The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Brings Back Breath of the Wild's Most Controversial Feature

By Logan Moore

What is surely the most controversial feature that was seen in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now confirmed to be returning in its upcoming sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. By all accounts, Breath of the Wild is one of the highest-rated games ever made, which means that many fans and critics found little to fault with the experience. Still, that didn't keep a large sect of players from criticizing Breath of the Wild's degradation system, which led to weapons breaking on a frequent basis. And although some were hoping that this aspect of BotW wouldn't be coming back in Tears of the Kingdom, that won't end up being the case. 

As confirmed by longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma during a new gameplay presentation, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will very much be bringing back weapon degradation. Not only did Aonuma passively confirm this feature's presence in Tears of the Kingdom, but he also showed off combat quite a bit which actively highlighted Link's various weapons shattering. The only plus side of this situation is that weapons will be far more unique than ever before as Link's new "Fuse" ability will let him combine various objects together to create inventive tools and items. 

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Even if you are someone that doesn't like degrading weapons in games, it's still easy to see why Nintendo includes this mechanic in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. In short, these titles are meant to provide players with a toolset that leads to experimentation and sandbox-style play. While some fans might like to simply run through the entirety of Tears of the Kingdom with the Master Sword alone, it's easy to see how the game would lose a fair bit of its luster if played in this manner. 

At this point in time, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's release is rapidly approaching as it's set to arrive on May 12th. When it does release, it will be playable on Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED consoles. Prior to this, Nintendo will also be releasing a special edition version of the Switch OLED that features Tears of the Kingdom iconography at the end of April. 

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