Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Review (Switch 2)

If you’re a fan of The Legend of Zelda and haven’t yet been plugged into the Hyrule Warriors spin-off series, what airwaves have you been tuning into? With the first game launching in 2014 to relatively positive appeal, Koei Tecmo has been consistent in releasing two more entries so far. But the development vision hasn’t remained the same. The first game was mostly fan service content. However, the second moved to a more story-focused experience. And Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment takes an even bolder step in the canon direction. 

2020’s Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity served as the prequel to Breath of the Wild, taking place during the Great Calamity. However, the newest entry, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, serves as the prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, taking us to the creation of the Hyrule Kingdom during the Imprisoning War. Any diehard Zelda fan will easily connect the dots on these storylines. For one, the Great Calamity occurs 100 years before the events in Breath of the Wild. Meanwhile, the Imprisoning War occurs during ancient Hyrule, a long time ago, long before the idea of time itself. 

But even for Zelda’s fans, the series’s crooked, alternate timelines have been tough to keep up with. Age of Calamity falls prey to this, choosing to create yet another alternate timeline for purists to be convoluted by. Fortunately, Age of Imprisonment ditches the whole idea of alternate timelines. Instead, it sticks to telling the ancient story of Hyrule’s past as it was. Whether this eventually clicks and pays off for you, well, let’s leave that till the verdict wrap-up of our Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment review down below. 

Revisiting Ancient Hyrule

How Hyrule came to be isn’t exactly news for anyone diligent enough to keep track of The Legend of Zelda’s stories. Particularly, Tears of the Kingdom, when Princess Zelda accidentally time-travels to the past and meets with the first King and Queen, Rauru and Sonia. And for a pretty good chunk of time, she adventures alongside them and deals with Ganondorf’s first attempt to raid Hyrule Castle. It’s also the time when the Imprisoning War took place, also referenced in A Link to the Past, when the heroes sealed away Ganon. 

Let’s cut to the chase and confirm that, yes, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment does copy and paste a lot of the key plot points from Tears of the Kingdom. Even the cutscenes won’t be entirely new to diehard fans. But the story does dig a little deeper into the present cast: King Rauru, Princess Zelda, and more. We meet a Korok traveller, Calamo, and his buddy, the Mysterious Construct. The races you’re probably already familiar with return, including Gorons, Zoras, Ritos, Koroks, Constructs, and so on. And of course, the Sages. 

And so, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s story is mostly about fleshing out these old and new characters who play a key role in the Imprisoning War. Their relationships and backgrounds make up the cutscenes you’ll sink your teeth into. And for the most part, you do enjoy emotionally provoking moments, deep and thoughtful beyond expectations. It’s a shame, though, that Zelda is finally a playable character. Yet, doesn’t quite take up much screentime. If anything, multiple characters of different races help populate your playable roster. And while it’s great for versatility, many of the add-ons lack any decent background or depth to genuinely bond with.

Dynasty Warriors Revived

You will certainly not bear any fault for choosing to place your energy and focus on the combat and gameplay instead. And frankly, it’s the area where Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment truly shows off its best elements. The combat won’t be anything new to Dynasty Warriors’ fans. Or any of Koei Tecmo’s licensed spin-offs that use the same chaotic, action hack-and-slash system. You play through the same one vs 1000 power fantasy combat experience. Here’s where you mow down dozens of enemies with a single strike, clearing hundreds of enemies flooding the battlefield. And eventually reaching the larger enemies and bosses that give you slightly more challenge to then beat the mission and move on to the next. 

All missions are similar in the way that you fight hordes of enemies at a time. And often with a party of characters that you can switch between on the fly. You combine their light and heavy attacks, and discover hot combos that clear battlefields in a single punch of a button. A true power fantasy, indeed, when you have the tools and variety to keep battles refreshing. But as you can imagine, many titles that try out Koei Tecmo’s formula wind up feeling like a button-mashing fest. Fire Emblem, One Piece, and Persona 5 Strikers all have found niche ways to put their stamp on the “Musou” genre to varying success. And Hyrule Warriors joins the ranks, too, with its versatility. But it feels like it’s been a constant improvement all through to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, where the “Musou” genre finally feels like it’s landed home.

Active Engagement

Pressing X and Y to augment powerful combos will mostly be enough to clear the levels in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. And occasionally, when the Special gauge fills up, you can press A to launch a screen-wide, powerful finisher. These alone can be enough to get you through most missions, which, as you can imagine, isn’t so fun, button-mashing most of your combat time. But firstly, there’s the option to amp the difficulty. And at least engage thought in the light and heavy attacks you use against enemies. But even more effective are the enemy counters you have to watch out for that need specific ways to respond to. Perhaps a character’s specific aerial-based skill, and if they lack the skill you need, a specific Zonai device. 

Zonai devices, indeed, add more versatile ways to enhance your skills and weapons. And it’s nice that they are accessible to various characters. More than that, they add an elemental element to battles that drastically step up your game. Whether flame emitter, shock emitter, rocket, hydrant, or more, these elements correspond to specific enemy weaknesses. They can be used to target weak points and break enemy shields. With every character having unique skills and weapons, you enjoy a pretty wide breadth of tools and assets in the flashy and chaotic battle sequences of Dynasty Warriors’ style. And sure, the moments of button-mashing against dozens of enemies still persist. But within them are enemy counters you respond to in varying ways. And that makes Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s combat far more actively engaging than most Musou games.

Pair Up

There are far more ways Koei Tecmo makes Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment special. Each character can fill up a Sync Strike meter. And then pair up with another to launch often unique, special, and devastating attacks. Again, these add more versatility that generously fills your roughly 20-hour run, alongside rewards and upgrades to your weapons and skills. You’ll have fun discovering each character’s uniqueness and how they can be maximized alongside an ally. And as a result, find yourself considering ally placements on the battlefield. (Though you can always switch up characters on the fly). There are Fuse abilities to keep in mind, giving you temporary elemental fusion between characters, among many more engaging mechanics.

If those were not enough to enhance and boost Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s mechanical play, you discover how Calamo’s best buddy plays a lot like Link. But even more than that, they can fly and launch you into a mini Star Fox on-rails shooter. A couple of these levels also don’t feel like enough. Fortunately, you can delve back in for additional side quests and optional post-game content, which I suspect a lot of you will be doing in the months to come, especially with the steady frame rates and smooth performance.

Verdict

Like most games, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment isn’t perfect. You’ll certainly find parts of its story less impactful than others. And definitely a different perspective on how Nintendo could have handled delving into ancient Hyrule’s past. Still, diehard fans will find Zelda’s momentary center stage presence well appreciated. And even more, some of the cast’s playfulness and delightfulness on screen. But hands down, combat takes the crown home. 

Given the “Musou” genre’s specific niche audience, I presume some gamers will remain reluctant to try out Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. But as veterans will tell you, this is probably the most versatile Koei Tecmo’s action hack-and-slash will ever be. Whether in the unique skills and weapons of the characters, or the different ways you can switch things up using Zonai devices, Sync Strikes, Fuse abilities, and more, Hyrule Warriors seems to have found its footing in delivering an actively engaging one vs 1000 combat system.

The Legend of Zelda’s charming world setting and unique combat systems continue to enrich the Hyrule Warriors spin-off series. If this is how the spin-off is going to be innovating and renovating, then we definitely have a bright future ahead of us.