Breath of the Wild's World Doesn't Care About You

I just finished listening to Giant Bomb’s marathon Game of the Year deliberations podcasts and I have some thoughts about weapon durability and rain in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

First of all, critics of Breath of the Wild are completely valid in their opinions, people can like things that other people dislike. So, what problems do people have? The biggest criticisms I’ve heard are against 2 systems in particular, Rain and Weapon Durability. Both of these systems make playing the game frustrating, losing your best weapon during a difficult Lynel fight or being unable to scale a cliff because it happened to start raining are both things that the player would rather not have happen. But that’s exactly what makes both of these systems so so good.

The core of what makes Breath of the Wild so good is exploration. Nearly every part of the game is either something to find while you’re exploring or something to help you explore. But how does slipping down the side of a wall every 5 seconds help exploration? It forced me to explore my surroundings and find a way to their destination that doesn’t involve climbing. The size and density of Breath of the Wild’s world means that there is a good chance that anybody will stumble across something interesting when they are forced off their path.And if there wasn’t one, I could always light a fire and wait out the rain.

Weapon durability forced me to explore weapons that I likely would never choose to otherwise use. I know that I would be a lot less likely to use spears and other 2-handed weapons if my broadswords didn’t break. Elemental weapons have such huge advantages in certain situations, hitting an Ice Lizalfos with a fire sword, they die instantly. If weapons didn’t break I would just carry one of each type of weapon all the time, trivializing most of the combat entirely. Knowing that my weapons are a resource to be managed caused me to think twice about which weapon I use in every single combat encounter. Breaking weapons is also rewarded, if the last hit is against an enemy it deals double the normal damage.

Breath of the Wild’s world is not interested in creating the perfect joyful exploring experience, look to Super Mario Odyssey for that. Instead it wants to challenge you to explore every corner of it’s huge world and explore how to interact with the world.