Ever since E3, news has been pouring out about Hyrule Warriors; new characters, new stages,
new enemies, just so much to take in.
In fact, it's been coming out so fast that we had difficulty keeping up with all of it.
So it was time to put the old Analysis Machine to the test and see just what we could find
in all the media that's come out since E3.
And while it may not be particularly mind-blowing, it does paint a clearer picture to what we
can expect from the collaboration.
Of course, be sure to check out our previous analyses of Hyrule Warriors as we'll be covering
only the new information here.
With that said, let's get started.
One of the things we were still trying to figure out was just how Link became qualified
to lead Hylian Knights.
After all, he starts out as just a highly skilled trainee.
Well, thanks to the E3 trailer, we believe we have a better idea of how he actually becomes
a leader.
We see a large stream of flame heading straight for Impa, but in the next scene, Link is standing
in front of her in a protective stance.
Link is still in his trainee gear and it looks like his hand is glowing for the first time.
This could mean that Link's Triforce is activated when he tries to rescue Impa, thereby showing
his true courage.
If this is the case, then it'd be a great way to show Link's courage right away rather
than just being told he has courage.
And while we still don't have a complete idea of how the story will work, we do see bits
and pieces.
For one, the completely new character, Lana, looks to have a history with Cia.
The Famitsu scans that have come out described Lana as a sorceress who's very energetic and
ready to give everything she has for the war.
There's even an unspoken hostility between the two, even beyond the natural animosity
that comes from war.
Lana, despite her happy nature, is actually ready to stop Cia even if it costs her life.
There's definitely a connection between the two and it becomes even more apparent when
you look at Lana's clothing.
She has the same feathers and style as Cia so maybe she's trying to stop a fellow tribe
member.
Or maybe they were rivals.
What we do know is that at some point, Lana rescues Agitha from monsters and ends up recruiting
her abilities for the war.
And, in this same area, it looks like Lana strangely confronts Midna, who stands with
the legions of enemies.
Could Midna be brainwashed or controlled at some point and it's Lana who eventually snaps
her out of it?
Then there's the appearance of Fi, who Link meets in the Goddess' temple on Skyloft.
According to the scans, Cia is twisting space-time in order to summon areas from Skyward Sword
such as Skyloft and the Sealed Grounds.
Is this a bleeding effect where all the worlds are becoming one?
Or are the portals being lead to specific moments in time?
After all, Link seems to be meeting Fi before the Master Sword was completed in Skyward
Sword.
One thing we've been trying to figure out for a while now is exactly where this could
take place on the timeline.
And now there seems to be little point as the characters are being pulled from moments
of time that best suits them for story purposes.
As Eiji Aonuma put it, Hyrule Warriors exists in a separate dimension that only has links
to the main timeline.
He actually thinks of it like the Avengers where each of these characters has their own
story and lives prior to Hyrule Warriors but are pulled together for the purpose of confronting
a greater threat.
And who is this threat?
Well, as many thought, it likely won't be Cia.
Instead, Ganondorf makes an appearance at the end of the E3 trailer which means this
is an elaborate plot by him.
But considering the general insanity of Hyrule Warriors, what if his plan is to not only
bring together many villains from across the timeline, but the multiple incarnations of
himself?
There's been no indication of that whatsoever, but it would be a cool twist to the likely
"hijacked by Ganon" storyline.
But the game is less about the story and more about the characters.
And there's a wide variety to choose from.
Along with Link and Impa, Zelda, Midna, Lana, Agitha, and Fi will be joining the fight.
Each of them looks to play uniquely with Link being the most versatile of the group.
That comes down to his ability to wield four different kinds of weapons which we could
see in the E3 demo.
We know that he'll be able use the Hylian Sword, the Magic Rod, and most recently the
Ball and Chain from Twilight Princess thanks to the Power Gloves.
The Power Gloves not only control the Ball and Chain but allow Link to lift jars, huge
pillars, and even the enemies themselves for a greater variety of attacks.
But what could fill that fourth slot?
At first we thought the Master Sword could fill it, but looking back at the reveal trailer,
it seems to work exactly like the Hylian Sword.
So it will likely just replace the previous sword.
With so many items in the Zelda universe, it's impossible to say what his last weapon
will be.
Take Zelda for instance.
Her first weapon is the Rapier, but it was recently revealed that her second weapon will
be the Wind Waker.
It's difficult to imagine the Wind Waker as an offensive weapon, but sure enough Zelda
is fighting by using the wind and turning musical notes into lightning bolts.
She can even summon tornadoes in some attacks.
To this end, it seems like every character will have at least one other weapon to choose
from.
During the Treehouse playthrough that showed off Midna, it's possible to see a second weapon
choice besides her shackles.
But what's odd is that none of her attacks seem to use shackles at all.
Instead, she summons Twilit wolves and uses her hair.
Is she using shackles to control the wolves?
And what could her alternate weapon be?
At the very least, we know that one of her special attacks will be the transformation
she goes through in Twilight Princess which looks to be quite devastating.
But even though we don't know all the weapons, we're still learning more about the ones we
have.
Take Impa and her giant blade.
In conjunction with the blade, she can summon water based weaponry to help clear enemies.
But some of them actually do more than just damage enemies, the water spears and swords
have a chance of incapacitating them by encasing their heads in ice.
This leaves the enemies wide open for more attacks and shows a more tactical side to
the combat.
Lana's Book of Sorcery on the other hand looks to be focused on crowd control.
She uses waves of her hand to send out small bits of magic for her light attacks while
her specials summon blocks and really show of her agility.
These blocks can either be sent into a crowd, used to maneuver around them, or even push
enemies away.
What's interesting though, and seems to further connect Lana with Cia, is the pattern on her
blocks.
It looks incredibly similar to the portal that Cia opens in earlier screenshots.
Agitha and her parasol look to control the wind for her light attacks while summoning
giant bugs to aid her in combat for her specials.
The stag beetle charges through enemies to great effect while the butterfly can cover
both the air and land.
Most interesting of all is how she can sprout wings in order to do wind damage.
Could she don other bug parts too for more attacks?
But most mysterious of all is Fi who, as of this video, has not had a trailer to better
show off her abilities.
What we do know from the scans though is that she moves by floating along the ground and
can summon blades to attack enemies as well as transform into a sword herself.
But it's not just weapons that the characters will be using.
Throughout the stages, they will run into chests containing well-known Zelda items like
the bombs and the hookshot.
In an effort to merge the gameplay of both Zelda and Dynasty Warriors, these items can
not only be used for combat, but to reach new areas in each of the stages.
The bombs will destroy rocks blocking the way, and the hookshot will take characters
to unreachable heights.
Combat-wise, the bombs will work as you'd expect, blowing up enemies.
The hookshot though will be used to launch yourself toward enemies as well as pulling
flying enemies down to earth.
It seems to be a much more focused weapons than the bombs.
Another item that has recently been seen in screens is the bow.
It's not immediately clear how it helps the characters traverse the stages, maybe triggering
switches like the main games, but it will be a helpful item during combat.
It actually makes the weak spot gauge last longer, allowing you more time to land that
last it.
It can also do a spreadshot against multiple enemies from a distance.
Both weapons and items will be found in chests scattered throughout the stages so exploration
will be necessary in order to find everything.
That goes for Heart Containers and Pieces as well.
However, the scans state that the stage select menu will indicate whether they've been found
or not.
Even more intriguing is that certain characters might be necessary to obtain them.
Up until this point, the only difference between the characters seemed to be their combat style.
Could this mean there's more to them?
Or is it possible that certain parts of a stage are blocked off unless a particular
character is used?
It's doesn't seem to be just Heart Pieces that can be found in the stages though.
There's an icon for Gold Skulltulas which could mean that they'll be hidden away in
each stage for players to find, just like their sidequest in Ocarina of Time.
But what would the reward for finding them be?
In their first appearance, they would reward players with items like a Heart Piece or a
bigger wallet.
Could it simply be that or will there be some new reward?
And what's the icon next to it?
It's too blurry to make out exactly, but it resembles a bug or maybe a kind of fairy.
It could be an indicator that all of Gold Skulltulas were found in the stage or perhaps
that there is another kind of special collectible to find as well.
Between the stages, it's been revealed that players can shop between battles using the
rupees that enemies drop.
It's not just one shop either as players can go to a training room, a potion shop, a badge
shop, and a junk shop.
The training shop is actually a way for you to further level up your character.
It's not necessary, but it's a way to speed up the process beyond just grinding the same
stage over and over again.
The potions that can be bought at the potion shop are one time use items and can cause
a variety of special effects during battle beyond the typical healing.
The question is whether or not potions need to be bought or found in order to have more
than one potion at a time.
Based on how the rest of the game is structured, we believe bottles will be able to be found
throughout the stages, giving players more options as they progress through the game.
The badge shop could be compared to an armory or a way to increase stats as players spend
rupees and raw materials in order to purchase these badges.
The raw materials can also be found from defeating enemies, and it seems that some of the materials
will be rarer than others.
Some of them will even carry unique materials.
The badges are said to be permanent and the interface shows a kind of skill tree.
This could mean that badges have to be made in a certain order to unlock later ones.
It's not entirely clear what all of these badges do, but one allows the weak spot gauge
to be destroyed more quickly.
The last of the shops, the junk shop, hasn't been properly detailed yet.
We can guess though that it may be a way to sell unneeded materials for rupees in order
to spend at other shops.
It could also be a place to buy new weapons or perhaps even upgrade them.
Then there are the enemies which have proven to have quite the variety.
Most of them seem to come from their Twilight Princess designs such as the Bulblins, a generic
version of King Bulblin, Redead Knights, Aeralfos, and Darknuts.
They've even retained many of their strategies such as the Redead being able to freeze you
in your tracks.
The difference this time is that you can easily see the attack's range.
The only other new enemies are the Stalfos and Poes which retain their Ocarina of Time
designs.
What's interesting though is that the enemies tend to stay with other enemies from their
own game.
There's very little mixing and matching except for the Darknut.
He's actually fighting alongside the Bokoblins from Skyward Sword.
Will this kind variety pop up more the farther the story progresses?
It would make sense with the plot that's provided.
More interesting though is the fact that Zant, Argorok, Ghirahim and even the Imprisoned
will all be appearing in the game.
Zant is described as having a style that uses twin scimitars in order to either swing all
around or focus on a particular enemy.
He also has magical attacks that can be quite devastating.
Argorok is all about flight and defense.
He'll attack from high above unless he's pulled down to ground level.
Yet even then he has a thick armor that protects him from many attacks.
Ghirahim uses magical swords to strike his opponents and can even summon enemies to fight
for him.
He's also difficult to hit since he can change his position in an instant.
Finally, the Imprisoned basically acts as he did in Skyward Sword though we wonder if
it'll be necessary to climb on top of it again to finish it.
More than likely a different tactic will have to be used to better fit the Dynasty Warriors
gameplay style.
The big question with all of these enemies is whether or not they're playable.
In Dynasty Warriors, the different sides could be chosen and have their own version of the
story and events.
It's entirely possible that the same thing could be done here with players able to play
through a specialized story as the villains.
Perhaps even Ganondorf.
But even if that is the case, we don't know if all of them will be available.
Argorok mainly fights in the air and the Imprisoned is just plain huge so it could be that the
human enemies will take the spotlight if this is true.
Ok, we're almost done here, but we'd thought we go over all the new stages that were revealed
as well.
There's the Palace of Twilight, the Twilight Lands, which includes the Bridge of Eldin
and Kakariko Village, and Skyloft where many of the other floating islands have been drawn
toward it like the Pumpkin Island.
Skyward Sword is also represented by the Sealed Grounds, the Sealed Temple, and the Faron
Woods.
It seems to be a veritable tour of Hyrule through the ages.
They also hide some interesting secrets such as a fairy fountain and Great Fairies that
seem to be based off of their Ocarina of Time appearance.
What's unique though is that the Palace of Twilight has Magic Circles that trigger special
events against Argorok.
One of which is actually with the Great Fairy where she powers the Magic Circle in order
to pull down the Moon from Majora's Mask and knock Argorok out of the sky.
The question is, was that the actual moon?
Could this mean that the Twilight Realm and Termina are one and the same?
But it disappeared into a group of fairies.
Was it just a magical construct by them simply for a cameo?
I doubt we'll get many concrete answers considering Hyrule Warriors loose take on the Zelda mythos.
But that's ok as the game seems to be a true celebration of Zelda in Dynasty Warriors form.
The bigger question is whether only the more realistic artstyles of Zelda will be represented
here or if we'll see characters from other games like A Link to the Past or Wind Waker?
Either way, we can't wait to play the game for ourselves.
With only a month until the Japanese release, we should know everything about it very soon.
But that's everything we could find in the released details of Hyrule Warriors.
Of course, if we missed something, please let us know in the comments.
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