Zelda: Breath of the Wild Devs Considered Allowing the Player to Control the Weather

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the weather is an important factor in determining how a player can explore certain parts of the world. In a recent interview with Game Informer, the game’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi explains that the team initially considered giving players the ability to control the weather.

The weather in Breath of the Wild affects both the temperature and the world’s terrain. If you’ve played it, I’m sure a heavy downpour has spoiled your plans of climbing one of the game’s many tall mountains. Fujibayashi explains that “it was more interesting to have Link against nature, not controlling it,” and that “that ended up being more natural and fun.”

Initially we did consider giving players control of the weather, but realized not being able to control it is much more fun. Controlling it wasn’t really fitting in this game. In Ocarina of Time, you were in places that were just sunny or raining. That was the way the players were able to control that. Adding in the weather control would have increased the number of variables in the world. It was more interesting to have Link against nature, not controlling it. That ended up being more natural and fun.