You’d be hard pressed to find someone who think that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn’t the best game on the Nintendo Switch. Even though it was literally the first game that most people played on the system, no game has really been able to recapture its magic.
Fans have waited patiently for a sequel to Breath of the Wild, but no one expected that we would get a prequel first. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced out of the blue about a month ago to much fanfare. This Dynasty-Warriors-esque game would let players take part in the massive battles only mentioned in Breath of the Wild that basically led to the apocalypse.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity not only serves as a prequel to Breath of the Wild, but also a sequel to Hyrule Warriors. You see, Hyrule Warriors is part of the much larger “Warriors” series. These games, known as “Musous” in Japan, see a number of over-powered main characters taking on hundreds on enemies at one time. Musou games are perfect for turning your mind off and blowing off some steam and are done best when attached to previously established franchises such as Zelda.
Thus, even though Hyrule Warriors and its sequel play almost nothing like a normal Zelda game, fans still embraced them due to the seer amount of fanservice they provide. Based on the hour-long demo that Nintendo released yesterday for Age of Calamity, its clear that the newest Musou game is going to be one fans won’t want to miss.
As previously mentioned, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a prequel, taking place 100 years before Breath of the Wild. Though, the events of the game may not be exactly as how they were told in the original game, as a small still-unnamed guardian travels back in time to try and prevent the downfall of Hyrule depicted in Breath of the Wild.
Now in the past, the small guardian meets up with Princess Zelda, Link and a number of other notable characters from the first game. With the newfound knowledge of the future, the Hyrule warriors band together to try and prevent the evil of Calamity Gannon from ever reemerging.
Let’s get this out of the way: Age of Calamity is amazing (at least, so far). While it doesn’t exactly reinvent the Musou formula, it blends in gameplay elements from Breath of the Wild perfectly to make it stand out from other games in the series.
It is incredibly easy to lose yourself in Age of Calamity, even though we’ve only been able to play an hour of the game. The demo lets players experience the first chapter of the game, which includes two main story battles and a number of challenges. It gives you just enough to get hooked on the gameplay grind, and then blocks everything off. It feels just a bit cruel, but it is a good way to get people to buy your game.
Though there will be a seemingly large number of playable heroes in the full releases, the demo lets players take control of three: Link, Impa and Zelda. Each of them plays pretty differently, but they all basically control the same.
Outside of main battles, there are several side activities for players to take part in, and challenge battles are easily the best of these. These take the large maps from main battles but put specific objectives onto them. For example, one mission puts you in control of Link and has you clear 600 enemies, asking you to use bombs as much as possible. These challenges are a nice way to pad out game time as well as help players learn specific characters.
Other side activities are much less exciting. During battles, enemies will drop tons of items just like they do in Breath of the Wild. Seeing as how there is no real crafting or real time cooking mechanic in Age of Calamity, these are mostly used for small side activities.
On the mission select screen, a number of icons will appear that ask you to provide items for rewards. These feel pretty throw away and forgettable and, unless they are added upon in the main game, they will be little more than an afterthought to players looking to get some upgrades.
Players will also get a pretty large number of weapons from battles. Though your weapons don’t break in Age of Calamity, they can be leveled up through a blacksmith, meaning you still need to keep a close eye on what weapon each character is using.
Technically, the game raises some red flags. The frame rate seems to be all over the place, and this is very noticeable upon first booting up the game. While it was pretty easy to get used to after some time, this is still an issue that should be addressed in the full release.
Though Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity doesn’t reinvent the Musou wheel, it perfectly blends the series with Breath of the Wild. The story that we have seen so far from the demo and trailers is pretty interesting and the gameplay is incredibly addicting, meaning this will probably be a must play for fans of Zelda and Musous alike.
Be sure to check back in with the Daily Beacon after Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’s launch on Nov. 20 for our review of the full game.
