The original gameplay teaser for the "Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" had the still-ruined Hyrule Castle get lifted into the sky by Malice, yeah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi-MRZBP91I
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
There's also malice spewing out of Death Mountain in the latest trailer.
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
I have a feeling the barren world in BOTW was from necessity due to the hardware as much as it was due to the story
Considering it was originally only supposed to be a Wii U game, probably most definitely. I'd say Switch could probably handle more but even Switch struggled to run the original at times. (do wonder if they could have gotten it to run better if the game was built from the ground up targetting Switch rather than whatever retrofitting they had to do to bring the engine over.. but it was also in development for a long ass time so maybe they did all they could)
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
Well and then (Twilight Princess spoilers)
He grows up never having been a hero (since both of his victories undid those timelines) and is doomed to wander as a spirit until he can hand down his knowledge
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
Well and then (Twilight Princess spoilers)
He grows up never having been a hero (since both of his victories undid those timelines) and is doomed to wander as a spirit until he can hand down his knowledge
I mean, he didn't undo Majora's Mask. Or at least, he didn't undo the central act of "moon attempts to crash into Clock Town" :P The end of that game takes place after the moon was inches from crashing and the moon just sort of gets destroyed and/or put back in the sky :P There isn't a time warp that un-does the whole moon thing entirely.
Now whether he undoes everything in the Bomber's Notebook is another matter :P (poor Romani)
I don't know if we really need to use spoilers for 16 year old games, but just in case ...
I'd like to think that after making his way back to Hyrule after the events of Majora's Mask, he enjoyed some years of the peace he helped create in Hyrule, even if no one but Zelda knows how much he did. In my own head-canon, he picks the sword back up later in life, and there is some sort of noble sacrifice, explaining his appearance as The Hero's Shade. And then helping The Hero of Twilight fulfills his spirits lingering regrets and he moves on in peace.
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
So he gets dropped ass deep into puberty over and over again? I never thought about it before but that’s gotta be a wild ride!
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
So he gets dropped ass deep into puberty over and over again? I never thought about it before but that’s gotta be a wild ride!
He flip-flops between being, like, ten and seventeen, with the seven years in-between initially being a coma and later being just time travel.
Honestly you'd figure that the puberty would be less of an issue than, well, general dysphoria and "how long are my arms" weirdness.
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
So he gets dropped ass deep into puberty over and over again? I never thought about it before but that’s gotta be a wild ride!
He flip-flops between being, like, ten and seventeen, with the seven years in-between initially being a coma and later being just time travel.
Honestly you'd figure that the puberty would be less of an issue than, well, general dysphoria and "how long are my arms" weirdness.
Arms and blade. Melee combat in OoT should be impossible for like an hour (in-game) every time you leave the Temple.
I’m very interested in the state of the world in this game. I loved how the original felt empty except for a few small towns because you’re exploring a post apocalypse Hyrule. Will that change? Are There going to be bigger towns and more people? I’d also like to see a repaired and repopulated castle.
The keyart shows that Hyrule Castle is still surrounded by some dark magic, either lingering effects from Ganon or something new.
Or as Link calls it, "what the fuck now?!"
Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
So he gets dropped ass deep into puberty over and over again? I never thought about it before but that’s gotta be a wild ride!
He flip-flops between being, like, ten and seventeen, with the seven years in-between initially being a coma and later being just time travel.
Honestly you'd figure that the puberty would be less of an issue than, well, general dysphoria and "how long are my arms" weirdness.
That kinda sounds like a fever dream I had years ago where my arms felt too long and too short at the same time. Ocarina of Time is way more metal than I remembered.
Musing: So i'm one of the people who likes the weapon system in BoTW. I know, I know, i'm a monster, i'm what's wrong with games these days =P
Okay, sillyness aside - one thing I've been musing on is for all I like it, I think it probably would have been improved by flipping the durability around. That is - most of the weaker weapons should last longer, while the strong ones break faster. You'd need to rebalance, there's obvious issues, but it's a concept i think has some legs. The biggest pain points with the system in my opinion are early where your weapons both do little damage AND break very easily, and while this would work for rusted weapons, it's very feel bad with a lot of the simple weapons you find. Additionally, early game is when you have the least weaponry slots, and no master sword - all of which exacerbates things badly.
There's actually some "Strong but break fast" weapons in the game, but they're tucked in Hyrule castle, so they're never really something you're inclined to engage with outside of speed runs.
I think Breath of the Wild would maybe have been improved by actually showing the durability in some way, to be fair. Even if it's not an actual number and just weak vs. strong or whatever.
...Also, maybe surface the shield friction/surfing damage values in some way if you really want people to do shield surfing?
I hated the durability system but the game is so awesome that I adjusted and put it out of my mind. I do enjoy chucking a nearly broken weapon at an enemy and have it explode on impact. Very satisfying.
If TotK keeps durability, I think Flurry Rush shouldn't damage weapons the same way Perfect Guard doesn't damage shields.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Make weapons last longer and give the ability to repair them outside of combat. Could turn it into a crafting system of sorts and give more use to those 10 million goblin eyeballs and monster scrotes you pick up.
I love it. Totally love it. It added depth and strategy for me. Weapons never felt rare except for the very very beginning on the plateau. Enemies generally fight with the quality of weapons you’d want to hit them with, so you immediately replace whatever breaks. Powerful weapons litter the landscape. Quite often I don’t even need to fight for them! A stealth elixir lets me easily lift weapons from the mobile weapon racks known as hinoxes or from sleeping monsters. Elemental rods are plentiful and easily acquired from wizzrobes. If you come across an especially tough fight, the cheat codes known as elemental arrows can be purchased from towns.
Thematically, I think scavenging for weapons is an integral part of making you feel like you’re in a post apocalyptic wilderness.
Having said all that, I’m fine with perma weps too. It just depends on what kind of game you’re playing. I think any half measures, like repair, are the very worst idea. It’s a compromise that leaves nobody happy.
I love it. Totally love it. It added depth and strategy for me. Weapons never felt rare except for the very very beginning on the plateau. Enemies generally fight with the quality of weapons you’d want to hit them with, so you immediately replace whatever breaks. Powerful weapons litter the landscape. Quite often I don’t even need to fight for them! A stealth elixir lets me easily lift weapons from the mobile weapon racks known as hinoxes or from sleeping monsters. Elemental rods are plentiful and easily acquired from wizzrobes. If you come across an especially tough fight, the cheat codes known as elemental arrows can be purchased from towns.
Thematically, I think scavenging for weapons is an integral part of making you feel like you’re in a post apocalyptic wilderness.
Having said all that, I’m fine with perma weps too. It just depends on what kind of game you’re playing. I think any half measures, like repair, are the very worst idea. It’s a compromise that leaves nobody happy.
I won't say it leaves nobody happy, but I will say that the idea of a repair mechanism terrifies me, mostly because of the principle of players optimizing the fun out of the game-- having a repair option means, in my case, compulsively returning to town the moment a durability warning appears. Not even having the option of repair meant I had to treat the weapons as disposable.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
A wear and repair mechanic makes sense in some circumstances in some games. A forged sword that would've taken days of effort breaking in a couple dozen hits is just... absolutely maddening. And a horrifically lazy way to force weapon swapping. If you want to encourage players to use alternate weapons, do something like Dead Space 1 and 2: make interesting weapons with interesting mechanics that have balanced advantages and downsides in combat. Or take the entire Soulsborne line of games, where weapon breakage is effectively nonexistent and there is no problem getting players to try all sorts of different things. Item wear is a horrible mechanic in the first STALKER game specifically because the lack of a repair mechanic means so much tedium for the player, but the third STALKER game has item wear as an entirely decent mechanic because there is a good balance of use versus wear plus a repair system; it lends some crunch to the game experience without being so bad as to interfere with normal gameplay.
Weapons breaking fast is just a poor mechanic if the goal is encouraging variety in play. Throw it out entirely, give players a set of weapon slots, and let them choose what they want in there. Players aren't going to stick four identical swords in four slots if they all do the same thing and never break. Give them reasons to use a long spear versus a short sword. Make it have a point to carry metal versus wooden shields. Almost everything the crappy-ass Zelda wear mechanic uses is done a lot better with interesting weapon movesets, and the Zelda games aren't anywhere near gritty or realistic enough to make a reasonable wear system (i.e, being able to use a sword for some hundreds of hits) reasonably impactful without also being completely negligible.
I love it. Totally love it. It added depth and strategy for me. Weapons never felt rare except for the very very beginning on the plateau. Enemies generally fight with the quality of weapons you’d want to hit them with, so you immediately replace whatever breaks. Powerful weapons litter the landscape. Quite often I don’t even need to fight for them! A stealth elixir lets me easily lift weapons from the mobile weapon racks known as hinoxes or from sleeping monsters. Elemental rods are plentiful and easily acquired from wizzrobes. If you come across an especially tough fight, the cheat codes known as elemental arrows can be purchased from towns.
Thematically, I think scavenging for weapons is an integral part of making you feel like you’re in a post apocalyptic wilderness.
Having said all that, I’m fine with perma weps too. It just depends on what kind of game you’re playing. I think any half measures, like repair, are the very worst idea. It’s a compromise that leaves nobody happy.
I won't say it leaves nobody happy, but I will say that the idea of a repair mechanism terrifies me, mostly because of the principle of players optimizing the fun out of the game-- having a repair option means, in my case, compulsively returning to town the moment a durability warning appears. Not even having the option of repair meant I had to treat the weapons as disposable.
Exactly this.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
edited September 2022
A repair system like Fallout's where you duct tape one weapon to another alleviates the optimizing problem since it's still resource constrained, but then that kinda defeats the purpose of adding the repair system to alleviate the (perceived) resource constrain that breakable weapons have. So yeah, I'd probably agree for a game like BotW specifically it's best to just have breakability or not with no frills.
I'm still of the opinion that breakable weapons is necessary to spice up the combat, which is just really lacklustre if you're not constantly doing rube goldberg setups with magnesis and stasis. So imo the key to making the game work without durability is making the actual weapon-based combat more fun and engaging.
(And please, for the love of Hylia, let Link stand up faster after getting knocked down. I have fourteen hearts and that attack did one why am I on the ground for ten seconds.)
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Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
A slingshot that let you load the broken shards of weapons as ammo would be an interesting alternative I think. Does more damage with shinier fragments.
I think an idea for some game would be weapons ‘getting hot’. If you repeatedly use a weapon it will reach a point where it breaks, but if you put it away before that point it eventually ‘cools off’. Hitting flesh might only add 1 point of heat, but hitting a steel shield or a wall will cause way more heat. Plus hitting gooey Malice enemies will cause the weapon to stay hot for much longer, or straight up reduce the threshold permanently.
This would make all weapons last significantly longer for stuff like chopping wood, but they’d still break in combat from time to time.
For Zelda in particular shield surfing should cause no heat for anything above a wooden shield.
The whole weapon breaking as a means to encourage players to experiment with different weapon types really only works at the beginning on the game anyway. By the time I'm further in the game, I've opened up weapon slots, and not everything I pick up is trash, I start to just stock up on multiples of the weapon type I like, with a couple of other things for very specific circumstances. I mostly just use the Master Sword if it's not resting.
Devil May Cry 3-5 do a much better job at encouraging the player at trying all the different weapon types throughout the entire game. And those weapons are indestructible.
I still stand by having a mix of permanent and breakable weapons.
The Giant's Knife from OoT is a good case - would people still use it if the Biggoron's Sword didn't exist? (And, I mean, if a broken deku stick wasn't the strongest weapon in the game). Sure, it'll break eventually, but it can let you drop a tough enemy faster.
There were also things that didn't feel as bad about being limited - iirc you could get wands off of wizzrobes and such. There were also deku leafs or something, right? (been a while). So utility consumables worth keeping around. Special arrows of all sorts (and better bows with things like spread shots). But some dungeon will have a permanent spear, some other place has a permanent bow, etc. so you always have those movesets or options available. And those will be better than what you might get off of bokoblins, but the stronger weapons from shrines, or the castle, etc would be stronger still.
Go all in on some crazy but limited weapons - maybe there's a powder keg you can buy and chuck.
A low defense but unbreakable shield would have been cool just to avoid brain spiders about shield surfing. And it could be used for deflects still, but the cost of failing is worse since it blocks poorly.
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Thanks to durability in BOTW I basically never used the best weapons because I felt like I had to never ever use them unless absolutely necessary.... and absolutely necessary never came.
Also weapons like the flaming swords are useful for puzzles so I was less likely to use them in a fight as they were tools to me, like the slate’s powers. I always had a fire, ice and electric weapon on me, but they were last resorts for battle.
Yeah, basically everything that this system was supposed to encourage ended up being discouraged for the average player. I think it's safe to say they failed with what they set out to do.
Like I said, if your argument and design philosophy is based around forcing you to switch weapons to keep things interesting and keep you from being complacent in one weapon, that's easily replicated by having enemy types be strong/weak to certain weapon types
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I think the best compromise on the durability thing would have been to make the champion weapons and the Master Sword unbreakable. As is, the champion weapons felt underwhelming, and in every replay they went on display in my house and never saw battle. They could make the Gerudo champion a dual sword combo (adding that as another weapon type) and make the Hylian Shield also indestructible (it already basically was) so that you'd get 1 indestructible weapon of every type. By the time most folks get the Master Sword they're probably halfway through the game or more, so people still get the experience of the weapon swapping system. And late game, I was pretty consistently able to use Noble tier weapons anyway, so it's not like it would be gamebreaking. And on replays, you can beeline for your favored weapon type.
At the very least, the Master Trials should have made the Master Sword unbreakable. And this is coming from someone who thought the weapon swapping system added to the game. If you're able to complete the trials, you deserve the bragging rights of a permanent ubersword.
If they do stick with breakable weapons, another fun workaround would be having Link find items that make a weapon unbreakable. That way a player could customize what weapon/bow/armor they loved and wouldn't have to worry about it breaking.
Naturally, you might want to save it for a particularly powerful weapon, which could put it into the Elixir category. Therefore, I'd make the item more plentiful or a bigger reward for a shrine/hard to reach treasure chest. As opposed to another boring rupee or whatever.
Plus, it could allow for fun content such as "The Unbreakable Stick" run.
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Like I said, if your argument and design philosophy is based around forcing you to switch weapons to keep things interesting and keep you from being complacent in one weapon, that's easily replicated by having enemy types be strong/weak to certain weapon types
Didn't they kind of already do that? The game has a bit of a weapon triangle where sword & board blocks spears, spears outrange heavy weapons, and heavy weapons break through shields. Plus all the stuff with elemental weapons, of course.
Fundamentally the reason for weapons to be destructible was to give you more stuff to pick up in the open world, though. Gotta give you some reason to explore, and what reasons does Breath of the Wild give you? Consumable weapons, ingredients, rupees, and very occasionally a piece of permanent gear. Oh, and korok seeds. Personally I think you'd need something more if you made weapons one-time permanent upgrades, though.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
The whole weapon breaking as a means to encourage players to experiment with different weapon types really only works at the beginning on the game anyway. By the time I'm further in the game, I've opened up weapon slots, and not everything I pick up is trash, I start to just stock up on multiples of the weapon type I like, with a couple of other things for very specific circumstances. I mostly just use the Master Sword if it's not resting.
Devil May Cry 3-5 do a much better job at encouraging the player at trying all the different weapon types throughout the entire game. And those weapons are indestructible.
Yeah, the best way to get people to try new weapon types is to make them fun.
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Man, has any Link in history had it as hard as BOTW Link? Dude spends all this time preparing for a war, loses, fucking dies, comes back 100 years later and most of his friends are dead, nobody fixed shit while he was gone, saves the world, and now has another massive crisis to deal with already.
Considering it was originally only supposed to be a Wii U game, probably most definitely. I'd say Switch could probably handle more but even Switch struggled to run the original at times. (do wonder if they could have gotten it to run better if the game was built from the ground up targetting Switch rather than whatever retrofitting they had to do to bring the engine over.. but it was also in development for a long ass time so maybe they did all they could)
OoT (Young) Link comes close, if only because his entire existence was all wibbly-wobbly between jumping back and forth 7 years and then looping 3 days forever.
Well and then (Twilight Princess spoilers)
I mean, he didn't undo Majora's Mask. Or at least, he didn't undo the central act of "moon attempts to crash into Clock Town" :P The end of that game takes place after the moon was inches from crashing and the moon just sort of gets destroyed and/or put back in the sky :P There isn't a time warp that un-does the whole moon thing entirely.
Now whether he undoes everything in the Bomber's Notebook is another matter :P (poor Romani)
He flip-flops between being, like, ten and seventeen, with the seven years in-between initially being a coma and later being just time travel.
Honestly you'd figure that the puberty would be less of an issue than, well, general dysphoria and "how long are my arms" weirdness.
Arms and blade. Melee combat in OoT should be impossible for like an hour (in-game) every time you leave the Temple.
Okay, sillyness aside - one thing I've been musing on is for all I like it, I think it probably would have been improved by flipping the durability around. That is - most of the weaker weapons should last longer, while the strong ones break faster. You'd need to rebalance, there's obvious issues, but it's a concept i think has some legs. The biggest pain points with the system in my opinion are early where your weapons both do little damage AND break very easily, and while this would work for rusted weapons, it's very feel bad with a lot of the simple weapons you find. Additionally, early game is when you have the least weaponry slots, and no master sword - all of which exacerbates things badly.
There's actually some "Strong but break fast" weapons in the game, but they're tucked in Hyrule castle, so they're never really something you're inclined to engage with outside of speed runs.
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...Also, maybe surface the shield friction/surfing damage values in some way if you really want people to do shield surfing?
I love it. Totally love it. It added depth and strategy for me. Weapons never felt rare except for the very very beginning on the plateau. Enemies generally fight with the quality of weapons you’d want to hit them with, so you immediately replace whatever breaks. Powerful weapons litter the landscape. Quite often I don’t even need to fight for them! A stealth elixir lets me easily lift weapons from the mobile weapon racks known as hinoxes or from sleeping monsters. Elemental rods are plentiful and easily acquired from wizzrobes. If you come across an especially tough fight, the cheat codes known as elemental arrows can be purchased from towns.
Thematically, I think scavenging for weapons is an integral part of making you feel like you’re in a post apocalyptic wilderness.
Having said all that, I’m fine with perma weps too. It just depends on what kind of game you’re playing. I think any half measures, like repair, are the very worst idea. It’s a compromise that leaves nobody happy.
I won't say it leaves nobody happy, but I will say that the idea of a repair mechanism terrifies me, mostly because of the principle of players optimizing the fun out of the game-- having a repair option means, in my case, compulsively returning to town the moment a durability warning appears. Not even having the option of repair meant I had to treat the weapons as disposable.
Weapons breaking fast is just a poor mechanic if the goal is encouraging variety in play. Throw it out entirely, give players a set of weapon slots, and let them choose what they want in there. Players aren't going to stick four identical swords in four slots if they all do the same thing and never break. Give them reasons to use a long spear versus a short sword. Make it have a point to carry metal versus wooden shields. Almost everything the crappy-ass Zelda wear mechanic uses is done a lot better with interesting weapon movesets, and the Zelda games aren't anywhere near gritty or realistic enough to make a reasonable wear system (i.e, being able to use a sword for some hundreds of hits) reasonably impactful without also being completely negligible.
Exactly this.
I'm still of the opinion that breakable weapons is necessary to spice up the combat, which is just really lacklustre if you're not constantly doing rube goldberg setups with magnesis and stasis. So imo the key to making the game work without durability is making the actual weapon-based combat more fun and engaging.
(And please, for the love of Hylia, let Link stand up faster after getting knocked down. I have fourteen hearts and that attack did one why am I on the ground for ten seconds.)
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I think an idea for some game would be weapons ‘getting hot’. If you repeatedly use a weapon it will reach a point where it breaks, but if you put it away before that point it eventually ‘cools off’. Hitting flesh might only add 1 point of heat, but hitting a steel shield or a wall will cause way more heat. Plus hitting gooey Malice enemies will cause the weapon to stay hot for much longer, or straight up reduce the threshold permanently.
This would make all weapons last significantly longer for stuff like chopping wood, but they’d still break in combat from time to time.
For Zelda in particular shield surfing should cause no heat for anything above a wooden shield.
Devil May Cry 3-5 do a much better job at encouraging the player at trying all the different weapon types throughout the entire game. And those weapons are indestructible.
The Giant's Knife from OoT is a good case - would people still use it if the Biggoron's Sword didn't exist? (And, I mean, if a broken deku stick wasn't the strongest weapon in the game). Sure, it'll break eventually, but it can let you drop a tough enemy faster.
There were also things that didn't feel as bad about being limited - iirc you could get wands off of wizzrobes and such. There were also deku leafs or something, right? (been a while). So utility consumables worth keeping around. Special arrows of all sorts (and better bows with things like spread shots). But some dungeon will have a permanent spear, some other place has a permanent bow, etc. so you always have those movesets or options available. And those will be better than what you might get off of bokoblins, but the stronger weapons from shrines, or the castle, etc would be stronger still.
Go all in on some crazy but limited weapons - maybe there's a powder keg you can buy and chuck.
A low defense but unbreakable shield would have been cool just to avoid brain spiders about shield surfing. And it could be used for deflects still, but the cost of failing is worse since it blocks poorly.
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Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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One thing I’m hoping for is that as the sequel has a solid foundation of assets and code that they can vary up what you fight significantly.
At the very least, the Master Trials should have made the Master Sword unbreakable. And this is coming from someone who thought the weapon swapping system added to the game. If you're able to complete the trials, you deserve the bragging rights of a permanent ubersword.
Naturally, you might want to save it for a particularly powerful weapon, which could put it into the Elixir category. Therefore, I'd make the item more plentiful or a bigger reward for a shrine/hard to reach treasure chest. As opposed to another boring rupee or whatever.
Plus, it could allow for fun content such as "The Unbreakable Stick" run.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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Didn't they kind of already do that? The game has a bit of a weapon triangle where sword & board blocks spears, spears outrange heavy weapons, and heavy weapons break through shields. Plus all the stuff with elemental weapons, of course.
Fundamentally the reason for weapons to be destructible was to give you more stuff to pick up in the open world, though. Gotta give you some reason to explore, and what reasons does Breath of the Wild give you? Consumable weapons, ingredients, rupees, and very occasionally a piece of permanent gear. Oh, and korok seeds. Personally I think you'd need something more if you made weapons one-time permanent upgrades, though.
Yeah, the best way to get people to try new weapon types is to make them fun.