Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity
Switch
Cannily pitched as a prequel to Breath Of The Wild rather than a follow-up to Hyrule Warriors, Age Of Calamity is a Musou game through and through. We imagine that fact will already have disappointed more than a few unsuspecting players who were anticipating something quite different – perhaps its inspiration’s combination of serenity and spectacle, rather than a game that firmly focuses its efforts on the latter. And yet a series that has evolved at a glacial pace over the past two decades hasn’t just borrowed Wild’s aesthetic, much of its interface and several of its characters, but something of its pioneering spirit, too. The result is the most invigorating refinement of that stubbornly traditional Musou core in a long time.
Fans of Omega Force’s hack-and-slash series will be familiar with the smug dismissals that it’s nothing more than a monotonous button-masher, while shrewd observers will recognise a kernel of truth in that statement. Age Of Calamity, like the others, is more single-minded than mindless: those familiar with the mainline Warriors games (or their many spin-offs) will appreciate its light strategic elements, and the way battlefield efficiency is encouraged and gently rewarded, without punishing players who really do just want to press Y and X repeatedly and see hundreds of dull-witted enemies fall down. But the developer takes all of that and stirs in many of the elements that made Wild’s combat so versatile. The use of runic magic, elemental powers and environmental features feels less freeform here, but it lends a variety and grandeur to encounters – making for possibly the most satisfying Musou combat to date.
Inevitably, Link is the de facto hero, and his presence is required during the story missions, although you can often choose which partners he enters the fray alongside. But while he’s capable of handling a range of weapons, from a soup ladle to a claymore, each providing him with a different moveset, you’ll probably be tempted to spend more time with the rest. Take Zelda, whose Sheikah Slate has an extra memory part slotted in to boost its various runes. Her quick attacks might be slower than most, but each successive one uses a different power: Magnesis, Cryonis, then Stasis. The Slate’s internal camera lets her take a snap of all enemies in front, with each gurning Bokoblin or leering Lizalfos captured within the frame blown away when the shutter clicks. Talk about a photobomb.
Impa, meanwhile, is a revelation. Much younger than her Breath Of The Wild counterpart, she flits about, conjuring then absorbing runic symbols to power up attacks, as she’s joined by a group of spectral allies, each attack producing a cascade of paper talismans. She, too, can harness Sheikah abilities: while Link’s Cryonis spell lets him leap off the resulting ice block to turn a string of regular attacks into an aerial combo, Impa can ride around on hers, knocking over any grunts in her path.
COG IN THE MACHINE
You’re joined on your quest by a tiny Guardian sent back from the future to warn of the impending Calamity. It looks like a robot egg on legs, while its whistling ‘voice’ makes it sound like one of the Clangers. But as well as fulfilling a key narrative role, it’ll helpfully point you in the right direction when you’re looking at the top-down map of Hyrule between story missions. Sometimes it’ll recommend short asides designed to acclimatise you to specific weapons or abilities, while at others it’ll remind you to fuse weapons to increase their power, or fulfil villager requests to unlock stores and training facilities. Happily, you can unlock it as a playable fighter, though it’s a time-consuming process – and you’ll need to finish the campaign first.
Wild’s four champions are next to be recruited, and though Revali’s ability to hover above the battlefield makes for a novel fighting style, the standout is Gerudo warrior queen Urbosa. Dancing around her opponent during her special, she unleashes crackling bolts of electricity at each cardinal point, before turning to face the camera and snapping her fingers to call down a lightning strike that zaps anything in the vicinity. And if there are bombs within its radius, then you might even set the onlookers just beyond on fire.
This display of insouciant devastation is typical of a game that revels in the series’ tendency towards excess – which reaches its apotheosis (or for some, its nadir) in the sequences where you finally get to control Hyrule’s Divine Beasts. Playing as Daruk, piloting Vah Rudania down the spiralling slopes of Death Mountain from a firstperson perspective, you’ll find it almost impossible to see what’s going on – or to find yourself in any danger whatsoever, for that matter. Still, there is no denying the pleasure in watching hordes of enemies stomped underfoot, swept aside, set aflame and blown away, the body count hitting four figures within a minute, the framerate happily tanking to accommodate such formidable might. Messy, one-note and operatically silly, these short set-pieces carry a similar thrill to the EDF games: evoking the scale of a battle so momentous the Switch simply isn’t equipped to contain it.
Age Of Calamity includes a range of unlikely holdovers from the older game, in fact. Korok seeds can be unearthed from sparkling patches of ground tucked away in corners of the battlegrounds. Defeating stronger enemies and opening chests yields ingredients that can be combined into meals that can be eaten before battle to boost your attack power, movement speed, elemental resistances and more. Last-minute dodges open up your enemies to a Flurry Rush, just as they did in Wild, while apples can once again be baked by applying heat to make them more nourishing. There are similarities, too, in the structure of the story, which involves gathering a band of heroes to defeat an encroaching evil – and there are more allies than you might expect. You’ll have recruited the four Champions within the first two chapters, with more than half the unlockable characters still to come.
What a pity, then, that the story is the one element that doesn’t have the courage to stay true to its narrative successor, with a late-game development that undercuts Wild’s darker side in favour of an MCU-style retcon. Perhaps a downbeat ending was never on the cards, or perhaps Nintendo decided 2020 didn’t need to be any bleaker, but it’s a letdown all the same. Still, as we yomp across the map, watching it turn from red to blue – not for the first time this year – we’re reminded of that old Warriors spirit, where good always manages to triumph over evil. And we smile.
There is no denying the pleasure in watching hordes of enemies stomped underfoot and blown away
RIGHT The Yiga Clan plays a larger role this time, though they’re still likely to be humiliated by Link.
MAIN Link can shield-surf between areas – skittling any smaller enemies in his path in the process – which is probably the best reason to stick with him.
BOTTOM Urbosa may be close to a typical Musou character, but she wields her scimitar with such style that you’ll want to pick her whenever you have the choice