Hyrule Warriors has been a match made in heaven for Koei Tecmo and Nintendo. There are plenty of franchises ripe for the picking to mould into the Warriors hack and slash framework, and while there have been a few licensed entries, the mainstream appeal of The Legend of Zelda has driven the success far beyond what either company surely could have anticipated. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, taking place before the events of Breath of the Wild, became the best-selling entry of all Warriors games to date, so there was no question further Hyrulean spin-offs were on the cards.
The third original title arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, taking a leaf out of the previous game’s book by detailing the narrative of the past that was frequently flashed back to in Tears of the Kingdom. Those that have played the latest mainline 3D Legend of Zelda entry will know what transpired: King Rauru and six sages from all corners of Hyrule came together to seal Ganondorf and his demonic power beneath the depths of the surface many centuries ago. 
Following disturbances across the continent in the present, Zelda and Link’s investigations led them to the very place that the Demon King was imprisoned, only for disaster to strike and the princess being warped to the past. Where the narrative continued for Link in Tears of the Kingdom, players now get to take the reins of Zelda and her ancestral companions, living through the war that set the 2023 adventure in motion.
There will be a huge amount of familiarity for anyone that has played Tears of the Kingdom, and it won’t necessarily have been needed to be experienced to be entertaining, but there is no doubt that as a prequel that is supposedly canon (in case that is important in a series that is all over the place timeline-wise), maximum enjoyment will be had by those that have worked through Link’s object-fusing quest.
Locales like the Great Plateau, Death Mountain, Gerudo Desert, and even the subterranean depths and sky islands, all accompanied by beautiful orchestral arrangements of tunes heard in the mainline game, will bring smiles, but don’t expect anything completely original in terms of what has been seen before in either Tears of the Kingdom or Hyrule Warriors.
Defeating hundreds of weak enemies with extravagant abilities is the core attraction of these games, running from point to point, defeating bigger and tougher fiends along the way, until all enemy encampments or the main boss of the stage is thwarted. Maps are usually confined to tighter areas than before, which works in the gameplay’s favour as there is less chance of getting overwhelmed or lost, or running around for minutes on end to reach the next destination. It is simple in its goals and doesn’t have a vast amount of depth, but there are layers present to apply a little more variety and offset things from previous Hyrule Warriors entries.
While there is no Link as fans know him, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment stands tall as a Princess Zelda game, taking the series spotlight just as one of her ancestors (or descendants) recently did in Echoes of Wisdom. As seems to be the way when Zelda is made playable, though, she isn’t simply a sword-and-shield-bearing warrior as her loyal knight often is, but she comes close by wielding a light magic-powered blade that allows her to function as the sword swinger many fans have long desired.
Commonplace for Warriors games, a host of individual characters are available and come with their own moves, very easily activated by pressing the Y and X buttons in sequences, sometimes holding or repeatedly tapping them to deploy stronger attacks or unleash multiple hits on enemies. Zelda, for example, launches light magic strikes, energy balls, and arrows upon her foes, while Mineru summons constructs out of thin air, wailing heavy spiked fists and driving wheeled tanks into unlucky Moblins.
As more allies become unlocked through story and side missions selected from the Hyrule map, slightly advanced movesets will accompany them, such as timing button presses to draw out the maximum damage or extend attack chains, with some of these coming from the Gerudo characters. Others have an underlying elemental function that perform better against certain types of foes, while fusion abilities are accessible for other heroes, allowing them to put various collected loot drops to use to unleash even more unique attacks.
This is on top of the special moves that can be activated from building up gauges, and probably the most rewarding moves of all: Sync Strikes. By fighting closely with other warriors on the field and connecting attacks together in unison, flashy partner-based moves can be unleashed that lay waste to foes in visually entertaining and often humorous ways.
In another nod to Tears of the Kingdom, players will acquire Zonai devices that emit fire, ice and more, again acting as means to crush the opposing elements attuned to certain foes. These can be placed on the ground or carried around to spread the range in all directions, before needing to be recharged to use again.
There is a lot going on – more than expected – when it comes to what characters are capable of, although exploiting the weaknesses of the spongier fiends that require their defences breaking are about all that needs thinking about as far as strategy goes, with the addition of ordering AI-controlled heroes to certain areas of the map to hold off invading forces. On higher difficulties, bosses take longer to defeat, and camps may get overrun sooner, making stages last longer, so weight must be given to whether the reward payouts are worthy of the extra time spent dealing with that on harder modes. Dodgy flying stages reminiscent of Star Fox try to mix things up, but thankfully there aren’t too many of them.
Helping the situation massively in both ground and air level types is the local co-op feature, where splitscreen and GameShare options mean two players can complete most missions together, pummelling Ganondorf’s forces with ease. While the smooth 60 frames per second gameplay is cut in half in multiplayer, 30fps is a more than pleasant experience, and the game becomes less grindy and more rewarding as a result, able to complete stages faster than if played solo. Online play is absent, unfortunately.
The weapon enhancement system is rather frustrating, actively working against players and punishing those that stockpile their rewards due to limited inventory space. Stones needed to level weapons up often contain passive abilities, but equipment can only inherit a select number of them until more slots become available, forcing the stockpiling that goes on. Given how much loot is acquired after each battle, the limited space for upgrade stones is particularly strange.
There was trepidation prior to release about whether the roster of characters would be able to hold up to past iterations and if the pre-Tears of the Kingdom story arc would be enough to carry the narrative. With so little seen of the sages in the game this one is set before, they came across as generic manakins of each of their individual races with those ridiculous giant masks on their heads. Thankfully in Age of Imprisonment, a closer look at their original designs and personalities is revealed, with a few standing out in the shape of Zora queen Qia and Gerudo leader Ardi.
Unfortunately, those ugly helmets are plonked on top of them during most stages, with no clear way to remove them for aesthetic purposes. In fact, there don’t seem to be any unlockable costumes at all for anybody, which comes as a further disappointment. Despite Zelda starting out in her traditional blue garments and boots, she’s forced to wear her white dress for the remainder of the game. It is particularly odd considering the previous entry gave her three to choose from.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity went out of its way to throw players off in all sorts of ways, and it can be argued that it was for the better. With Age of Imprisonment, it sticks the course pretty solidly; this really is about the sages’ battle with Ganondorf prior to Tears of the Kingdom and doesn’t chuck many curveballs that might have better served the narrative. There are a couple of more interesting story beats, though, with the main draw being young Korok Calamo and his construct companion.
This little guy’s own adventure of discovery crosses paths with Zelda and Rauru’s eventually, and his dialogue and cutscenes always offer the most humour and fun. Better yet, being a playable character in his own right adds to what makes these games so amusing. Who wouldn’t enjoy lobbing fire seeds at Lynels as a tiny Korok brandishing a sword? It is this over-the-top silliness that will continue to make Hyrule Warriors the appealing games that they are, and Calamo is the epitome of that. He carries the story from beginning to end, and it is thankful that he does because there isn’t a lot else that comes from the narrative that players won’t have already seen before in Tears of the Kingdom flashbacks.
More original heroes join the team, and although there isn’t much place for them in the bulk of the story since many are unlocked through side missions, it is pleasing in itself to be able to play as multiple different Zoras, Gorons, Gerudos, Rito and more. All uniquely designed, not everybody’s movesets may deliver anything that substantially changes the way the game is played – this is very much a button masher no matter the character played as – but to be able to hack and slash away as one of many of the races that players have come to know so well over the years, there is something extremely gratifying about that. Having a full team of Gerudo women is very much possible, and that’s a win in itself.
