This article is intended to be a First Impressions article of sort for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on the Nintendo Switch. There are going to be semi-spoilers for both Breath of the Wild and for the first 30 minutes or so of Age of Calamity, so just be warned. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the title, let us spend the next couple of sentences catching you all up like I know 100% what I am talking about. First off, Age of Calamity is a Warriors game, a genre of sorts that takes characters from established franchises like Fire Emblem, The Legend of Zelda, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and actual history among others, pulls them out of their established genres, and puts them in their own mass-combat warfare game where you play as a character from its respective series and kill just a shit-ton of enemies (That screenshot was taken from this video post in my Tweet, hence the not-great resolution here). In the first area of AoC, and on my first out-of-demo playthrough I killed just under 1,000 enemies including 5+ giant Bokoblins and three (or four) Moblins. Age of Calamity, taking the trailer as a reference, takes place prior to the events in Nintendo's 2017 game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which takes place 100 years after Calamity Ganon brings death and ruin to the kingdom of Hyrule and Link is woken up after being fully resuscitated in a cave. In Age of Calamity, you participate in those battles playing different key characters in events leading up to the start of the 100-year gap between Link being put into hibernation and him waking up. Maybe?
There have been plenty of articles speculating about this game after it was announced and the trailer released, and even more after the final trailer came out and the demo was put out on the eShop revealing that a little egg-shaped Guardian traveled back in time to the moment when Ganon's forces first assaulted Hyrule Castle. I am just writing mine now, this 23rd day of December because it was this morning that I decided to start playing the game after sitting in my game collection for nearly a month. Now some more context, which is where I am going to be pulling all of my information and assumptions from in the next handful of paragraphs. I started playing Breath of the Wild back in December 2017 and finished the main campaign in May 2018, so five months and roughly 150 hours. I have not played any of the DLC though, so any information that is gleaned in those as to additional events past or present I am unfamiliar with, but I did find and watch all 13 of the Captured Memories in the main game (not knowing if there are captured memories in Ballad of the Champions DLC). And it was not until over a year past May 2018 that I learned of a town that you could rebuild (once you find the right NPC somewhere), so there were even elements in the main game that I somehow missed. I downloaded the demo to Age of Calamity as past games in the Warriors franchise have never interested me much as the idea of playing as characters in an out-of-context game is not a huge pull for me (as I sheepishly close my phone that has Fire Emblem Heroes open on it and quickly hide my PSP copy of Dissidia Final Fantasy). So based on my 30 minutes with the demo, I felt that this was a game I could get behind. What stood out to me, at least in my assumptions in AoC versus other Warriors games I have seen (and not played) was that this game was expanding on the lore in the BotW game and any additional lore for a LoZ game is much welcome, especially since it is very rare for there to be a direct sequel or prequel to a game in this series. There was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link which massively expanded on the world and lore from the original LoZ, which is probably why it is one of my favorite Zelda games, despite never having beaten it without Game Genie.
What drew me to Age of Calamity though was knowing what happened in the history of Breath of the Wild. In that game, Link awakens after a 100 year-long rehabilitation sleep instigated by Princess Zelda after he fights a whole host of Guardians. Leading up to that battle, the four Champions, heroes from the other four races that populate Hyrule had all been killed trapped in their respective Divine Beasts they were piloting and (eventually) killed in battle against Ganon's forces all of which were taken over by an essence (of sorts) of Ganon. There is an amazing memory scene between Zelda and Link at Hyrule Field (major spoilers) that happens sometime after the Guardians turn against the Hyrule forces, Ganon takes control of the Divine Beasts and the four Champions are presumed dead. This is bleak, and it is great because I do not think I was expecting Nintendo to go there in BotW even already knowing all that happened up to that point just from experiencing the story while playing the game. But more importantly, this is history to Breath of the Wild, history that is referenced by the few remaining characters who were still alive 100 years later, and there are ruins all over Hyrule depicting those events. I want to be able to see what only a few pillars of charred stone were 100 years ago.
So I would want the story in Age of Calamity to be a series of events that ends up leading to Zelda admitting defeat against Ganon, both Link and Zelda completely worn out, covered in mud, and at their lowest point. That is how AoC should end. There should also be a series of events showing Link acquiring the Master SwordAt this point in my playtime with Age of Calamity, after only the first battle and not really knowing much else about the games in the Dynasty Warrior series, I do not know if that is the kind of ending that developer Koei Tecmo would write or one that Nintendo would allow to their second most beloved franchises. And because this game is a series of battles, the good guys are going to have to lose. I guess it could be a "they're winning the battles but losing the war," but that might feel cheap or just out of the blue. I do know that Warriors games take place apart from the main storylines when they pull characters from established franchises and that they are all called "spin-off" titles, so there is that to think about too and that could very well be what happens here, that the Champions save the day in this timeline.
And then there is the time travel element brought on by the Egg Guardian (since I do not know what it is called yet in-game). Will this EG prevent the Champions from being killed, and if so, will this game only function as an alternate timeline to the one established in Breath of the Wild? I know that I could just as easily look up to see if Age of Calamity is a true prequel to Breath of the Wild but that will reveal more spoilers that I know will be answered in-game. Plus, The Legend of Zelda has always kind of played maryhobb with timelines so having the timeline go off the rails would not be out of the ordinary for this franchise as there are very few true sequels let alone prequels (see above). And it is not like this is the first time The Legend of Zelda games have dabbled in time travel, Link is called "The Hero of Time" across multiple titles, even those not relating to or centering around time travel. But I loved the story and 100-year timeline that was created for BotW. I loved how Zelda was written as an active character in a frequently rewritten story that often puts her in the most annoying passive role you can write for someone whose name is the title of the series. I want to see the Champions meet their heroic ends. I want Link to fight off an entire field of Guardians. I want to see Hyrule Castle sacked by Guardians and taken over by Calamity Ganon. It would be like if Square Enix decided to change the end of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII just because you got to play as Zack for the entire game and "You can't just kill off the main character at the end of the game just because we're told that he dies in Final Fantasy VII!" And now that I think about it, having a battle with Link taking out Guardian after Guardian in the battle leading up to Memory #13 would be a great way to end the game, similar to how Crisis Core ended (see above), then right before Link is about to die, cut to Memory 13. I know there are five additional memories from the DLC, which I only found out about while writing this article, but I have managed to not look at what those memories contain, but once I get my cartridge for Breath of the Wild back from ReallyBigAl I will be buying the DLC and playing that; also to refresh myself before Breath of the Wild 2 comes out.
And now you know what I want? I want to play a game that takes place during those 100 years between the end of Age of Calamity and the beginning of Breath of the Wild. I have no idea what the story could or would be but something showing Hyrule in that strange state of Calamity Ganon having seemingly won, with Zelda captured, the four Champions imprisoned and killed in the Devine Beasts, and Link missing presumed dead. What was that Hyrule like? There are still cities up and running in the shadow of Calamity Ganon. People are still having relationships, having children, creating businesses, and living their lives. What was that world like during those 100 years?
So that is kind of where I am. I plan on going into the rest of the game as blind as I can for a game that was released just over a month ago (which honestly isn't too bad), and I am 100% okay with knowing that this is a Warriors game and does not play like Breath of the Wild. This is not Breath of the Wild 2 in a similar way that The Elder Scrolls Online was not Skyrim 2. That is coming out...later? I am pretty excited to see where this story evolves into the events in Breath of the Wild and hope that I am left entertained and heartbroken at the end, in the best way possible.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental
P.S. Can we also take a moment to recognize that Link does not look anything like the long-red-haired character depicted in the tapestry in Breath of the Wild?
P.P.S. I should probably also finish (or maybe restart?) Twilight Princess one of these days.
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