3) Useful Items And Currency
It was immediately apparent from the Nintendo Treehouse presentations that items for crafting and presumably selling will be prevalent in Breath of the Wild’s world. A new approach for the series was revealed, in that hearts will no longer be dropped by defeated enemies, or hidden in pots and grass. Instead, edible items such as apples and steaks will replenish life when consumed.
It is a concern, however, that it looked all too easy to gather enough food to feed a legion, and then replenish life from the safety of the pause menu. To present the player with any sort of challenge, time should at least continue when healing. It is also important that rarer items are not only seldom available, but also of some practical use. Too many open world games consider scattering hundreds of useless collectibles as a reasonable way of extending longevity.
Although rupees didn’t feature in the E3 demo, it was apparent from the inventory that the staple Legend of Zelda currency will be present. One issue with previous notable titles in the franchise, such as Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, was that rupees quickly became very easy to accumulate, but with little desirable or useful items to spend them on. It is all the more crucial in Breath of the Wild’s vast open world that rupees are either sufficiently difficult to gather, or premium items suitably expensive, that there is actually some purpose to our obsessive gathering. A method of saving rupees, akin to the bank in Majora’s Mask, also wouldn’t go amiss.
