LogFAQs > #956078295

I think the durability was put in to make the weapon system matter, let me put it this way if weapons were unbreakable most weapons would just be worthless. You would only care about how the weapon feels and the stats on it, so 99% of weapons that drop especially later in the game would just litter the ground.

Now they might have pushed it to far the other way, but this is one of the only Zelda games where you can try out a vast array of weapons, other Zelda games have basically one typical weapon the sword which you upgrade, and then other items like Bow, Bombs etc.. which all are limited use.

I found the durability slightly annoying at times, but it never really affected me that much, I always had loads of solid weapons in inventory. I also think a repair system would have been a nice olive branch to the players, maybe it require some work to prevent using it for every single weapon over and over again though.