Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a breath of fresh air compared to other Warrior installments and is worth playing if you loved Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The story, characters, and music are the best I’ve seen out of a Nintendo Warriors game in a long while. Even though the AI is severely lacking and multiplayer could use some improvements, it still is not enough to drag the game down from being the best Nintendo Warriors installment I’ve ever seen.
I’ve played a lot of Nintendo versions of Warriors games. From Fire Emblem Warriors to the first Hyrule Warriors games, I’ve always felt that something was off or missing. When I heard that the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was getting a sort of prequel series I was super excited. But, when I learned that it would be a Dynasty Warriors version of the series we know and love I was a bit skeptical. Little did I know that this was the Warriors experience I had been waiting for. So, without further ado let’s take a look into Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity developed by Koei Tecmo and published by Nintendo is a hack and slash game that tells the story of Link and Zelda fighting against the Calamity 100 years before the events of Breath of the Wild. Along the way, you’ll learn more about the Champions Mipha, Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa and more characters from the series and even have the chance to play as and learn more about them and their roles in the fight against Calamity Ganon. You even get to learn more and control the giant Guardians instead of watching them blast a giant laser into Hyrule Castle!
To level up and add new skills, you’ll have to collect more items during a battle and complete smaller tasks on the map of Hyrule. You can spend rupees to make and customize powerful weapons and add abilities to Link and the others. It feels like you’re fighting a war and preparing for battle when using the main map. The feeling of it mimicking battle strategies is a nice touch. There are also shops that you can use to buy the items you need to create dishes to make you powerful in difficult fights and items that you may be missing to complete a recipe so you can get that ability you need to push you past a tough boss fight.
Get Ready for a breath of fresh air and a wild adventure!
What sets this Hyrule Warriors game apart from other Warriors games is that each character feels unique when playing as them. Something that I thought that Fire Emblem Warriors lacked was that when I played as a different character, it didn’t feel any different. The stages felt bland and the story was just unengaging. It felt like I was playing a Fire Emblem fanfiction game where everyone’s favorite characters come together. But, the Age of Calamity felt so much different. It was a breath of fresh air playing it and I could tell it was going to be an amazing experience even after I finished the demo.
If you’ve never played a Warriors game before it’s more than just hacking and slashing through hordes of enemies. With the Age of Calamity, different characters have different skills that make each battle unique. For example, Revali can fly through the air and rain arrows down on enemies while Zelda uses the powers of the Sheikah Slate like Bombs, Stasis, Magnesis, and more. Link can use the Sheikah Slate powers and even more. Honestly, at times I forgot I was playing a Warriors game because of how similar it felt to playing Breath of the Wild. This game has such a strong connection to Breath of the Wild that it gets the smallest of details down with terrain and even menus. When you open the map, it’s the exact area you know and love from Breath of the Wild.
The customization of Age of Calamity is a nice touch too. Link can wear many costumes and even have their colors changed. Some cutscenes will even show him wearing the outfits you have picked out for him. There are also many weapons for each character to use and they can be customized to have certain abilities and make powerful weapons for any situation.
Without spoiling anything, the story is amazing and not what you’d expect from a Breath of the Wild prequel. We learn so much about Link and Zelda’s world and their fight against the Calamity and even meet new characters that were not in the first game. The trailer even showed a new threat and this adds a major twist in the story and adds to the lore and original story that we know and love. This is what Breath of the Wild fans have been waiting for!
Lastly, Breath of the Wild was a quiet game and hardly had music, but when you heard the music it was always wonderful and memorable. Age of Calamity takes this to a whole new level and remixes and creates amazing new songs. I found myself going back and listening to songs. It took me back to 2016 when I first began playing Breath of the Wild and the main area where you’re selecting to go next… the music that plays in that area almost puts me in tears every time I hear it.
Tough Battles Ahead!
Just like with past Nintendo Warriors games, Age of Calamity still struggles with one thing: AI function. When you aren’t controlling characters, they’re usually standing around and being unproductive, leading you to have to regain control of them and get the job done yourself. This makes battles feel a little less than a war and more of characters just sitting around. It feels like you’re the only one fighting. If there was a way to make more action happen around you, it would feel less like you’re watching a battle and fighting in it.
I was slightly disappointed with multiplayer in this game. If you want to play with a friend you have to use a split-screen. This can make it a little difficult to see where you’re going and hard to navigate around the map. I also had two copies of the game and would have preferred that local play had the option to use two copies so that I could see better. With a game that has so much going on and is quick action, it is super important that you see what’s going on around you. Having the ability to use two copies of the games would have solved this issue and most likely would have made multiplayer a better experience for me.
Conclusion
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a breath of fresh air compared to other Warrior installments and is worth playing if you loved Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The story, characters, and music are the best I’ve seen out of a Nintendo Warriors game in a long while. Even though the AI is severely lacking and multiplayer could use some improvements, it still is not enough to drag the game down from being the best Nintendo Warriors installment I’ve ever seen. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has me very excited for the next installment of the Breath of the Wild series and it should have you excited too!
