And after the initial wave of feeling dumb passed once I noticed my mistake, I also realized that I was actually having quite a lot of fun playing it that way. Although navigation was confusing at first, I learned my way around the map quite well, and by being forced to just look around instead of relying on, as you put it, GPS nav (a very apt analogy) I had a more immersive, enjoyable experience. There were times walking around where I would just stop and think, 'wow, this is really pretty'. And I am not completely sure I would have had that thought if I hadn't been forced to actually pay attention to where I was going in those early hours of play.
At least disable the "?" signs on unexplored areas and the path to next quest objective, game is much more enjoyable without them and not too inconvenient.
I might give it another go, how did you go on about it ? did you just disable most UI stuff ? and is it still acutally playable ?
When I get a new quest phase I look it up on the fullscreen map and then just go there, it's playable enough. The dialogs describe places where you need to go usually, but not always well enough to get there without looking at the map at all.
I've seen people play with all ui disabled, even the health bar, but it wasn't convenient for me.
The game is very heavy on plot and characters, it has small tutorial in the castle, and then like 10 hours long bigger tutorial area before the world opens up for real, and you have to understand what's happening and who's who at least a little to enjoy it. Game introduces characters reasonably well, but there's so many of them it's easy to lose track.
Also, bonus tip - in some update few months after the premiere they added "alternative movement controls" - be sure to enable that in the settings if you play with keyboard and mouse. It's much more convenient than the default. It makes the animation of movement look less natural, but much more responsive (you can turn instantly instead of making a circle for example).
Zelda has a 'Pro' mode where it hides all UI but the health. I was fully decided on using it through the whole game and I think it is the best way to play the game.
The absence of minimap is the biggest change. When you have your minimap is like when you drive with gps. You only wait til the map says you to turn, and after some turns staring at the minimap you get to your destination missing all that was in between. If you don't have the minimap you actually need to understand the map, know more or less where you are, where the landmarks are, and how to get through to your destination. In the end, the absence of minimap makes you learn better the world and the map, instead of relying on the digested info that the minimap gives you.