The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild blew fans away with the expansive setting from one of Nintendo's classic franchises. From the end of the Wii U era to the start Nintendo Switch, this game set up a massive world for players to explore from the heights of the Goron mountain range to the lakes of the Zora kingdom. While many fans would call this an open world game, highly acclaimed Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that he prefers to refer to Breath of the Wild as an open air game.
Miyamoto sees open world games as the setting for developers to tell a story that they want, but the idea of open air gives the game fully over to the exploration and adventure of the world itself, not pushing a specific story direction and instead allowing the player to create their own experience in a sandbox-like universe. Despite this, there is feature in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that hinders this open air experience — namely the penalty that rain has on the player as they attempt to traverse the vast landscape that Nintendo has laid out.
When thunderstorms brew, a player's options for Link's weapons and shields are severely limited unless they're willing to risk being hit by lightning. However, rain causes an issue that is considered to be one of the most irritating in the game, and fans of the title are hoping that the difficulty of climbing during rain is discontinued in the sequel.
Why the Rain Climbing Penalty Needs to Take a Hike
Rain is a feature in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 that could happen anywhere and at any time, the most inconvenient of which is when Link is scaling a tall cliff. Climbing in the rain causes Link to continually lose his grip on the surface he's moving up, causing him to slide down repeatedly as he tries to make his way to the top. This sliding drains Link of his stamina, sometimes to the point that players will have to wait out the weather in order to finally reach the point they were trying to travel to.
While some players may play devil's advocate and say that Breath of the Wild is taking a realistic approach to the weather, the impact that rain has can significantly dampen a person's enjoyment of the game. Yes, it makes sense from a real world perspective, but the penalty for climbing in the rain can't be combated easily. The unexpected nature of weather in the game also makes it harder for players to prepare for it. While players could take the time to make a campfire to attempt to change their time of day, that isn't guaranteed to work and the rain puts out campfires that are created without cover.
Some of the areas in the original Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will always have rain affecting the terrain until certain conditions are met. Zora's Domain is plagued by rain due to the Divine Beast Vah Ruta, so Link can only climb safely without the penalty after the Waterblight Ganon has been defeated. Thundra Plateau is even more difficult to rid of its perpetual thunderstorms. In order to stop the storm and scale obstacles without that added difficulty, Link must climb the cliffside to complete the Trial of Thunder and reach the Toh Yahsa Shrine. Link can technically summit the Thundra Plateau using Revali's Gale, but if players haven't beaten the Windblight Ganon on the Divine Beast Vah Medoh, getting it would be a long roundabout way to avoid a climb that wouldn't be so difficult were it not for the rain.
While there are ways to lessen the impact of the rain penalty on climbing in the first Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there is no way to completely get rid of the negative affects. Depending on how much a player is climbing in the rain, the preparation can be pretty inconvenient as well. Link can cook special recipes in BotW that make food to combat the extra loss of stamina that the slippery slopes will accrue. Even though Link has three pages of inventory space dedicated to cooked food, that space is still limited, and players who are scaling larger summits may have to consume more cooked meals than they may have bargained for if they're unfortunate enough to get caught in a rain storm.
How Can Breath of the Wild 2 Fix This Slippery Situation?
An easy fix would be to remove the rain penalty completely. That being said, Nintendo will likely try to keep some level of elemental realism to the game, so the thought of them throwing the concept out the metaphorical window is a good but unlikely one. However, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 can give fans relief from the rain with a very simple addition to the game in the form of Link's outfits.
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link's various armor types can have many protections against the elements of the open air environment. The Flamebreaker Armor allows Link to journey through Death Mountain without feeling the effects of the extreme heat on his person, and even though the heat still affects the player's wooden weapons and shields, it makes that elemental effect something that Link can deal with. Even though Breath of the Wild has shock resistant armor that could potentially help the player deal with thunderstorms, there is no special armor that helps with the affects of rain. Climbing gear helps Link climb faster while he wears it, but it doesn't give him any special benefits against slippery surfaces.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 could bring a new outfit to the climbing system the first game initiated. If Nintendo doesn't want to go as far as to create a whole new set of armor, it can just modify the current set of climbing gear to nullify the affects of rain. Either way, something needs to be done to help the sequel survive the slippery slopes of its predecessor.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is in development.