Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is the latest Switch exclusive. The game is supposed to be a prequel to the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Now before I dive into this review, just a fair warning, the story section will have spoilers. It’s very hard for me to give my thoughts on this game without spoiling it. There will be a warning for it though. I hope that the gameplay, flaws, and conclusion section of this review is good enough for you guys to decide on whether or not you should pick up this game. Without further ado, lets jump into the review.
Gameplay
Each character plays differently
Just like the first Hyrule Warriors, this game is a hack and slash. While the first game contained elements of the earlier Zelda titles, this game solely focuses on elements from Breath of the Wild. Each character plays very differently and has their own abilities.
I think it’s creative on how they got the runes to work. In case if you guys don’t remember, the runes are special items in Breath of the Wild that you use for combat and to solve puzzles. In this game, like in Breath of the Wild, they are used for combat. However, each character uses them differently.
For example, when using the bombs with Link, he throws them directly at a bunch of enemies. As for a character like Mipha, she has her bombs come down from above and blasts enemies surrounding her. Since all the runes are used differently with each character, the player can think of different strategies for combat.
Divine Beasts
Besides the playable cast of characters, you also get to use the Divine Beasts. The Divine Beasts have their own set of missions and are all used very differently. The missions consist of you controlling them to blast thousands of enemies coming at you. There are also missions in which you have to destroy specific enemies.
Difficulty and Side Quests
As far as difficulty goes, there are four levels of difficulty. Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. If you’re stuck on a mission, there are ways to make it easier for you. You can give food to whoever you’re going to use before you start a mission to give them a boost in stats, and you can also go to the Military Camp to level up your character. There’s also the Blacksmith that you can go to to fuse your weapons and to power them up more. Both the Military Camp and Blacksmith require you to spend rupees.
Aside from the story missions, there are a ton of side quests in this game. I tried finishing all the side quests before finishing up the game, but it turns out I wasn’t going to be able to anyways because there are more that become available after beating the game.
Now, as far as side quests go, my main complain is that if you want to one hundred percent this game, you have to find all the Korok seeds. I don’t mind trying to find them as I’m progressing through the game, but going back to replay some of the missions just to find them becomes a chore if you’ve already spent a ton of energy on completing a ton of missions already. Maybe I’ll go back to them if I ever feel like it down the line, but as for now, I’m done with this game. Especially, since I beat this game on Hard.
Aside from side quests, there are tasks to complete which involve you trading in items you’ve collected to satisfy the people of Hyrule in each region. Completing these tasks gives you rewards and new combos to perform. Your characters can also get more special meters from completing them later down the line.
Flaws
Now, the game doesn’t have any problems for me except for the camera. The camera gets crazy at times during combat against a big enemy when you’re locked onto them, especially if you’re on a level with a linear path. There were times when I had to unlock myself from the enemy in order to give myself some space for a better view. I know I said earlier that collecting the Korok seeds can become a chore if you’re trying to one hundred percent it, but in all honesty I feel like it’s only worth going back to after you finish the game. The game also drops frames. Aside from those things, that’s really it.
Conclusion
Aside from the camera issues, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is a worthy game to add to your Switch library. It’s a good game to spend time on until the Breath of the Wild sequel comes out.
Story (SPOILERS)
Alright, so this is where we get to the spoilers. If you’re still reading this review, this is your final warning to leave.
Alright so when it comes to the story, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is a prequel and a standalone game at the same time. This game uses the whole Zelda timeline thing. As soon as you get to the part where Calamity Ganon takes over the Divine Beasts and the Guardians, instead of the Champions dying, the other characters from the future come in to save them. The characters I’m talking about are Sidon, Yunobo, Teba, and Riju. With them saving the champions, the game becomes a standalone game.
So, in other words, the story is still a prequel, but only until the part where the champions get saved. If you think about it, we already know what happens to the champions once Calamity Ganon takes over the Divine Beasts and Guardians. So, with that in mind, they decided to reimagine the events of Breath of the Wild by showing what would happen if the champions didn’t die and how they defeated Calamity Ganon. Or another case scenario we can think of is that this game is in its own timeline. Anyways, that’s all I can pretty much say for the story.
What are your guys’ thoughts on Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity? Did you beat it yet? Do you plan on picking it up? Let me know in the comments down below.
