Is the Return of Breakable Weapons in Tears of the Kingdom a Bad Thing?
In the recent Tears of the Kingdom gameplay overview trailer, we got to see new enemies sky islands and wildly different powers that look to be switching up the fundamentals of how players will be able to experience the game world. One of the more divisive features shown off, however, was the return of breakable weapons. This was the most controversial element of Breath of the Wild and has led many fans to express disappointment with its return. But why exactly do so many fans hold disdain for this feature?
If you're not familiar, the weapon system in Breath of the Wild was unlike any Zelda game before. Instead of having the same sword throughout the adventure, the 2017 game offered far more weapon diversity. From halberds to spears and giant clubs, Link's arsenal was exponentially bigger than we’d ever seen before. This came with a catch though: almost all of the weapons you discovered could be broken. From a lowly wooden stick to a royal guard's sword, each would eventually be destroyed. The issue here was that there was no way of repairing damaged weapons- meaning you'd have to save the best gear for the toughest fights. While this design decision doesn't seem so bad on paper, its implementation changed how so many people played the game.
In Breath of the Wild, clearly, an enemy camp would reward you with a treasure chest that could contain rare ingredients, new armor, or, more commonly, a powerful weapon. The problem with this was that obtaining these weapons felt less rewarding than it could have been. Since this weapon would eventually break, it felt more like a tool to be used and discarded as opposed to a cool unlockable. As a result, a lot of players simply ignored enemy camps since the reward simply wasn't worth it. An even bigger issue arose when players found the legendary Master Sword. One of the most powerful weapons in the game, the sword shot beams of light when at full charge and- more importantly- could not be broken by any means. Although it was reserved for mid-late game play, it made finding other weapons feel obsolete since you had such an ace card that could never be destroyed in your back pocket.
That brings us to the gameplay trailer for Tears of the Kingdom. With the Master Sword out of Link's possession again, players will seemingly have to scavenge around for sticks and wooden swords to put up a fight in the early hours of the game. There is a caveat. however. In the trailer, we saw a new ability shown off that allowed the combination of different items around the world with your gear. This included a monster's eye allowing for tracking arrows and a mushroom attached to a shield allowing for a smoke bomb when hit with an enemy weapon. One of the more interesting implications of this, however, was that you could fuse any weapon with a rock to both strengthen it and increase its durability.
This is likely the best compromise possible for Nintendo- who were clearly fans of the breakable weapon system but understood fans' complaints about it. Instead of completely removing it or keeping it the exact same. they implemented the ability for even the most basic weapons to be made stronger and last longer with the use of objects found scattered across the world. This will hopefully make scouting for weapons more viable and rewarding since it won't just break after a few hits. This is likely just the tip of the feature too- with hundreds of item combinations possible, the weapon durability system can be easily overcome with some imaginative thinking on the player's part. While the continued complaints are understandable, the gameplay overview did show that the feature has been vastly improved in Tears of the Kingdom
