Aonuma explains how Ravio’s Shop works

It was revealed earlier during the Nintendo Direct that in A Link Between Worlds, Link has to rent items from Ravio in order to use them to get past certain dungeons. Later on he can eventually buy them, but at the beginning of the game he cannot. Eiji Aonuma helped clear up some confusion that people may have had about the system by posting on Miiverse and explaining in detail about how the renting system works and why it exists in the game.

Click the link below to read what he had to say!

Eiji Aonuma: In today’s Nintendo Direct, we revealed the name of the character in the A Link Between Worlds screenshot I posted here last time. His name is Ravio, and we also announced that you can rent and purchase items from his shop. You may be wondering what in the world we mean by “renting” items. Well, let me explain.

In Ravio’s shop, each of the items you can use in the game are on display from the beginning. But Ravio only has one of each item in stock, so if he sells them he’ll go bust! For this reason, he set the purchase price for each item at an outrageously high rate. Unfortunately, that means Link can’t move forward and Ravio can’t sustain his business, so he decided to start renting the items at reasonable prices. The rental period for each item is unlimited, so you can rent them for as long as you’d like, but if Link falls during his adventure and it’s game over, the items will be returned to the shop. If you want to continue playing, you’ll have to rent them again. After a while, you can eventually purchase the items, and once you do, you’ll be able to keep using them even if you game over.

This may seem similar to the three day system in Majora’s Mask where all your items are lost when you reach the end of the third day, but you’ll be able to rent every item from the beginning if you can afford it. So unlike past Zelda games, you won’t run into a scenario where you can’t do something because you need a certain item that won’t be available until later. I hope all of you will experiment with many different items and play as you like.

This is very interesting and I’m interested to see this system in action whenever I get my copy of the game. I also find it kinda funny that when he explains about why Ravio only lets Link rent the items at first. There have been times in Zelda games where I find myself wondering what happens to the shopkeepers after I buy all the items I can from their shops since I know that they won’t have anymore business as I’m probably their only customer. Thus their livelihood is gone now that I’ve bought everything they had. I suppose this is Nintendo’s way of poking fun at that economic system that they had in previous games.

Stay tuned for more Zelda news!

Source: Miiverse