With Tears of the Kingdom just a bit over two years previous, and Echoes of Knowledge having come out final yr, it appears unlikely that the Nintendo Swap 2 can have a brand new Zelda recreation to name its personal for some time. However Nintendo has partnered with Koei Tecmo and their studio AAA Video games to ship one more Zelda infused Warriors recreation to make sure followers of the franchise have one thing to compel them to look into the Swap 2.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment just isn’t not like Age of Calamity, one other Hyrule Warriors title that promised to inform the story that came about 100 years earlier than Breath of the Wild in a musou type motion recreation format, besides this time, we’re reliving the previous occasions from Tears of the Kingdom as an alternative.
Since that is now the third Hyrule Warriors recreation (and the fifth Warriors recreation based mostly on a Nintendo IP general), I’ve to imagine most individuals know what they’re moving into right here. These video games are not so much just like the franchises they’re based mostly on. So if you’re hoping for Zelda’s dose of adventuring, exploration, dungeon delving, and upgrades, Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment won’t present that to you. It’s, reasonably, a recreation that prioritizes massive scale battles with waves upon waves of trash mobs, taking on and holding aims, holding off large bosses… that complete method is all right here. And since, like Age of Calamity earlier than it, Age of Imprisonment is technically set throughout a struggle, the type of recreation does lend itself properly to it.
By way of pure manufacturing worth and design iteration, that is one of the best Hyrule Warriors recreation. Actually, there may be an argument to be made this is likely to be top-of-the-line Warriors video games general. For starters, not like Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity, each of which suffered closely from being constrained by the {hardware} they launched on on the time, Age of Imprisonment seems to be and runs… tremendous! The gameplay targets and largely holds a 60fps body price, which is particularly spectacular not simply against this to the earlier video games, but additionally as a result of this recreation emphasizes a lot extra alpha results and transparencies and colors and explosions on the display screen always.
Whereas there are body price drops when issues appear to get particularly hectic, the body price by no means appears to drop under the low 50s, which implies that the drops, after they do crop up, virtually really feel extra like hitstun results reasonably than precise efficiency points.
That proper there I’d argue robotically makes this recreation a great advice to anybody who likes the Hyrule Warriors sequence – you’re getting one of the best performing and searching recreation proper off the bat. That stated, there are nonetheless points right here – the sport’s decision is extraordinarily low, for instance, operating at 720p-900p in docked mode, and decrease than 600p in handheld mode; these are resolutions that I’d have hoped we had left behind within the Swap 1 period; sadly, Koei Tecmo’s technical proficiency has by no means been significantly nice, and the Warriors video games, particularly, at all times underperform relative to what it’s possible you’ll anticipate of them.
I’ll say that by and enormous, very like the framerate, the decision doesn’t stand out as a difficulty that always. It’s most noticeable when the sport switches from gameplay or in engine footage to pre-rendered cutscenes – the cutscenes appear to be rendered at a decrease decision than the gameplay, and the picture feels so much softer in them consequently. In contrast to the remainder of the sport, the cutscenes are additionally all seemingly in 30fps, which makes them stand out much more.
It’s, nevertheless, to the sport’s deserves that it runs properly sufficient that the large complaints with its visuals and technical sides hew nearer to nitpicking this time round. Age of Calamity particularly was notorious for its completely horrid efficiency and visuals on the Swap, and stays to today one of many worst wanting and performing video games on that system, 5 years after its preliminary launch. Age of Imprisonment has its shortcomings on this regard, however it additionally represents a large enchancment over its predecessors.
“In pure gameplay phrases, that is arguably probably the most enjoyable and differentiated roster a Warriors recreation has had.”
This holds true elsewhere too. For instance, the precise gameplay is arguably one of the best right here than it has ever been throughout the Hyrule Warriors sequence. Now, Age of Imprisonment is restricted solely to the solid and locales from Tears of the Kingdom; not simply Tears of the Kingdom, really, it’s restricted to a really small a part of Tears of the Kingdom’s story. This robotically limits what’s arguably one of many greatest strengths of the Warriors video games – the crossover from all kinds of characters, and the way properly and differentiated all of them are typically in how they play.
The unique Hyrule Warriors, for instance, pulled in main and minor characters from throughout your complete many years lengthy historical past of the Zelda franchise. It was a delight to see fan favourites and deep cuts alike return in that recreation, and much more so to see how they have been translated into the Warriors template. Age of Calamity was a downgrade on this regard, limiting itself solely to 1 particular Zelda recreation; however it did pull from the entire breadth and vary of that one recreation, and, owing to its lack of regard for the canon of the occasions it was depicting, managed to have a reasonably large and diverse roster too.
Age of Imprisonment stumbles right here. Now, to be clear, I wish to word one factor – it does an superb job of fleshing out the strikes of every character and translating them from the unique recreation to this title’s Warriors type fight. Mineru, for instance, the key fifth sage from Tears of the Kingdom, returns as one of many major playable characters this time round. In Tears, she took on a assemble kind, and knew so much about Zonai tech and powers like Ultrahand Autobuild because of her in depth analysis; in Age of Imprisonment, that manifests together with her fight basically being her consistently pulling, summoning, and setting up Zonai gadgets and constructs to mow down waves upon waves of enemies. And this recreation is stuffed with examples like this, the place it’s a delight to see one thing acquainted recontextualized within the framework of an motion recreation.
The difficulty, nevertheless, is that the roster it will possibly pull from is by definition restricted – you get Zelda, Queen Sonia and Mineru, however when it comes to acquainted characters that’s about it. You get different characters becoming a member of you, don’t get me incorrect – from Koroks, Gorons, Gerudo, to even a assemble that principally performs precisely like Hyperlink and is that this recreation’s method of permitting gamers to have a Hyperlink moveset in fight with out Hyperlink himself being there (since his presence there would contradict canon). These different characters are all extremely enjoyable to play with, very fleshed out, with very distinctive and differentiated strikes.
In pure gameplay phrases, that is arguably probably the most enjoyable and differentiated roster a Warriors recreation has had. However the issue is, most of those characters principally quantity to fanfic OCs; they’re unique characters who didn’t seem in Tears of the Kingdom (or have been barely alluded to), impulsively taking centerstage. I can care about them due to how a lot I get pleasure from taking part in as them, however when it comes to narrative funding, there’s a barrier right here – I don’t care about these characters as a result of I’ve no motive to.
This finally ends up tying into the largest drawback that I really feel Age of Imprisonment has – the story. Now, I’m going to debate normal imprecise spoilers for Age of Calamity, the earlier Hyrule Warriors recreation that promised to depict the occasions main as much as Breath of the Wild, right here for a bit, so skip forward when you haven’t performed that recreation already, and care about spoilers.
When Age of Calamity was introduced, it was introduced as the sport that might depict the cataclysmic occasions of 100 years earlier than Breath of the Wild – basically a prequel. On the time particularly, this was a really thrilling prospect. Breath of the Wild’s backstory and lore was arguably probably the most fascinating a part of its story, and attending to see it fleshed out was a tantalizing prospect.
The sport’s placement within the Zelda timeline on the time was unclear, so the concept of getting extra info was thrilling. And most of all, the precise occasions of 100 years earlier than Breath of the Wild are basically a longform tragedy – all the things goes incorrect, the nice guys lose, and that’s how Hyperlink finds himself having to wash up the mess 100 years later by himself. The thought of taking part in a Zelda story that had such a miserable and unflinchingly tragic bent was thrilling too.
“To me, the story was really probably the most disappointing factor, particularly due to how a lot it restricted the sport elsewhere.”
Nonetheless, Age of Calamity pulled a quick one on everybody by not being an precise prequel in spite of everything. As an alternative, it ended up being an alternate story set 100 years previously, that includes a model of these occasions the place the nice guys do handle to win, partly as a result of help from characters from Breath of the Wild, who traveled again in time to assist them out. In different phrases, it was not a prequel, it was arguably not even canon, what it was as an alternative was a nonsensical excuse to have as many characters collectively as potential within the roster. And that was… tremendous. It was extraordinarily disappointing that we didn’t get the story we had been wanting ahead to, however it was perhaps incorrect to anticipate that from a Warriors spin off recreation to start with.
I went into all this element to level out how Age of Imprisonment is completely different – not like Age of Calamity, nothing that occurs on this recreation contradicts canon. For all functions, it is a true prequel. The difficulty is, it’s a little bit of a nothing burger. Look, the tales in Zelda video games, whereas compelling sufficient to border the adventures they set gamers off on, and that includes wealthy tapestries of backstories that permit for many years lengthy fandom arguments in regards to the broader timeline, are finally pretty simplistic. They’re like fairy tales – tales instructed in massive scale motifs and archetypes, dealing in broad, common, timeless themes.
Tears of the Kingdom’s story was like this too – positive, there’s a complete previous battle (the Imprisoning Battle, which is what this recreation is about in) alluded to, however we study all the things vital there is to study it within the recreation itself. Age of Imprisonment doesn’t really convey something new to the desk. You’re getting an expanded model of the identical main occasions – however it’s nonetheless that very same story, and it’s not a narrative that’s ok to be a motivating issue for a recreation this lengthy. And in contrast to with Age of Calamity, by this time limit we all know the place these video games match into the broader Zelda timeline – and we all know they’re standalone and don’t actually work together with the remainder of the sequence a lot, which implies there’s even much less intrigue right here.
To me, the story was really probably the most disappointing factor, particularly due to how a lot it restricted the sport elsewhere. If the builders had chosen not to stay to established canon, perhaps we might once more have had acquainted characters I am connected to on this recreation, and I’d have cared extra about their participation in no matter non-canon occasions have been transpiring, for instance. We might have had Hyperlink, reasonably than Robo-Hyperlink at house, for instance. However the builders did select to respect the canon this time round, and all of that was in service to a narrative that’s, finally, pretty uninteresting.
It’s particularly disappointing as a result of, as I discussed beforehand, that is arguably one of the best taking part in Hyrule Warriors recreation but; to have that tied to the dullest roster and story appears like a let down. Even a pure fan service story with absurdity powering the narrative, as was the case in Hyrule Warriors, would have been higher, I really feel. The story right here was so uninteresting that I simply didn’t… care.
“To be completely trustworthy, I’m a bit fatigued by this Hyrule, this Zelda, this Hyperlink, and this model of the Zelda mythos general.”
A minimum of partly, I feel this subject owes itself to overexposure. Look, Breath of the Wild is a tremendous recreation, debatably the only biggest recreation ever made, however we’ve got now spent practically a decade in its world and continuity. Not counting re-releases, we’ve got had Breath of the Wild, its enlargement, Age of Calamity, Tears of the Kingdom, and now Age of Imprisonment.
To be completely trustworthy, I’m a bit fatigued by this Hyrule, this Zelda, this Hyperlink, and this model of the Zelda mythos general. One of many strongest factors within the franchise’s favour previously has perennially been how every new recreation diverse from its predecessors in each regard – story, characters, map, even artwork type. However we’ve been caught with the Breath of the Wild rendition of Zelda and Hyrule for thus lengthy now, that I’m actually prepared for one thing new. That isn’t this recreation’s fault, thoughts you – however it does imply that its inessential keep rankles greater than it will if I didn’t really feel this manner.
Ultimately, the Swap 2 can have its personal correct Zelda recreation, and when it does occur, I hope it’s one thing utterly new and thrilling that introduces a brand new period for the franchise. In the mean time, for these followers who need one thing Zelda for his or her new Swap 2s, Age of Imprisonment is a reasonably good recreation to look into – it’s full of content material, seems to be and performs higher than any earlier recreation within the sequence, and has arguably one of the best gameplay and design in your complete subseries.
Its shortcomings with the story, and consequently deficiencies with the roster vary, are unlucky – however on the very least devoted followers of the Breath of the Wild duology will in all probability discover a truthful few to get pleasure from in Age of Imprisonment.
This recreation was reviewed on the Nintendo Swap 2.
