It’s now been more than a few days since I completed Breath of the Wild, and with the time that has passed, I’ve been able to more objectively reflect on a few things relevant to the game. One such thing is weapon durability.
In general, I hate when video games include weapon durability. This part of me that HATES it can be referred to as the “Impatient Gamer.” The Impatient Gamer was not happy when Rust added weapon degradation. At times, the Impatient Gamer quite easily morphs into the Frustrated Gamer which manifests itself at times such as when a poorly executed round bomb sent a stone sphere, needed for a shrine, out into the ocean. It was a long swim for Link that day…
Weapon durability just seems cheap at times. It’s a gold sink, and it’s annoying. There was one game that I actually thought weapon durability was slightly inventive: Far Cry 2. Your weapons could jam from overuse, and it actually made sense. If I’m remembering correctly, there was a perk that helped minimize weapon malfunction anyway so it was never too much of a problem.
When it came to BotW, I gritted my teeth when I found out weapons would break and decided I would just have to deal with it. Surprisingly, after 90 some hours, I found that I didn’t really care. I was constantly moving, exploring as much of the map as I could, and I never had a weapon shortage. In fact, I was constantly debating which weapon to toss or sell! If anything, weapon durability in BotW acted more as motivation to keep pushing through the map. What neat weapon would I pick up next?
Out of curiosity, I searched online for people’s opinions on weapon durability in BotW and was surprised by some of the perspectives. Some people hated it, others didn’t mind, and others still complained that the weapons broke too quickly, that they were brittle, and that there isn’t really a way to manage weapons since the game only tells players if a weapon is used or that it is about to break. I do agree that the game could do a better job of notifying players of each weapon’s durability status, but I also don’t think BotW necessarily has the cheapest weapon durability system.
What do you think? Is weapon durability generally a nuisance or can it add depth to a game?
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