Review: HYRULE WARRIORS: AGE OF CALAMITY is Great Slashing Fun
A little over a week ago, Koei Tecmo, Nintendo, and Omega Force launched Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on the Nintendo Switch. The game is a 1v1000 game akin to Dynasty Warriors, but in the world of Zelda. This is the second Hyrule Warriors game (I’m treating the three previous releases as the same game) and instead of having a complete non-canonical story, Age of Calamity actually tells the story leading up to the events in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo was kind enough to supply me with a copy of the game and I have played it a lot, so I’ve got some thoughts.
When Age of Calamity was first revealed, I really questioned a lot about it. I wasn’t sure that it really warranted being a full-priced game. I am happy to report that it completely warrants the $60 price tag. The story is really engaging (moreso than the original Hyrule Warriors story in my opinion), the art is beautiful, the mechanics add new depth, and it’s just been a lot of fun.
Because I’ve had so much fun, I’m going to talk about the problems I’ve encountered first. The number one problem is that multiplayer is bad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun to play with someone else. However, the Switch cannot handle it. While playing with my wife, there were so many times the frame rate dropped really low. We’re talking probably in the teens. It was bad. Also, I’m disappointed that there’s no online multiplayer. I think that would’ve been a great feature, especially if it could’ve supported up to 4 players, so you could all run around as the Champions. Just a thought.
My second complaint is that it is not intuitive to figure out your combos. It took me forever to figure out you go to the character in the Party screen, and then go to Status to find them. It was much more intuitive in Hyrule Warriors.
One feature that I’m very torn about is the individualized Sheikah slate uses. Every character can use the four runes of the Sheikah slate, but each one uses them differently. For example, Link throws remote bombs that you can aim while Zelda summons a little droid that you can move around as it fires bombs into the air. While this is really cool, the Cryonis really makes me wish that they weren’t different. The reason why is because enemies that you’re supposed to use Cryonis on are charging at you making the idea that you are to use Cryonis to create a pillar for them to run into. However, with each character doing Cryonis differently, it makes it very hard to properly do this with certain characters. The other runes are pretty good at being unique, but being equally effective, it’s really just Cryonis that I’ve struggled with.
I’m also torn about the UI. It’s really cool to have everything on the Breath of the Wild map, but at the same time, it makes it easy to miss things since some side quests or buffs can be very spread out. There are times I wish I could’ve just pulled up a menu to access everything.
Something great about Age of Calamity is that the cutscenes are voiced with the same voices as Breath of the Wild which adds another level of immersion and drama. There’s also the gorgeous graphics. When you’re playing single player, the game runs very smooth and utilizes the same art and graphics as Breath of the Wild which is just gorgeous.
One of my favorite new features is the sensor. When you need materials for a certain buff or upgrade, you can mark it with your sensor and then any shop or quest that you can get it from will have a green circle around it. This is an amazing feature.
The characters are fun as well (granted I haven’t unlocked everyone yet). Impa was a lot more fun than I expected. She easily becomes her own little army with her clones. Urbosa is my favorite though. She was the whole reason I was excited to play this game and she did not disappoint. She’s so much fun to play as!
Is Age of Calamity perfect? No. However, it’s a lot of fun with a very engaging story to boot. While the multiplayer aspect is very sub-optimal and many probably won’t like the frame drop, the single player aspect does work hard to make up for that.
