Terraria Community Forums

Whenever I find a new area, like siofra river, I enjoy exploring it for like 10 minutes until it turns out not to have anything interesting at the end.

I have no motivation to play it because I know I won't find anything interesting, even dark souls 2 was easier to keep playing because at least I knew what to do.

I know I haven't completed the game yet, but that's because I can't force myself to just wander around for an hour and discover maybe 1 tiny new things like a ruin with 2 generic enemies and 1 common crafting material.

HOW
IT DOESNT TELL ME

It does tell you, you're just looking for an icon on your map. Right out of the gate you're told the objective is to kill a shard bearer. Keep walking straight you'll get to a church, keep walking straight you'll get to an npc that will hint at a castle, keep walking straight you'll get to the castle, keep going straight and you'll get to the shard bearer.

Straight Is a bit of a stretch, the road curves, but the direction is the same.

Are you talking about stormveil castle and the boss with all the arms(I forgot his name)? Cause I've already killed him. I think I'm supposed to go to this magic school, but I don't know where it is or how to get in.

I am, Godrick the Grafted was his name. Your next stop is Liurnia of Lakes, specifically the Academy of Lucaria I believe it was called. To get there, explore. To get in, find the hints around the area.

I've wandered around the place for hours, desperately looking for anything new, but I just can't find anything. I just end up revisiting the same places over and over again because I can't find anywhere new.

Here's an entire map of the world. It doesn't show objective or settlement locations because you should find those yourself, but it may help you in assessing where to go.

Oh thank goodness there's more areas after liurnia. Why is the game so linear though? It's an open world game, but you have to progress through each area in order?

You don't, you can go to any area at any time excluding end game locations. Lingrave, the peninsula of Limgrave, Calida, Liurnia of Lakes are all accessible day 1.

You can't get to liurnia until you beat margit and godrick, and I can't figure out how to leave liurnia(which is basically just a giant empty swamp with a few points of interest around the edges)

That is not true, you can absolutely get to liurnia before defeating godrick, Margit is an optional boss so he's not relevant anyway.
As for the not being able to get out, you're just going to have to explore, or pull of a video. If you need a hand to hold the whole way how was the game ever expected to get a good review by you?

Also, the last bit about Liurnia is also wrong, plenty of neat lore and people to talk to.
If your next objective is the Academy, then you need to stay in Lirunia.

How do you get to liurnia without beating margit and godrick?
And needing my hand held is that game's problem, not mine. When it's so obscure wth you're supposed to do that you just end up wandering aimlessly, that's the game's fault. Again, I never had any problems like this in any other souls game.

I've never had that problem in this game either, so it really does sound like a personal issue.
If you'd like to learn how to pass the castle without defeating the bosses, check videos.
You even said yourself that you can't find anything in Liurnia, despite your objective being there. This literally means you're not exploring well and blaming the game for it.

Regardless, I'm not going to argue whether the game is good or not, the awards and billions of people speak for themselves. If it's not your cup of tea then it's not your cup of tea. So I digress. I hope you find fun in the game, but if not, oh well.