Breath of the Wild’s Developers Considered Letting Players Control the Weather
Posted on February 17 2018 by Rod Lloyd
One of the most common criticisms I see aimed at Breath of the Wild relates to its dynamic weather system. Over the course of Link’s adventure, players will see weather conditions change in real time, as they fluidly transition from clear skies, to fog, to rain, etc. While these weather fluctuations do add an element of realism to Breath‘s world, many players found the abrupt changes between conditions to be extremely irritating, especially when the raindrops start to fall. You can’t easily climb a wall in a rainstorm, am I right? Well, it turns out that things didn’t have to be this way, as revealed in a recent interview with the game’s director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi.
Fujibayashi explained to Game Informer how his team initially considered letting players control the weather in Breath of the Wild:
“Initially we did consider giving players control of the weather, but realized not being able to control it is much more fun. Controlling it wasn’t really fitting in this game. In Ocarina of Time, you were in places that were just sunny or raining. That was the way the players were able to control that. Adding in the weather control would have increased the number of variables in the world. It was more interesting to have Link against nature, not controlling it. That ended up being more natural and fun.”
While I do understand Fujibayashi’s reasoning, I still wish that players would have been able to affect Breath‘s weather in some capacity, perhaps even late in Link’s quest.
Do you agree with Fujibayashi? How would have improved Breath of the Wild‘s weather system? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Game Informer (via Nintendo Everything)
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
