The Broken Master Sword is a Cool Lore Implication, But Also a Clever Way to Weaken Players

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

The announcement on the delay of Breath of the Wild's sequel had me feeling a rollercoaster of emotion: first indifference, followed by excitement over the brief new footage we were shown. The Zelda Theorist in me I guess will never completely fade away, so the first thing my mind turned to was what lore implications the broken Master Sword has. I took note years ago with Breath of the Wild that it seemed like the sword had lost the power to repel evil, since it did nothing against malice, and wasn't even crucial in defeating Calamity Ganon. So after the sword got blasted by malice in the E3 2019 reveal, it's no surprise the blade was damaged so badly.

I starting thinking of ways this new info might fit into my theory of the game. My initial speculation after the E3 2021 footage was that in the sky Link might meet some kind of sky cilivization that is linked to Hylia, like some kind of divine race that Hylia was a part of. I feel like this would make a lot of sense during a quest to either repair or create a new Master Sword.

I still think the possible lore implications are cool and everything with the damaged sword, and I guess Link's hand is damaged as well, which was why the ghost arm bonded with him. However, after the theorizing phase toned down for me it hit me that these features of the game probably just started as ideas to weaken Link for the early game. Link's weakened arm will probably cause him to lose hearts and stamina wheels, and you can't have players running around with a full powered Master Sword from the start of a game. It at least seems like they are making what was initially gameplay decisions something that works with the plot. I just find it cool how it can have a dual fuction like that.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

I thought it might be a customizable master sword

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I thought it might be a customizable master sword

It looks like it is corroded to me. There was a part where it looks like it had some kind of magical extension though.

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

I thought it might be a customizable master sword

Choose your acid hole patterns

I think it would make sense for the Master Sword to be used as a way of holding the player back a little. I believe in the second trailer we see Link using different basic type swords, so in its broken state perhaps it can't be used or doesn't deal much damage. Whatever the case, there's an option to use different blades. So if bringing the Sword back up to its original state is a major story point of the game, will that make it more linear than BotW? Perhaps you need to have it restored to beat the final boss, which would be an interesting way to limit things. It just feels weird for a major part of it to be restoring the Sword when you can just use legit any other basic weapon type on the big bad.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Choose your acid hole patterns

I think it would make sense for the Master Sword to be used as a way of holding the player back a little. I believe in the second trailer we see Link using different basic type swords, so in its broken state perhaps it can't be used or doesn't deal much damage. Whatever the case, there's an option to use different blades. So if bringing the Sword back up to its original state is a major story point of the game, will that make it more linear than BotW? Perhaps you need to have it restored to beat the final boss, which would be an interesting way to limit things. It just feels weird for a major part of it to be restoring the Sword when you can just use legit any other basic weapon type on the big bad.

I'm thinking the game will be pretty open, but not open to the point BotW was where you can choose to go fight Calamity Ganon anytime. Restoring the sword will probably give things a bit more structure and perhaps will be a requirement in defeating Ganoncorpse or whoever the main antagonist turns out to be.