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Did you enjoy Breath of the Wild's weapon durability system?
- Thread starter ByWatterson
- Start date
Yes. Loved it. Made me have to get creative with my weapons, and have to use them all. As well as get creative with the games mechanics. Towards end game there is a ton anyhow. I am not a fan of the alternative, find "your" weapon mid game, and only use that one for the rest of the games.
Gamers dont like to be disconforted even a bit, wild
Gamers dont like to be disconforted even a bit, wild
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kondorBonk
Member
I enjoyed the management of it and forcing myself to try new things but I get the mixed feeling. As "rewards" to fill the world and encourage engaging in battles, it wasn't perfect. A larger variety or slightly longer durability as you progress would have made that system even better.
I think that's being acknowledged in the sequel with materials having more influence and greatly multiplying the number of rewarding weapons that could be forged. Less of a mindset of "Why should I attack this group if I only get a spear and lose the durability of my sword" and more so "I wonder what I can craft onto this sword by engaging and making it even better".
With that said, while I agree it could be improved (and looks like it will be), I certainly prefer it to be in the game.
I think that's being acknowledged in the sequel with materials having more influence and greatly multiplying the number of rewarding weapons that could be forged. Less of a mindset of "Why should I attack this group if I only get a spear and lose the durability of my sword" and more so "I wonder what I can craft onto this sword by engaging and making it even better".
With that said, while I agree it could be improved (and looks like it will be), I certainly prefer it to be in the game.
Nydius
Member
There’s a whole lot of pretentious nonsense being thrown about in this topic but this, by far, takes first prize.
The only thing “low IQ” is disregarding complaints with actual reasons given for them by going “hurr durr ur low IQ”.
Trogdor1123
Gold Member
That is some interesting mental gymnastics…
Trogdor1123
Gold Member
They kept it? Shame… I won’t be buying it then
balgajo
Member
You could infuse some temporary elemental items with your sword for this. Than the item break after some usage, not the sword.
For me their implementation felt like: Remember that in past games people didn’t care about money because of the amount of chest with rupees. What if we transform weapons into the new annoying rupees?
balgajo
Member
To be honest I never played a FPS where your run out of ammo and the shotgun breaks. That’s the correct analogy with the bow also breaking.
I didn't enjoy seeing my cooked food prematurely leave my inventory nor seeing my climbing stamina prematurely run out either. I didn't enjoy dying in the game either. 
I always think it is funny that some people take a tiny aspect of a game and then prop it up to be an all or nothing obstacle to playing the next game. I never understand that. I don't think any one little thing has ever kept me from playing a game or the removal of it would suddenly make me really want to play the game. IT's always the totality of it all for me. I'm never right on the edge of playing or not playing if only one tiny feature changes a tiny bit.
I always think it is funny that some people take a tiny aspect of a game and then prop it up to be an all or nothing obstacle to playing the next game. I never understand that. I don't think any one little thing has ever kept me from playing a game or the removal of it would suddenly make me really want to play the game. IT's always the totality of it all for me. I'm never right on the edge of playing or not playing if only one tiny feature changes a tiny bit.
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daveonezero
Banned
Loved it. Played on regular but soon switch to Master Mode. I played the game avoiding combat and building up my character. I always describe it as having 3 distinct sort of themes.
Starting out it was survival. Scavanging, sneaking cooking to stay al\ive. Always avoiding combat and using my worse weapon first if absolutely needed.
Upgrading bows slots, weapon slots then shield slots.
Mid game found I had enough resources, hearts, better armor and more importantly strength boosting food I could start taking out more enemies and not loose many weapons.
Final teir late game I had so many slots and so many good weapons nothing really mattered and if I needed something I knew where to farm it. By this time I could kill 3 lynels in 5min and take all their gear. I'm full of Royal weapons and Lynel savage gear.
I thought the progression in the game was genius and forgiving and gave me choices. Somewhere along the time I was stacked with bomb arrows and a nice bow. I was in one of the canyons and on all the platforms I cleared out the encampments like it was a third person shooter and it felt amazing.
There were just so many distinct moments like this totally unscripted in my play through.
Or Why do I have a limit on inventory? Why do my arrows run out? Why do I have to find a horse and tame it just give me the best and only horse in the game.
More and more hardcore gamers would rather be spoon fed than actually experience something.
I looked at it as more of a stamina thing.
Starting out it was survival. Scavanging, sneaking cooking to stay al\ive. Always avoiding combat and using my worse weapon first if absolutely needed.
Upgrading bows slots, weapon slots then shield slots.
Mid game found I had enough resources, hearts, better armor and more importantly strength boosting food I could start taking out more enemies and not loose many weapons.
Final teir late game I had so many slots and so many good weapons nothing really mattered and if I needed something I knew where to farm it. By this time I could kill 3 lynels in 5min and take all their gear. I'm full of Royal weapons and Lynel savage gear.
I thought the progression in the game was genius and forgiving and gave me choices. Somewhere along the time I was stacked with bomb arrows and a nice bow. I was in one of the canyons and on all the platforms I cleared out the encampments like it was a third person shooter and it felt amazing.
There were just so many distinct moments like this totally unscripted in my play through.
add "why does rain and weather affect my character? I'd rather they mean absolutely nothing like every other game out there."I didn't enjoy seeing my cooked food prematurely leave my inventory nor seeing my climbing stamina prematurely run out either. I didn't enjoy dying in the game either.
I always think it is funny that some people take a tiny aspect of a game and then prop it up to be an all or nothing obstacle to playing the next game. I never understand that. I don't think any one little thing has ever kept me from playing a game or the removal of it would suddenly make me really want to play the game. IT's always the totality of it all for me. I'm never right on the edge of playing or not playing if only one tiny feature changes a tiny bit.
Or Why do I have a limit on inventory? Why do my arrows run out? Why do I have to find a horse and tame it just give me the best and only horse in the game.
More and more hardcore gamers would rather be spoon fed than actually experience something.
There are plenty of games with ammo limits where you don't use the gun or item because ammo is limited. Or you save up a guns limited ammo for a bigger fight.
I looked at it as more of a stamina thing.
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Brigandier
Member
Absolutely despised it... When even the best shield in the game was quite easy to break then yeah there's a problem.
Weapon and armour durability should be an option in difficulty settings.
Weapon and armour durability should be an option in difficulty settings.
daveonezero
Banned
What shield? A Lynel savage shield with +durability lasts quite a long time. Then by then you probably have a bunch of slots and can have multiple.
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Brigandier
Member
It's Nintendo so it's the best thing ever but if it was Ubi or EA lol wow.... 2/10 IGN and review bombed on Metacritic.
Durability loss needed toning down a lot or an option to turn the crap off, It makes me laugh when people disagree that it should be an option... Like how's it going to affect them how someone else likes to enjoy playing their game
GermanZepp
Member
It's Nintendo so it's the best thing ever but if it was Ubi or EA lol wow.... 2/10 IGN and review bombed on Metacritic.
Durability loss needed toning down a lot or an option to turn the crap off, It makes me laugh when people disagree that it should be an option... Like how's it going to affect them how someone else likes to enjoy playing their game
You have some coment in your salt.
Dr. Claus
Vincit qui se vincit
It's Nintendo so it's the best thing ever but if it was Ubi or EA lol wow.... 2/10 IGN and review bombed on Metacritic.
Durability loss needed toning down a lot or an option to turn the crap off, It makes me laugh when people disagree that it should be an option... Like how's it going to affect them how someone else likes to enjoy playing their game
No. Nintendo knows how to make a living, breathing world where things actually matter and each system feeds into the other naturally.
Ubisoft just tosses anything it can at the wall, fills its worlds with random shit to do, not caring about making a believable world, and then having the gall to force players to use MTX if they don't want to needlessly grind the mediocre/repetitive content.
Teletraan1
Banned
I don't mind durability in games but this was the only one where the weapons would literally break multiple times in a fight. You can surf your shield down a hill and it breaks halfway down. They needed to tone it down so that you can tackle a dungeon and kill the boss on a fresh durability. This game had weapons breaking at a few swings. Just bonkers and a completely unfun mechanic. You have to be a nintendo cultist holding a cup of poison to drink on Miyamoto's command or a head trauma victim to like how jacked this was.
Mattdaddy
Gold Member
Its godawful, I just don't get the benefit. Its a constant unnecessary annoyance. If I find a weapon I like... just let me use it. I dont want to have to pick up more and more indefinitely, i dont want to have to plan around when its going to shatter, i dont want to carry an inventory full of them. Its lame ass game design, just let me use my weapon of choice lol.
I remember being a little kid, like way back in the Sega Genesis days and renting games from the local movie rental spot (Not even Blockbuster)... I rented this game on Sega that kinda had like a Prince of Persia vibe? It was set in the Desert... I think it had Oasis in the title... you'd run around the desert and in caves fighting thieves or whatnot. Honestly cant remember that much else about it.
But I remember that was the first time I had run into a weapon durability system like that where you couldnt repair. Every time I picked up some new weapon it wouldnt last very long. I stopped playing the game, it gave me an irrational hatred of weapon durability that lives on haha.
I remember being a little kid, like way back in the Sega Genesis days and renting games from the local movie rental spot (Not even Blockbuster)... I rented this game on Sega that kinda had like a Prince of Persia vibe? It was set in the Desert... I think it had Oasis in the title... you'd run around the desert and in caves fighting thieves or whatnot. Honestly cant remember that much else about it.
But I remember that was the first time I had run into a weapon durability system like that where you couldnt repair. Every time I picked up some new weapon it wouldnt last very long. I stopped playing the game, it gave me an irrational hatred of weapon durability that lives on haha.
bobone
Member
Terrible mechanic. Has no business being in a Zelda game.
There are already no benefits to fighting enemies in Zelda games (no exp, leveling, loot, etc), having enemies rapidly destroy weapons makes fighting enemies even more pointless.
I'm skipping the new Zelda because of it. First game in the ENTIRE series that I will not be playing.
There are already no benefits to fighting enemies in Zelda games (no exp, leveling, loot, etc), having enemies rapidly destroy weapons makes fighting enemies even more pointless.
I'm skipping the new Zelda because of it. First game in the ENTIRE series that I will not be playing.
Variahunter
Member
All that durability system debate really show that the progression system and the way the world was designed was very lackluster.
It's like they didn't have the time to properly think about how to roadblock the player. Infinite freedom is good, but not when you can obtain the best weapons in game 1h after the beginning. And they knew that. So instead of finding a robust system for weapons, like a way to augment them (like Elden Ring), they took the easier road.
It also show that their weapon system is bad, because all the weapons have the same moveset, so every weapon are just stats. It means that once you find those royal weapon in the Hyrule Castle, you would never change for any other weapon.
For every excellent design decision they had with BotW (climbing, stamina, sheikah powers, systemic and physics engine), they also made a lot of bad ones, possibly because they were constrained by time, at least that's what I thought.
TotK just have proven that those bad decisions were deliberate. I mean, look at the pool results, those were bad decisions, it shows.
In fact, it even hampered the dynamism of the fights, which were already poor, by constantly having to change weapon during fights. Not to mention that the durability system makes the exploration loose a lot of steam after a while. Partially because, besides weapons, there is no reward of value, outside of those vessels to augment your life and stamina. And most of the time when you explore, it leads to a shrine, which leads to a vessel. Knowing the reward even before exploring really killed the exploration in itself.
I'm sorry, a quarter heart has never been a good reward, even in previous Zelda. It was just OK. And in Zelda, I don't want to find OK items for all the duration of my playthrough. I want to find real items. Or in this case, weapons that are not irrelevant because they will break after 6 or 7 hits.
It's like they didn't have the time to properly think about how to roadblock the player. Infinite freedom is good, but not when you can obtain the best weapons in game 1h after the beginning. And they knew that. So instead of finding a robust system for weapons, like a way to augment them (like Elden Ring), they took the easier road.
It also show that their weapon system is bad, because all the weapons have the same moveset, so every weapon are just stats. It means that once you find those royal weapon in the Hyrule Castle, you would never change for any other weapon.
For every excellent design decision they had with BotW (climbing, stamina, sheikah powers, systemic and physics engine), they also made a lot of bad ones, possibly because they were constrained by time, at least that's what I thought.
TotK just have proven that those bad decisions were deliberate. I mean, look at the pool results, those were bad decisions, it shows.
In fact, it even hampered the dynamism of the fights, which were already poor, by constantly having to change weapon during fights. Not to mention that the durability system makes the exploration loose a lot of steam after a while. Partially because, besides weapons, there is no reward of value, outside of those vessels to augment your life and stamina. And most of the time when you explore, it leads to a shrine, which leads to a vessel. Knowing the reward even before exploring really killed the exploration in itself.
I'm sorry, a quarter heart has never been a good reward, even in previous Zelda. It was just OK. And in Zelda, I don't want to find OK items for all the duration of my playthrough. I want to find real items. Or in this case, weapons that are not irrelevant because they will break after 6 or 7 hits.
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Gambit2483
Member
It was annoying at first but eventually you get so many different weapons ut doesn't really matter.
Also it really did force you to try out every single weapon. I was a boomerang champion at one point because I didn't mind losing them in order to keep my swords/spears.
Also it really did force you to try out every single weapon. I was a boomerang champion at one point because I didn't mind losing them in order to keep my swords/spears.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
Easily my 2 favorite parts of the entire game were Eventide island (where you lose all your equipment and have to improvise to survive), and Thyphlo Ruins (where it's totally dark so you have to be clever to maintain light by using fire).
Both of those show the great strength of the game and its style of improvised combat, where you can't count on any fixed weapon and have to keep thinking about resources or adapting (imagine how boring the dark ruins would be if you could just have a non-breaking fire sword). It's the core DNA of the game, easily one of the most important decisions they made which defined every system after it.
Both of those show the great strength of the game and its style of improvised combat, where you can't count on any fixed weapon and have to keep thinking about resources or adapting (imagine how boring the dark ruins would be if you could just have a non-breaking fire sword). It's the core DNA of the game, easily one of the most important decisions they made which defined every system after it.
01011001
Banned
it absolutely is.
instead of picking up new ammo you just pick up a whole new weapon.
like I said, each one is like 1 magazine in an FPS... Magazine empty, reload... reload here being switching weapons.
it's the same concept simply applied to melee weapons.
older Halo games also had basically a durability system for some weapons (I say older ones because Infinite removed that)
energy weapons usually have no magazines, they just run out of energy and then you trow it away for another one.
and just like in an FPS, or shooter in general, where you look for more ammo, in BotW you look for more Sword... or more Spear etc.
and just like in most shooters, you ammo is plentiful and everywhere. all the ammo system does is keep you on your toes a bit. maybe you don't have ammo for one of your weapons anymore so you have to switch to one of your others.
this also makes you strategize a bit, you think about which weapon to use for which enemy... are you gonna use your ammo for that super strong one here, or do you keep it for bigger/stronger enemies?
BotW makes you do exactly that with swords, maces, spears etc.
do you use your ancient spear here, or keep it and better use up your weaker swords first?
and I never heard anyone complain in open world shooters like FarCry that it's possible to run out of sniper ammo... imagine people in forums going "why can my sniper run out? literally made me stop playing the game!"
to me it sounds just as weird when people say that about weapons breaking in BotW
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SteelCurtain 59
Member
No because I ended up always using the worst weapons I had in fear that I'd need the good ones for a boss fight or something, completely eliminating all strategy. Also it was just annoying whenever a weapon would break during combat and then you just pause and switch to another identical weapon. It made getting cool weapons boring because they would just break, meaning less incentive to explore. There was basically nothing in the game that would have been worse with a competent weapon system.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
This 100%
It's weird that no one can handle melee weapons working this way, when the core gameplay loop of so many shooters and other genres is very similar, with having to carefully ration ammo in battle and seek out more -- often where the only infinite attack you have is something incredibly weak as a last resort, like a punch in a shooter.
It would be boring to have any of your decent guns in an FPS be infinite in ammo, so that you're allowed to just spam it all the time without tradeoffs. It's exactly as boring to be able to pick up some powerful sword and just keep swinging it in every encounter. It doesn't fit the play style here, and Zelda is decidedly _not_ a loot game like Diablo.
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skeebs
Member
No. But then yes. It’s fine.
It's all in the wrist
Member
If you learn to accept the weapons as fleeting, you might find it fun.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
Inventory encumbrance is great, actually. It’s another case where classic AD&D had the right idea. Having to carefully choose which items & equipment (or even gold) you keep—with significant built-in disadvantages to overloading—is what keeps strategy alive, instead of just becoming overpowered after you’ve picked up enough powerful things.
killatopak
Member
How can you conflate ammo with weapon?
I don’t dump my fully upgraded end game gun in RE4. I simply switch to another fully upgraded end game gun. And if I need a different strategy say shoot from afar, I equip my gun with a scope. The point is I do have them and don‘t have to toss em out. I just have to pick up more ammo.
You toss out your mastersword for a piece of stick. Completely different damage levels.
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Griffon
Member
It's the same as ammo in shooters. It's the same intent and purpose.
I quickly understood that and continued on my merry way.
Besides, swords and weapon do really break when used like that in reality. So it's not like it doesn't have any justification besides game design reasons.
I quickly understood that and continued on my merry way.
Besides, swords and weapon do really break when used like that in reality. So it's not like it doesn't have any justification besides game design reasons.
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Setsuna Mudou
Member
Fantastic game, better than any Zelda back then
The second one on Saturn was even better.
Party McHardy
Member
Hated it. I’d find a cool weapon and not want to break it so I’d just throw it in the inventory and never use it until I found another one. Sometimes I’d need to find two before I could use it. In the end I had a full inventory full awesome weapons I just couldn’t bring myself to use, and made do with the basic run of the mill stuff.
Lucifers Beard
Member
It was a bit annoying initially but after a while I just learned how to play the game with that being a core mechanic. I went and found the master sword as soon as I could though.
balgajo
Member
Maybe because a lot of people who liked Zelda before were not into shooters, myself included. I mean, the only shooter I like is Counter-Strike and in general ammo is never a problem. Also my rifle and pistol do never break while I’m shooting. For some reason my bow breaks in BOTW.
BbMajor7th
Member
"I love going to the steakhouse with the plastic cutlery. It really makes you think about how you'll tackle your steak and the waiters throw hundreds of knives and forks at you - I was literally decorating my house with them."
A hundred swords that break is just a more annoying version of a single one that doesn't.
Also, I struggle to think of a shooter where you pick up randomised guns, one at a time, fire them empty and toss them as you go. That would be a true shooter analogy and it would suck. Finding a sweet SMG with an ACOG scope and recoil stock and tossing after the clip is empty.
A hundred swords that break is just a more annoying version of a single one that doesn't.
Also, I struggle to think of a shooter where you pick up randomised guns, one at a time, fire them empty and toss them as you go. That would be a true shooter analogy and it would suck. Finding a sweet SMG with an ACOG scope and recoil stock and tossing after the clip is empty.
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RoboFu
One of the green rats
Huh that’s the very definition of strategy lol.
You can’t just run around like a god with no cares. You have to plan out for a big boss fight and stock up accordingly.
It’s old school rpg rules.
SteelCurtain 59
Member
None of the strategy was dependent on breakable weapons
Gotta be honest I hated it a lot and I only had fun with BotW once I emulated it on Cemu removed the durability. I still used different weapons and even started carrying one of each (elemental swords, rods, hammer etc.) Instead of like 25 royal longswords. I used them for different circumstances and it gave me a lot of viable options to have fun.
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