Board 8 > Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://opencritic.com/game/10157/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity

new zelda time bros

7.9/10 average so far through 25 reviews

Technically higher than all previous releases of the first Hyrule Warriors!

If you like Musou games and Zelda games you'll probably love this! If you're only a Zelda fan though maybe play the demo first!

IGN - 9/10
Age of Calamity boasts compelling combat, a stack of content and a clever remix of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule.

Destructoid - 8.5/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity brings some of the same "Warriors" baggage along with it, but as someone who was always into these Omega Force romps, the juice was worth the squeeze. The story was genuinely enthralling throughout and it serves as a great companion piece for Breath of the Wild, while forging its own identity in many respects. I suspect a lot of the alterations are going to be controversial, but I like that they took some big swings and really went with it.

USGamer - 8/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity isn't The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, but it's a great musou game with a lot of content for starved fans of Breath of the Wild. Even if you're a Zelda fan who can take or leave musou games, Age of Calamity is worth taking. However, occasional slowdown and frame drops, especially in handheld mode on the Switch Lite, make it clear the Switch is aging quickly.

Gamesradar+ - 8/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an ace accomplice to Breath of the Wild, providing charming backstories to its colorful cast of characters while carrying forward the spirit of experimental gameplay with impressive results.

Game Informer - 7.5/10
The action is tedious, but cutting through swaths of Bokoblins and single-handedly clearing a battlefield is still rewarding

Gamespot - 6/10
Age of Calamity improves on the combat and structure of Hyrule Warriors, but saps much of the weight from Breath of the Wild's backstory as it fills in its gaps.

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also I think this one is my favorite review just because of the shade

Metro Gamecentral - 6/10
The best Dynasty Warriors style game ever made, which means it's slightly north of mediocre, with simplistic combat, weak storytelling, and a whole lot of repetition.

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While these reviews are "good" not quite "great", this is probably the best received Warriors game ever.

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at this point i cant imagine who these reviews would sway. was anyone predicting anything but basically these exact scores/sentiments? if you want this game you're gonna get it, either for the zelda or the musou or both

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I'm a Zelda fan and enjoyed Hyrule Warriors for what it was but had my fill of it in the one game, so was only gonna get this if it got really strong reviews or if the writing was good and important for BotW2. Do we know the full roster of this one yet?

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ZenOfThunder posted...

at this point i cant imagine who these reviews would sway. was anyone predicting anything but basically these exact scores/sentiments? if you want this game you're gonna get it, either for the zelda or the musou or both

What if I just really like BotW?

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ninkendo posted...

also I think this one is my favorite review just because of the shade

Metro Gamecentral - 6/10
The best Dynasty Warriors style game ever made, which means it's slightly north of mediocre, with simplistic combat, weak storytelling, and a whole lot of repetition.

These people probably like Final Fantasy 8

That sounds more like Xenosaga so maybe I should just stay away

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Leonhart4 posted...

That sounds more like Xenosaga so maybe I should just stay away

You thought Xenosaga was the best Xeno-game? Hmm.
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I would say it's the best Dynasty Warriors game I've ever played if those are the qualifications

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Looks like AoC won't be the best reviewed Warriors game.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/332545464610062337/778644356559142912/image0.png

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andylt posted...

I'm a Zelda fan and enjoyed Hyrule Warriors for what it was but had my fill of it in the one game, so was only gonna get this if it got really strong reviews or if the writing was good and important for BotW2. Do we know the full roster of this one yet?

Link (has 4 movesets)
Zelda (has 2 movesets)
Impa
Revali
Urbosa
Daruk
Mipha
King Rhoam
Teba
Riju
Yunobo
Sidon
Hestu
Master Kohga
Monk Maz Koshia (the boss from the DLC dungeon)

I think that's it that is known

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without any huge spoilers if possible, anyone know how much playtime you can hope for out of this? I had fun with the demo, only worry is dropping full price for like three hours of game

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Shonen_Bat posted...

without any huge spoilers if possible, anyone know how much playtime you can hope for out of this? I had fun with the demo, only worry is dropping full price for like three hours of game

It's a warriors game so 100+ hours if you're having a good time. I mean the story mode might last 10-15 hours but there's basically endless content.

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oh no cousins texting me out of the blue wondering if they should get the new Hyrule Warriors and having never played a Musou game

this game is gonna sell

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my copy doesn't come until next week :(

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ninkendo posted...

oh no cousins texting me out of the blue wondering if they should get the new Hyrule Warriors and having never played a Musou game

this game is gonna sell

did you tell them this was the best reviewed musou game ever

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What do the champion amiibo do?

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ninkendo posted...

oh no cousins texting me out of the blue wondering if they should get the new Hyrule Warriors and having never played a Musou game

this game is gonna sell

Woo musou takes over the world

Heroic Bigpun posted...

What do the champion amiibo do?

Just give you weapons and materials is what Ive heard

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Is that the same for any Zelda amiibo then?

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Initial UK sales indicate its doing 324% better than the first Hyrule Warriors

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ninkendo posted...

Initial UK sales indicate its doing 324% better than the first Hyrule Warriors

Does that include wii u version

Just Definitive edition

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Just unlocked Zelda's second moveset.

It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that! It's over! For Hyrule! Take that!

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I want Zelda's original Hyrule Warriors outfit :(

RikkuAlmighty posted...

I want Zelda's original Hyrule Warriors outfit :(

Hyrule Warriors Zelda was best Zelda.

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Campaign beated. I liked it! Was a fun celebration of BotW and I'd be interested to see if they maybe do some DLC closer to when BotW2 comes out.

At 76% complete, so just gotta get those challenges and quests polished off now. So glad there doesn't seem to be as much to do compared to Hyrule Warriors. Doing those maps was a slog.

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I can see the argument that Hyrule Warriors had too much content, I didn't even really start on the Lorule map lol. But I'd rather have too much content than not enough, personally

I don't know how this game does with that though, maybe it's fine

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I think HW just had too much meaningless content. Like, I never really got much sense of accomplishment for doing them and the missions were all way too long for how many of them you had to do. I just got bored.

This feels like a much more achieveable amount of content, the rewards are more useful and the rare rewards (like costumes) come more frequently, plus it actually does stuff that the main campaign doesn't, like getting to fight multiple high-level enemies in challenge modes or no-hit challenges and stuff. In fairness, HW might have had some of that, I don't remember a lot outside of the story.

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Oh and, most importantly, since the costumes are entirely cosmetic, I can dress how I want without worrying about set bonuses and junk.

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Keep in mind how much of Hyrule Warriors was originally DLC (around half the roster, a good chunk of story mode,all but one of the treasure maps, and a bunch of other stuff.) I don't know if they'll be adding as much to this one, but if they do it'll end up just as gigantic.

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That's a fair point. I think I did have whatever DLC was available at launch that got you the Shadow Link costume? But I know I stopped playing before it all came out.

I'm not sure what DLC they could do for this without pulling stuff from non-BotW games.

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JackMan posted...

plus it actually does stuff that the main campaign doesn't, like getting to fight multiple high-level enemies in challenge modes or no-hit challenges and stuff. In fairness, HW might have had some of that, I don't remember a lot outside of the story.

there was an absolute ton of that kind of stuff in the Adventure Maps in the first game

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19 separate movesets seems pretty decent considering how little HW had pre-DLC.

Does this have anything like the Adventure Mode of the original?

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In the sense of side challenges that give rewards then yes, if youre looking for the separate map screen that you traverse then no, its all integrated into the main game mode

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WazzupGenius00 posted...

there was an absolute ton of that kind of stuff in the Adventure Maps in the first game

I just remember doing lots of full-size mission-style maps that took, like, half an hour each or something and getting really bored. But, it's been six years since I played it, so I'm happy to admit I'm looking through... uh, whatever the opposite of rose-tinted glasses are.

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JackMan posted...

I just remember doing lots of full-size mission-style maps that took, like, half an hour each or something and getting really bored. But, it's been six years since I played it, so I'm happy to admit I'm looking through... uh, whatever the opposite of rose-tinted glasses are.

What you're describing is the story mode. Most adventure mode battles were much much shorter.

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Waluigi1 posted...

What you're describing is the story mode. Most adventure mode battles were much much shorter.

No, I liked the story mode, while it lasted. It was definitely doing the Adventure Maps where I got bored.

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Alright, this was bugging me, so I looked up a guide for the Adventure Mode and a lot of the battles have requirements of getting 1,200 KOs and beating it in under 15 minutes for the A rank, so maybe it was doing that over and over that wore me down?

In comparisson, most of AoC's challenge missions and between 5-10 minutes and don't have ranks, they just give you rupees based on clear time and KOs. And there are only a handful of 'get x number of KO' type missions (mostly the training ones you get after unlocking a new character).

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You only played the base HW?

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Alright, my early take is that this is excellent in terms of combat, is good in RPG elements and barely feels like a Musou. Like there are elements in there but I haven't had to worry about managing territories even once. You just go places and kill targets.

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Waluigi1 posted...

You only played the base HW?

Yeah, pretty much. I bought the first DLC bundle, but I dont know how much of it actually came out before I stopped playing.

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Why is fusing weapons so goddamn expensive

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WazzupGenius00 posted...

Why is fusing weapons so goddamn expensive

The cost is dependent on the sword youre fusing into, so the more powerful and higher level the sword, the more expensive it is. So, the trick is to fuse cheaper swords together first then fuse them into more expensive swords.

For example, say your Master Sword costs 200 rupees per sword, to fuse 24 level 1 swords into it would cost 4800 rupees. However fusing 5 of those swords into a level 1 sword only costs, say, 50 rupees each. So thats 250 rupees. Do that 4 times and youve turned your 24 level 1 swords into 4 level whatever swords for 1000 rupees. Then thats another 800 rupees to fuse those swords into your Master Sword.

Also, dont fuse high resale weapons, just sell them.

And dont bother derusting weapons until end game. The material cost is really high and theyre better spent on quests and cooking. Plus you get upgrades to derusting weapons later on.

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JackMan posted...

Yeah, pretty much. I bought the first DLC bundle, but I dont know how much of it actually came out before I stopped playing.

Yeah ok, the rerelease on Switch changed a lot of those requirements to be more lenient, plus they reworked the balance across all the adventure maps to be much better in general.

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Waluigi1 posted...

Yeah ok, the rerelease on Switch changed a lot of those requirements to be more lenient, plus they reworked the balance across all the adventure maps to be much better in general.

Ahh okay. Well, it sounds like those changes are reflected in AoC, because its way more tolerable.

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So is it just me, or does Impa feel broken as hell?

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She's really good, yeah. Weak points melt and her special gauge fills so quickly. Right now my favorite characters are Spear Link, Slate Zelda, and Mipha.

Hestu is meh

When does Zelda get her second moveset? I'm on chapter 4.

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