Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[KHCast]

So I went back to both HW1 and AoC recently. Took a good breather between them so I wouldn’t get burnt out.

 

Yeah, so, is it unpopular to prefer the original to AOC? Not even because of the framerate or anything, I just find AOC a bit more...boring than it’s predecessor. Like I beat the main story of HW, and I was still feeling compelled to do the extra constant stuff, get the cooler weapons for characters I liked, unlock everyone, get the costumes, etc. but AoC after I beat its story...I just don’t get that same feeling. Maybe it’s something about the way in which you go about unlocking content, or something, but idk, something about AOC doesn’t feel as satisfying and grabbing as the original. Like I don’t even feel all that compelled anymore to check out the DLC.

[Sonicka]

Nothing wrong with feeling more of a vibe from the original HW. In fairness over it's multi-release tenure cumulating in the Definitive Edition it has packed out a ton of variable content compared to what we presently have in AOC.

The first HW didn't grab me so much personally, and mostly felt more or less like KT's usual affair of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" Warriors gameplay wrapped under a Zelda aesthetic. It's a wonderful celebration of the Series though, don't get me wrong and had a lot of fan service thrown in - but it always felt off (for me at least) especially in the gameplay department, so I was never drawn back to it. 

With AOC I think it's laurels rest purely on the players appreciation for Breath of the Wild, and for me that was the hook as it was just a further extension of that world and its story. It also changed up enough of the usual hack and slash battle formula that it felt neither like a copy-paste Warriors game or just a Breath of the Wild prequel and managed to find a sweet spot somewhere in between to define itself as something new. I agree that the game definitely chugs like crap most of the time, but I can't deny I have a good time whenever I play it and enjoy what feels like an endless amount of missions and content to explore and complete on the map (even moreso now with the DLC). 

However, it could easily be argued that the original HW (or at least the Definitive Edition) has spade loads more variety in other areas to keep things interesting for players, especially in the unlockable's from what I understand. So whatever floats your boat really - the important thing is you get enjoyment out of it. 

 

[Blue Blood]

AoC is rarely as difficult or as frantic as HW. I'm rather surprised at just how different the two games are, and personally prefer the original by a mile. Although that said, there's a ton of content in HW that I won't ever bother wasting my time with, such as the My Fairy mode or most of the Adventure Maps. The basic gameplay of capturing keeps and trying to capture and remain in control of the map only really comes into play in the  two levels where you rescue the Champions from their Divine Beasts and it's very watered down, whilst it instead made up the majority of the HW gameplay. AoC is more about just ploughing forward towards the goal. You don't really ever have to get a lay of the land. It's much more boring. Really hard to place my finger on it, but I think that AoC fails to deliver on the ham gameplay front.
 

Credit where it's due though; it's still pretty good on its own merits, it's sufficiently different so that it doesn't feel like a clone and they did a great job of making it feel like BotW. But I'm still going to be salty about that shitty, cop-out story that failed to deliver on every front.

[KHCast]

The only content worth a damn in the first Hyrule Warriors IMO is the lv 4/4+ weapons, extra weapons for characters to use, and some of the costumes (mainly for Link and Zelda, but the Mask costumes for all the characters are fun). I recently got Toon Links staff and LV 4+ variant, and I’m loving the thing lol. I also recently unlocked the super hard mode for the story, so might go through that again.

[MysticCave1084]

If any Zelda fans on here are interested, I just recently joined a nice Zelda forum, I am on there as ALinktothePast1084:

 

EDIT: Please don't bump four month old threads just to plug your only tangentally related forum. -BL

Edited November 10, 2021 by Blacklightning