The coming of the calamity. |
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the sequel to a game I loved back in the day on Wii U, 2014's Hyrule Warriors! The Legend of Zelda spin-off returns with a new look in-line with Breath of the Wild and takes place 100 years before the game's events. For some reason, I missed out on the game's 2020 release due to the fact that I kinda forgot about it. This has been a long time coming now, so let's see how the game holds up.
100 years prior to the events of Breath of the Wild, the land of Hyrule is threatened by a dark force known as "Calamity Ganon" that aims to plunge it into eternal chaos. We follow Link, our hero and personal guard to Princess Zelda as they both scour Hyrule in search for allies to pilot the Divine Beasts, large mechanical weapons capable of fighting the Calamity. Throughout the adventure, the pair will overcome many trials and hardships as they ultimately prepare for war.
The cast receive much needed screen-time. |
Zelda herself receives heavy character development as she's more prominent in the story with her arc being great. The Divine Champions from BotW get fleshed-out in their scenes and it was fun to watch too. Sadly, the game turned out to be non-cannon due to time-travel shenanigans and feels like an alternate story rather than a prequel. Worse yet, the villain sucked (downright the worst in the series) with him being completely forgettable.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an action game with RPG elements that's easily identifiable if you've played any of the Dynasty Warriors games. In short, you control your character like Link, Zelda, Impa, or the Champions as you complete various tasks on the map like clearing enemy outposts, defeating enemy commanders, and escorting allies to safety to ultimately defeat the enemy. You can switch between characters during gameplay and issue them commands to attack or move to certain points on the map, which reduces needless backtracking. Boss fights based on BotW like Lynels and Guardians are present and you'll be fighting many of them to advance through the game.
Gameplay was fast, hectic, and a lot of fun. |
The core combat has you stringing between light and heavy attacks to beat enemy waves and once your special meter is full, characters can execute more powerful attacks that can huge chunks of enemies. Each character has their own play-style with different combos to pull, so fighting the hundreds of enemies on-screen doesn't get too boring at first. Characters also level up, increasing their heart containers and obtaining new combo attacks. Gadgets like the remote bombs, stasis, magnesis, and cryosis from BotW, adding another layer of offence.
Rupees and weapons are dropped by enemies or found in chests where you can sell or forge them to craft better weapons too. To break the monotony, you can spend rupees to level up characters faster. At certain points, you get to control the four Divine Beasts in certain segments. They're slower to control but pack more destructive attacks that can wipe out hundreds of enemies at once, and it was was cool to watch.
There are plenty of stuff to do here, though most of it can be boring. |
That said, mowing large groups of enemies was a lot of fun but I wished that there were more finisher animations and enemy types to keep things fresh. It also got grindy by the end with levels dragging on more than they should at 30 minutes. The worst thing was that the camera as it spazzes out when large enemies like the Hinox and Blight enemies are on-screen. It took 20 hours to beat the main story along with doing many side missions that appear on the map, so there's still more content here if you're planning on fully completing the game. These included gathering materials and completing trials to unlock extra stats for characters, though they weren't anything exciting.
As a Zelda fan, it pains me to say that Age of Calamity is the worst-performing game I've played on Switch. From muddy textures, low resolutions across both modes, and a fluctuating frame-rate, the game's a technical mess. The backgrounds, character models, and cut-scenes look amazing thanks to the BotW art-style, but that's all there is. The voicework was good packing the same cast from the game and the soundtrack was equally good. I enjoyed the battle, menu, and post-credits menu themes.
Tech issues aside, Age of Calamity looks great. |
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was a good time and I did enjoyed it being a fan of the series. However, shortcomings like the performance issues, weak story, and lack of variety hold it back from being a much better experience. I still prefer the first Hyrule Warriors but the game is worth a play for fans of Breath of the Wild and fast action games.
Comments
Post a Comment