Like most alternative aspects of the sport, the manner you own and use weapons in BotW is extremely completely different to older Zelda games. In Wind Waker, you get 2 swords, and therefore the second replaces the primary. In BotW, you've got a whole disturbance weapon inventory, that means you'll be able to develop, use and drop weapons as you see match.
On paper, it’s a cool idea! Liberating, even, as you'll be able to play grabbing unspecified lance, sword, boomerang or club you discover and simply...use them. however the manner it’s been enforced, a minimum of timely within the game, could be a nightmare.
See, each weapon (even the bows!) in BotW degrade, and once they’re done, they shatter and they’re gone. Some would possibly take Associate in Nursing hour or 2, some would possibly solely last a couple of swings. however long they last depends on the inherent sturdiness worth of the weapon, in addition as what you really use it for (using a weapon to chop down a tree can smash it up real fast).
I’m not against the thought in principle; many my favorite games feature an identical issue, from so much Cry 2's rusted AK-47s to The Witcher 3's broken gear. however the issue concerning each of these games is that they offered sensible solutions to their weapon’s temporal shortcomings.
The problem with BotW’s isn’t that things break, it’s that for too long during this game, they break just too damn fast. Now, people who have finished the game, before you butt in here and tell me, I know: things get better. That’s fine, and it’s cool that this isn’t an issue for the entire game. But it’s still an issue.
If you were stuck using brittle swords made of frosted candy for the first, say, hour or two of this game, just as long as you’re on the elevated platform that’s home to the Temple of Time, I think that would be fine. That section of the game is a tutorial, there aren’t any tough bad guys to face, and it would have been a solid introduction to the mechanic of durability and the notion of swapping your weapons around.
But the issue persists way too long after that. I get what Nintendo are trying to do here: they’re trying to get you to improvise, to experiment with indirect ways of dealing with enemies (bombs, rocks, fire,etc), to learn to use the game’s vast arsenal of weapons through necessity.
And they succeed! But at the same time, they also make early-game combat a tedious scrap, and remove a lot of the joy of receiving good loot. I’m about 20 hours into the game (though not that far into the story...I like to explore), and am almost at the point where I avoid direct combat altogether, because I just can’t be bothered with the grind anymore.
Making the weapons so disposable also removes a lot of the joy in earning them in the first place. I’ve completed some shrines that had “boss battles”, and upon completion have attained some badass swords as a reward.
These ar additional powerful than the weapons I had! and that they do cool stuff! therefore I begin to use them and OH. They’re broken. And gone. And currently I’m back to Traveller’s Swords and random spears. Having stuff break therefore quick removes any sense of possession or action you had in obtaining them, and causes you to surprise why you’d hassle obtaining that stuff in any respect once you’ll be back to the common crap during a few minutes’ price of fighting anyway.
I’ve spoken concerning this with folks at Kotaku, and they’ve all given wonderful counterpoints to my complaints on the far side “well this isn’t a retardant within the face of the game”. Stuff like it’s a pleasant very little statement on permanency, on however everything during this game is constructed on physics, on however typically you wish to sacrifice one thing you're keen on to accomplish one thing you wish to try and do.
