For many, it was a huge surprise to many when Nintendo announced Hyrule Warriors, a collaborative
effort that combined the Zelda mythos with Dynasty Warriors gameplay.
No one knew how to take it at the time.
Was it just a spit in the face of the Zelda legacy?
Or could we really be looking at something we never knew we wanted but love anyway?
The story of Hyrule Warriors is at once familiar but quite different.
An evil force led by the mysterious Cia has invaded Hyrule and, despite the fact that
he is merely a trainee, Link takes up his sword to help defend it alongside Impa, Zelda
and hundreds of other soldiers.
Along the way, they are aided by a mysterious sorceress named Lana who seems to know more
about the situation than she lets on.
Together, they have to find a way to stop Cia with the help of other warriors from across
time and space, namely the times of Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess.
It’s an extremely simple plot though it does manage to throw in some twists at times.
Exciting moments happen quite often and you’re never bored seeing all of these heroes team
up to save Hyrule.
But in many ways, I couldn’t help but wish for more.
There are some very interesting characters to be found here, but only Link, Lana, and
Cia receive any kind of development.
Volga and Wizzro, the other two original villains, just come out of nowhere.
There’s no explanation of their backstory except with visual hints and clues.
While it doesn’t detract from the game at all, there was a ton of opportunity here to
provide a more fleshed-out tale.
The same can be said of bringing in the other times; it’s only an excuse to round out
the playable characters and stages.
Beyond them, there are barely any other characters from those games that make an appearance making
the multiple times aspect feel a little shallow.
But it’s the gameplay that really matters here.
Anyone who’s played a game in the Dynasty Warriors franchise will be right at home,
though there are some changes to help it better fit in the world of Zelda.
Each stage is filled to the brim with enemies; you’ll easily get well over a thousand kills
in each one.
While most are simple foot soldiers that barely qualify as a threat, there are also captains
that will give you more trouble with their advanced tactics.
Each character has access to several abilities.
There are light attacks and heavy attacks that change just what kind of combo you unleash.
It’s extremely simple to pick up because most combos rely simply on linking together
a chain of light attacks before finishing off with a heavy attack.
And it’s those heavy attacks that help make each character’s fighting style feel distinct
from one another.
For instance, Link can hold the heavy attack in order to do his spin attack while Zelda
uses the heavy attack to imbue herself with light and expand many of her combos.
In addition, you have access to special attacks and a magic meter.
The special attack meter is filled just by fighting enemies.
Using it will unleash the character’s ultimate move which always clears out a horde of enemies
with proper aim.
Meanwhile, the magic meter can only be filled with magic bottles and once used, will put
the character in a super state that greatly increases their attack power and speed.
In addition, the more enemies you kill in this mode, the greater chance you have for
more bonuses to stack.
These can come in the form of better materials, better weapons, or even just more rupees dropped.
When it runs out, a super attack is unleashed.
However, if you use it early, it will instantly make a more difficult enemy’s weakness gauge
appear.
The weakness gauge indicates when an enemy is wide open and can be taken advantage off.
Depleting the gauge will allow your character to perform a devastating attack that greatly
decreases the enemy’s health.
The final piece of your characters’ arsenal is the items.
At certain points throughout the main campaign, you will find classic items from the Zelda
series such as bombs, the bow, and the hookshot.
Each one can be used to help clear out enemies though I typically only found them useful
against certain ones.
They become much more useful if you collect a power-up that temporarily boosts their effectiveness.
The bomb clears a wider area while the bow shoots light arrows.
Beyond the bomb power-up, I never found the others to be quite as effective, but they
were still fun to use to help change up the combat.
But even beyond fighting enemies, the items can be used to access blocked off or hidden
areas in the stages.
It helps give a bigger Zelda flavor to gameplay that often favors the Dynasty Warriors side
of things.
Along with the items that fill your special and magic meters, enemies can drop materials
and weapons.
The materials are used to power-up your characters and extend their combo potential.
Each one actually does feel like it has an effect and are well worth tracking down.
Weapons on the other hand can have different attack power as well as special abilities
of their own including increasing the effectiveness of its elemental type and increasing the power
of certain combos.
These abilities can be transferred to stronger weapons with open slots in order to create
the best weapon to match your style.
There’s a lot to the gameplay of Hyrule Warriors, but it never comes across as overwhelming.
Each new aspect is easy to grasp and the sense of progression helps push you to find everything.
Exploration even finds a role in the game as each level in the main game contains hidden
heart pieces and heart containers for each character.
Almost all require a certain character to find it though as the amount of hearts they
have are unique to that character alone.
In addition, there are Gold Skulltulas to find in each level that unlock pieces to artwork
as well as expanding the Bazaar where you can upgrade your characters.
All of this progress carries over to the new Adventure Mode which lifts the map from the
original Legend of Zelda in order to put forth various challenges.
Each square has a unique challenge and as you progress they most certainly get more
difficult.
Progression is based on how well you do in a challenge as certain squares won’t unlock
unless you get a high enough grade.
The squares also contain unlockables such as hearts contains, Skulltulas, new characters,
and new weapons.
However, some cannot be immediately obtained as they require item cards.
Using them in the square will unlock the secret and make it possible to collect it.
The mode can be absolutely addicting and is just plain huge.
I’ve already sunk hours into it and have unlocked maybe a quarter of the content.
While you’ll spend about ten or so hours on your first playthrough of the main story,
Adventure Mode will easily triple that.
It’s a fantastic addition that adds some variety to the standard gameplay.
You can be tasked with anything from defeating a certain number of enemies within a time
limit to an impromptu quiz that tasks you with paying attention to the enemies’ appearance.
Before going into Hyrule Warriors, I often wondered if I would get bored with the game.
After all, even though you’re mowing down hordes of enemies with fantastic looking attacks,
one would think you’d only be able to do that for so long before it got old.
However, that didn’t happen--for a while at least.
Seeing each new stage and trying out some new character or weapon kept things fresh
as I made my way through the story.
It wasn’t until I went back to collect all the extra items that the repetition began
to set in.
But as I kept playing, especially through Adventure Mode, I found myself reaching an
almost zen-like state.
Yeah, I was fighting the same types of enemies over and over, but I could feel each character
improving, and I wanted to see just what weapon I would unlock next.
Though I don’t think everyone will feel that same way, I found myself addicted to
finding everything.
Helping that was the overall presentation.
When it was first revealed, the game looked very drab and lifeless, but since then, Hyrule
Warriors has become a treat.
It’s kind of amazing seeing the details in the characters and their animations with
sometimes hundreds of characters on-screen at once.
The stages are all well detailed and varied and it conveys the feeling of watching a Zelda
game.
The cutscenes alone help portray a greater sense of scale to everything despite its average
story.
But there are hiccups along the way.
If things get too chaotic then slowdown can happen though it’s admittedly a rare occurrence.
Of greater annoyance to me was the camera.
Swinging it around to see enemies is simple enough, but when you’re getting tossed around
and surrounded, it can be incredibly difficult to find what you need to focus on.
A lock-on system for the more dangerous enemies does help though it can be unreliable.
It sometimes doesn’t target the closest enemies and switching between targets doesn’t
always register when I flicked the right analog stick to change my focus.
Admittedly, these are small annoyances, but they can mess with the flow of the game.
With that said, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.
There’s an equal selection of remixed tunes as well as some original compositions and
they are almost universally great.
Some aren’t to my tastes, but it’s hardly a big deal when some of them can just immediately
pump you up for the stage ahead.
I’m impressed with how the developers were able to take sweeping scores and adapt them
into more of an action beat.
But if there is one thing that feels missing, it’s voice acting.
I’ve never had that much of a problem with its absence in previous Zelda games, but here
it just feels more pronounced, especially since there is a narrator detailing events
between stages.
To go from that to the pantomime of the characters just feels off.
Again, it’s not a major problem but it is more noticeable in Hyrule Warriors.
In all, I would consider Hyrule Warriors a successful experiment.
It has its issues, but they never mar what proves to be a fun action game with plenty
of elements from The Legend of Zelda.
And while the main game isn’t that challenging, Adventure Mode will put your skills to the
test as you progress.
I liked the game a lot and highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested whether you’re
more of a Dynasty Warriors fan or a Zelda fan, as it’s an excellent melding of two
established franchises.
Thanks for watching and be sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Hyrule Warriors
and other things gaming.