By RYAN GEEVER
Staff Writer
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The love child of The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors hit American shelves on Sep. 26. The collaboration between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo is known as Hyrule Warriors.
Hyrule Warriors is a Beat ‘Em Up/Hack ‘N’ Slash game, much like its inspiration, Dynasty Warriors. However, unlike Dynasty Warriors, the characters you play as and the worlds you traverse are solely from the Legend of Zelda canon.
The story takes place in the mystical land of Hyrule. A witch named Cia is tasked with protecting the gates of all of the different timelines, but a mysterious force corrupts her and uses her to open gateways to three different timelines of Hyrule, smashing them all into this Hyrule. Death Mountain and Lake Hylia from Ocarina of Time, Hyrule Field and the Palace of Twilight from Twilight Princess, and Sacred Ground and Skyloft from Skyward Sword are all combined. Link, Princess Zelda, and a whole cast of Zelda characters must stop Cia from unleashing the power of the mysterious dark force.
As a whole, it does its job well enough to be enjoyable, and while the story is there, it takes a back seat to the action. If you were looking for an in-depth story where all of the different characters interact for large amounts of time, you won’t find it here. Most of the story is told through a narrator after each of the stages you play.
The gameplay has you playing as one of 13 characters, who include Link, Princess Zelda, Impa, Midna, Lana, Agitha, Fi, Ghirahim, Zant, Ganondorf, Darunia, Ruto, and Sheik.
All of these characters offer a unique gameplay, and there will even be exclusive DLC which adds the three villains, Wizzro, Valga, and Cia into the game as playable characters as of Oct. 16, and Nintendo has plans to support the game throughout 2014-2015 with DLC packs containing more characters and stages.
So, in short, there’s a LOT of variety with characters and play styles, and playing as Link, a quick agility based character, for example, is a totally different experience than playing Darunia, a tank. Your stratagem for each stage may change depending on who you are and even which weapon you choose to go into battle with, as they also affect your play style.
The music in the game is superb; an excellent blend of remixes of old tunes and new ones combined into a huge rock-orchestra mix. You cannot go wrong with a kicking beat going along with the “Ballad of the Goddess” track from Skyward Sword, or the “Boss Battle” theme from Ocarina of Time.
Alongside the story mode, there is Adventure Mode, which acts as a huge mission, which is where you’ll spend the majority of your playing time. While the story mode can be completed in around five to six hours of dedicated play, Adventure Mode will take probably somewhere around 100 to 150 hours to unlock everything. You’re given a huge map of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES and one tile of it is unlocked, your first mission. You beat it and you unlock the adjacent tiles, and so on and so forth. Each one gets tougher, and sometimes you need to use an item like a bomb to blow up a wall on aforementioned map, like you would if you were playing the original Legend of Zelda.
There’s no shortage of items here, as there are bombs, ice arrows, compasses, digging mitts, bracelets, water bombs, harps, you name it. There is tons of exploration and plenty of secrets to be uncovered, and the map is also how you unlock four of the thirteen characters (Ruto, Agitha, Zant, and Ghirahim).
Oh, and the new DLC also includes an entirely new and separate Adventure Mode map once you think you’re anywhere close to being finished, so there is no shortage of content to be had in this game.
You can play Hyrule Warriors with another player in any of the modes using asynchronous multiplayer; one player plays on the television screen with a Wii U Pro Controller, and the other plays on the Wii U Gamepad screen. Overall, it works really well, and is a godsend for some of the later Adventure Mode missions.
Now, one reason people may not like this title is going in with expectations of it being the next big Zelda game. It’s not.
It is a Dynasty Warriors game wearing a Legend of Zelda tuxedo and top hat. While there are Zelda gameplay elements infused within the game, like searching for Golden Skulltulas and the use of items to explore the world, it knows it is a Dynasty Warriors game. If you are inclined to pick up this title, be open to a lot, and I mean A LOT, of enemies to mow down. If you don’t like the intense feeling of crushing literally thousands of enemies under your boot, or if you find it repetitive, then you won’t like this game. Simple as that.
Personally, I didn’t, and still don’t, find it ever boring, because taking out hordes and hordes of Bokoblins is just satisfying to me. And if I do get tired of playing as Link, then I move onto Ganondorf and tear through crowds with awesome dual-wielding action.
All in all, if you like Dynasty Warriors, this is probably the best one out there. If you like Zelda, and are open to a new game play style, then you would like this a lot. If you’re a puzzle and dungeon enthusiast and don’t like change, well, I’d pass this one, if I were you.
Hyrule Warriors gets a 9/10
