Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ScrappyMechanic / TheLegendOfZelda

Go To

1* The ''[[CriticalAnnoyance low health warning sounds]]''. Almost every game in the franchise plays some form of beeping noise when you're low on health, and while some aren't as bad as others, overall the beeping is loud, incessant, distracting, and absolutely will not stop until you replenish health. It gets very grating very quickly, and adds unnecessary stress to a player who's already struggling to stay alive. WebAnimation/{{Dorkly|Originals}} even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywmGaMBi9g did a sketch]] where said beeping is so annoying it ''defeats Ganon''.
2* Generally speaking, Link's sidekicks have a tendency to be [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper a little too overly helpful]]. The fact that they give you pointers on where to go is fine, but sometimes the screen will have a notification pop up where you have to press a certain button so they can speak to you. Some, like [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker the King of Red Lions]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Midna]], only ever speak to you like this when you're in a spot that triggers them, which aren't that frequent. But then there are the Big Three: [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Navi]], who started the trend ''and'' became the local AntiPoopSocking spokesperson of the game come the [[Platform/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] version; [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Ezlo]], whose trigger points are exceedingly common [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWsy-leD6Kk (SHUT UP, ELMO!)]]; and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Fi]], who combines Navi's 3DS issue above with reminders that you're low on health or battery juice (whichever comes first) and [[CaptainObvious aggravatingly obvious]] hints ("There is a switch here. There is an 89% chance you should push it") all annoyingly drawn out since she talks in [[RoboSpeak Robotic]]-[[ExpospeakGag Expo]]-SpockSpeak.
3* The second quest in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' adds in some elements that only show up there and not in the first quest, which makes the game harder for the wrong reasons:
4** The second quest adds old men in dungeons that will seal you in the room upon finding them and they'll only let you leave if you give up some of your rupees or sacrificing a whole Heart Container, as in your life meter is ''permanently reduced''. Nothing like bringing progression to a screeching halt and forced to make a SadisticChoice just because you were trying to find your way in the dungeon. Luckily, there is a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] where you can attack the old man to make the torches launch fireballs at you so you can get killed and reset without losing hearts or money.
5** Dungeons in the second quest has invisible doorways that Link can go through by just walking against the wall for a few seconds. There's absolutely nothing in the game that tells you about such walls. Some of these walls are also one way only, meaning you can't go back once you go through them.
6** The Bubble enemies can temporarily curse Link if he touches them, which prevents him from using the sword for a while. The second quest adds blue and red Bubbles to the mix where red Bubbles permanently disable your sword while blue Bubbles removes the effect. There are rooms that can contain only red Bubbles, which will screws you over if one manages to touch you and there are no blue Bubbles nearby. The Life Potion can remove the curse as well as visiting a fairy fountain, but using the potions to remove the curse while Link is already healthy is a waste and leaving the dungeon just to find a fairy fountain also eats up a lot of time.
7* The way {{Game Over}}s are handled in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' are the cruelest out of all the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' games so far:
8** When Link loses all his lives, he restarts back at the temple where Zelda sleeps. Some of the palaces are very far from that starting point, which means you're forced to walk all the way back to where you last left off. The fact that the final palace [[AntiFrustrationFeatures is exempt from this rule]] shows that it could've been done; the developers just chose not to.
9** After getting a Game Over, any extra lives you've picked up (and there aren't too many of them) are gone for good. Get used to having only three tries in a dungeon before going back to start.
10** All experience goes back down to zero when you lose all your lives and get a Game Over. 20 EXP away from a level up? Too bad, it's all a waste, should have gone to an easier area to grind that last bit. And those big EXP pick-ups you grabbed during this time? Oh, they're not coming back. And this isn't even taking into consideration the large number of enemies who steal EXP whenever they hit you. They can't drain levels from you, but if you've collected 200 EXP and are 100 away from a level, getting hit enough will force you down to 0/300 EXP to the next level. Basically, in order to level up efficiently, you have to make sure you're not anywhere near EXP drainers (and they're annoyingly common).
11* In the [[Platform/GameBoyAdvance GBA]] version of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' you need to play through ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' in order to unlock the bonus content added to ''[=ALttP=]''. Sadly, ''Four Swords'' is multiplayer-only. For introverted players or people who just don't have any friends with Game Boy Advances, playing the game is impossible, and even if you forked over enough money for three more [=GBAs=] and four wireless adapters, trying to play the same game on four controllers at once isn't exactly a manageable task. The fact that the Platform/GameBoy line's been discontinued since the [[Platform/NintendoDS DSi]] only adds to the problem nowadays.
12* Inventory shuffling in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' is much more annoying compared to other installments. This is attributed to the fact that all of Link's equipment in these games count as items, including your sword and shield. Most if not all the bosses require specific items to defeat, and the overworlds have many obstacles that you need items to overcome. Having to switch back and fourth between your offenses and, for example, the Power Bracelet can get tiresome real quick. The Switch remake of ''Link's Awakening'', with more buttons to use, automatically equips your sword and shield, plus the Power Bracelet and Pegasus Boots, making inventory management less of an issue.
13* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'':
14** Having to pause and go to the equipment screen to change between normal boots and Iron Boots countless times in the Water Temple, where you need to walk on the bottom in some places and float in others to complete it. Made worse by the fact that it takes ages to switch to the pause screen, as every time the player presses the Start button, the game slowly generates a screenshot of the game in order to use it as the background for the pause screen, not showing this one until the process is finished. This was thankfully rectified in later games and the game's 3DS version, as the Iron and Hover Boots become items that can be equipped to one button, thus making switching in and out of both items less time-consuming.
15** There's another infamous Scrappy Mechanic relating to Kaepora Gaebora, the owl who repeatedly delivers [[WallOfText long-winded exposition]] that's only useful the first time you play. The default choice for ShallIRepeatThat is "yes," meaning many players who {{button mash|ing}} their way through his speeches end up inadvertently prompting him to give the whole speech ''all over again''. Thankfully, should that happen, you can simply press B to skip all the text at once up to the point where he asks you again. [[GuideDangIt But it's never explained that you can do that.]]
16** Normally your only available weapon when underwater is the Hookshot, and it will only work when you're walking on solid ground with the Iron Boots. However, a glitch will sometimes make the game fail to realize that you're on solid ground and the Hookshot will remain grayed out, leaving you utterly defenseless against enemies like Spikes and Shell Blades. While it thankfully doesn't happen often, and when it does the Hookshot will become available after maybe a good 10 seconds, when it does it can be ''infuriating''.
17* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'':
18** When you travel back to the First Day, you lose certain sidequest items such as Title Deeds or the event items involving the Anju and Kafei sidequest. Considering how much time it takes to get each portion back if you reset time and save, it's highly annoying; especially as Anju and Kafei's sidequest needs to be done at least twice to get 100% for the game.
19** Swimming. Zora Link can be ''extremely'' frustrating to control, giving both the Great Bay Temple and its [[ThatOneBoss infamous boss]] unfavorite status among many players. And the kicker? The 3DS version traded one problem for a new one, as swimming is now infinitely more controllable but also much ''slower'' unless you use magic power to dash. The problem with this, however, is that there are still a few ledges in which Zora Link needs to make a "Dolphin Leap", a maneuver in which Zora Link needs to use his speed to leap out from the water to land on a platform. As you swim slower, this presents a problem getting the speed to make the jump unless you use your magic, but then you might have a hard time angling your jump when you can't easily see over your barrier.
20* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages]]'' added a mechanic for the Mermaid Suit where you have to ''constantly tap the + Control Pad'' in the direction you want to swim in, not hold a direction on the + Control Pad as usual. This makes the sixth and seventh dungeon bosses extremely annoying, thanks to both fights being fought underwater (the sixth boss is both under and above water). Also frustrating is that you can only use the item you have equipped to the A button while underwater since the B button is used to surface, meaning you constantly have to open the menu to switch between the sword and the Switch Hook in the seventh dungeon. Made even worse in the Platform/VirtualConsole release on the 3DS: You either have to double tap the Circle Pad (which is as inefficient and potentially inaccurate as it sounds) or, on an original 3DS at least, an incredibly stiff + Control Pad.
21* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The sailing deserves special mention here; while it's essentially the same mechanic as Epona the horse, at least Hyrule Field has more visual diversity. Epona also doesn't require you to play a song every time you want to change directions for max speed, and the Great Sea is much larger than Hyrule Field. Of course, a BrokenBase developed around this mechanic, as about as many fans who hated the mechanic also loved it. Slightly changed in the UpdatedRerelease with the addition of a "Fast Sail" that doubles your speed and eliminates the need to manually change the direction of the wind; of course, the issue of whether it's needed or it ruins the experience of the game leads back to the same argument.
22* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures'':
23** The multiplayer system forces gamers to use the Platform/GameBoyAdvance and Link Cables as controllers rather than Platform/NintendoGameCube controllers in a very clear attempt to foist the peripheral on people. Good luck finding three friends with all the essential hookups to play what could otherwise be an amazing game, especially considering said devices are no longer being made and are quite hard to come by.
24** Being able to carry only one item at a time is, in theory, an interesting deviation from the expected gameplay which adds an extra level to the game's puzzles. In practice it merely pads the levels with {{Backtracking}} as you're often offered several items with no clue which one you need, reducing the puzzles to "guess which one you need and if you're wrong wander back and get the right one." Most players feel, since the game's core mechanic centers around controlling four Links at once, they could have at least had the option to give each Link a different item, which you can do... in multiplayer only, and then only one item per actual player, so refer back to the previous entry.
25* Kinstones in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'', for wasting one of the GBA's precious four buttons on a seldom-used function. And the people you fuse Kinstones with keep changing. You could attempt to fuse Kinstones with somebody, discover you don't have the right type, and come back later when you do to discover that that particular fusion has moved to someone else. It's particularly bad when there are certain fusions that will always be from a specific NPC, but they won't always be willing to fuse Kinstones with you. Also, some possible Kinstone fusions are {{permanently missable|Content}} if you don't fuse them at the time the game wants you to fuse them. It's especially annoying when at one point in the game, Tingle will fuse Kinstones with you, but come back later in the postgame with only one Kinstone left to fuse and he suddenly won't want to fuse with you. This mechanic is required for beating the game as there are gold Kinstone fusions that have to be done in order to unlock new areas (thankfully, these pieces are in set locations unlike the other colors which [[RandomDrop appear randomly from cutting grass and defeating enemies]]).
26* From ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'':
27** You found a Silver Rupee! That's worth a whopping 200 rupees... but your wallet is full, so let's put it back for now. Some may find it better than the alternative used in previous games where any found rupee would be wasted if you tried collecting it with a full wallet, but they may think otherwise while searching for the last "unopened" chest in a dungeon. This feature was so annoying to the fanbase, Creator/{{Nintendo}} actually took the time to announce it would be removed in the HD Wii U Remaster.
28** There's also the annoyance of the game having to give you a description of higher valued rupees the first time each time you start up the game, even if you found them on the ground. This, however, was not intentional, as it was cut out in the HD Remaster, only describing their value the first time ever you pick one up, and never doing it again for that value rupee.
29** The mechanic of being only able to call your horse at certain locations. While the grass needed to call it are strategically set, it is annoying to have to walk back to a certain location since it's the closest place where the grass is located. Fortunately, the horse is barely needed after you advance in the game. This mechanic is made ''worse'' by when, very late in the game, you obtain an item that replaces the need for finding the grass and allows you to call the horse wherever you are, as long as it isn't inside a dungeon. And this item is given to you at a point when you have access to teleportation practically all over the world map, making it much less useful than it would have been earlier.
30** The way warping works in general. You can only warp as a wolf, seemingly to prevent you from freely using it until you've obtained the Master Sword and the ability to shift between a wolf and human at will. Since warping requires you to transform into a wolf, this not only means that you can't warp if you're even vaguely around anyone (transforming into a wolf in view of people isn't allowed), but also that after you warp you now need to transform back into a human. Even with the InUniverse reason behind needing to be a wolf to be warped fans would have considered it an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality acceptable break]] to just let you warp without the needless extra hassle, ''especially'' since Midna seems fully capable of warping Link as a human since she does it after every boss battle.
31** In the remaster, using the [=GameCube=] map as the default and having the flipped Wii map locked behind Hero Mode is a grievance to the huge chunk of the fanbase who originally grew up playing on the Wii version of the game.
32* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' all suffer from some loose and dodgy horseback controls that, while greatly improved for ''Twilight Princess'', still manage to be a source of spontaneous and random frustration. Particularly for jumping fences which, in theory, you need to approach straight or Epona will just stop. In practice, it really boils down to whether or not Epona feels like jumping as you can seemingly approach a fence perfectly straight and still fail to jump it, forcing you to ease her around to get enough distance to jump again. This is almost solely the reason the Ingo/Gorman races are [[ThatOneSidequest so reviled]] by ''Ocarina''/''Majora'' fans and why a guaranteed way to make a ''Twilight Princess'' fan shudder is say "[[ThatOneLevel protect the wagon]]."
33* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'':
34** Having to return to the central temple, and repeating the same levels after each new item is found, in a [[TimedMission timed]] [[UnexpectedGameplayChange forced-stealth section]] with [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible baddies]] gets old ''real'' fast. There's a checkpoint in the middle, but it ''keeps the elapsed time''. So, if it took you 10 minutes to get to the checkpoint, it deducts 10 minutes from your hourglass every time you skip to it. Thankfully, near the end, the player at least gains the ability to kill the Phantoms. [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound Hearing them die]] is worth ''all the trouble''.
35** If you thought re-doing the temple four times with different shortcuts each time was bad, you'll love re-doing it the same way ''daily'' for random loot, in addition to the other random daily quests, so you can get HundredPercentCompletion on boat parts.
36* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'':
37** The train travel is this, mainly for three reasons: One, because of it, overworld travel is on rails, ''literally''. Meaning that you can't freely roam and explore it. Two, if you happen to die (which is gonna be the case quite frequently, given the number of attacking monsters and evil trains in the open fields), you reset to the location you started. Three, somebody thought that it would be funny to complicate [[WarpWhistle the fairly simple teleport mechanics from the previous games]] down to the point where they are barely of any use anymore.
38** Another despised aspect of ''Spirit Tracks'' are the Pirates. They are far more frequent than is reasonable, and are a severe threat. They lag the game, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard every shot they do after their first is 100% accurate]], and if you have a passenger, you'll have to do a very long and drawn out fight scene, where death and/or failure (requiring a restart of the already Scrappy EscortMission) is a very high possibility. Good news is, you can destroy the cannonballs they fire at you before they even make contact. Besides that, you can always slow the train down while carrying a passenger so that you lessen the risk of multitasking to both fend off the pirates and follow the signs.
39** The Spirit Flute duets have some detractors due to the item's incredibly finicky and picky nature.
40** Passenger missions as well, at least when you're forced to go through enemy-infested sections of railroad tracks. Your passenger will get increasingly annoyed with you each time the train gets hit, and fighting to keep the train from being blown up by pirates apparently isn't a valid excuse for not ''blowing your whistle when a sign tells you to''...
41** This game too has daily quests for random loot, including its own Temple of the Ocean King throwback, the Lost at Sea Station.
42* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'':
43** The Adventure Pouch is essentially a separate inventory where you can store up to 8 (with upgrades, up to 4 initially) items of your choosing. Except that said items are things that ''didn't even use up an inventory slot in previous games'', like Shields and Bottles. By far the most irritating, however, is the way ammo expansions work. Rather than simply getting a bigger quiver/seed satchel/bomb bag that replaces your old one, you have to ''buy an extra quiver/satchel/bag and have it use up an inventory slot'' just to be able to carry even 10 extra bombs/arrows/seeds. Said inventory slot could be used for a bottle or even a ''shield''. Oh, and in order to have a full life meter, you need to equip two "life medals", meaning if you want it to look like you have OneHundredPercentCompletion, you'll ''need'' to use up two precious slots on those, effectively giving you only 6 slots to work with. Also, if you want to have all 5 bottles with you, you only have one slot left, which WILL contain your shield.
44** There's also treasure. When you pick up a new type of treasure, you get the usual animation of Link holding it up and a text box announcing what it is, followed by your tally of that item going up by one. All well and good, except that this aspect resets ''every time you start up the game;'' anything you haven't picked up ''in the current game session'' triggers the time-consuming cutscene all over again because, evidently, [[ViewersAreGoldfish you are woefully incapable]] of remembering what a bird feather is between game sessions (or woefully incapable of looking it up on the inventory menu). Wanna know how bad this feature is? LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} made a RunningGag counter of how many times this came up in his playthrough. And according to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GShYngULjN0 this video,]] the tally ends at ''223 redundant explanations''. Thankfully, this can be avoided by picking the item up with the beetle and the HD Remaster removed this feature entirely.
45** This game also inexplicably did away with adjustable text speed, uses a ridiculously slow speed as the default, ''and'' has more text-exposition than any other ''Zelda'' game, so be prepared to sit through many lines of tedious text, often text you've been force-read dozens of times already, every time you buy anything or talk to anyone for any other reason. Plot-relevant text is even slower. Holding down the A button speeds it up a tiny bit, but not nearly enough to prevent boring an average-speed reader to death. The HD Remaster fortunately allowed people to fast-forward the text speed and even skip certain cutscenes.
46** The dash mechanic. Link's stamina can only be enhanced through temporary ([[RandomDrop and]] [[ItemCrafting expensive]]) potion effects, and given that Link walks so slowly otherwise, you'll find yourself constantly having to press the dash button just to get around. In addition, climbing walls and stuff now takes up stamina whereas in previous games you could take as long as you wanted to climb a wall so long as you didn't fall off. Stamina Fruits that replenish it are placed where dashing is necessary but usually you just want to get from point a to point b -- unless you keep a constant eye on the gauge and keep rationing your stamina you'll keep running out and being forced to stumble at a snails pace for seemingly no reason other than [[{{Padding}} to punish you for wanting to move faster]].
47** While opinions on the motion controls vary, the lack of a left-handed option causes no small amount of agony to southpaws. Even worse, Link himself is usually portrayed as being left-handed. It's still perfectly possible to play left-handed without issues, but the HD remaster actually makes things slightly worse by mapping the sword to the right joycon, which is much less flexible between hands than the Wii Remote.
48* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'':
49** ''ALBW'' has a frequent amount of AntiPoopSocking compared to the other games. "You've been playing for a while. Why don't you take a break?"
50** On the Nintendo 3DS, the platform-jumping section in Death Mountain isn't too serious. On the 2DS, or with the three-dimensional mode turned off (which many players do to avoid ''migraines''), it's a nightmare. It doesn't help that you're following signs to find Rosso's Ore Mine, which turns out to be [[spoiler:a useless pile of rocks that's only important because it's ''near'' important things]].
51** There's an [[StealthBasedMission enforced stealth section]] just before the Dark Palace. It is made nearly trivial by Link's new ability to flatten himself into the wall, with only a handful of times it's even possible to be spotted. It's nevertheless irritatingly long and involved for what is essentially an OverlyLongGag.
52** The "swim faster" and "dive" buttons being swapped compared to previous 2D games.
53* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTriForceHeroes'':
54** Switching between characters in solo mode can be tedious, as you're doing the work of three players by yourself, and there are some parts that require precise timing to get through.
55** Friendship tokens are required to make some outfits. You can only get them through local multiplayer, and you can only earn one for each unique system you play with. If you don't know a lot of other 3DS owners, you're out of luck- though, at least Download Play counts, meaning the other players don't need to own the game. Rectified somewhat with the December 2, 2015 update, which allows players to purchase Friendly Tokens at the shop stall in town or win them in the daily treasure game. While getting enough tokens for the outfits is still bound to be slow and somewhat random, at least this made it possible for players who don't know lots of other local 3DS owners.
56** The emotes used to communicate to other players. Not only are they highly spammable, but they don't do a very good job of conveying what needs to be done in any given situation, and can't be directed at a specific player. According to WordOfGod, working with and deciphering them is meant to be part of the fun, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools but most players don't see it that way]].
57* ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'':
58** Any level where a Cucco will appear and follow the player around, as it seems to exist solely to discourage the use of wide attacks. Or, for that matter, any attacks if you don't know exactly where the chicken last moved to. The general consensus is that it's not a question of if you'll hit it enough to trigger its rage, but when. Some of the other Cucco events (guiding a baby Cucco to its mother and two Cuccos fighting in a keep) are also hated, but the one that follows the player is particularly hated.
59** To a lesser extent, the missions that don't have an Element Affinity, as it means all the defense badges you've grinded for are now completely useless (making getting an A-Rank all that more difficult).
60** During some missions, a Hylian Captain may appear in the battlefield, [[TooDumbToLive often behind enemy lines]], [[RedShirt and be just as competent as you might expect]]. If he takes too much damage, he will proceed to retreat to the allied base and escape. If he dies before he can make it to the allied base, he comes back as a ghost that [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere causes a huge chunk of your allies to flee]]. It's a minor inconvenience if the mission only allows you to use one playable warrior, but it is an ''absolute emergency'' otherwise because ''the ghost can make your other playable warriors flee'', [[NonStandardGameOver causing you to automatically lose the mission]]. As a result, you have to go and escort the Hylian Captain back to the allied base so he doesn't get himself killed, which wastes a lot of time and prevents you from A-ranking the mission if you drag the mission for longer than the strict time limit allows you to (15 minutes in the original Wii U version and ''Definitive Edition'', 20 minutes in ''Legends''). It doesn't help much that the Hylian Captain, [[ArtificialStupidity being as bright as he is]], is highly likely to stop to fight ''every single enemy'' he encounters along the way, even if it is an enemy that takes ''zero'' effort to kill. And just to add more insult to injury, unlike most events featuring ally forces, this Hylian Captain gives the player ''absolutely no benefits whatsoever'' after helping him retreat. All of this makes this event come out as a huge time waster that not only has no rewards attached to it, but that severely punishes you if you dare to ignore it.
61** During co-op play, enemy groups are severely cut to make up for the strain of having two characters in the same mission. This can make racking up [=KOs=] exceptionally difficult due to enemies not spawning fast enough; in fact, you could be only halfway through claiming a keep and have it completely devoid of enemies for several seconds. However, this ''may'' have been an intentional design flaw, since it discourages players from abusing co-op mode to A-Rank a mission with a character other than who the mission was intended for (although it ''also'' discourages playing the game with friends, as well).
62** Some Ganon's Fury missions have Zant and Ghirahim show up and then get attacked, prompting you to save them. While the consequences of not saving them aren't particularly dire, this is made annoying by how Ganon's size is so vast that it is nearly impossible to make contact with their green circles to restore their health without pushing them into a wall first.
63* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'':
64** Inventory space is limited. While the menus themselves are clear and precise, you will often find yourself scrolling through a '''lot''' of junk if you have a full inventory. This also, aggravatingly, ties in to your weapons where you will only be able to carry a finite amount of melee weapons, bows and arrows, and shields which you require you to often times replace something in your current inventory for something stronger.
65** [[BreakableWeapons All weapons and shields are now subject to durability]], and will easily break if overused. You will need to constantly switch out weapons in your current inventory, and often replace them with drops defeated from baddies or found in chests. However, the game will still allow you to open chests even if you have a full inventory... meaning you'll see Link open the chest, the item summary pop up, followed by the popup reading "Your inventory space is full", then the chest closing, all of which takes about 10 or seconds, and ''not'' counting how much time you take to pull up the menu to actually discard a weapon to make room for a new one. This gets very tedious very quickly. Even the [[UnbreakableWeapons Master Sword]] does not escape from this. Prolonged usage of the Master Sword will render in temporarily unusable until it recharges.
66** The Master Sword and the four abilities you gain from the champions have a flat recharge time after being used up. The scrappiness of this is they won't even begin recharging until you ''completely'' use them up. You can't use the Master Sword in moderation to keep it from running out of energy, or keep one Revali's Gale in reserve just in case, but rather are forced to use them up and go without for a period of time. This means burning them and arbitrarily waiting before you have access to them again, and you can't even sleep or wait at a fire to skip it.
67** Rain and thunderstorms. Rain makes climbing much more difficult, due to making the climbable surfaces wet and slippery and will drain your stamina much more quickly than usual. Depending on where you are when the rain starts, sometimes your choices are limited to either waiting the rain out or teleporting away to another region entirely. Thunderstorms are especially dangerous as having metal weapons and shields (which are usually higher-end items compared to wooden items) equipped means you turn into a living lightning rod. You will be struck by lightning, unless you swap out for other, less durable inventory (assuming you even ''have'' them to begin with), the Thunder Helm, which is only gained by completing all of the Gerudo Town sidequests, but only after [[spoiler:you beat the Divine Beast Vah Naboris]], or a complete set of Rubber Armor upgraded to Level 2 (which is possible before entering any of the [[spoiler:Divine Beasts]], but the three parts of the armor are scattered in three shrines across Hyrule, with only perpetual thunderstorms in the areas where the shrines are as a hint).
68** Ragdoll physics is the last thing you want to be dealing with when fighting enemies, especially powerful ones like [[EliteMooks Lynels]]. If you get knocked down or are sent flying and you're near a hill, you can't do anything but helplessly watch Link tumble down the hill and rack up ScratchDamage the longer he rolls down the hillside until he comes to a complete stop. Fighting near a steep cliff is extremely risky since one good swing at Link is all it takes to send him flying into the abyss and instantly dying on impact.
69** If you have more than 50 arrows of a given type, including bog standard regular arrows, a "flag" is set that causes in-game merchants to stop restocking them. Given that 50 regular arrows can be used up very quickly in tougher dungeons, shrines which require their use, and/or simply while hunting, it can be quite a shock to find yourself unable to replenish with [[GuideDangIt zero hint in-game as to why]]. To get them to restock, you need to drop below 50 arrows and allow midnight to pass, which removes the "flag" and allows merchants to restock. While a case can be made that their supposed rarity justifies this for specialty arrows, there is simply no good reason for this mechanic to apply to standard arrows.
70* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'':
71** The fact that weapons have hidden seals that are unlocked at later levels is highly frustrating as, without a guide, you can make a weapon loadout that doesn't gel well with its unchangeable hidden stats, wasting all those seals.
72** The fact that you cannot raise the weapon level limit for uncapped weapons means that it becomes a big grind fest. If you forge a level 30 weapon to a level 1 weapon, it only becomes level 20 and you miss out on a ton of weapon exp.
73* The [[spoiler: sages, or rather, their avatars]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' can aid Link in battle at all times and each one has their own unique abilities. The problem is they are ''very'' slow to attack enemies and will constantly get in your way when you're trying to fight the same target as them, which can cause you to accidentally use their abilities when you didn't intend to do so. Because they like to spread out and attack multiple enemies, there have been cases of players having to chase down a specific ally if they need their abilities right then and there because you can only use them if you're right next to the person, which doesn't help if they're also unintentionally trying to avoid you when they are attacking something. While you do have the option of dismissing them, doing so means you won't have your allies around to act as a distraction and exploit their invulnerability.

Top