Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity review: A great hack-and-slash story

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Koei Tecmo’s successor to Hyrule Warriors that doubles as a prequel of sorts to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is a thumb-blistering good time thanks to its incredible storytelling.

Title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Developer: Koei Temco/Omega Force
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: November 20th, 2020

When Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced in a surprise trailer released by Nintendo back in early September, it quickly gained a staggering amount of hype. This hype was largely due to the game being considered an official “prequel” to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, taking place approximately 100 years prior.

However, in many ways, the game also serves as a pseudo-sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors, which was originally released on the Wii U before getting ported to the 3DS and Switch. Developed by Omega Force, a division of Koei Tecmo that is primarily responsible for every game in the Warriors franchise, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity looks to introduce something new while largely sticking to its roots as a thumb-blistering hack-and-slash action game.

For the purposes of keeping this review spoiler-free, I won’t go into too much detail surrounding the plot, other than to say that the game’s storyline is incredible. It also can’t be overstated that the fact this game is considered “canon” to the Zelda franchise speaks volumes about Nintendo’s confidence in Omega Force, trusting them to deliver a narrative worthy of the Zelda name. The story revolves around the Great Calamity war that was directly tied into Breath of the Wild’s overall narrative.

The plot focuses on a “mini-Guardian” that assists Princess Zelda, Link, and the other heroes of Hyrule as they try to prevent the coming of Calamity Ganon. The story is very well written, making for a very engaging narrative. This epic tale is further enhanced thanks to its charming character dialogues and a sense of urgency that follows the characters throughout every storyline mission. Considering that the original Hyrule Warriors narrative felt more like Zelda “fan fiction,” it’s very impressive to see how a hack-and-slash game can tell such a strong and engaging narrative with ease, making it perhaps one of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’s strongest selling points.

Adding to the game’s epic adventure is its equally strong soundtrack. Considering the series pedigree in music, crafting out a score well-deserving of the Zelda name could be seen as a daunting task. Thankfully, the game’s music delivers in the audio department, packed with several arrangements that sound both familiar and fresh. Appropriately, Koei Tecmo utilized several noted composers like Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series) and Reo Uratani (several Monster Hunter entries), among others, for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’s fantastic score. The orchestra-heavy songs compliment its scope and gameplay well, the tempos always harmonizing well with every level and cut-scene.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity deserves some special recognition for its incredible voice-acting performances, a feature that the Zelda series isn’t usually known for. The original Hyrule Warriors certainly didn’t feature much voice-acting, and prior to Breath of the Wild, the most voice-acting heard in Zelda games were just “gasps” and “grunts.” Link, thankfully, is still sacredly presented as a “silent protagonist,” but all the other main characters have quite a bit of dialogue that helps lift them to life. These performances greatly enhance the storytelling, although the story’s main narrator does sound a bit too droll and dry at times.

The game smartly capitalizes on Breath of the Wild’s map screen by using it as the central hub where the players can select missions, enter shops, or even level-up through “training.” In addition, along with the main story and side quests, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is littered with several “non-combat” missions that allow you to upgrade your characters, unlock new shops, and even gain additional playable characters. This is accomplished by providing the necessary materials, usually earned from slaying enemies or as a mission reward.

Materials can also be earned from scanning Amiibos, although only five can be scanned per day. Unfortunately, using Amiibos can only be done from the main menu, which feels like an unnecessary step just to obtain a few extra materials. Hyrule Warriors, in comparison, utilized Amiibos much better, so there’s always room for future improvement, but it definitely feels as if Amiibos were just an afterthought this time. The cooking mechanic from Breath of the Wild is also used here as well, with different recipes offering all kinds of bonuses for each playable mission, such as taking less damage, increased drop rates, gaining more experience, etc.

For me, one of the biggest selling points for the original Hyrule Warriors was its vast selection of playable characters, so expecting a similar approach to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity could be considered a fair assumption. Although there are nowhere near as many playable characters compared to the first Hyrule Warriors, this game still offers a plethora of character choices while trying to remain faithful to its specific setting. Most characters are playable after completing missions in the main story, but there are a few that can be unlocked after finishing a series of side-quests.

A big and pleasant surprise for me was the ability to play as the “Divine Beasts,” each with their own specially-tailored missions that offers a nice change-of-pace to the normal hack-and-slash combat. Compromise was indeed necessary in order to stay true to the story, so the smaller roster is understandable, if a bit underwhelming.

The most important aspect in any hack-and-slash game is, in my opinion, the overall controls. Thankfully, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity largely excels in this manner. In addition to normal and strong attacks, all characters have their own special abilities that helps to differentiate their gameplay styles, which helps to keep the combat from feeling stale and monotonous. Repetitive button-mashing is often considered a negative staple of hack-and-slash games, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity brilliantly manages to avoid this trap, largely thanks to how different the characters feel from each other.

Great controls aside, there are some characters that are not as fun to play with as others, which is to be expected from a decent-sized roster, but it does expose some flaws regarding the game’s overall balance. For example, the Goran Champion, Daruk, is one of the more powerful characters in terms of strength, but his attacks are incredibly slow, which makes dodging harder than it should be for this type of gameplay. Princess Zelda’s “Sheikah Slate” form relies on slow, magic-based attacks that don’t feel very intuitive, taking a lot of practice to master the various combos. Thankfully, the many different characters allow players to pick the ones that work best for them.

Another change from the original Hyrule Warriors is the ability to select different weapon styles for every character. Link is one of the few characters that can use different weapons, from one-handed swords to spears and boomerangs, while most of the other characters are regulated to just one style. Thankfully,  their special abilities usually work as a nice trade-off. Certain characters do get additional forms late in the game, but the option to select these earlier would’ve been a nice option to have.

Upgrading weapons can be done at the blacksmith shop by forging your unwanted weapons together, which raises the weapon’s level as well as occasionally granting extra bonuses, similar to the system used in Hyrule Warriors. One nice change from Breath of the Wild is your weapons have no disabilities, so you never have to worry about them breaking in the middle of combat.

The biggest issue I had regarding Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’s gameplay is the solo targeting camera. Depending on the terrain, the camera became wonky and unresponsive when targeting single enemies and bosses, often spiraling around or occasionally clipping into the environment itself. This issue interrupts the gameplay in a jarring manner, negatively obscuring the player’s view. This camera issue occurs a bit too much, often forcing the player to re-navigate the environment just to appease the camera, all while locked in action-heavy combat.

This can be especially frustrating during missions with time-limits, where a single mistake can cost the player several precious seconds. The overall gameplay and controls are largely satisfying and fun, but the camera’s problem is an unwanted and intrusive aspect that hopefully gets addressed with a future patch.

The best hack-and-slash games usually have a high replay value, something that made the first Hyrule Warriors extremely fun to play well after finishing the game’s main story. In terms of replayability, Hyrule Warriors stands up there with other titles like Bayonetta 2 and Devil May Cry as one of the best. Hyrule Warrior’s best feature was its amazing “Adventure Mode,” challenging maps that cleverly utilized ideas and aesthetics from almost every Zelda title.

Sadly, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity doesn’t have any feature like this, which on the surface should have been expected. But once the main storyline is completed, there isn’t much left to do, outside from playing on higher difficulties, finishing any uncompleted missions, or unlocking the game’s additional “secret ending.” The storyline is very robust though, with an initial playthrough offering dozens of hours of incredible gameplay. Unfortunately for me, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity lost a bit of its novelty appeal once I finished the main story.

Despite a few flaws, most of which are minor, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity greatly exceeds at what the developers promised: it feels like a genuine prequel to Breath of the Wild, in addition to being a fun and proper successor to Hyrule Warriors. The gameplay is very fun and fluid, with the targeting camera’s collision detection problems really being the most glaring issue throughout the game. The controls are very tight and fluent, with no noticeable lag input whatsoever. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity may have been a prequel that no one expected, but the game’s incredible writing, music, and gameplay easily make this instant classic a must-own Switch title for any Zelda or hack-and-slash fans.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.