Poll of the Day > Did you like Breath of the Wild's Durability System?

(+) Yeah! (+)

currently playing it
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I didn't like anything about "Breath of the Wild".
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I'm not a fan of durability systems in general.

I hate having to stock up on things to constantly throw away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcx6UbMCtfI
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DarkKirby2500 posted...

I'm not a fan of durability systems in general.

I hate having to stock up on things to constantly throw away.

This, but I learned to accept it on BotW. Theres weapons EVERYWHERE. Never had any shortage of supplies.
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I liked BOTW but I didn't really care for the durability system, I would always carry around a bunch of weapons and never use all of them because by the time the weapon I was using broke I would either use the next one in my inventory. or find one just as good or better so I ended up never using half of the weapons in my inventory and always throwing away weapons I've never used just because I found a better one.
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Rusty stuff breaking is understandable.. but what heck were they thinking in the Hyrule armory? Lets craft swords that won't last you for more than 1 battle?

I guess they had 2 choices when it came to the weapon system
1. Make them breakable as to not have OP weapons throughout the entire game
2. Make the high end weapons hard to obtain
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Once I started treating the weapons in BotW like just regular ammo, the game became much better. You're supposed to disarm your opponents, throw your weapons at them, and use their weapons against them. Makes the battles more dynamic when you realize that.
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Metal_Mario99 posted...

I didn't like anything about "Breath of the Wild".

DarkKirby2500 posted...

I'm not a fan of durability systems in general.

Both of those.


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I don't mind the concept of durability systems, but I felt like BoTW lacked a lot of what made them tolerable.

A favorite title of mine from way back in the day was Darkstone on PC (also had a piss poor PSX port which was more popular for some reason, but that's another soap box for another day). Darkstone also had a durability system, but weapon durability made sense... AND you had a way to repair all weapons, not just a select few legendaries. You could repair weapons on the fly (which sacrificed maximum durability for convenience), or make your way back to town where a blacksmith could repair the item without decreasing it's maximum durability, and the durability of weapons actually felt authentic - which I feel is a bigger problem in BoTW than the fact that durability is present. BoTW wants us to believe that a military grade broadsword can't get through two to three small enemy camps without just freaking shattering. It's no wonder Calamity Ganon took Hyrule with such ease... freaking iPhone screens are more durable than their weapons. Also missing is a numeric durability value that can be monitored so we know more than the overly simplified "Hey your shit's about to break dummy." Putting in a blacksmith to repair items may have even solved the universally complained about issue of currency in BoTW feeling useless.

I hear all the weak ass excuses about forcing people to try new things, but the fact of the matter is this simply and absolutely has been done better before.

And that's not to say I hated BoTW or anything. Not at all. It's a spectacular game that's easily worth the praise it got... and try as they might, the obligatory pack of career contrarians can't detract from that. The sense of scale is astounding, the world is very much so alive and there's tons of rich, meaningful content. I'd have liked the option for some overworld music, but despite lacking that it still got 200 hours out of me.
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I don't know her
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TLR_ posted...

I don't mind the concept of durability systems, but I felt like BoTW lacked a lot of what made them tolerable.

To be fair to them, BotW used durability for reasons which are different from why most people use them.

The general reason for durability systems is to tie them hand-in-hand with maintenance, either as a resource sink (if you have to pay for repairs) or as the basis for a crafting system (if you repair them yourself, especially with "parts"). Zelda mostly uses it to force you to constantly keep changing weapons, because the entire point of the game is supposed to be repeatedly forcing you out of your comfort zone and making you experience new things. It's a design philosophy that pretty much defines every aspect of play.


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It was one of my least favorite things about a game I generally liked. It didn't outright ruin the experience for me, but it didn't help things either. Maybe if the low durability was for the generic crap you find everywhere, but NOT for the rarer weapons, bows, or shields, then I'd have been fine with it (doubly so if things lasted just a little longer). It's one thing to want to swap out weapons, especially with new ones, but it's another to have to hoard ones that you want most for specific situations because the good stuff breaks or loses power after so few uses that the Giant's Knife in OoT looks like a godly weapon in comparison. Losing 20-30 strength weapons, and being left with a bunch of 2s or 3s when the fight is over doesn't come across as fun to me, or worth exploring those weak-as-shit alternatives.
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I did like it.

One of my favorite things in games is finding new loot to use and in botw almost every weapon you pick up is useful because almost all of them are temporary.

One thing I dont like about a lot of RPGs is that when you find a piece of equipment that is an upgrade it means everything else you find for several hours will be garbage.
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I feel it worked well for the survivalist atmosphere they were going for, and there were enough new weapons pouring in that I never felt like it was a major hurdle to overcome, but it did feel a little implausible to have them breaking so quickly, and it did result in me never using a number of rarer ones I picked up (just in case I really needed them later, of course). I'd say it worked just fine, but I wouldn't ask to see it come back.
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I didn't mind it, always something to use. But it would have been nice after you beat the game to make a weapon never break somehow. Or mastersword never run out of energy.

No, it was really stupid.

Considering a lot of what made Zelda interesting in the first place was climbing through dungeons to find a treat at the end, it pretty well ruined that.
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I see it the same way as I see health bars: nobody ENJOYS the fact it's possible to die if they get hit too much. But if it weren't possible to die, there would be no opportunity to avoid death, which is itself fun.

The durability system is the same: it is a mechanic that is inherently detrimental to the player, but the mechanic's existence allows for gameplay revolving around overcoming its negative impact. Because your inventory is a limited resource, the player has a tangible reason both to conserve their current inventory and expend what is necessary to expand it further.
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Gamechamp3k posted...

I see it the same way as I see health bars: nobody ENJOYS the fact it's possible to die if they get hit too much. But if it weren't possible to die, there would be no opportunity to avoid death, which is itself fun.

The durability system is the same: it is a mechanic that is inherently detrimental to the player, but the mechanic's existence allows for gameplay revolving around overcoming its negative impact. Because your inventory is a limited resource, the player has a tangible reason both to conserve their current inventory and expend what is necessary to expand it further.

But the gameplay doesn't evolve to make it necessary. It's only problematic for the first few hours of the game, after that it just becomes an annoyance. It also encouraged them to create damage soaking enemies that are not different from their easier counterparts except that they soak up more damage thus requiring you to use up more of your 'weapon meter'.

It's boring.
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Smarkil posted...

Gamechamp3k posted...

I see it the same way as I see health bars: nobody ENJOYS the fact it's possible to die if they get hit too much. But if it weren't possible to die, there would be no opportunity to avoid death, which is itself fun.

The durability system is the same: it is a mechanic that is inherently detrimental to the player, but the mechanic's existence allows for gameplay revolving around overcoming its negative impact. Because your inventory is a limited resource, the player has a tangible reason both to conserve their current inventory and expend what is necessary to expand it further.

But the gameplay doesn't evolve to make it necessary. It's only problematic for the first few hours of the game, after that it just becomes an annoyance. It also encouraged them to create damage soaking enemies that are not different from their easier counterparts except that they soak up more damage thus requiring you to use up more of your 'weapon meter'.

It's boring.

Don't remind me.

I'm on my first playthrough of Master Mode and most weapons feel useless at times. I often end up running out of weapons in certain encounters...

xjayguyx posted...

I didn't mind it, always something to use. But it would have been nice after you beat the game to make a weapon never break somehow. Or mastersword never run out of energy.

I believe completing the major trial in the first DLC pack makes the Master Sword last forever.
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I didn't really like it, but didn't hate it. It could have been better, though. Like a bar to show you the weapon durability. Maybe somewhere where you could repair them. They could've been a little stronger. Especially the rarer ones. I always feel like using the master sword and my easier to find items and saving the rest. I would have probably used more of the weapons if I had more space. Or like a chest where I could keep a bunch of extra weapons. Having three extra is nice for decoration. But having a chest full also for supply purposes would've been better. Especially since I was always running out of room. So, yeah...
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Xfma100 posted...

Don't remind me.

I'm on my first playthrough of Master Mode and most weapons feel useless at times. I often end up running out of weapons in certain encounters...

I don't know how Master mode plays but after I did the first area with the fish lady I quickly found there was no reason to fight anyone because I'd just be wasting my time and weapon resources. The only reason to fight enemies in the game was to get their loot for crafting and shit. But even that was practically useless. So eventually I just started running past 90% of the enemies in the game. The only ones I couldn't ignore were the guardians, but those ones are trivial once you learn how to parry.
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Anybody who did is legit a shameless fanboy. It made combat tedious and unrewarding

It's not something I necessarily wanted out of a Zelda game, but I don't dislike it. I feel like the people who talk about constantly being screwed out of having suitable weapons for battle are either exaggerating or really bad at the game. That basically never happened to me except maybe if I was fighting a damage sponge like a Lynel, in which case I'd come prepared with heavy weapons. You aren't supposed to just come slashing through every enemy in sight. The durability system gives you incentive to find creative ways to attack enemies and play around with the physics, or just avoid them entirely. It also lends some utility to the low-damage weapons - it's smarter to keep a basic sword for Keese and Stal monsters than waste your good stuff.

I kind of go back and forth on whether a durability meter or crafting would have been good things. I don't play Zelda expecting an RPG, and I don't know if moving more in that direction serves the series well. The armor upgrades got a bit too grindy for my tastes, and I wouldn't have wanted to see another thing like that in the game.