Zelda: Breath of the Wild devs considered giving players control of the weather

In Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the weather and environment around you are more important than ever before. Link goes up against some tough conditions, ranging from the blazing heat to frigid temperatures depending on your location. The weather is also a key element when scaling mountains. When it starts raining, you can bet that climbing will become much more difficult.

Giving players control of the weather was actually something the Zelda: Breath of the Wild team considered, according to Hidemaro Fujibayashi. The game’s director explained to Game Informer this month why it ultimately didn’t make sense in the end: it wouldn’t have been as fun and “would have increased the number of variables in the world.”

Fujibayashi said:

“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.”