Hyrule Warriors: Back to the Calamity

 Where it all began

I was never a fan of Dynasty Warrior style games back in the day, so as you can imagine Hyrule Warriors was already a bit of a tough sale. On paper it sounds exactly like my cup-of-tea, large-scale sweeping and dramatic battles that have the potential to shape the fate of entire nations, who doesn't want to be involved in something that cool? But it was execution that always rubbed me the wrong way. In my mind, the appeal of simulating big epic battles comes in standing shoulder to shoulder with your allies and being that one cog in the larger machine that decides the shape of the battle. In a way it's the apparent insignificance of your contribution that highlights the importance of your actions, you aren't special in anyway, just another solider on the front lines; but it's the combined sacrifice of so many that forms the very front lines you're fighting for. Sounds somewhat epic, right? Well if you've any familiarity with the style of Dynasty Warriors then you'll see my initial gripe right away.

Early Dynasty Warriors titles have this sort of style to them wherein the battles around you were merely backdrop for the player's 'One-man-army' style rampage through historic battles. Now admittedly this wasn't totally out of left field as these games did portray a purposefully stylised and overly dramatic version of historic and legendary battles, but it still didn't suit my personal style for the lord of the manor to go strutting out into the battlefield with a halberd and start slaying entire regiments with a single strike. (It just came across as odd.) Plus, I was never a fan of the way that in those games the player character and enemy lords were about 8 foot tall when compared to everyone else on the field, it made everything look like a child's playset with mismatched toys in the fray. So if all that's mostly the case, then why am I so excited for 'Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity'?

I'd say that a big part of that comes from 'Breath of the Wild' itself, the game who's cannon 'Age of Calamity' proposes to elucidate on, because that was a Zelda game that just perfectly hit everything I was looking for in that property. 'Breath of the Wild' was an open-world action adventure RPG title that delighted in showing players a beautiful world as much as it did letting players mess around in it. Quite simply it was an escapist's dream and sold it's premise beautifully with a mastery of world design that I'd say even rivals Rockstar in some ways. More than any other Zelda before it, 'Breath of the Wild' felt like a game for me, that perfectly wiggled itself into my preferences and everything I would want. Therefore when a game comes along threatening to expand upon the story of that specific Zelda world then you can bet I'm all in for it.

Thus I was ready and eager when I first heard about the demo for Hyrule Warriors which was headed our way and decided to give it a shot. (Whereas I never got the chance to try the original Hyrule Warriors, because of the whole 'Wii U being an abject failure that only 3 people and their dog bought' debacle) And right away I can say that the basics of Hyrule Warriors really do fix some of my gripes about Dynasty Warriors. Yes, you are still basically playing the one man army who does everything by themselves, but you are at least of a similar height to your fellow compatriots so you don't look absolutely ridiculous. (Although Link does do that 'anime protagonist' thing of being the only solider with his helmet off. That's just bad uniform maintenance, my man.) But what about the meat of the game itself?

Well from the demo it seems that the heart of Dynasty games remains untouched. The majority of the game revolves around felling large squadrons of enemies with little effort between slightly larger enemies who require more strategy and planning. I was worried going in that BoTW's slightly rudimentary combat system (which relied a lot more on ingenuity with resources rather than robust button combos) would have trouble shaping up but the team seems to have done a great job making that worry more than moot. Simple combos have been built into the game which, similar to Smash Bros, elude to the abilities in the main game (such as gliding, shield surfing and spin attacks) whereas the strategic part of player's arsenals come with the Sheikah slate which operates as a slightly more martial mirror of the original game's one. This makes for a surprisingly well thought-out system that had me working with different abilities more than I would in the few traditional dynasty warriors games that I played, (wherein in those I had to switch characters to feel diverse in combat) so I'm liking the gameplay a lot more than I thought I would.

Of course, me being me the thing that's really appealing to the ol' sensibilities is the way in which different characters are being bought to the forefront of the gameplay. Impa, who served as mostly a loremaster in Breath of the Wild, is playable as a incredibly fun-to-control ninja who's main abilities revolve around managing a sort of Shadow-jitsu that's every bit as badass as it sounds. Even Link, who's powers are mostly what you'd expect, seems to be tuned up to 11 in every attack in a manner that sort of reveals how rusty he really was after that 100 year nap. (I can only imagine how badly I'd react to stumbling into a Lizalfos den in BoTW, whereas here it's hardly an inconvenience at all.) Huge points go to the team in making it so that every single Sheikah Slate attack is handled different depending on the character in control, really driving home the need to mix and match characters for the right situation.

I see real potential for this game throughout the length of it's campaign, especially if the trailers are anything to go by. Letting us see the way that Link carves his place out amidst the legendary heroes of the ballads is enticing enough, but actually having the chance to play as these people who we've been but teased about up until now is exciting. Whatsmore, there'll even be some moments where the Divine Beasts will be under our control for the first time ever, really showcasing what these war platforms where capable of. Yes, a lot of what we've seen is huge fanservice, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that when it promises to be this cool and interesting to try out.

Obviously the majority of my, and everyone else's, excitement is fuelled by what this game represents. By going back and showing us the great war, 'Age of Calamity' is closing the book on the story of Breath of the Wild and leaving no lingering questions, perfectly opening up the way for a new story to launch in Breath of the Wild 2, or whatever it's going to be called. This is very much a stepping stone on the journey to part 2 and I want to be there for every second of it. I'm just glad we're seeing all this first hand in a game that's actually pretty fun rather than spending an entire game watching flashbacks about it. (I really wasn't a fan of the 'flashback' storytelling, I really hope it doesn't make a return)

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

So is Breath of the Wild a brand now?

I don't think I've really ever been invested enough to really pay attention to the sheer rate of Nintendo announcements before now, but I have to say: They move at crazy speed. First there was the Pokemon DLC reveal event which literally happened less than two weeks before launch, then 'The Origami King' which was less than a month out, and now a full blown prequel to a game we only thought was getting a sequel. I thought the whole 'announce the day before you go gold' strategy was Bethesda's patented routine. (But then again, since saying that we've only seen their main team release one bad Fallout game, so maybe their example isn't one to ever be lauded.) Either way, I must say that this is the most exciting announcement I've heard this year out of Nintendo and that's because Nintendo are heading my favourite among their brands, Zelda, to my personal 'best' of it's iterations, Breath of the Wild, to flesh out important events in this prequel: 'Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity'.

The Hyrule Warriors franchise (As I guess that's what it is now) goes back to that forgone relic of history known as the 'Wii U'. (Archaeologists still argue over what exactly that piece of antiquated tech was to this day.) Then it was an attempt to supplant the world of Zelda and transpose it into the same sort of game type as a typical Dynasty Warriors title, with their patented '1000 vs 1' gameplay that they go on about ad nauseam. Basically that means gameplay wound up being a hero unit turning around battles through the grace of their sweeping attacks and clever utilisation of magical powers. Honestly, this always did ring hollow for me whenever I played the Dynasty games, because I never liked the way that the sacrifice of hundreds constantly got whittled down to the efforts of one 8 foot man. (Never understood why the generals had to be so oversized either.) In the world of Zelda, however, this does make a lot more sense given the nature of Moblins and the heroes who defended the nature, so I honestly shocked to say that Hyrule Warriors does the genre better than it's namesake. (Unfortunately not many got a chance to play it because it was on the Wii U.)

Age of Calamity hopes to replicate that, but instead of use it as the grounds to tell a unique self-contained story, (which I think fit into the 'Twilight Princess' timeline if I recall correctly) this promises to go back and tell the climatic events of 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild; and I for one couldn't be more enthused. The legacy of Zelda is always played out as a reiteration upon the same formula with the reincarnations of the same people. Link and Zelda are reborn as different versions of the same characters destined to relive events for all eternity. (Or until Zelda gets her act together and disintegrates Ganon's primal form.) Now while this works great for being accessible, it does make it hard to build up a journey and development over multiple adventures because the characters always end-up invariably getting reset. What Age of Calamity, along with the upcoming Breath of the Wild Sequel, portend is a change upon that formula where this one Zelda and Link will go on multiple adventures and grow as they do, making for more satisfying arcs in the tales to come.

For those that can't quite remember Breath of the Wild's plot; that game took place 100 years after an event known as The Great Calamity wherein the kingdom of Hyrule was invaded by the ethereal force known as Calamity Ganon, who turned the might of the Sheikah technology against the heroes and used it to take over the kingdom. This ended with Link being severely hurt trying to protect Zelda and thus having to be stuck in a rejuvenation chamber for a whole century. (Damn, who made this chamber? Naminé?) The war was a time of heroes across all the nations coming together to fight for time as their Princess struggled to meet her destiny, (In vain, as it just so happens, because she would take another 100 years to get there) and the battles they fought against the armies of Ganon must have been legendary. Thus to get the chance at experiencing those legends is truly something to be excited for. (I so am.)

But with that excitement comes a little bit of bittersweet uncertainty, because I must stop and wonder if the very existence of this Age of Calamity doesn't invalidate the entire narrative of Breath of the Wild. One of the weakest parts of that masterpiece was it's plot and the way that Nintendo chose to tell it, not because it didn't have depth but because it focused itself on telling the events of 100 years prior thus robbing the present moment of urgency. It's only really once you face off against Calamity Ganon himself that you enter into the moment and feel like you're fighting for something, but that's literally at the end of the game. The mystery of uncovering the past was, then, the draw of the narrative, but if there's due to be an entire game living in that past then this plotline becomes redundant in about 2 months. (Perhaps evidence that it was weak plotline to put their weight on to begin with.)

Then there's the issue that I'll admit is a lot more of a personal gripe but I still feel is valid to bring up. When that trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 first dropped, as did my bowels, there were quite a few elements that blew me and everyone else away. There was the creepy factor to it all, the backwards singing, the fiery-haired corpse, the sheer excitement of a sequel, and the fact that this was Link travelling alongside Zelda. Finally! This would be the first time we got to play as Zelda (No, those games didn't exist; shut up.) But, as you can likely deduce, Zelda will be playable in November's Age of Calamity and she has the Sheikah plate moveset from the Breath of the Wild main game. It's not a huge point by any stretch of the imagination but it does rob some of the allure from getting to play as the Goddess' heir. (Yes I know she was playable in the original Hyrule Warriors but again- Wii U. IF a game is released on a Wii U and no one was around did it ever really release at all?)

Though on the otherhand I do like the way that having this game creates a Breath of the Wild trilogy in which we'll get to experience Link and, more importantly, Zelda at ever point of the character development. Link as a young prodigy and Zelda as a failing priestess destined for greatness but unable to bridge that gap. Then Link, still as a prodigy, and Zelda at her breakthrough moment battling Calamity Ganon for a century and living up to her birth rite. And then, in the hopefully not too distant future; Link as, yet again a prodigy, and Zelda as the adventurer she always wanted to be, finally reaching her dreams. (Huh, I'm starting to think we need a 'Legend of Link' game to flesh out our silent hero. He's hitting a little one-note lately.)

Age of Calamity excites me to a frankly unreal degree right now. I shouldn't be this pumped about a prequel to a genre that I don't even like that much, but I just adore Breath of the Wild so much that I cannot help but lose my mind at the chance to experience that beautiful world once more. (I literally just started replaying the game the week before this announcement; is that serendipity or what?) I am ecstatic for the precedent this sets for the Breath of the Wild timeline, and I know this is going to ultimately just make the wait for BOTW 2 absolutely unbearable. Dammit, Nintendo! I was angry at you last week and now I'm chomping at the bit for whatever you've got ready for us... I'm too weak...(Why can't I quit you!)