Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Switch) – A Second Opinion

Not too long ago, my colleague Dann Koopman wrote his own review for the newest release in the Hyrule Warriors franchise, and it began with a simple statement: “I adore the Warriors games.” Well, what holds true for one gamer may not hold true for another, and while Daan has a long history with the Warriors series of games, I do not. I am, however, a fan of Zelda. I sunk close to a hundred hours into Breath of the Wild, so needless to say, I was super excited when a prequel to the game that was meant to fill in all the narrative gaps of the epic battle that took place 100 years prior to the events of the game was announced. I was still a bit unsure, however. Like I said, I’m no fan of the Warriors titles. They’ve always come off, to me anyway, as a button mashy mess. Could this be the Warriors title that finally gets me onboard? Does it offer a meaty enough gameplay hook for someone just getting into the series? Well, I’m excited to say I took the plunge and have now plowed through an almost uncomfortable number of Bokoblins, Lizalfos, and Wizzrobes. I’m also happy to say it was a (mostly) fun experience. Let’s break down exactly why that is.

The first point I want to touch on is presentation. The game is beautiful. The stylistic choices used in Breath of the Wild are on full display here, and the different enemies are all distinct enough to recognize even when the battlefield is flooded with them. Really, if you like the look of Breath of the Wild, you’ll like the look of this game, as they are almost indistinguishable. I think this is a definite plus, as sliding into this world will feel warm and inviting to existing fans of the Zelda franchise. The menus are also clear and understandable, and the UI is very nice. I think that navigating through missions by selecting locals from the same map as Breath of the Wild is a nice touch as well. The music is recognizable and uses many of the motifs from the previous game while injecting the sort of energy you would expect for a game about battling waves of monsters. I would also be remiss if I did not mention the voice acting. Zelda games have always been very selective in their use of voice clips, but this game goes all in and it’s just a delight to hear characters like Master Koga and Hestu have full-on conversations. But not Link. Never Link.

Okay, so now we get to the most important part of this review: the gameplay. What did I, someone with only passing familiarity to Warriors titles, think about the way the game plays? Well, first off, I should clarify that I played the entire title in co-op play with my fiancée. This obviously has an impact on how I view the game, as well as things such as the overall difficulty. I’m always on the lookout for good couch co-op titles though, and this one did not disappoint! While the combos in the game aren’t as deep as in something such, say, Bayonetta(and yes, I know it’s not that sort of game), I was happy to see that combat did provide a lot of variety. With the number of characters combined with things such as weapons and rune abilities, I never found myself bored. Now, it’s not a game that involves “full brain engagement” – that’s not a bad thing, some games you can play while eating a sandwich. Some you can’t. This falls into the first camp. I really appreciated the special abilities each character had, as well as the slightly different way they use their runes. Flying around a map as Revali and leveling enemies with a volley of arrows feels very different from zapping monsters with Urbosa. I also really liked the integration of dodging followed by flurry attacks that came directly from Breath of the Wild. It offers a good sense of continuity while also adding an extra layer to the combat. This is especially helpful when fighting bosses and tougher enemies such as Guardians and Lynels. I was also worried that I wouldn’t really have much to do, but the game keeps you engaged with a variety of side missions, shops, and a weapon upgrade system via a black smith.

I did have a few issues with the game. The first has to do with the frame rate. Now, I’m not the sort of gamer that notices frame rate drops often. I just don’t. This is why I was shocked to see just how bad the framerate was from time-to-time. It honestly felt like most of my attacks had slowdown built in to make them seem more impressive. I do think that part of this was the fact that I was always playing in split-screen mode. I replayed a level that had massive slowdown by myself and, yeah, I still saw it, but it wasn’t as bad. I also didn’t particularly like sections of the game that had me piloting the Divine Beasts. They were…fine, but not really fun. You got a sense of their scale and power, but every time this sort of mission popped up, it ruined the flow of the action. Another complaint of mine is the lack of enemy variety. This is an issue with Breath of the Wild as well, and although this game actually had more variety (including battles against races such as the Rito and Gerudo) I did still feel like I was fighting the same Bokoblins just a few too many times, even if something of them were electric or ice themed.

Overall, I was super pleased with the time I spent with this game. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I was not, prior to this game, a fan of Warriors titles. This one just might have made me one, though. If you’re on the fence as to whether this sort of game is for you, and are already a Zelda fan, I would definitely recommend this trip to the battlefields of Hyrule.

Special thanks to Nintendo for sending us a code for review!