Hime wrote:But you can't stick with the weapon you have chosen and are literally forced to use to something you might not like. Other games give the player the option to pick the weapons they want to use and play in any style they like. I don't understand how you can't see that having the weapon degradation system fly's in the face of player choice as you are forced to change weapons, saying you can do what you want within the confines of the games mechanics is true of every game.
It's definitely more in the early game where you likely have to switch up the /type/ of weapon you use, but the game does reach a point where you have too many weapons, and at that point you very definitely are able to always use the weapon type of your choice. I've played the game using bows only as a self-imposed challenge, and it's perfectly possible. If you favour spears you can play the game only using spears, likewise for two handed weapons. I think we're conflating two different things if we're discussing both weapon degradation as a mechanic that stops you from just using the most powerful weapon you own, and weapon degradation making you switch up the way in which you approach combat. The first isn't a player choice issue for me, and the second I think you'll only be forced against in the early game and even then you can commit to a single weapon type if you try. But I'll add that I still think if you're sticking to a single play style and not wanting to experiment, then you're missing the point of the game (I only did the bow only challenge as a second playthrough challenge because I'd already played so much of the game).
Hime wrote:As for the combat options being so diverse, in Assassin's Creed Odyssey you can snipe enemies, open animal cages, sneak in and take everyone out, poison people to turn them against your enemies, ride in horse back like a maniac, set fire to people, etc. There's more combat options I can't remember and loads of other games with just as many so I'm not sure what games you're playing that Zelda's options of ranged weapon, melee weapon, item and the occasional environment option make it seem head and shoulders above other third person action games.
The difference is that in most games like Assassin's Creed, they have plenty of options but they are usually all discrete and separate from each other. In BOTW all of the systems can interact with each other and that allows for more freedom as you can chain things and flow from one approach to another, like in
this famous gif. It's not the number of individual approaches that sets BOTW apart, but the combinations of them all.