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[wierd]

Spoiler: more shrine spoilers (click to show/hide)

There is a shrine with electricity, where you are supposed to somehow dislodge a dangling electricity ball hanging from a rope on the ceiling. (probably with an arrow) I was out of arrows, and was not about to give up. Instead, I cheesed the puzzle.  There are two electricity ball recepticles, one of them populated. Rather than populate the other one, I made a bridge of metal weapons on the ground using magnesis to conduct electricity from the already populated ball recepticle, to the vacant one. DING-- power on, door opens. I then pick up all the dropped weapons, and head through the door. Take that silly game mechanic.

[SOLDIER First]

Fuck Oaki. That is all I have to say.

[Ozyton]

Speaking of characters, isn't Hestu great?

[SOLDIER First]

No, because he's related to Oaki.

[wierd]

He just wants to feel like he accomplished something.  The one you should be having vitriol for is his mentor/parent/whatever who tasks you with stalking him to keep him safe.

Spoiler: spoilerific commentary (click to show/hide)

 Half the time the stupid wolf does not even attack him anyway, and he can get to the next checkpoint without issue. He would most likely have succeeded without your being an accomplice of a helicopter parent.

[SOLDIER First]

Nope. Fuck Oaki. His entire trial is bullshit.

[Frumple]

Will give it this much, the kid stalking section probably is the worst bit of the game I've seen, so far. Straight up lowest point of botw. Even makes it hard to appreciate the scenery since the little shit blends in well enough taking yours eyes off can cause you to lose 'em, and it's slow enough having to do it a second time is just a pita. Not even fun to watch someone else suffer through

The fluffy bits or characterization's pretty alright, it's just hard to appreciate given what it makes you go through :V

[Krevsin]

The biggest issue I see with BotW as an outside observer, having not played it but having heard from people who have is the weapon durability system which sounds like a pretty bad implementation of an already annoying mechanic. Weapons have very low durability and pretty much none can withstand prolonged use, you can't repair them yourself and have to go to very specific NPCs and pay them to get weapons fixed (which is in most cases not worth it) and weapons that run out of durability disappear from your inventory, preventing you from getting attached to a weapon. (feel free to correct me on this, I've only heard from acquaintances and like 2 reviews)

This could be remedied somewhat by just increasing overall weapon durability (like by multiplying the durability of all by 10 or something) so I don't see any reason why it couldn't get patched out eventually. Has Nintendo said anything about plans for patches?

[SOLDIER First]

It's not too much of an issue, honestly. I've never run out of items except due to my own mistakes (specifically once when I was shieldless in a dungeon, where such items aren't as common as elsewhere) and basically any enemy camp will have at least one reasonably-powerful weapon for you to use.

[TheBronzePickle]

The great majority of weapons are pretty easily replaceable. The handful of 'special' weapons that you have to re-purchase really aren't that special, which is the real reason why there's no reason to buy them back, and most of the rest of the weapons you can just find in the wild pretty easily if you know where to look.

Honestly, the only time you ever really run a risk of running out of armaments is if you're going up against enemies you're probably not really equipped to be fighting anyway, or you're exclusively armed with really low-durability weapons for some reason. As you kill enemies, you replenish your weapon supplies with weapons that are usually more than adequate to keep you fighting fit against other enemies at their level.

[Frumple]

Yeaaahh, the weapon durability complaints are overblown, and pretty substantially. Practically you don't run out, and the system requiring regular replacements (barring the few unique items in the game that have substantial import/personality) makes for a surprisingly dynamic combat system, particularly from a visual standpoint or what it entails so far as enemy AI goes. Even if you do run out, either you have the means to disengage or fight without, or the game provides the tools to you anyway if the fight is actually important.

From the 50+ hours of gameplay I've watched at this point, I'd personally say the way they've done durability adds more to the game than it detracts, and by a fair amount. Maybe not the strongest part of the game, and I can understand why it rubs certain folks the wrong way (particularly many regular gamers, since we've been conditioned pretty hard towards conservation and hoarding when it comes to equipment), but the implementation's actually pretty good if you stop kvetching about it and start working with it. It's smooth in practice, gives yet another reason to explore and pay attention to your surroundings and think about how you approach situations, adds even to the immediate combat (opportunities for disarms that mean something, reason to figure out efficient ways to fight, the mechanics around the breaking itself (there's a reason you can throw weapons, and it's not just puzzle solving or specialist kit), etc.), and generally inculcates behavior and thinking that honestly looks pretty fun. It's a different way of thinking about combat and equipment, but not a bad one by any means.

There's also means to repair or replace out there in the game. Tend to be hard to do or expensive, but most of the stuff you'll actually want to fix has high enough durability you can still get attached easily enough. Add that most of the actually important/unique stuff specifically have extra ways to fix them (or just straight up don't permanently break) and if you really can't play a game without getting fixated on a single weapon or are unable to bring yourself to adjust to using different weapon types, there's means to placate your obsession

... basically, what I'd say is that the BotW devs didn't fuck up when they designed the durability system like they did, despite a number of folks screeching pretty loudly about it. They could have done it differently, and it probably would have been less initially jarring if they did, but it's well done regardless and doubly so considering there's little to no precedent in the gaming world to have learned from. It's not a weakness with the game, it's a weakness of the player that the game is designed fairly well around trying to break, heh.

[Krevsin]

It's an interestingly different reaction to what's ostensibly the same mechanic, i.e. limiting the use of a given weapon.

For example, I'm pretty fine with having limited ammunition for ranged weapons and subsequently having to structure my approach to combat based on how much ammo I have and being on the lookout for where I might get some more.

But when it comes to melee combat, I really can't stand my weapons breaking in the middle of combat, mostly due to the fact that melee combat is much more up close and personal and having your sword break leaves you feeling much more vulnerable because you're right up next to your enemy. Even though in most melee-centric games you can usually get out of that situation by rolling or running away.

But unlike with guns which have head shots as a way of maximizing the effectiveness of your limited uses, there often isn't an equivalent in melee games that'd give you the same chance to maximize your weapon's effectiveness while not wasting your limited weapon use.

[Frumple]

You can literally headshot enemies with melee weapons in this game by throwing them at critters, heh. Also more than one way to squeeze out further efficiency -- elemental effects, certain combat moves, stealth attacks, etc.

... though your ranged weapons break, too. And shields. Armor and a handful of special powers aren't consumable, but most things in the game are.

I think the biggest legit complaint I'd present about the melee system is that it's a little awkward to swap to a weapon you already own mid-fight. Not too bad, because the damn thing's control system is almost disgustingly good once you acclimate to it, but definitely a hiccup. Can mostly avoid it if it's really jarring to you by just sticking to using stuff outside your inventory when something breaks mid combat, though. I haven't noticed being able to literally grab flying weapons from midair, but picking them up off the ground if you don't have anything equipped is seamless. Most of the time you don't even have to back off, just take advantage of the room the weapon break gives you and scoop something up to keep the pain train rolling.

[SOLDIER First]

Possibly the most annoying part of combat for me is not being able to pick up an enemy's weapon because I already have three or four "throwaway" (read: not as valuable as my special ones) weapons from the last base I murdered.

[zirconst]

Yeah, a bigger inventory would have been nice. But I agree that the durability system is pretty cool. From a design perspective I think it does a good job of managing the difficulty curve, a tricky task for open world games. With games like Skyrim and Fallout, you could occasionally nab an incredible weapon and stick with it for most of the game, trivializing the content.