Opinion: Rain in BOTW is a positive addition to the game

[vivster]

freebs2 said:

vivster said:

Realism should never get into the way of playability, especially if it's inconsistent. All I can say is that rain was the No1 factor why I stopped playing the game and that is just terrible game design. Sadly, the word "optional" doesn't exist in Nintendo's vocabulary.

"Here, have a gigantic world to explore with an all powerful and immortal protagonist who can wield magic and climb mountains for days without eating or sleeping. Oh BTW, that all powerful protagonist can't climb things that are slightly wet. Also, all weapons are made out of paper. Have fun!"

I don't agree having more options is always a good thing but I understand your point.

That said, I don't think rain and weapon degredation were meant for "realism" purposes but rather because the gameplay encourages adaptation rather than planning. And since the game always gives you more potential objectives I don't think rain has ever stopped my progress.

Maybe shouldn't have been a complete open world game then. Open world games always come with the promise of freedom. The freedom here is arbitrarily limited. This mechanic doesn't force you to adapt, it forces you to wait, because it's nothing but a temporary obstacle. And it's absolutely random and can hit you out of nowhere, that's not challenging because you had no chance to adapt. It just punishes you for playing the game.

If it's about adaptability they should've implemented raining seasons, where it is gonna rain for days and you can actually prepare for it. Starting to rain while I'm just in the process of climbing a big mountain isn't challenging me to adapt because there is no way to adapt. I'm in the middle of nowhere and suddenly I'm forced to stop doing what I'm doing for 5-10 minutes. How is that in any way challenging or engaging? It's just annoying. Imagine if they had done the same with winter. Suddenly it gets cold and you're fucked because you don't happen to carry the right items.

If there is a mechanic that has zero benefits other than annoying people, it's probably not a good thing to include. The game wouldn't have gotten a single point less on metacritic if it wasn't in the game, now imagine how many points it would've gotten more if it never existed. People love to overlook the flaws in the game because it's otherwise great, but that's not how things work. It's not great because of those flaws, but despite of them. They're still flaws and any attempt to excuse them is just silly.

Last edited by vivster - on 24 July 2019