Breath of the Wild is without a doubt one of the best games I’ve ever played. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing it, fully engrossed in the world, getting attached to its characters, and loving the story the whole way through. But if I had to pick my personal favorite thing about the game besides its fantastic storytelling, it would have to be its combat and weapon system.
I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I know that the weapon durability system is a slight point of contention among fans of the game and that the overall difficulty of fighting enemies, especially in Master Mode, could be considered too difficult. But for me, I would say that the weapon system makes fighting much more interesting, not allowing one to rely on one singular weapon for every little thing. The difficulty of the enemies also makes battles extremely satisfying to overcome in a similar fashion to fighting enemies in a much more difficult franchise like Dark Souls.
When I encountered my first Major Test of Strength in Breath of the Wild, I had a feeling it was going to be difficult, but I really had no idea what I was in for. At first, I was semi-confident, as the biggest issue I’d had with enemies was that I would often get mobbed by 10 or 20 of them and have a difficult time fleeing or fighting them all off at once. So when I saw that this trial was just to fight one little Guardian, I thought, “Oh, this can’t be that bad, right? I mean the big Guardians are ridiculous but I have to at least be able to beat the small one, right?”
I had no idea just what I was in for. A titanic amount of health, lasers, charge attacks, an extremely tiny weak point, and a weapon for every scenario at the ready, each demanding a specific timing for a Flurry Attack counter. It took me about 34 tries to beat my first one — it was hard, but it felt so good to finally do it. I memorized its attack pattern, I found out that using ice and electricity stunned it from attacking and left it open for a counter-attack, I learned the importance of two-handed weapons like the Edge of Duality, and I learned to use the pillars around the room. I even memorized the damage numbers I could put out with my weapons using my Champion’s Tunic just so I could use a better tunic with more defense in future fights.
When I finally killed it, words could not even begin to describe how elated I was. I popped off from my chair, I screamed in absolute joy and cheer, I nearly threw my controller from how happy I was that it was finally over, and I spent about the next ten minutes trash-talking the little Guardian that had given me so much trouble. That was the first time in a long, long time that a game made me feel extremely fulfilled with defeating a difficult enemy. It wasn’t too hard and it certainly wasn’t easy, but it was worth the hassle. Not just for the incredible weapons I got from it or the Spirit Orb at the end, but for overcoming such a difficult task.
