A Link to the Past.
Hyrule Warriors, regardless of which version you’ve played, was an interesting spin-off for the Legend of Zelda franchise. The mixture of the series with the likes of Dynasty Warriors, a game type often referred to as musou, worked extremely well, even if the story they were trying to tell didn’t fully pay off. Playing as tons of Legend of Zelda characters, some for the very first time, was very appealing, and frankly, I really enjoyed the definitive edition that hit the Switch some two years ago; combining all the content from the previous versions into a more polished and feature-rich package. With Breath of the Wild 2 set to release some time next year, it wasn’t too much of a surprise that when Hyrule Warriors 2 was announced, that it would be connected to this newest storyline as a prequel, telling us of the events that transpired before we suited up as Link in 2017’s acclaimed Breath of the Wild.
Now, before I dive too much in and make a comment on how I feel about this entry, I’ll stress that I am a massive Legend of Zelda fan, completing nearly every entry across the series’ rich history, with only a few titles that I don’t feel represent the franchise as well as others. I thought Breath of the Wild was fantastic for what it was able to do, even if the world and its dungeons didn’t exactly make me as impressed as others, that and some features like stamina-based climbing and weapon degradation that I just didn’t get on with. When it comes to spin-offs for the series, there aren’t many, as Nintendo has usually kept the franchise close to its chest, usually only having Link or other characters across the series appear in a guest-role style fashion. So, with all that said, Age of Calamity is without question, my favorite Legend of Zelda game, regardless if it isn’t technically one of the main series adventures.
The story of the series has obviously been different across the franchise but fundamentally tells the story of Link, Zelda, and Ganon caught up in most of the same situations. It’s a story of good vs evil that repeats itself time and time again. Nintendo, and by Nintendo I mean Shigeru Miyamoto, has purposively kept the storytelling in The Legend of Zelda to a minimum, and this has been the case with Mario as well. While I understand his desire to keep his games simple enough for anyone to get into, the story of what Zelda has often tried to do is some of the best parts of the franchise, as was also the case with Mario in the more story-focused Mario Odyssey. For all the faults I have with Breath of the Wild, the story is not one of them, I just wish there had been more of it to tell. The game had more story than we were used to but a lot of it felt held back. Age of Calamity attempts to fill that gap, and then some, as it conveys those events in a breathtaking tale that features some of the best storytelling the series has ever had, and a final battle that had me screaming in delight.
Now, I’m not going to be diving too far into the story as after a certain point, the game starts to reveal parts that are massively spoilerish, with several moments that had me cheer, drop my jaw in shock, and ponder just what the hell was going to happen. We get a taste of what happened all that time ago during Breath of the Wild, but due to a small little guardian time traveling back before the Calamity struck, to aid Princess Zelda in her time of need, its involvement and what they have yet to do, changes the timeline into something far grander and different than what I feel anyone was expecting. To say this is simply us working through a story we already know is thrown out the window, as several events will make you wonder how it will even end, a conclusion we thought we knew was coming. Now, apart from that conclusion, there is a wealth of content to take part in after the credits roll, as the game has a pretty sizable endgame to keep you busy for quite a long time after you’ve ‘beaten’ the game.
Each mission will have a variety of cutscenes, detailing the upcoming Calamity, and the insight that the little Guardian has given our heroes, as it is from the future, just might have them turn the tide. This itself changes the timeline in significant ways, and to say that is all we see changed is a vast understatement. But despite those big moments where the story diverts from what we know, it’s other moments like when Zelda finally unlocks her powers during an intense moment, with the soft beats of the Legend of Zelda theme playing in the background is where this game truly sings. There are countless other moments that really pay off, such as when Link is storming castle Hyrule and is lent support from a Divine beast, as it clears a path ahead for him, or the moment when Link finds the Master Sword, a moment that preludes to an interesting battle.
To those that are fans of Dynasty Warriors, or Hyrule Warriors as well, the gameplay is going to make you feel very much at home. You’ll have targets across a fairly sizable map to race towards, timers to illustrate your dire need to hustle, to camps and locations that you’ll be tasked with taking over or maintaining to keep them safe. Thankfully, a lot of that has been dialed back and while you’ll still partake in a great deal of capturing bases and ensuring that they stay that way, there are a vast amount of missions and side quests that do away with some of that altogether. The game is generally broken down into two modes: the story, and your side activities. Both of these occupy the same map, instead of being separate modes and tabs as was the case with the original Hyrule Warriors. This causes your focus to be solely on what is already before you, and it works insanely well.
The map you’ll explore is that of the Hyrule you explored in Breath of the Wild, only far earlier into the past, and split into loadable zones. This means you’ll explore full towns and locations that were either decimated during the Calamity or parts of ruins that you explored years ago. It’s interesting to see this damage and some missions actually have you waging war in locations that have seen the worst of it, watching that damage occur before your very eyes. It’s vastly interesting to see this version of Hyrule before it is destroyed, and being part of that only makes those locations feel far more powerful than they had been before. There is a history to what you wandered around in during your time with Breath of the Wild, and seeing it happen first hand is something truly special.
Progression through each of these modes is dependant on a few things; your level as a character, the strength of your weapons, and the health, moves, and abilities you have across the wealth of characters you discover and unlock, many of which I won’t dare reveal here. All of this can be addressed simply by playing missions, collecting resources as you throttle hundreds of enemies on screen, to then use those resources to feed into interactables on the map, such as feeding some fish and honey to boost up Link’s hearts, or maybe a collection of various fruits to give Impa a more in-depth combo string. Now, as you complete missions, you’ll unlock more of these, as will unlocking characters as well. The map can certainly feel overwhelming when it is littered with some 80+ icons, but you’ll often have more than enough resources at the ready to complete at least 4 or 5 at any time, boosting the health or capabilities of your fighters.
Apart from those progression boosts, you’ll unlock a dye station to change Link’s outfit colors, a blacksmith to increase the strength of your weapons, various shops to buy some of those very ingredients, and a training base to pad the levels of characters you may not use as much as others, getting them on par with your higher-level characters for when they are required during missions or the variety of side quests that unlock exclusively for them. With so many characters to play as and unlock, you’ll want to dive back into certain missions to track down more rupees, items, and more weapons to make what they are wielding just that much better. Also, as you complete quests in certain zones, you’ll level up those locations on the map, earning more rewards like resources, or unique costume pieces for Link, many of them that return from Breath of the Wild.
Now, these resources are used all over the map, so ensuring you’re spending them on the right upgrades is crucial, especially since you don’t want to waste them on a character you don’t consistently use. Link is by the far the most adaptable fighter, as he is able to wield a large variety of different weapons, especially the highly touted Master Sword which is a weapon that barely left his hands once I unlocked it. Since several missions might be on par with your level by the time you unlock them, you can cook food items to boost your damage, resistance to certain elements, or even just to boost the rate at which your special recharges or your rupee intake. These food items require the same resources you have saved up, so weighing the options of keeping them for your unlocks or that delicious snack that is going to boost your defense during a tough mission will have you possibly second-guessing their use.
What I found more appealing here than in the original Hyrule Warriors, was you didn’t have these massive skill trees for each character, but rather you are simply boosting their weapon damage, their amount of hearts, and the available combo attacks they have. It’s a system that is certainly more streamlined, and while there is still a significant amount of grinding to do to level up and increase their effectiveness, the grinding here benefits more than just a single character, as the spoils you earn here affect everyone. I found this simplicity to be a welcome change and made it easier to just jump in a play far more often than spending my time in menus adjusting a character to do maybe a fraction of a percent more damage than before.
Combat itself is very fast pace as you’ll be mowing down the fodder-based foes as you push towards the more difficult ones. Nearly every foe returns from Breath of the Wild, from the large single-eyed Hinox to the rampaging Lynel, all with various forms and colors. Enemies will have a weakness bar to deplete as you attempt to pull off a flashy special attack. In the original Hyrule Warriors, this meter was pretty much the only way to dish out damage, but thankfully, they only serve as a more lucrative wave to defeat them, as you’ll have a wide range of attacks that can cause significant damage to them. Most enemies have a general weakness and will flash it above them as they are set to attack, such as using the Sheikah Slate to pull off many of the same moves from Breath of the Wild, only tailored a bit differently for this game. If a blue bomb shows up above an enemy, you’ll want to use the matching bomb maneuver to cause that enemy’s weakness gauge to appear. Now, what is interesting here is that most of the Sheikah Slate’s abilities work differently on different characters, such as Link firing off a barrage of bombs, but another character, who I won’t mention, swings their weapon like a golf club, hitting the bombs at his target. By giving each character a unique take on how the Sheikah Slate works, it starts to carve them apart from another instead of merely being different versions of the same character.
As you target onto enemies, you can dodge at just the right moment to get in a slew of flury attacks, as was the case with Breath of the Wild. In fact, many of the same moves and abilities are all here, such as Link firing off his bow to stun an Hinox with a well-placed shot to the eye. While the game doesn’t dive fully into many of the same abilities, it does more than enough to feel very much like its inspiration, while also being its own game, with a unique sense of gameplay that differs greatly. Each character has a wide range of skills, or ways to race around the environment, whether its shield surfing as Link or riding a steam of water as Mipha, moving around the map to find the action is often as fun as the action itself. I never got tired of swapping back and forth between my chosen heroes, trying out new moves and abilities, finding out who was better in certain circumstances, and characters like Impa, that I kept discovering new things that they could do, even some 20 hours in.
Now, apart from the running around as Link and his crew, you’ll also be able to pilot the Divine Beasts themselves, launching a barrage of missiles, lasers, and electrical surges that can destroy hundreds of enemies in a second. These missions are a welcome change of pace as you guide them along paths and large open plains as you wage war on Ganon’s forces. Each Divine Beast moves around generally the same way, with a force field or deflection move to counter incoming attacks, but the move set and function of each Beast is fairly different, offering almost as much variety here as it does with its fighters.
If there was anything I found in the game to be anything less than impressive, I would say it is the performance of the game itself. If there was ever a case for a faster and more tech-focused model of the console, this is the game to illustrate that need. The game doesn’t particularly run too well during some moments hitting anywhere from 20-30fps, but it never once impacted my experience in single-player, nor did I have any sort of crash. Given that you are often barreling down almost a hundred enemies on screen at once, I’m not surprised that the game doesn’t look as good as Breath of the Wild did given you only fight less than a dozen on-screen enemies at once, making a very good case for why it doesn’t look as good. The team had a great deal of assistance from Nintendo, that much is very clear, but since you are taking part in large scale and enemy dense battles, the game runs pretty much as good as it can, given the hardware they have to work with.
Apart from its performance, the game still looks good, especially during cutscenes with bright colorful characters that retain the same style from Breath of the Wild. Again, there are some graphical conceits to the scale of what the team has done here, but apart from some bland and muddy textures, I don’t think the game ever looked bad in any significant way. Leaning back into some aspects of the performance, there is a good amount of pop-in, with grass growing and trees popping in that is a bit distracting, but I’d rather take pop-in instead of single-digit frames, as was the case with the latest Sword Art Online game, which sadly offered me both almost consistently. I’m not trying to make excuses for how the game looks and runs, but I just consider Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity to offer me different visual experiences because they are not just entirely different games, but also by two very different developers. It’s all about expectation. Now, that said, I do wish the game did look and perform better, but I still have immensely enjoyed my time here.
Age of Calamity does allow the game to be played in co-op, even if the performance can often be so poor that you wonder why it is even a feature. Sadly, there is no online functionality, so local co-op is the only route at this time. The game certainly does look less impressive, and when both players are engaged in large scale battles, the framerate can take a dive into single-digit territory. Thankfully, animations and other fixed camera moves don’t disrupt the other player, so you don’t have to worry about control being taken away from you when another player is pulling off a bevy of special attacks. If you are going into Age of Calamity solely for its co-op features, keep in mind that while it is a blast to play the game with another friend, it doesn’t offer the same performance that you’ll find playing it solo and can leave a pretty bad impression if you focus on it too much.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has been an absolute blast from start to finish, and after all was said and done, it made me more impressed with the world that Breath of the Wild put in place. The action and story on display here have been a joy, seeing the collection of characters come together to stop Ganon once and for all, in a time where he felt undefeated. The wide range of characters will keep you occupied with learning their various moves and combos, in maps that offer a huge amount of variety, especially when you get behind the controls of one of the four divine beasts. Apart from the performance issues I’ve since mentioned, Age of Calamity has been a joy to experience, with engaging gameplay, a huge emphasis on storytelling, and a narrative that kept my interest with a massive assault of twists and turns that kept me guessing on the outcome. Honestly, I can’t recommend this game enough, as even if musou games are not your thing, the story and action most certainly will.
Developer - Omega Force Publisher - Koei Tecmo / Nintendo Released - November 20th, 2020 Available On - Nintendo Switch/Lite Rated - (T) Teen for scenes of Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch Review Access - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was purchased by the reviewer.