The original Hyrule Warriors was predominantly fan service for The Legend of Zelda, but it was far from a bad game. Koei Tecmo kept the title alive with numerous expansion packs, all of which adding new characters, stages, and weapons while also upping the level cap. Even if fans weren’t satisfied with Age of Calamity’s base game, it goes without saying that the latest Zelda will only get better from here.
Of course, Age of Calamity is a perfectly fine game as is (arguably the Nintendo Switch’s best this year.) It may not be a straight prequel to Breath of the Wild, but AoC is an outstanding action game with a surprisingly dense story. That said, Age of Calamity also has its fair share of flaws that arguably make it a worse value than either Breath of the Wild or Hyrule Warriors.
10 Loved: Musou Gameplay At Its Best
Dynasty Warriors’ gameplay loop has always had an addictive quality to it, and Age of Calamity has the most refined combat yet. Filled with deep combo depth, better enemy variety than Breath of the Wild, and more hits in the roster than duds, Koei Tecmo has outdone themselves. It is worth mentioning that Age of Calamity uses several high quality Nintendo assets the dev team would normally not have access to, but that isn’t a knock against Koei Tecmo. If anything, they should be commended for reusing Breath of the Wild’s assets in such a genius way.
9 Didn’t: Frame Rate
It’s hard to ignore Age of Calamity’s issues with frame rate. The game itself is good enough to overcome its technical hiccups, but playing undocked is still a disappointment. The original Hyrule Warriors has the excuse of actually being a Wii U game, but Age of Calamity is a high quality first party Nintendo title that simply doesn’t meet the standards the company has set for themselves. It’s true that AoC is developed by Koei Tecmo, but Nintendo should have never allowed the game to release in this state.
8 Loved: Boss Battles
Hyrule Warriors’ boss fights are exhausting from top to bottom, paced like a Zelda boss rather than playing to combat’s strengths. This isn’t the case with Age of Calamity where bosses are significantly improved. Helping matters is how often other characters show up for one on one duels.
Not only is there better boss variety, playing up one on one duels, but the Ganonblights are all highlights of the game. Where they were once low points in Breath of the Wild, the Blights will make players break a sweat while genuinely making great use of all the core mechanics. Nintendo should take notes.
7 Didn’t: Long Load Times
Age of Calamity is an excellent game, but the fact it’s releasing so close to the PlayStation 5 hasn’t done it any favors. While the best Switch game all year, Age of Calamity has noticeable performance issues. Worse than the frame rate, however, the load times are aggressively long. Each stage takes a noticeable amount of time to load, with some side missions potentially shorter than the load times themselves. The load times aren’t enough to ruin the game outright, but they’re an enormous pain that only serve to hurt the pacing.
6 Loved: Level Design
Age of Calamity’s level design isn’t on the same level as Breath of the Wild (for obvious reasons,) but it’s a massive step up from Hyrule Warriors. By using locations already established in BotW, Age of Calamity can reuse high quality assets and a functioning map in order to segment off incredibly detailed stages that hide Korok Seeds and Treasure Chests around the general layout – playing up The Legend of Zelda’s penchant for exploration. Age of Calamity is an action game at its core, but it’s hard not to stop and just take in each incredible stage.
5 Didn’t: Time Travel As A Plot Twist
Time travel as a plot device isn’t unusual for The Legend of Zelda, but Age of Calamity admittedly doesn’t use it well. Terrako’s time travel abilities are triggered directly by Zelda’s power, generating a time hole at the start of the Calamity that sends it back in time. Zelda’s powers trigger Terrako’s time traveling yet again to bring the modern Champions into the past.
While the end result actually does come together, the mere concept of time travel in the context of Age of Calamity is given so little fanfare and care that it frankly falls apart when under even the slightest scrutiny. Considering how understandable Zelda’s time travel has been otherwise, Terrako’s time hops are a massive sore spot.
4 Loved: The Modern Champions
Against all the odds, the modern Champions stand out as some of the best characters in Age of Calamity. Not only are they all extremely well characterized, actually bringing some pathos with them when they interact with their ancestors, they all react differently to being sent to the past. Sidon is genuinely quite sad about Mipha’s fate, Teba is unimpressed with Revali’s smarminess, and Riju & Yunobu try to get along with Urbosa and Daruk respectively.
They’re also some of the strongest characters to play as, easily outdoing Zelda’s actual Champions. Teba is just a better Revali, Sidon has incredible Special Attacks, Riju can punish waves of enemies with Patricia, and Yunobu is just a genuine powerhouse so long as his Protection is up.
3 Didn’t: Overall Roster
While it makes perfect sense that Age of Calamity would only feature characters from Breath of the Wild, the final roster is nonetheless disappointing. Most everyone is implemented into the story well, but the likes of Hestu, the Great Fairy, and Monk Maz Koshia feel terribly out of place. Hestu in particular is a sore thumb with a single scene whose presence kills an otherwise well paced plot.
The Great Fairy and Monk Maz Koshia are simply too ancillary to matter narratively, while also sporting some of the worst play styles in the game. Worse, all three could have easily been replaced by Purah, Robbie, & Sooga – characters with depth who actually factor into the story.
2 Loved: Zelda’s Arc
Breath of the Wild gave the franchise its most nuanced Zelda yet. She’s more than just a princess in need of saving, but a three dimensional character who has to grow to like Link while also dealing with her own insecurities and jealousy. Age of Calamity greatly rounds out Zelda’s character by having her confront her eventual failure.
Zelda is forced to accept her own weakness, which in turn becomes her strength as she stops allowing the world around her to overwhelm her. Age of Calamity shows Zelda fighting & earning her agency, ultimately delivering the final blow on Calamity Ganon and saving Hyrule as a genuine leader.
1 Didn’t: No Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode was arguably the defining game mode in Hyrule Warriors. While the story itself is plenty fun with a varied roster, it’s Adventure Mode that gives Hyrule Warriors longevity – a near endless mission mode with countless references to the entire franchise that genuinely challenges how well players have mastered the game’s many characters and mechanics.
Adventure Mode is genius in a pure conceptual level, which just makes its omission in Age of Calamity all the more disappointing. There are side missions to help round out the campaign (roughly 160,) but they go by fast and don’t have the same flare as Adventure Mode did. It’s possible DLC will add in the mode (especially since the world map will eventually run out of space for new missions,) but only time will tell.
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