Review for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/11/2020
It can be freely said that The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild was a milestone and a keystone for Nintendo Switch. Link's adventure was a bit like the icon of Nintendo's newborn with an epic and well-structured experience, which still thrills thousands of users today. Riding the wave of this success Nintendo offers Koei Tecmo the possibility of transforming the idea of BOTW into what has always been the best for him: the musou.
Thus was born Hyrule Warriors: The era of calamity that arrives on Nintendo Switch with an overwhelming explosion of fun and frenzy. Let's go together to discover this splendid title.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a kind of prequel to BOTW in which all the background of the events that lead Link to fight the calamity again are explained. We will find Zelda trying to awaken her power and the champions of the uncharted lands who have yet to take possession of their giants; the king of Hyrule who is still alive tries to protect the realm and all the enemies that fans are already used to. All these elements go to frame the adventure that will see link go from a simple soldier to a personal knight of the princess, in order to stop the Ganon calamity.
The narration is perfect: complete and compelling, as well as entirely voiced in Spanish. Dozens of dialogues and films will not be lacking, to explain in detail a story full of details and twists, which excites and hits the heart exactly as BOTW did previously.
But Hyrule Warriors: The era of calamity is above all a musou rather than an adventure and in this Koei Tecmo has managed to hit the target in a masterly way. The gameplay is frenetic and adapts to the context of the story without distorting it, but managing to surround it with a warm embrace. The feeling that often occurs when playing a musou is that everything is a mere pretext to swipe left and right, as if the plot is a mere justification, while in Hyrule Warriors: The era of calamity the feeling that is perceived it's exactly the opposite.
Whether you're tackling one of the main missions rather than one of the more than a hundred side missions, everything makes history dominate. The missions are centered towards specific story objectives in appropriate contexts: if you are facing a mission aimed at recruiting the matriarch Gerudo you will face a series of fights in the citadel just you and Zelda, and when the matriarch fears the fight will stop to give you the chance through a movie to understand what is happening: an impostor sits on the throne, and once the enemies have been exposed, they will make your allies and together you will fight in the desert to reach the sacred colossus Van Naboris.
Hoping you have forgiven us this little spoiler we can assure you that you will see so many twists that this little preview does not detract from the beauty of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Still on the subject of advances, we can tell you without fear that you will meet every single enemy of BOTW in all its variants and with all the weapons and moves that you know well. Confronting the Lynels and the Hynoxes paying attention to the same moveset and the same weak points is nothing short of priceless. In this respect Hyrule Warriors: The Age of Calamity makes you want to take back The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and vice versa, in a series of calls that will delight fans.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has deep and curated gameplay. Our hero wields a cutting weapon and his faithful bow, with which he will face the entire adventure, and each weapon has specific characteristics. While there is always only one light attack and one strong attack available, combos in conjunction with the weapon type give rise to a series of attacks that are as devastating as they are spectacular. Axes, spears, swords and broadswords are very different in terms of attack, and each one adapts to the player and his characteristics. Each weapon can then be upgraded by acquiring in addition to greater attack power also intrinsic characteristics such as greater probability of collecting rupees or experience and many other bonuses.
Everyone will then be passionate about the weapon that is most congenial to him: for example we loved the supreme sword, enhancing it to the maximum and making it really deadly both on short and long distance. To complete the weapons compartment we find the inevitable wands and all the features given by the Sheikah tablet. Some enemy attacks can only be interrupted by the tablet, which allows you to counterattack; the same goes for perfect dodges, which if performed with timing leave the enemy at the mercy of our blows. Using a fire spell against a glacial enemy with your wand can be the key to winning the fight, just as using lightning spells in water can propagate electricity to all soaking enemies.
There is no possibility of jumping in Hyrule Warriors: The era of calamity and this, if we want, penalizes the combat system a bit. Fortunately, the verticality of the game action is still guaranteed by the ringing of the combos, which in some cases make Link jump to the sky with his paravela, giving the possibility to launch air attacks. Even Link's ever-present shield, if equipped with a one-handed sword, can be used as a surf and only the sky knows how we have missed out on reckless descents along the slopes of Hyrule.
Of course these are just some of the combat features present in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, in fact you must not forget that the playable characters are over 10. You can command Zelda, Impa, Castonne, the champions, the allies of the champions, and also characters that we do not reveal to you so as not to spoil the taste of the surprise ... a radiant surprise. Each character has his own particular moveset and a characteristic weapon; some of them also evolve during the continuation of the adventure. There will be other typical features of the musou such as the possibility of giving orders to companions and making them level up by paying in rupees for their training. The equipment is completed by a series of special attacks - which appear when the opponent's defenses are broken - and the inevitable supreme attack that can be launched after charging the reference energy bar.
As for the longevity of the game map we can only tell you that you will have something to enjoy. In addition to the dozens of main missions and over one hundred secondary missions, Koei Tecmo has also thought of a system to make you retrace some missions already completed, perhaps with different characters. In fact, the map will be full of missions that can be completed simply by providing materials that can be accumulated during the adventure and that give bonuses such as the increase of hearts, combos, energy bars and so on. Then there is the joy of cooking foods that will be unlocked with these mini secondary quests and that will give you the possibility to prepare dishes before going into battle: these dishes will give temporary bonuses that will help you complete the mission.
A treat for connoisseurs? The missions we talked about earlier will allow you to unlock all the costumes of BOTW making the experience of Hyrule Warriors: The era of calamity truly complete.
As for the graphics sector, there is very little to say. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is just as spectacular as the previous chapter. Same graphics, same enemies, same moveset, to the point that most likely both the models of the enemies and the game backgrounds were simply taken up. A way to reuse so much splendid material by adapting it to the musou context, offering a spectacular final experience. An exceptional audio sector and dialogues translated in a really well done way (for once) surround a very successful product.
One more word for the doubts that have always accompanied musou: the repetition of the missions, the pop-up effects with frame rate drops and the management of the camera. As for the repetitiveness we can reassure everyone: the era of calamity does not give this impression even after over 60 hours of play. It may be for the exceptional variety of environments or for the rich and compelling history, but that feeling of always walking the same path from A to B as a mere pretext for an unbridled button smashing typical of the genre here just does not exist. As far as the camera is concerned, we would like to say that this is one of the best managed musou that we have happened to face: unfortunately it is not perfect and once the enemy is locked, in turning around him to avoid the departure, sometimes we mess up with the surrounding environment going to impale the camera. Fortunately, this does not affect the final result which is very enjoyable.
On the pop-up effect and frame rate drops, the result is satisfactory even if not perfect. The enemies do not appear on us at the last second and become perceptible even from a certain distance, with some slight exceptions in the event that on the screen you find yourself facing a Hynox of five meters in height. On the other hand, frame rate drops, if not for a few rare exceptions, are absent both in portability and on the big screen.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a very successful title that enhances both the background of Link and his Zelda and the genre of musou. Koei Tecmo and Nintendo have created the perfect combination of adventure and action by creating a rich product like few others. The characters and places so dear to those who have faced BOTW return with the same charisma and the same appeal. In short, if you have missed the lands of Hyrule and if you want to put yourself at the helm of one of the giants, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is exactly what you are looking for.
► Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a Graphic-Action-Musou Adventure game developed by Koei Tecmo Omega Force and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/11/2020
