In some respects, Persona 5 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild couldn’t be more different as games. Persona 5 is grounded in modern day Tokyo and combines fantasy JRPG elements with social sim mechanics. In contrast, Breath of the Wild is a fantasy action-adventure game all about open-world exploration. One tells a story about real-life societal ills and the social outcasts who try to fight them, while the other tells a story about a fallen hero in a magical world rising again to meet his destiny. One thing they do have in common is that they’re defining titles of their genres and generation, as Persona 5 and Breath of the Wild have helped define the PS4 and the Switch.
However, years after these two games first came out, a new similarity is emerging that’s pretty surprising. Both games have received follow-up games, but not games that follow their usual style of play. To be specific, both Persona 5 and Breath of the Wild have dabbled in the Dynasty Warriors series, resulting in hack and slash spin-offs: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers. It’s an odd coincidence that both of these games happen to be offering fans more content in the same style. One has to wonder why Atlus and Nintendo are both interested in the Dynasty Warriors framework, and what the excitement for both of these spin-offs says about the popularity of the Dynasty Warriors style in general.
When most fans think of Persona or The Legend of Zelda, they probably don’t automatically think of large scale warfare. Still, that’s what players get when they cross over with Dynasty Warriors. Omega Force and Koei Tecmo have been making hack and slash adventures based on Chinese historical texts for around twenty years, and it just so happens that these developers have gotten such a handle on the Dynasty Warriors formula that it’s relatively easy to apply to other source material. The companies proved that already when Nintendo collaborated with them to create the first Hyrule Warriors game in 2014.
What’s different about the first Hyrule Warriors, compared to Age of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers, is that it was a standalone title. It told a self-contained story that made reference to several other Zelda games but didn’t tie into any plotlines. In contrast, Age of Calamity is a prequel to Breath of the Wild, and P5 Strikers is essentially a sequel. This time the Dynasty Warriors style becomes much more intimately connected to the main bodies of these franchises, rather than resulting in a simple spin-off.
All in all, it seems like Nintendo enjoyed the first Hyrule Warriors enough to come back, and Atlus developed enough of an interest in the formula to try a game in that style too. Usually changing formula so drastically, even for a side game, is controversial since it can make fans lose interest in a series they played for the mechanics or genre. One wonders is Nintendo has actually kicked off a trend after the high-profile Hyrule Warriors years ago, meaning maybe other developers will pay Omega Force and Koei Tecmo a visit.
There are a few defining characteristics of a game or a franchise that make it appropriate for the Dynasty Warriors formula. For one thing, the source IP ought to offer lots of potential playable characters, since part of the appeal of Dynasty Warriors is that each character has their own fighting style for mowing down fields of enemies. It also needs large open spaces in unique settings to make for memorable battlefields, as well as enemies that could reasonably appear in huge numbers. Persona 5 and Breath of the Wild can easily offer all these things in their own ways, but they’re far from the only ones.
For instance, Borderlands could be a surprise hit with a Dynasty Warriors spin-off. It has a huge roster of familiar faces, and not just because of how many player characters there are. There’s also familiar NPCs like Hammerlock and Tiny Tina that could be great candidates for fighting tides of psychos across Pandora, while another far-out choice would be Horizon: Zero Dawn. The ruins of Earth offer lots of wide open spaces with interesting terrain, and Guerrilla Games could help Omega Force come up with movesets for characters like Erend and Avad that let them fight alongside Aloy while showcasing each culture’s fighting styles.
There’s plenty more games out there that could make this style work. Anything from Dragon Quest to Halo could reasonably be adapted to the hack and slash style and offer players an elaborate power trip while offering a new perspective on the franchise it game from. In general, production of Dynasty Warriors crossovers with other AAA franchises has been ramping up recently. As the developers branch out and develop more connections, it wouldn’t be surprising if more crossovers like Age of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers are on the horizon.
It’s worth noting that most of the companies and material that Dynasty Warriors worked with were Japanese, just like Omega Force and Koei Tecmo. The developers don’t have much of a relationship with Western developers yet, which could limit the possibilities of future crossovers in the near future. Still, anything is possible. Koei Tecmo is responsible for a lot of famous and successful games, so it has more than enough clout to reach out to Microsoft or Sony to discuss a potential cross between their properties. Clearly, it now has a good working relationship with the titanic Nintendo, considering how much development attention Hyrule Warriors has gotten.
It’s a big deal that two very famous franchises have intersected with Dynasty Warriors this way. Koei Tecmo’s franchise is famous in its own right, but it’s different when another game endorses the whole style. If Nintendo and Atlus show such an active interest in hack and slash warfare, it could launch a new trend over the next few years and inspire original games and further spin-offs alike. Some studios might not even ask Koei Tecmo to collaborate and independently take a stab at the style instead. It’s always hard to predict a trend in advance, but Age of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers are such birds of a feather that they can’t help but seem like the start of something. Maybe 2021 will indicate if these games are a coincidence or a pattern.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is available now for Nintendo Switch. Persona 5 Strikers releases worldwide on February 23, 2021 for PC, PS4, and Switch.
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