Hyrule Warriors General - Nintendo forces Koei Tecmo to make good game

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Hyrule Warriors is your typical Dynasty Warriors/Musou game except it was made by a team of people being held hostage a gunpoint by Nintendo. So the end result was very playable, largely glitch-free, and of course entertaining as hell. For the uninitiated, Dynasty Warriors/Musou is about playing a legendary soldier in battle and taking on literally thousands of enemies at once. Since the Hyrule Warriors version of the game is somewhat unique I made this topic.

Spoiler: History of the game

The first version of the game came out on the Wii U and it was pretty great, especially in co-op. In fact it was one of the few Wii U games that was enhanced by the game pad, allowing one player to use the TV and the other to use the pad. Good shit, it was a lot of fun. There was an expanded port of that first game which was released on the Nintendo 3DS and that version was eventually ported over to the Switch as a definitive edition. I never played those, but I hear they were more of the same. Strongly recommend giving the original a try if you're a fan of the Dynasty Warriors/Musou series.

With that said, the Hyrule Warriors series is very much interlocked with its Legend of Zelda inspiration. So you end up with a game that sort of blends the best of both series together and holy shit they ended up with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It's a ton of fun and there are a whole lot of characters to play as.

The big news as of the creation of this topic is that the next game is coming out which I guess formally makes Hyrule Warriors into a series and not just a one-off. Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is coming to Switch on November 20th on the Nintendo Switch and there is a free demo that you can try out in the Nintendo eShop. You can play the game's first chapter and get a feel for things.

So yeah I think that's the rundown of the game and the series at large. I am pretty excited for Age of Calamity after having played the new demo; the game runs great, looks great and if you know how to play Dynasty Warriors/Musou you're going to pick up your controller and immediately begin wrecking shit.

Spoiler: My autistic opinions

After running through the Age of Calamity demo I'm completely sold on the game. This is a day one purchase. It's the same great Dynasty Warriors/Musou gameplay plus the Zelda twists. The meta game on the world map looks pretty fun as well, despite not being explored too deeply in the demo. And so far the characters are pretty cool and varied in terms of their powers. I really hope the game has a large scope like the previous one; and considering the premise of the main plot I expect there to be a lot of opportunities to explore different outcomes and branching paths.

If I had any concerns it would be that I am unsure about how many playable characters will be included. With the first Hyrule Warriors they went all out, including all kinds of oddball characters from tons of different Zelda games. Heck, they even had a new non-Zelda character named Volga that should become an honorary Zelda character, he was that good. I just hope that there's a lot of goofy stuff included as extras outside of the game's canon.

Oh and that's the other neat thing. This game is considered canon and is the prequel to Breath of the Wild. Though I suspect what we played in Breath of the Wild was the "true" timeline and that this game will offer us a modified timeline where we can "fix" things and save the future. But I'm going to stop before Trunks shows up. Hit the poll!

 

[Captain Hank Murph]

Oh , another Musou fanboy. I've always liked using Impa.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Oh , another Musou fanboy. I've always liked using Impa.

Impa's crowd control in the first game is pretty sick. And in the new game she's completely fucking broken.

You can tag enemies with a symbol by pressing R and then you can absorb the symbol by pressing X. You can absorb up to three symbols and every symbol creates fucking clones of her at her side in addition to boosting damage. With all three symbols active Impa is running around with six clones cutting a huge swath across the battlefield. And you know they're not going to nerf it at all. Knowing Koei they're going to buff it.

 

[Captain Hank Murph]

Impa's crowd control in the first game is pretty sick. And in the new game she's completely fucking broken.

You can tag enemies with a symbol by pressing R and then you can absorb the symbol by pressing X. You can absorb up to three symbols and every symbol creates fucking clones of her at her side in addition to boosting damage. With all three symbols active Impa is running around with six clones cutting a huge swath across the battlefield. And you know they're not going to nerf it at all. Knowing Koei they're going to buff it.

Basically she's a Shadow Sprint styled Warrior?

 

[Marche]

Hyrule warriors was my favorite spinoff Musou, It had so much content and all the characters besides a select few were just good to play as.
It's a shame the new one isn't just Hyrule warroris 2 and instead looks to be so heavily focused on the actual story and MUH LORE to the point it probably won't have a very big roster.

 

[Captain Hank Murph]

Hyrule warriors was my favorite spinoff Musou, It had so much content and all the characters besides a select few were just good to play as.
It's a shame the new one isn't just Hyrule warroris 2 and instead looks to be so heavily focused on the actual story and MUH LORE to the point it probably won't have a very big roster.

Maybe a Roster that could fit in with the Switch's Warriors Orochi Next Installment.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

This is why I hope they have fun with the time travel shenanigans. The opening cutscene makes it clear that we're replaying the events that led up to Breath of the Wild, so you know things are going to happen differently this time. So now that that's out of the way there's no reason not to have a bunch of side missions or tangential plot lines that are included solely for the sake of satisfying "what if X and Y got into a fight".

In the demo there are a few missions which have descriptions that insinuate they are separate from the world and are happening "in another place" or something along those lines. So I have some hope that my boy Ghirahim can and will show up.

 

[Massa's Little Buckie]

I played the first one for a bit. Really like it but my 3DS could barely handle it. Looking foward to this one. Remind me to buy.

Downloaded the demo. Was having fun until I remembered why I don't use handheld mode...

 

[AnotherPleb]

Well, I'll be having to grab this one.

 

[licklicklicklick]

I hope they keep the Ocarina loading screen.

 

[Pork Fried Rice]

I'm actually playing through the original right now. Trying to finish up a few things I missed in my previous playthroughs. I really enjoy playing Zelda and Twili Midna, although Zelda's charge mechanic still gets on my nerves. Hopefully BotW Zelda has some good gameplay.

On a semi-related note, I hope this leads Koei to revisit some of their other Musou crossover titles. I was a slut for Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

 

[Marissa Moira]

On a semi-related note, I hope this leads Koei to revisit some of their other Musou crossover titles. I was a slut for Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

They had to push back the western release of persona scramble because Hyrule Warriors would be competing with it. Right now it looks like it may be second or third quarter of 2021.

I doubt they're going to want to revive the older crossover titles since now the bar is being raised and they could have expectations for once. It's rare they put in effort into a Dynasty Warriors type title.

 

[-4ZURE-]

I liked Fire Emblem Warriors more than Hyrule. I felt the weapons triangle and useful AI just added more to the experience than Zelda did. While I will definitely have another round of Zelda, I was disappointed it was not FEW2 with Three Houses, Radiant series, and Binding/Blazing Blade protagonists added into the fray. Holding out for a sequel I guess.

 

[Raiken]

They had to push back the western release of persona scramble because Hyrule Warriors would be competing with it. Right now it looks like it may be second or third quarter of 2021.

I doubt they're going to want to revive the older crossover titles since now the bar is being raised and they could have expectations for once. It's rare they put in effort into a Dynasty Warriors type title.

Why would they need to push it back? Back when it originaly got released we did not even knew hyrule warriors 2 even existed. While it's true it also releases on the switch, the main target group are the PS4 owners. You know, the guys who actualy played persona 5.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Why would they need to push it back? Back when it originaly got released we did not even knew hyrule warriors 2 even existed. While it's true it also releases on the switch, the main target group are the PS4 owners. You know, the guys who actualy played persona 5.

Supposedly that's the main reason KT removed it from their release schedule for the quarter and Sega has put in a new name for the game calling it Persona 5:Strikers.

There was also something up with the VA's due to covid too, but that's just been alleged.

 

[albert chan]

Hyrule Warriors was, to me, always the more under appreciated game series for Nintendo. I always look at this game the same way I look at Bayonetta – franchises that still should get more sequels, if not spinoffs from their original series.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

Hyrule wasn't my first Warriors game (that was Pirate Warriors 3 on PC), but it is definitely one of my favorites. I highly recommend the Definitive Edition, as the things they add really enhance the game (especially switching characters mid-battle, fairy bombs, and buying Adventure mode cards).
I haven't tried the AoC demo yet, but I intend to. What I've heard so far sounds good (except the performance issues, hope those are fixed). By the way, does anyone have a video or something to recommend for someone who hasn't played BotW but wants to be ready for AoC?

 

[Raiken]

Hyrule wasn't my first Warriors game (that was Pirate Warriors 3 on PC), but it is definitely one of my favorites. I highly recommend the Definitive Edition, as the things they add really enhance the game (especially switching characters mid-battle, fairy bombs, and buying Adventure mode cards).
I haven't tried the AoC demo yet, but I intend to. What I've heard so far sounds good (except the performance issues, hope those are fixed). By the way, does anyone have a video or something to recommend for someone who hasn't played BotW but wants to be ready for AoC?

The thing with BOTW is that most of the story is presented with flashbacks, so most of it will be in this game.
The game is basicaly that link wakes up from his 100 year slumber and goes to kick ganon's ass. All the rest is optional.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Supposedly that's the main reason KT removed it from their release schedule for the quarter and Sega has put in a new name for the game calling it Persona 5:Strikers.

There was also something up with the VA's due to covid too, but that's just been alleged.

I was hoping there would be an updated rerelease featuring kasumi

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

I haven't tried the AoC demo yet, but I intend to. What I've heard so far sounds good (except the performance issues, hope those are fixed).

Been hearing about performance issues but after playing the demo for a few hours last weekend I'm really not sure what the complaints are all about. The thing runs fine. Especially looking at Hyrule Warriors it runs way better, looks way better, and seems to have more to offer in terms of gameplay. Yeah there are a few stutters here and there but I really have yet to see anything egregious, especially for the Dynasty Warriors game. I'm sure they'll continue to polish the game, but I wouldn't worry too much about performance issues unless you're a real hard ass.

Feel free to ignore the rest of this...

By the way, does anyone have a video or something to recommend for someone who hasn't played BotW but wants to be ready for AoC?

BOTW can be more or less summed up as: The Hylians and Sheikah figure out Ganondorf's resurrection cycle (every 10,000 years) and create a massive defensive grid to stop him. Ganondorf appears and the system works and they stop him. Ten thousand years pass and now we're at BOTW. There may have been many cycles of this system stopping Ganondorf, I can't remember. But whatever, now we're at BOTW. Zelda is destined to use her holy powers of Wisdom to stop Ganondorf (Calamity Ganon or whatever you want to call him) and she's having trouble finding her power. Her real passion is tinkering and learning about the now-ancient and mysterious technology that makes up Hyrule's defensive network.

Her father is captain asshole and wants her to realize her potential. You know how that story goes. Meanwhile her loyal knight Link is able to wield the Master Sword and four champions are able to master their Divine Beasts (which are the centerpieces of the defensive network). Zelda is even more self-conscious now and feels really shitty about herself. She is unable to discover her power in time and Ganondorf reawakens; this time Ganondorf finds a way to more or less infect the defense grid with a "EVIL VIRUS" and all of the system's Guardians (the spider laser beam guys) and Divine Beasts all come under his control. The four champions are slaughtered inside their Divine Beasts and Link is killed; but at the last moment Zelda discovers her powers, drives away the force sent to kill her, and places Link in the chamber of resurrection. Then she goes to Hyrule Castle to seal Ganondorf.

Link spends 100 years having his body rebuilt and emerges good as new. Zelda has been holding Ganondorf in stasis at the top of Hyrule Castle for 100 years while she waits for Link to revive. She's such a good girl. Breath of the Wild begins. Then either 30 minutes of gameplay happens or 250 hours of gameplay happens and Link kills Ganondorf with a soup ladle/the Master Sword and the credits roll.

There you go, now you don't need to play Breath of the Wild. Though you should! The sequel looks pretty sick. I'm hoping they go with the angle whereby: the person that was to become the vessel for Ganondorf's evil spirit (or Demise) is sealed away in some sort of prison by the Hylians/Sheikah and has his life stolen from him without a fair trial. His anger would be justified and the Hylians would have committed a pretty horrible act upon what is ostensibly an innocent person.

That would be a great angle.