It’s on sale for like $2. I’m giving it a shot.
The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker?
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.
Would emulating Wind Waker be an option?
Besides that I would say Genshin is probably your best bet.
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