The Real Problem With Zelda Breath Of The Wild’s Weapon Durability

The Real Problem With Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s Weapon Durability

Breath of the Wild’s weapon durability is often derided as tedious and annoying, but there’s a much bigger problem with the degradation system.

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The Real Problem With Zelda Breath Of The Wild’s Weapon Durability

Weapon durability systems are often ridiculed for being frustrating and tedious, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s was a particular pain to fans and critics. Following Breath of the Wild’s release, many complained that weapons were far too fragile, necessitating constant weapon-swapping. But there’s a much bigger problem with the system, particularly when players get to Breath of the Wild’s endgame.

Breath of the Wild is one of the best open-world games ever made, but it’s certainly not without its flaws. Its version of Hyrule is vast and full of interesting locales, but many of these locations lack depth. Most of the time, Hyrules nooks and crannies tell a story, but they don’t provide anything to interact with – besides another few Bokoblins to fight or another formulaic Korok puzzle to solve. By far the most common criticism railed at Breath of the Wild, though, is that its weapon durability system kills the fun.

Especially in its early hours, Breath of the Wild’s weapons are incredibly brittle, breaking after just a few hits on an enemy. Nintendo likely went with this mechanic because it forces players to experiment, both with different weapon types (spears, one-handed swords, wands, etc.) and with supplementary combat tactics, like weakening enemies with explosive barrels or falling boulders. It adds a layer of strategy to combat encounters not seen in other The Legend of Zelda games, as the player is forced to carefully consider which approach is safest, given their current loadout and surroundings. But weapons break so often that combat is constantly interrupted. Either Link is scrambling to pick up a weapon from a downed enemy, or he’s shuffling through menus to find a viable replacement for the weapon that just shattered.

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This is a big source of annoyance for many players at all points in the game, but it’s especially bad, ironically, once hardier weapons become widely available. Late in the game, enemies drop Breath of the Wild’s most powerful weapons all over the place, keeping the player’s inventory filled at all times with items nowhere near breaking. By that point, the durability system has taught the player to always ditch their weakest weapon when a fresh one comes up, so they must constantly engage in internal debates about what’s worth keeping.

Eventually, the player will inevitably come out of a fight with an entirely undamaged weapon inventory. Because they’ve been taught to conserve weapons, and because there’s no experience system or non-weapon loot (other than Breath of the Wild’s cooking ingredients), this leads to a major issue: Players are discouraged from engaging in battles during the endgame. Early in the game, using up a weapon’s durability on an enemy most often means the player will get a better one, but when enemies all carry the same top-tier weapons as the player, it’s a zero-sum battle. Unless there’s no way to get around a monster, it’s better to just avoid it.

If Nintendo wants to keep the weapon durability system for Breath of the Wild’s sequel, it needs to find a careful balance between the availability of powerful and weak weapons in the endgame, the number of times weapons can be used before breaking, and the amount of inventory space a player is given. Strong weapons need to be plentiful enough that it’s possible to beat the toughest enemies, but not so abundant that new weapons lose all value. Alternatively, Nintendo could provide experience points or some other kind of reward for combat, ensuring players will always get something out of a fight.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/zelda-breath-wild-weapon-durability-degradation-breaking-problems-endgame/

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