New idea for weapon durability based off of Breath of Wild
Think of a game that takes notes from Shadow of the Colossus and Breath of the Wild. Considering BotW weapon durability, what if all weapons had very similar damage to where it wouldn’t even need to be listed. This avoids the issue of hoarding, as weapons do similar damage, and the difference shifts to utility, where one may be a sword, while another is a spear, or a mace.
The player needs a weapon to deal damage, so it still encourages the player to collect weapons in a boss only type of game. The durability of each would still need to go up, and possibly a resource could be used to sharpen like in Monster Hunter, to keep single weapons for longer. Possibly different weapons could have a larger variance in durability, creating more variety between experiences with different weapons.
Also, using something like a sword on an armored part could cause more durability to be lost, causing the player to specifically seek out different weapons that counter armor, like a mace or hammer.
I believe Praey for Gods combines these two games essentially but I have not played it and I believe the durability system was received poorly. I’d like to try it at some point despite its low reviews because I love the idea and the two games it was inspired by.