Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - When Breath of the Wild Meets Dynasty Warriors

I finished playing Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for the Nintendo Switch. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity takes the gameplay from hack-and-slash, musou-style games such as Dynasty Warriors, and marries it with all of the other aspects from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I remember playing a little bit of the first Hyrule Warriors game and the developers crammed everything Zelda-related into a game with no real sense of direction. Now that Age of Calamity is a direct prequel to Breath of the Wild (set 100 years before the events of BotW) and has a competent story, the experience playing Age of Calamity feels more streamlined and immersive than its predecessor.

I think the biggest positive of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the seamless integration between the gameplay of games such as Dynasty Warriors, and all the other aspects of Breath of the Wild. The presentation is still so uniquely Zelda that I was almost fooled into thinking that I am playing another mainline console Zelda game. The main hub of Age of Calamity is like pressing the pause button in Breath of the Wild. The story is still roughly the same as Breath of the Wild, but I felt like there was additional depth in many of the characters involved, including Zelda and the four champions of Hyrule.

I am also impressed with the playable characters in Age of Calamity. In particular, I enjoy the different styles of battle that each character possesses, and no two characters felt too similar in how they attacked enemies. Playing as different characters make completing each battle feel fresh and you can spend the time leveling up each character, as well as discover the kinds of attacks they dish out to enemies. One last thing to note about the music: I am sure Age of Calamity borrows from Breath of the Wild, but the music is as similarly epic as BotW.

I now want to talk about the gameplay of Age of Calamity. I realize that hack-and-slash, musou-style games are not for everyone due to its repetition, but I personally enjoyed the gameplay. Age of Calamity is one of my favourite games for stress relief. If I would have a particularly difficult day at work, I could not wait to mow down hundreds of enemies with Link's spin attack. With this kind of game being on the Nintendo Switch, and that there can be so many things happening on the screen at the same time, Age of Calamity suffers from framerate issues. Personally, I did not mind the issues and it did not take away from my enjoyment of the game. Now the easy argument to make for these issues is the Nintendo Switch is not as powerful as an Xbox One or a PS4 and could not possibly handle so many things happening on screen. However, I have played Dynasty Warriors games on similar PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and I got those same framerate issues. I think this is just a problem exclusively with musou games.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an excellent hack-and-slash game, with a variety of different characters to play with, satisfying gameplay, and the top-quality lore and presentation that Zelda fans should already expect. Many of the issues with this game are exclusive to hack-and-slash games and also makes Age of Calamity feel a bit one-dimensional, but this game is still loads of fun to play, whether by yourself or with friends.