VGC Weapon Durability MEGA Thread

[JakDaSnack]

potato_hamster said:

JakDaSnack said:

I'm confused, doesn't every open world game force you to play specific ways?  I mean I can't use rocket launchers in skyrim, or nuke em from orbit in gta 5.  Every game has balance to keep you progressing, same goes for Zelda.  There are probably ways they could have implemented the durability mechanic better(maybe allow you to purchase the weapons at a shop).  But I think the way they did it works great, and I'm excited to see what ways they improve the next Zelda.  

If Skyrim gave me a rocket launcher but never gave you the ability to reload it,  and the only way to get more ammo was to find another rocket launcher which was really hard to come by, you'd probably wonder what the point of the rocket launcher was in the first place if you could only get off one or two shots before it was totally useless. Since, you know, guns with an inability to reload don't tend to go over too well, and are typically seen as a poor gameplay mechanic.

Again, my problem isn't so much that Zelda has a durability mechanic, my problem is that Zelda's implementation of that mechanic (which to me is only tolerable and never fun in a best case scenario) is just implemented very poor to a point where it forces you to constantly change and dispose of weapons because you have no other choice. There are plenty of ways to implement weapon durability that both forces the player to use a variety of weapons and allows the player to use the weapons they like to use the most. Zelda forces you to pretty much use whatever is around the area and deal with what the game gives you, and I find that annoying.

Idk, I just don't agree with your conclusion.  I'm constantly finding new and better weapons.  And with every obstacle I'm given a dozen or so ways of over coming said obstacle.  I think it has to do with gameplay style.  If you give the player ways to permanently hold on to weapons, then you have to restrict what weapons the user can find early on.  That takes away freedom.  By treating the weapons like ammo, you can reward a players hard earned effort with a powerful weapon that doesn't ultimately break the game.  This gives the player more options early on, and more options is always better than less options imho.