honestly I enjoy this game just because of how much tech there is to do crazy combos, and playing characters like Tingle and slaughtering tens of thousands of enemies will never not be hilarious to me. Gameplay can be repetitive to people but I still find the huge amount of characters to reduce the boredom for me. AI is incredibly stupid though, never really found the game too challenging combat wise but oh my god are your teammates fucking stupid, feels like i have to run my ass across the entire map to save a vital ally from a generic captain enemy every 2 minutes. Also I've had some issues with the game dropping frames when certain cutscenes play or when theres alot of stuff on the screen, or even when im just hitting alot of enemies at once, a little annoying but the lag never sticks around too long.

Popcorn movies are often used as a term for movies that don't have much depth or artistic merit, but are meant as a short form of entertainment. Games don't have such a term, but if such a popcorn game did exist, I feel Hyrule Warriors fits that bill wonderfully. Hyrule Warriors has brain dead combat, a nonsensical plotless campaign, and specials, while over the top fun, gets stale fast yet Hyrule Warriors is one of the most entertaining and time sink games on the wii u to date. The campaign is an interesting take on the usual Zelda timeline and while having interesting things like dimension hopping and time travel; largely all comes down to get all the bases and beat some baddies. Each characters/weapons moveset are fairly unique while also providing to still have very basic controls, but often when going for A ranks in the zelda maps it can be hair raising to get it for unfamiliar or down right bad characters. While the campaign is a fun little ride, the main mode is the Zelda map where you go around collecting new weapons, heart conditioners , and items to further explore.While the Zelda map mode is a fun little mini-type game that let's you play a psuedo Zelda, it's largely the main cause of stress for this game due to it's random nature of A ranks for various characters, and not understanding that the game itself simply isn't balanced enough for all characters to be viable or usable to every single player. Still Hyrule Warriors is an enjoyable experience regardless of it's repetitive and inconsistent nature, but it largely has to do with how much you like Zelda and if you don't mind turning off your brain a bit. Hyrule Warriors isn't going to change anyone's day, but at least it provides for some cool moments every now and then.

Your moves are embarrassingly rad, but then your enemies are basically endless. You are always playing catch-up. Less power-fantasy than putting-out-fires-fantasy.

You have a lot of women warriors to choose from. But as Hyrule history makes clear, there are only so many because past Zeldas were full of female helpers and sidekicks. That they finally get to fight alongside the boys in a little meta-gaiden like this is no consolation. The new female villain, Cia, isn’t even allowed a true lust for power. She’s just lovesick for Link.

Hyrule Warriors is ultimately a feckless episode of Zelda Superfriends. Move along.

I have sunk like 30 hours into it and eeeeeh...

I was really into at first. The core gameplay loop of mowing down enough goons to fill the population of a small country and then leveling up and buy skills for your characters got its hooks in me good. But the longer I played the more it felt like a chore.

I was reminded of how similarly I felt playing Hollow Knight earlier this year, but whereas Hollow Knight’s core gameplay was fun and the filler between those parts were boring, Hyrule Warriors’ core gameplay got bogged down by its own breadth of content, making it feel worse. I was gonna 100% the campaign until it locked collectibles behind exclusive characters and events. Then I just beat the main campaign and quit two levels into the FIFTH postgame campaign. I was gonna complete at least the first Adventure Map but the mechanics suck ass.

My biggest regret is not being able to unlock all the characters (I wanted to play Yuga damn it) but I just COULDN’T be fucked anymore.

There are some cool shit like the remixed songs, the attention to detail on characters, and the original designs (HW Ganondorf best Ganondorf).

I wanted to make Hyrule Warriors my grindy no-thinking stream game for when I start streaming later this month but after two negative experiences with the game today I am officially burnt out. I hope Age of Calamity focuses on quality over quantity.

Super addictive core gameplay loop with a fanfiction-tier story and wears out its welcome. You'll never run out of content with the adventure maps. You'll also never run out of ocean water, but I wouldn't advise drinking it.