I was thinking specifically of Breath of the Wild.
For me, Zelda has always been about scratching my completionist itch.
Making all the weapons temporary means I never get to feel the power of a completed inventory. Instead I’m just trading off weapons that I don’t like for more weapons that I don’t like. And if I do like one, it breaks anyway.
I didn’t even bother with Tears of the Kingdom for that reason. It’s a feel-bad mechanic, and I’d rather not do it.
Honestly I’d probably give it another shot if they just made the Master Sword unbreakable. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s Link’s main weapon in other games.
But they’re all in on this temporary weapon gameplay loop. And I get that; I understand that sometimes it can be a good thing to push the player into playing the game a certain way. Except they already did that for most of the game. If the Master Sword were unbreakable, you’d still have plenty of players doing the constant weapon swapping, but you’d also have a few more players like me actually playing the game. I’d probably even swap weapons most of the time, secure in the knowledge that I still had a weapon that wouldn’t break when I need it.
Plus how good is your gameplay loop if you have to force it on the player?
But I know I’m in the minority on this. It’s weird to see people loving a Zelda game more than I do, because for 30 years of my life that would never have been the case. Hopefully they return to the old formula for the next game.