Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Genre: Action Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020, is a “musou”-style Brawler in the same vein as games like the Dynasty Warriors series as well as the previous Hyrule Warriors game. However, while the first Hyrule Warriors game pulled from games throughout the Zelda series for its characters, locations, and lore (and as a result felt like a professionally-made fan game), Age of Calamity is specifically focused on fleshing out the lore of one game in particular – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Taking place 100 years before the majority of that game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity fills in the details of the Calamity War seen only in glimpses in that game’s backstory.

At least, that’s nominally the idea here, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity does something tricky with its narrative that makes it more than just a simple lore-expanding prequel. It’s no spoiler to say that canonically, the Calamity War ends poorly for Hyrule’s heroes – Breath of the Wild makes this abundantly clear early on, with the land of Hyrule torn apart and nearly destroyed outright, with Ganon himself only held at bay in a standstill magical battle with Zelda that inevitably will see her defeated and evil win lest Link can somehow change everyone’s fates.

Just as Breath of the Wild starts with the heroes’ fates seemingly sealed, Age of Calamity starts with a surprising spot of hope in a story that surely seemed hopeless – we begin not before the war has started, but after it has been all but lost, with tiny uncorrupted Guardian (those magical mechanical automatons that Gannon used to seal his victory in Breath of the Wild’s backstory) using a unique ability to travel back in time to the early days of the war to warn Zelda and potentially change the course of the war.

The resulting implications of this make this game’s story even more tantalizing – not only is this game filling in the lore and backstory that seemed lacking in Breath of the Wild, but it is doing so in a way that dangles the possibility in front of players that this is a story we may not know the ending to. With this new information, can Zelda, Link and the others change the timeline? Will the stray time traveller’s efforts be in vain? Or is all of this a closed loop that has already factored into Breath of the Wild’s dark opening? This is a question that may well be on players’ minds while they also delight at seeing characters like Impa, Purah, and Robbie in their prime, as well as getting to see the Four Champions in action, and seeing a Hyrule before it is torn asunder by Ganon’s forces, as well as watching the events of the war unfold before them.

Those who follow my reviews will know that I don’t often spend much time talking about story in these reviews. Generally I feel like a brief overview is sufficient, and those who are truly interested in delving into a story can just, you know, play the game and find out for themselves. But Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is in a very unique situation in that regard, as it is set in the same universe as an extremely-revered game that has some of the best world-building of this generation, but fails to deliver on that world-building with a satisfying story to flesh it out, and I have to give full credit to Age of Calamity for not only working to flesh out that story, but going above and beyond that to deliver something more than just a prequel, something that has the potential to surprise players.

And the truly bizarre thing here is that this comes in a genre that’s not particularly known for its strong stories. Musou-style games are generally known for one thing and one thing only – battles with players taking the role of powerful characters and tearing through hundreds of enemies. Make no mistake, Age of Calamity does this too, but I can never recall a game like this actually getting me to care so much about its story.

Having said that, the gameplay here isn’t satisfied with just rehashing the gameplay of games like the first Hyrule Warriors. A lot of thought went into this game’s combat, incorporating numerous elements from Breath of the Wild to make it clear that this is more than just a Dynasty Warriors game with a Zelda skin, as I’m sure it could be argued that the first Hyrule Warriors was.

Breath of the Wild’s magical runes play an important role here, although their use here has been adapted to combat, and every character uses them differently. Jumping and using the glider plays a role in combat too, making the combat in this game a lot more vertical than most games of this sort. The game also incorporates Breath’s world map to act as a level select of sorts, which I feel works more naturally than the branching path system we saw in the first Hyrule Warriors. There’s koroks hidden in levels, gathering materials to complete tasks and craft recipes to enhance performance in battle… all sorts of little touches here and there that make it clear that the creators of this game really did everything they could to tie this game directly to Breath of the Wild and make it feel like a complete part of that world. I should also note that some of these characters play wildly different, with some really unique and creative abilities that set them apart, and the combat here overall feels like it gives players a lot more options than the previous Hyrule Warriors game did.

One of the other things that really ties this game to Breath of the Wild are the visuals. This game absolutely nails the look, sound, and presentation of that game (Unlike the previous Hyrule Warriors game, Koei Tecmo worked alongside Nintendo in developing Age of Calamity, and it absolutely shows), retaining that game’s same beautiful cel-shaded look, character designs, and storytelling style, as well as giving this game an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack that has many of the same motifs as Breath of the Wild, but builds on them in a more militaristic direction, as is fitting for a game that is more directly about a war. This soundtrack is absolutely pitch-perfect for this game, and one of the best of 2020 in my mind.

However, as much as I am thrilled with the gameplay, the story, and the presentation, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity comes with some pretty major flaws as well. Like any musou game, the combat can get a tad repetitive at times, although this game is better than most in the genre at mixing things up and keeping a lot of variety in the game. Unfortunately, one of the ways it does this, the aforementioned runes, it simultaneously discourages players from using liberally, as some enemies signal a weakness to a rune in the course of battle, and that’s something you won’t be able to exploit if your runes are still recharging after your last use.

Then of course, there’s what is probably this game’s most major flaw – the framerates. Most of the time, this game plays fine, but there are times when the game can bog down into an absolute slide show. In fact, just about any time a barrel explodes, sending fire across the area, you could pretty much guarantee that the framerates would suffer horribly as a result. It’s bad enough that the framerates suffer this severely and this often, but that they suffer so predictably seems like surprisingly lazy game design in a game that is otherwise absolutely anything but lazy.

Before wrapping up, there were a few spare points I wanted to hit on. Firstly, know that this game does make extremely limited use of gyroscopic motion-sensing, apparently only during targeted projectile attacks on enemies such as when using a bow and arrow. These are so infrequent I can’t help but wonder why they bothered adding this feature at all. Also, don’t expect any touchscreen support here, even in menus (that could have benefited from it).

However, I’ve saved the best for last – much like the first Hyrule Warriors game, I am pleased to report that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an absolute delight in split-screen co-op mode, and this time around it’s a bit easier to get a second player to join in the action (it still oddly involves pressing in one of the analog sticks on the menu screen after the introductory battle, but at least this time the game does a better job of signaling this option to players and streamlines the process afterwards). This is an absolutely phenomenal game to play with a friend, and even a child hammering an attack button alongside a more skilled player can be helpful in the fight against the enemy hordes.

Now, if you don’t like Musou-style games, Hyrule Warrios: Age of Calamity isn’t likely to change your mind, as the core gameplay here is still very much in that same wheelhouse. However, for just about anyone else, this is an absolutely fantastic game that’s well worth playing, and that’s especially true for those who loved The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and want to see more of that world’s story. It’s also especially true for those looking for a fantastic co-op experience on the Nintendo Switch, and gamers who are musou fans but don’t follow the Zelda franchise are still in for a treat here, as this game does some inventive things with the genre that make it fairly unique among its peers. The result is a game that I heartily recommend to most gamers who own a Nintendo Switch, and one of the best games to come out on the platform this year.

tl;dr – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, like the first Hyrule Warriors game, is a “musou”-style game in the same vein as the Dynasty Wars series. This time, this game ties directly into the plot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, exploring the events that preceded that game in some creative ways. What’s more, the presentation, the visuals and music, the style, and numerous gameplay elements all tie back to Breath of the Wild. On top of that, the split-screen co-op here is absolutely phenomenal. Only a few flaws here (like occasionally repetitive combat and some frequent nasty slowdown) keep this game from true greatness, but even with these flaws this is still an outstanding game that most Switch owners would do well to check out.

Grade: A

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Game of the Year, Best Action Game, Best Multiplayer, Best Story

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Genre: Action Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

I think it’s fair to say that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is probably the poster child if you’re looking for a game that best demonstrates Nintendo Switch games struggling with the limitations of the console’s hardware. Some players might point to Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, but there’s a case to be made that those games suffer largely due to poor optimization. But Age of Calamity is just trying to do so much and the Nintendo Switch just can’t keep up at times. So as you can imagine, a lot of people are looking to this game to see the improvement that the Nintendo Switch 2 can offer to original Nintendo Switch games without a patch.

And if you’ve been paying attention to any of the performance discussions about Nintendo Switch 2, the answer won’t surprise you – the framerate issues that were so prevalent on the original Nintendo Switch are no longer an issue here, with the game running at smooth, stable framerates even when playing in 2-player split-screen.

The loading times are much-improved too – Where the game took 1:38 to start up on Nintendo Switch, playing it on Nintendo Switch 2 loads the game in only 34 seconds. Not as major an improvement percentage-wise as what we saw in Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, but still a significant improvement.

There is one note I’ll make here though. As much as the framerates are markedly improved here, I’m a tad disappointed that the overall resolution seems somewhat low compared to what players may expect from Nintendo Switch 2 games, with enemies getting blurry not far into the distance. This isn’t worse than what the game looks like on the original Nintendo Switch, but I still mention it because even with improved framerates I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say this game looks pretty now.

However, Nintendo Switch 2 does indeed address one of this game’s biggest issues, so I can absolutely say that if you can play this game on Nintendo Switch 2, that is definitely the best way to do so. And with this us having just seen the release of game’s direct sequel, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, now is as good a time as any to blast through this game before heading into its successor.

tl;dr – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, like the first Hyrule Warriors game, is a “musou”-style game in the same vein as the Dynasty Wars series. This time, this game ties directly into the plot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, exploring the events that preceded that game in some creative ways. What’s more, the presentation, the visuals and music, the style, and numerous gameplay elements all tie back to Breath of the Wild. On top of that, the split-screen co-op here is absolutely phenomenal. Only a few flaws here (like occasionally repetitive combat) keep this game from true greatness, but even with these flaws this is still an outstanding game that most Switch owners would do well to check out.

Grade: A

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