Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Review

I have been a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda series since it first started on the original NES, but somehow I have missed picking up Breath of the Wild for the Switch. It has rave reviews, but I just haven’t gotten around to playing it. When I found out that Toei made Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a prequel that takes place 100 years before Breath of the Wild I was super excited that I would be able to enjoy this one without having played the other. Plus I have played Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U, which seems more related to this gameplay wise. 

As soon as the game starts you see Hyrule Castle under attack from some creepy robotic monsters with mechanical spider-like legs. Everything is on fire, and even with the soldiers and Princess Zelda trying to take down the foes it is obvious this is a losing battle. A wooden crate starts reacting to Zelda who is fighting against one of the monsters, it falls causing it to  open and allow a little droid character to escape. This little guy is a guardian, his job is to protect Princess Zelda. The diminutive guardian shares a lot of attributes with the giant creatures that are attacking the castle. Are these large guardians who are supposed to also be protecting the kingdom? Our little guardian with delightful beeps and boops, reminiscent of R2-D2, jumps into a portal that sends him back in time. Maybe he can change the decisions that end up leading to this destructive event.

We start the game in the past as Link who is fighting as a soldier in Hyrule Castle’s guard. If you have ever played Hyrule Warriors, or a Dynasty Warriors game in the past you know exactly what to expect. Huge waves of enemies attack and it’s up to you, and all these other ineffective soldiers, to take down the enemy before they get to the castle or a certain target. King Roahm is the King of Hyrule and speaks on how Calamity Ganon’s return has been prophesied. Something about this king seems kind of sketchy, he’s very protective of Zelda and feels she will be unable to awaken her powers. We will see how wrong he is as the story unfolds.  

There are multiple characters that you can unlock and play as in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. You start off with a training mission you start as Hyrulian soldier Link. Playing as Link you will see a lot of the attacks and items that he uses in the classic games are back. He can use his handy bow-and-arrows, throw bombs, obtain rods like fire, ice and lighting and use big attacks like his spin attack. I love that you can cut grass and trees just like in the old games, it makes my younger internal self very happy to see. Link can do standard and strong attacks, that can be mixed together to make a ton of different combos.

Once you complete the training mission defending Hyrule Castle, Zelda will join you. At this point no one realises that amazing warrior Link will become. I definitely noticed the difference between Link and the other soldiers. Their attacks against the enemies were quite ineffective, so they were very lucky to have Link there to help battle or else I’m sure they would have been defeated. Now that there are two different characters available, you will be able to play multiplayer co-op splitscreen. Or if you are just playing single player, you will have the ability to switch between characters just by hitting a button. You will be taken to wherever their character is on the battlefield and you take control of them. There is also the ability to deploy the characters to different areas of the battlefield to take on enemies.

There are a bunch of other characters that will be unlocked as you explore and try to recruit the pilots of the various Divine Beasts to aid you in the battle to prevent the rise of Ganon. Impa the royal advisor, Mipha the Zora, and Daruk the Goron are just a few of the characters that will join up with you. Each of the characters has their own set of abilities and attacks, Link has his sword attacks, Impa can create clones of herself, Mipha can use powerful magic and Daruk has a massive club and the ability to use magma. I personally really enjoy playing as Daruk the Goron. He walks slow, but he can roll into a ball and takes out all the hordes of enemies like they are bowling pins. Zelda has to find the four Divine Beasts if they have any chance to stop Ganon’s rise. She has to convince the pilots of these beasts that if Hyrule is to be saved, they have to team up and work together. When you travel to all these different locations, after doing battle missions and convincing the pilots to work with you, there will be a Divine Beast mission to do. This is where the mass damage really starts happening. The gameplay in these missions is totally different from the usual Hyrule Warrior battles you do, so it’s a really nice break. The only bad thing is, if you are playing co-op, only the first player will be able to pilot the Divine Beast, so the second player is sitting there just watching until the mission is complete and they can jump in again.   

The soundtrack of the game really feels like it fits into the Legend of Zelda universe, it’s epic and memorable just like the previous games in the series. The environments and characters are beautiful. Due to the crazy amounts of enemies that can be on the screen at once, there are a few areas where it feels like the game lags, though this may be more due to the processing power of the Switch. Most of the time I was playing co-op split screen with my son, so there would be twice as many enemies, so it’s not too surprising that it would happen. The boss battles are epic and the levels where you are piloting the Divine Warrior look great. It was a nice change to have a first person view instead of the overhead view you have become accustomed to battling.

It’s really nice to see a lot of the story involves Zelda herself. In the past games it never really felt like there was a ton of character development for her, but here we see her character grow from insecure and weak to powerful and kicking butt. She’s not just the damsel in distress anymore! We get to see Link evolve into the warrior we know he is, but in a more supporting type role this time. He’s not the only powerful one here. The little guardian is great and really adds a lot of comic relief to the game. He’s super cute, especially when he is trying to protect Zelda from danger. 

The game has a ton of side quests and missions to do if you want, but they are not required to complete the game. To finish the main missions it took about 10 hours, but you can always go back after you reach the end of the game and complete all the other stuff you missed. If you are a big fan of the Hyrule Warrior/Dynasty Warrior type of gameplay with never ending hordes of enemies this game is definitely worth playing. Some people may find it really repetitive but I really enjoyed playing and discovering the abilities of all the different characters. I love finding all the different references to the other games in the series. Fighting moblins, and octarocks is always a lot of fun. I’m not totally sure how this game will affect the timeline of the series, but to be fair, I don’t really think anyone totally knows exactly how it works. It’s a fun game that I really enjoyed playing through and that’s all that really matters!