Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[Blue Blood]

What does everyone think of Hestu's voice then? Cause it doesn't sounds like how adorable grunts/vocalisations from BotW, and is instead just pretty dreadful. IMO, of course.

[Diogenes]

Sounds fine to me. I mean I don't exactly like the voice, but Hestu was always going to be obnoxiously squeaky, and comparing side by side I'd say they're in the same ballpark.

[KHCast]

Apparently Nintendo leaked a demo as it appeared on the eshop earlier before getting taken down? So...keep an eye out for a demo announcement I guess lol

 

 

 

[Diogenes]

Demo's up, also, new trailer:

 

[Sonicka]

Yup, not gunna lie. I enjoyed the demo. So that's put my initial fears to rest. =)

I mean sure, it sure doesn't run perfect (and it does chug quiiite a bit), but I'd be damned if I didn't have a ton of run running around as Link and Impa dishing it out. Everything about this from the gameplay integration to the story layout, the presentation, the map of things to do, and the UI was so much more welcome and easy to understand compared to the former game.

It probably helps that this is set in a world I'm personally invested and interested in returning to - but despite this being a Musou game I think the direct BOTW theme has helped streamlined the overall experience from atypical warriors game with Zelda copy paste elements, and into something much more palatable and focused. What I'm trying to say is that playing the demo felt very much I was playing a Zelda game with Musou elements rather than the other way around (despite the opposite being true). And this is a very good thing indeed. 

Oh and playable Divine Beasts?? Even if that's in a limited capacity... Hell. Yes.

From a story perspective the time travel element of the little BB8-on-legs droid has me interested. So are they proposing the timeline is going to split again as it goes back in time to change the original outcome before Ganon is sealed by Zelda setting up the BOTW events? OR, is this just going to be a self fulfilling prophecy where the events of BOTW happen BECAUSE BB8 goes back in time to help Zelda and Link out right at that last moment with the sealing and Link being placed into stasis? I do wonder.

[Blue Blood]

I was already planning to get this game and expecting to love it, but the demo still had me very pleasantly surprised. Hyrule Warriors was my first, and so far only Musou or Warriors game; I thought that AoC was basically going to be HW2. But it's not. It's so much more intrinsically BotW based than HW was Zelda based. The Sheikah Slate really adds a different layer to the combat, the paraglider greatly increases aerial play and the map layouts are so much more organic which works wonders when capturing the feeling of BotW's open world. It's still absolutely a warriors game through and through, but it's more than merely Hyrule Warriors with a BotW skin.

A heads up for spoilers btw; dataminers have already found the full list of playable characters and it's likely that there's a lot more information yet to come.

[Perkilator]

Happy launch day!

Jon Cartwright actually predicted this game about a couple and a half years back

[Sonicka]

Ok, this game... THIS GAME.

I went in with such low expectations (because I personally still hold the opinion that first Hyrule Warriors was lazy repetitive trash), BUT, so far in my play-through AOC has shattered my concerns, exceeded all my expectations - and has had me grinning ear to ear with it's engaging and fun gameplay loops. 

Maybe it's because it feels more BOTW than Warriors game? I dunno. But it seems like Koei Tecmo really went to town on their research (and you can tell that Nintendo had a more obvious hands-on involvement too).

Gameplay wise, all the characters feel distinct enough to play as, the combat is actually fluent and easy to pull of combos - I really like the bullet time slow down to give you chance to make decisions for your attacks, as well as the guides / on screen visual prompts which helps keep me engaged on tackling enemies. I feel like a real powerhouse after taking them out and successful pulling off some amazing move-sets. Plus getting to play as the Divine Beasts for small sections of the game is also a neat little (reward) and a short blast of fun... just maybe turn the gyro controls OFF.

I think it's the authenticity to BOTW that I'm most impressed by - the battle maps are not only NOT ripped/heavily inspired from older Warriors games this time... but in a lot of cases match up to the geography of BOTW's locations. It is obviously not a perfect 1:1... but I was running around Death Mountain and Zora's Domain like I knew where I was going out of habit to the original title - everything was in it's place.

I found that the hub structure of having Hyrule Map as the glorified overworld menu really helps to simplify and streamline the experience into something more enjoyable for me. I can keep track of what I'm doing from one place, I understand how to level up my characters and improve my weapons, I can set myself goals for finding items required for additional unlocks, and I just can jump into the action without confusion of knowing what the hell I'm doing or where I am going.

Yeah, they did really good with this, so I'll happily eat my previous words of worry. It is a shame the game struggles on Nintendo's underpowered hardware, but performance issues and choppy frame rates / pop up aside, I'm happy and enjoying my time with this overall.

[Perkilator]

I decided to spoil myself on a cutscene for AoC.

…Koei Tecmo has a LOT of explaining to do.

[JezMM]

Finished it the other day.  My full thoughts on the story, major spoilers ahoy:

Spoiler

I'm REALLY fucking bummed out that this was an alternate timeline where everything turns out fine in the end.  I was really thought we were going to get a bold, daring narrative but in retrospect I feel completely stupid for ever expecting anything of the sort from a Nintendo game.  I feel this is a harsh lesson that I should use to lower my expectations of BotW2's story, frankly.  The story we got instead is... fine.  The stuff involving Terrako is still a bit confusing and not very well explained by the actual story, with most clarification done via loading screen tooltips that appear after finishing the game, which is a bit pathetic.

The cut-scenes themselves were decent too.  In spite of everything, getting to spend more time with the champions and younger versions of the Sheikah trio was great, even if it's a history that diverges from BotW's.  Kohga, Sooga and Astor's side of the plot was a very pleasant surprise in terms of content I didn't know I wanted.  I felt very spoiled to get so much voiced, fully animated story content, when it was so sparingly used in BotW.  Having said that... the reimagining of key emotional moments from BotW somehow managed to be even less impactful than the originals, which already left something to be desired in terms of dramatics.

There were some cool twists along the way regardless though.  The Master Sword scene and how it went straight back into gameplay with that music was a phenomenal moment.  Astor getting consumed by Ganon was suitably creepy, even though the fact that he just runs away off-camera so we can focus on Terrako getting posessed was very awkward.

I dunno, ultimately, I just really wanted a Zelda story that would make me feel some real impactful emotion and... I did not.  I also really wanted more detail about the backstory of BotW, not an alternate history.  All we get is:

• Zelda was apparently a little guardian-building genius at a young age (i.e. Terrako still existed in BotW's world... until he left it), but this doesn't add anything to BotW's story.
• An idea of what the Sheikah trio were like as young adults (even though the scenes aren't canon to BotW from the point that Terrako activates).
• Astor probably exists in BotW's canon but perhaps he never really had any influence on Ganon's return since the corrupted Terrako never arrived to give him the degree of foresight that he had.  This might add to BotW's story if he is the same fortune teller mentioned in some Hyrule Castle diary entries but... we still don't know what he got up to in the original BotW backstory so, limited value.

All in all, I feel a bit lied to by Nintendo's description of the premise for the story in this game, which was the main reason I was excited for it since I can take or leave Dynasty Warriors gameplay.  I'm all for a surprise, but the story they provided wasn't engaging enough as a story, it just had a few good moments and some pleasant character interaction stuff.

As for the gameplay... yeah it's decent.  As someone who didn't get into Hyrule Warriors - just played it through once and then never went back for the DLC or re-releases, the focus on BotW stuff is a massive improvement.  Having said this, by the end I was starting to get a bit tired of the gameplay loop and how long taking down bosses takes.  Unfortunately I'm just not super into combat games where the fun comes mainly through doing the same stuff as different characters.  It's all still just pressing X and Y and dodging a bunch with minor variations to me.

[Blue Blood]

EDIT: God fucking damn it. Spoiler boxes on this board are totally broken and spread across the entire post, then don't let you edit them. I'm now stuck with stupid formatting on this post too that I can't get rid of on mobile.

Here's the actual post. Some for anything that's repeated in the spoiler tags.

The story that the game has is fine, I guess. I'm disappointed more by what it isn't rather than what is. It could have been much more interesting.

Gameplay is great though. I'm having a roaring good time with it. The fact that the maps are so similar to BotW instead of the squares and corridors of the original Hyrule Warriors is both a strength and a curse. It can sometimes be really hard to figure out where the paths are, even when you're zoomed in on the map. But in the flipside, it's easier to know where you are and makes the maps feel distinct from each other. There's more on a focus on just ploughing ahead in this game too, rather than capturing keeps and outposts. You're trying to defeat the toughest enemies, not control the battlefield. It's streamlined and simpler in premise. 

Story spoilers:

 

It's an alternate timeline wherein nobody dies and the "Champion successors" travel back in time to save the day. Even the Yiga Clan ends up siding with the good guys to stop Astor and Harbinger Ganon, aka the little Guardian from before the Calamity corrupted by malice from the time of the Calamity.

And who's Astor? Some random Gabon fanboy who's supposedly the Prophet of Doom. I dunno. It's maybe implied that he's the seer that's mentioned in some BotW material who foresaw the impending Calamity and warned the kingdom. It's disappointingly poorly explained.

The story in the game is relatively enjoyable, although Link' entire role is just to block a few attacks with his shield and he's otherwise so totally pointless. I really wish they'd make him a proper character with dialogue or bite the bullet and make a game without him. He's a weird character/non-character hybrid and it doesn't work. I'm also rather disappointed that this was a totally separate timeline instead of a straight up prequel. Ngl I smiled and was super excited when Teba showed up because somehow I didn't see it coming at all, but it cheapens the impact of the Champions' deaths in BotW instead of strengthening it. This game didn't do much to develop the Champions either. They all just kind of exist with no depth or information beyond what we saw in BotW.

I was really, really hoping for this game to be a true prequel. And I was expecting to be one to tell you the truth. I thought that the little Guardian would be stuck in a time loop of going back in time to prevent the Calamity and ultimately causing it. But instead it turns out that he created a separate timeline. And he was built/fixed by Zelda as a child but she doesn't remember him until he dies at the end. Oh and his name is Terrako. Zelda only remembers that at the end too.

Oh and here's the most minor and unimportant thing that annoys me: Tera, Cotera and Terrako (pronounced Tera-co). The two Great Fairies having such similar name constructions was another in BotW and now they've added in a character who has another derivative of it? It's jank.

The story that the game has is fine, I guess. I'm disappointed more by what it isn't rather than what is. It could have been much more interesting.

Gameplay is great though. I'm having a roaring good time with it. The fact that the maps are so similar to BotW instead of the squares and corridors of the original Hyrule Warriors is both a strength and a curse. It can sometimes be really hard to figure out where the paths are, even when you're zoomed in on the map. But in the flipside, it's easier to know where you are and makes the maps feel distinct from each other. There's more on a focus on just ploughing ahead in this game too, rather than capturing keeps and outposts. You're trying to defeat the toughest enemies, not control the battlefield. It's streamlined and simpler in premise. 

Game's great. Not perfect though. Divine Best gameplay second are the hottest of garbage.

[Diogenes]

Yeah I'm left feeling a bit mixed on the story.

Spoiler

It's not bad taken on its own, but I really was hoping to see more focus on the original "failure" timeline. Even with time travel involved and the demo datamine and opening tapestry hinting at the champion successors showing up to change things I was still hoping for a "bad ending" that was mostly in line with BotW's backstory and then using time travel to give us an alternate "good ending". But nah, they just charge forward with an alternate "everybody (who's not flagrantly evil) lives" story and it feels like a real missed opportunity. Having everyone come together to take on Ganon would've felt a lot more exciting and climactic if they had been willing to gut punch us earlier on. Ass Store is also kind of a waste, seemingly just evil for the sake of it, and it's not like I can even blame it on this being a spinoff or something since even Cia back in HW1 had more going on.

Also it took me until just now to realize the egg is Terrako because terracotta, because the guardians are based on pottery.

That all said I can't say I'm disappointed with the game as a whole; mechanically it's a hell of a lot of fun and I still enjoy diving further into this version of Hyrule. I just wish they had been a bit more gutsy and a bit more clever about certain things.

[JezMM]

Yeah a couple more thoughts on the story that reading you guys' replies reminded me of.  Breath of the Wild spoilers, including the optional diary entries found in Hyrule Castle (in case we have any casual readers in the thread):

I'm ready for Link to talk now.  I thought I'd never see the day that I'd want that little funny tradition broken, but he was SO awkward in this.  In BotW, the supplementary material like Zelda's diary made up the difference, and managed to actively make his lack of dialogue into a really interesting character point, one that makes him my favourite and most developed version of Link.  It's also worth bearing in mind that he does speak all the way through the game - conversation dialogue prompts are packed with character.  So yeah, I want to see Link speak.  We know he speaks, it just happens off-camera, so it wouldn't be conflicting anything.

Now here's the important part - he should stay true to his character.  The one who only speaks when he's in an intimate position or when it's absolutely necessary.  I picture it a bit like Max in Mad Max (Fury Road at least, haven't seen the others).  That guy had like 10 lines of dialogue in the entire movie but he still worked as a character.  I remember in BotW how much I wanted Link to just say "Zelda..." at that moment before he falls unconscious in the final memory.  AoC equally has a few moments where it really looks like he's going to say something but then just nods.  Usually with the same neutral expression every single time.

Obviously they'd need to NAIL an English voice actor who can match Link's strongly established grunting (or give his Japanese actor some hefty vocal training).  I think it's doable though.  I think people were complaining about this earlier (I didn't watch the trailers after the first two), but I was actually incredibly impressed by Hestu's voicework in this game. They matched his original voice samples from BotW perfectly.  Obviously matching a comedic character is probably a much lower level of difficulty than a serious character, but yeah, food for thought.

 

To dip back into hefty spoilers for AoC:

Spoiler

I do hate that Astor was just "evil for evil's sake".  He kind of... never really does anything.  Aside from the Calamity itself (which was bound to happen regardless, and even there they pull the "the town was evacuated safely!!" card).  The only terrible thing he actually succeeds in doing is kill Yiga Clan members who are all fairly dispicable people (though you never know, maybe their people has good reason to dispise the royal family; Ocarina of Time implies that the Hylians have an unsettling history of war and greed).  Generally speaking the bad guys continually fail in this game at everything they try to do (mostly killing Zelda).

It would've been nice if Astor could've done just one big thing to really make us relish in his demise.  It would've still been a shocking moment even if he deserved it I think.

 

[Blue Blood]

@JezMM That was me complaining about Hestu's voice in the trailer and I stand by it. He doesn't sound anything like his sound bites from BotW. Both are high pitched, and that's all they have in common. His sound bites in BotW are adorable, and his voice in AoC is shrill and sharp. 

I could rag on the the voice acting for this game a lot. It's got the same problems as the story in that it would be right at home in the most low-budget and generic anime out there. It's really unfortunate that whilst Nintendo went all out on recreating everything about the gameplay and world for BotW, the story, characters and voice acting got shafted hard. There's precisely one good voice in the game and that's...

 

Riju, which is strange because Urbosa shares her VA and her voice is the blandest and worst acted of the bunch.

[JezMM]

I felt the voicework was on par with BotW, which... isn't high praise.  Zelda got the most flak in that game, but I felt some scenes she did well and some she didn't, which gave me hope that she just needed time to settle into the character.  But here I still find that same inconsistency, she just can't do dramatic scenes with any kind of weight to her voice at all, or a voice director just isn't letting her.  We don't need anime levels of overdramatics or anything but just let her yell stuff once in a while please.  Poor girl really needs to vent some of that self-hate.

Most of the other stilted moments just came from weird ways of talking that felt a bit like they were just struggling to match the pace of the cut-scenes with the dub so had to phrase things in weird ways of talk faster/slower than would be natural.

I have to admit, characters having special move catchphrases that they say every time without variation is something the series did well to do without for so many decades.  It's a shame that now that the series has finally embraced voiceover, they aren't able to maintain the same high standards the series is known for in almost every other regard.

(Story-unlock character spoiler, responding to Blue Blood above)

I agree that Riju was a highlight. She had some nice range.  Though I admit at the same time I was annoyed at how easily I predicted that her concerns about success near the climax of the game would be alleviated within the next 20 seconds after some generic uplifting dialogue from Urbosa lol.  But I guess she is still a bright-eyed kid at the end of the day.)

[KHCast]

 

L.o fucking L

[Blue Blood]

Ah yes, I too enjoyed learning about the handful of bokoblins that Link defeated one day in Hyrule Field.

[Sonicka]

I can't say much more than what's been said in the thread already - but despite how much I disliked the first Hyrule Warriors and was concerned how bad this would also be... AOC surprisingly turned out to be a solid 9/10 for me and a great holdover until BOTW: 2.

My main concern now is that I'd now rather the battle system from this game replace BOTW's (weakest part of that phenomenal game for me) and that obviously isn't going to happen. It's basic enough to be more and engaging and fun than BOTW (I talk purely in terms of just straight up attacking only), but takes the best of both worlds combats from the Dynasty and Zelda games and meshes it into a sweet grindy fun time that I find oddly enjoyable. 

It took me 50 hours overall to complete AOC, mostly because I didn't want it to end. And the ending itself was... fine. Completely acceptable and not outrageous for Zelda timeline standards (even if I would have preferred it actually stuck the landing and ended the way everyone else here has discussed). Despite that... I can see myself spending a good 50 hours more in the post game stuff.  

Honestly, I don't know really know why I like this game... But I'm pleasantly more satisfied than I expected overall. So at least I feel I got the monies worth I suppose? XD 

[Danj86]

I've finished the story and since I don't mind the Dynasty type games, I enjoyed it as much as expected. Found it difficult to play the Devine Beast missions with motion controls. When I was turning to aim, the cursor would move but then snap back when I stopped moving it. Had to turn the motion controls off and use the analogue instead.

Spoiler

Like everyone else, the story wasn't what I expected and I have mixed feelings about it. It's not like I wanted a story in which almost everyone dies, it was just what I expected. But when the time travellers showed up (Which was a surprise.) it suddenly felt like a rehash of the first Hyrule Warriors. A story involving time travel that felt a little...fan-fictiony.

I still enjoyed the story for what it was. It was cool being able to play as all those characters and seeing locations before they're destroyed. Menu music go a little repetitive at times. But you're also given much to do, which might be too similar for some.

 

[KHCast]

I can already guess 2 of the dlc characters going off the artwork, but curious who the rest may be.
 

I know it’s a stretch, but 

knowing KT, and how they like to Re use stuff, and give how time travel is a heavy theme in this game, man it would awesome to see them bring back fan favorites from the first Hyrule Warriors. They already gave us HW1 Link as a costume. Like, this game is already non-canon, so no harm in if they brought back Lana or HW1 Impa, or fucking Tingle lol

[Blue Blood]

@KHCastAstor, Robbie, Purah and Sooga are all a given. There are voice clips of other characters calling them them left in the game as is. I don't know who else might join the game, but tbh I don't think I'm interested in getting the DLC. AoC is already brimming with content as it is, content that I'm never going to see in its entirety. Fun game, but additional content isn't enticing to me.

[KHCast]

I’m gonna wait probably until I see what the first wave offers before deciding if I buy or not.
 

But I definitely like the idea of more stages, I felt a lot of the stages in base tbh weren’t as memorable and as exciting to go through compared to the first game. Those were full on recreations of areas from the whole history of Zelda, while this was all pretty much pulled from the same game that was just a few years old. Hopefully we get some more original locales to explore or something. That would certainly grab me 

[Diogenes]

23 minutes ago, KHCast said:

But I definitely like the idea of more stages, I felt a lot of the stages in base tbh weren’t as memorable and as exciting to go through compared to the first game. Those were full on recreations of areas from the whole history of Zelda, while this was all pretty much pulled from the same game that was just a few years old.

That's the nature of the game, though. Whatever new stages they add will almost certainly all be based on places from BotW just the same. And I mean I get why that might not feel as exciting, but personally I like that they've stuck to BotW's Hyrule. HW1 did a great job as the crazy Zelda crossover and with DLC included there wasn't much of significance that it didn't cover, but it was nice to do a deeper, more self-consistent dive into just one game's world, rather than repeating elements from the first game or digging for the few remaining untouched scraps.

[Soniman]

Personally I'd like maps based on the giant mazes or ravine heck I'm surprised it wasn't in the base game  to begin with 

[JezMM]

Eventide Island feels like an obvious one that might happen, possibly Lake Hylia too.  Perhaps Lurelin Village but the south coast aesthetic is very similar to Eventide, so likely just one or the other.  And in terms of characters, Kass feels like a fan favourite to bring in from the future, maybe Beedle too.

I did 100% AoC and felt I'd had my fill of it, so I'll be slow and steady here.  It doesn't sound like the wave 1 adds anything super meaningful to me (I've never cared about giant rosters that much), so I'll be waiting to find out what wave 2 adds before I consider purchasing.  Disappointing as it was in the end on this front, I bought AoC to enjoy more story in BotW's world, so I'd want another little side story to compliment any new stages too.

I agree that this should stick to BotW content though in terms of characters and locations, I really like that the game has a single consistent flavour across the whole experience.