IGN recently caught up with the developers behind the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They had a number of questions to ask, but they wanted to find out why the team ultimately decided against including the hookshot as an item. Here’s what they said.
“We did consider using [the hookshot] to climb, and then you’d parasail down,” series producer Eiji Aonuma told IGN. “But initially when we had the hookshot [in previous Zelda games], it was always that you target something, and that was a game mechanic of itself. But that kind of defeated the purpose of what we wanted to accomplish in Breath of the Wild. With the hookshot, we always had to give it towards the end of the game, or else players could just go anywhere. But in this game, you could do that by climbing and parasailing.”
“In the early stages of development, we did actually do some tests with double hookshots and just being able to kind of go anywhere, like Spider-Man,” director Hidemaro Fujibayashi added. “Your mobility and your speed was just kind of incredible. We did do some tests like that.”
“Honestly, the hookshot kind of completely breaks the climbing mechanic,” he continued. “There’s lots of fans in the staff, even at pretty high levels, who really like the hookshot and they kept bugging me about it. I eventually just had to say ‘No! Hookshot is gone. There will be no hookshot in this game. If we put the hookshot in this game, it’s not going to work.’ We were just going back to what we did before, and [Breath of the Wild] is all about doing new things.”
I miss that item, being faster reaching difficult spaces, but He has a point, the double hookshot would had destroyed the climbing concept.
Personally I loved the duel hookshot, literally climbing around the ceilings of dungeons to get around.
I completely see the point of not having one in BotW, link has a mechanic that breaks the need for a hookshot.
I still can’t believe they’re adding a moto-bike for us to cruise around on.
Hookshot could just be end game item, and that would solve the problem
But it will destroy the concept of climbing
Not really. It’ll help A LOT with climbing. Do you know how many times we slip during a sudden rain storm or losing durability to remain gripped on a cliffside? It even pisses me off sometimes. I wanna climb ridiculously faster and remain on cliffside during the climb. Hookshots would definitely be a fantastic and useful reunion in this game. No, let’s put a bike in it first, it’s not like we have horses that already does the job or quick travel through towers. X/
P4. Pretty sure Nintendo talked about this back in March, why the hookshot wasn’t in the game.
I really want epic giant boss battles (where you can climb on the huge enemies similar to Dragon’s Dogma and Shadow of the Colossus) in the next Zelda game, and this time no breakable weapon or being held back in graphics and performance to make Wii U fans happy!
I honestly hope they do not get rid of breakable weapons, (if the the next game is similar). It is one of the big problems I have with games like Skyrim and other free roam rpgs, you find a great weapon once and from that point forward 99.9% of the loot in the whole game becomes garbage…
In BotW I was always happy about finding a good weapon, because they were always useful.
Especially with the final Ganon form being a huge disappointment compare to the last one being such a huge difficulty spike even from those damn Lyons or whatever their names are. Having the hookshots to climb it’s huge ass for a few final blows would’ve been epic or use them to lure in other Ganon forms that goes beyond reach while having to wait for them to attack to counter (I’m looking at you Fire Ganon you giant pain in the Hyrulian ass)
I love the Hookshot and could’ve been handy for out-of-reach items and faster climbing or reaching across the gap.
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Double hook shot would have been cool especially during rain since you can’t climb anything.. The could have emplamented soft rock spots where the hook shot could penetrate (at least till you upgraded the tips to penetrate harder rocks) and that could still keep the climbing mechanic relevant while adding a hook shot mechanic. My 2 cents worth 😋
You know that twin mountain peak with a few shrines around? That would’ve been the perfect and fun place for double hookshots to climb and traverse between cliffsides. :)
Maybe the next Zelda will bring the hook shot back and use it in creative ways. Hopefully they bring back more of the unique items cuz I kinda missed that part in BOTW.
Like a Steampunk styled open world so the motorcycle gimmick makes more sense? lol
Lol if it wasn’t for the devine beast being machines I would say the Master Cycle Zero would make no sense but I give it a pass since they have that “technology”. It takes away the fantasy aspect though and starts to bring it border line si-fi. I would say a steam punk Zelda could be cool at least once but I better be careful cuz Aonuma is starting to push boundries and a steam punk Zelda could just happen!
Well, Zelda does need change but it also needs time to plan it out. Breath of the Wild took it’s time to build a world unlike any Zelda title and freedom of exploration that wasn’t present.
Functionally, they could have added a Magnesis+ that allowed you to zip to metal items like the hookshot, or, if you’re creative enough, use it to vault you high into the air to parasail down.
I’d rather have an item that lets me hang onto the side of the wall so I don’t have to start climbing it all over again when it starts freaking raining. Oh yeah! There was that idea to plant your sword into a wall but some moron thought that wasn’t realistic. (There comes a point to where realism can kiss my ass! I want my fantasy & inhuman strength, bitch!)
I don’t believe it should be impossible to get items that further improve movement at a later stage in this game. I did like that you got all the basic tools to solve every situation and really feel free during the tutorial. But just like it took me over 50 hours to find the master sword, I would have like to get really unique items like a hookshot after beating a divine beast or so.
If they are worried about someone getting the item early in the game, there is an easy fix: after completing 2 or 3 Divine Beasts, you visit Impa to get the item from her.
Climbing walls is to good to put a Hoohshot in it.
You can always play Titanfall 2 if you want a grappling hook.
Perfect opportunity for an easy DLC money grab.
Uhoh. thestrangablog is being salty about no easy mode for BOTW.