This game really didn’t end up being what we thought it would in the end, did it? What we were expecting was a prequel to Botw, fleshing out the story that we only saw glimpses of throughout the game in the form of another Hyrule Warriors game. In many ways that is exactly what we got but if you pay attention you quickly realize that there is something more here.


I’m going to go into quick spoilers for this paragraph so if you don’t want that then just skip to the next one. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that this game is actually an alternate timeline diverging from the original during the Calamity’s awakening in Botw. So immediately, anyone familiar with the Zelda lore knows that nothing in this game is canon which is really upsetting because I think a lot of what this game does in it’s story is done amazingly well.


The story is a successful expansion on Botw and is probably the best story told in a zelda game which is a wild statement. Personally, I like a story that focuses on characters and how they react to the situations the plot puts them through. It’s what I love so much about Xenoblade and is something I really appreciate here.


Zelda genuinely has more agency here than she does in literally any other game in the franchise. They gave her a pretty simple arc in the cutscenes in Botw that ultimately never really gets resolved until literally the last cutscene where her problems are made effectively pointless since the game is over. Here though, they really give it a lot of attention. You can see so clearly what she’s going through and it comes together in a satisfying way that matches her identity and makes her extremely likable. Zelda is basically this game’s protagonist. Obviously Link is the main character but he hardly does anything. We all know Link doesn’t really have a character because he’s the #1 silent protagonist in gaming and he didn’t go through one in Botw so why force one here?


(I do think it’s a little bit of a missed opportunity but there’s a good portion of the backstory in Botw that focuses on Zelda detesting Link because of her jealousy that he was able to so easily fall in line with his destiny and she couldn’t and they never do that in Age of Calamity. It’s not a major issue but it is something I wish they would have done.)


It comes with the territory but since they are able to give the main party so much more time to do stuff you really get a sense of their bond and it kind of ends up feeling like a main cast in a Xenoblade game. Where everyone is so close and really cares for one another. It’s a shocking thing to see here, especially for a Zelda game, but it works really well.


The villains are also really good here. Master Kohga’s ancestor, …Master Kohga, and his body guard, Sooga are really fun characters. Towards the end of the game you see a lot more of Kohga and he is just such a delight. I love him in Botw and Totk but them giving him a voice here and more time to just be a goofy “villain” is way better. Sooga unfortunately doesn’t get much characterization. It’s my headcanon that they’re super gay which I don’t think is completely unintentional based on how they talk but maybe I’m just weird. They introduce a completely new villain named Astor who unfortunately follows the amazing Zelda villain trend that we all love to see where he doesn’t end up as the main villain and gets overshadowed by Ganon towards the ending. He’s really cool for a Zelda villain. Not as charismatic as Ghrirahim but not super stoic like Zant at the start of TP. He’s neat. Ultimately he gets replaced by Ganon at the very end but when he is there he’s pretty cool. I really like the calm and calculated Zelda villain. Of couse Ganon is here in a way. Not a cool way but he’s here. It’s basically just Botw again where he’s more of a humanoid machine monster thing and therefore gets literally NO personality. It’s such a shame they pull the trend on Astor because I would have loved if he had ended up as the big bad final boss.


The gameplay is very typical Warriors style. They integrate the perfect dodges from Botw into the combat and yes, it’s just as broken as it was there. To be fair to Age of Calamity they really shorten the window for it so actually doing it is a little bit more difficult but when you get the muscle memory down every fight is a joke. Compared to original Hyrule Warriors I think this combat is more fun simply because all the characters feel a lot faster and move more smoothly. In that game, Link was the only character that i actually liked using because he didn’t feel super stiff to move with but luckily they fix that here. I enjoy playing as most characters in Age of Calamity. They try to give every character something unique which works to the benefit of a lot of them however some of them can get so gimmicky that it ends up sacrificing functionality in some rare cases. Overall, I still ended up using Link for pretty much the entire game still but that was mainly because he had just naturally become so overleveled that he made every fight a breeze.


They do the side content much differently here as well. There are two main types. One is a long list of mini challenges that take assets of other levels and mix them into something new, a lot like the adventure mode in original Hyrule Warriors. There are also various fetch quests that are simply collecting whatever items are needed and hitting confirm on a menu. There isn’t much to them. You get a really cool armor set for 100% completion that I won’t spoil but ultimately does nothing. It’s a neat reward but it doesn’t justify the absolute grind that 100% completion is. The mini battle things you do are fine, some can be a little tricky but they never last too long. The issue is the fetch quests. A lot of the items are random drops that get frequent on specific maps which aren’t too bad but the real issue is the trophies you get when you defeat monsters. I did every quest up to chapter 7 and there were still not enough trophies given to me from natural progression like this to complete the quests. It forces the player to grind which in a game where the combat gets stale really quickly is something you NEVER want to do. In the end, it’s still side content so it never forces you into it but that doesn’t excuse how boring it is. “If the side content isn’t fun then just don’t do the side content” is not a valid excuse. I would have been more okay with it if there had just been less to do but anyone who plays these games know that they do NOT limit themselves on the quantity of stuff to do.


(This game has some incredible music, obviously. I didn’t really have anywhere else to it that so you’re getting it here.)


This game is a great follow up to the first Hyrule Warriors and gives us an amazing return to Botw’s Hyrule. An amazing story with decent gameplay. It’s only really held back by it’s side content. If you like Warriors games and Zelda or just a fan of Botw then be sure to try this out. It’s pretty great.

I remembered being fine on this game originally, I didn't really buy into the story hype as much as others so that being a disappointment or whatever didn't super matter to me and I was content with just seeing some fun interactions with the champions and characters in general. It didn't super grab me gameplay wise until the later half and even then I wasn't SUPER locked in, I was happy to finish the main story but wasn't too interested in much side content. I hadn't thought about it much but then gamestop had a price error where the full game + DLC season pass was like $10 and I figured I would hop onto it and get back and try out the DLC.

I don't really know what happened, but it ended up clicking pretty hard for me as I went though the DLC, at least after I got the insanely overwhelming feeling of seeing the map especially with added DLC content. I think it got harder and made me actively learn a bit better how to optimally play and utilize things like the Runes and actually remember to use the block button ever so just learning the actual game and getting deeper with it helps for sure. Another part of it clicking more this time around is that some of the DLC weapons and characters are really great, the Guardian Flails for Link and the Master Cycle for Zelda are a ton of fun! I had weapons and characters I liked in the base game a lot too but these stand out as my new favorites easily. The new characters are pretty cool too, but similar to the base game it's kinda hard to catch everyone up to how insanely strong my Link and to a lesser extent Zelda are. I'm not rolling in rupees to level them up generally and since i'm not really playing as them I don't get a ton of weapons to upgrade their weapons. Generally I found each unique character more interesting than the original Hyrule Warriors (but it's also been a while since I played that, this game kinda has me itching to try definitive edition lol) but I still naturally find my favorites and stick with them pretty consistently. It does not run particularly well, but it looks pretty solid and it's got really cool animations and whatnot. I do wish it loaded a bit faster though it's not like abysmally slow but now that i'm going back and kind of crushing shorter earlier side missions I skipped it's weighing on me a bit.

Glad to have gone back and found something a bit more than I found originally! It wasn't bad by any means, and I do think it can be a bit grindier than it's worth but there is a certain flowstate and mindset I kinda fell into that made me like that a lot more this go around than I did when I first played the main story. The DLC and a lot of it's additions helped a good bit for sure but I just kinda came out of this game with a much bigger appreciation in general and that's always a cool feeling! Thanks gamestop for fucking up and letting me get this for dirt cheap!