Hyrule Warriors

Game Info

The Legend of Zelda has definitely made a name for itself since the 1980’s and has thrown us into the lands of Hyrule over many occasions.  The most recent trip to Hyrule is in the form of a Dynasty Warriors Mash-up and quite frankly Nintendo and Tecmo Koei did it perfectly.  When you hear people talking about Zelda you always assume it’s an adventure with puzzles and lands to explore, but with Hyrule Warriors it is an overly action-packed experience that keeps you on your toes while completing each mission.  If you have played a Dynasty Warriors game before then you will feel right at home with the concept of gameplay, but if you love Zelda games it will be one of the most memorable experiences you’ll have.  I personally have never liked any of the Dynasty games and I was skeptical at first even though Zelda is my favorite franchise.  There are many characters that become playable throughout the whole game and familiar places that you may have visited during a Zelda adventure from the past.

Each level is based around some sort of a Zelda story lore with a bit of its own taste to make you keep playing.  Of course, Link is always there to start the journey and as you progress along the story other characters become available to play.  Some of the characters range from heroes to villains being Sheik, Zelda, Midna and even the likes of Ganondorf.  Every mission is set up very similar with a whole map to explore with certain areas that you can conquer or lose if they get overrun with enemies.  There are many side objectives within each mission that keep you replaying the levels to unlock that extra heart piece or to find that gold skulltula.

The controls are very similar to most 3D third person games with the left analog controlling your character and the right analog controlling your camera.  The buttons will perform attacks, special attacks and Focus Energy.  The special attacks for each character compliment them in every way and are a lot of fun pulling them off.  Once you fill a yellow meter all the way then your character’s special attack is ready to unleash on the soon to be helpless foes.  There is also a magic meter that you can fill upon collecting green magic jars within the levels.  This magic meter, once full can be used to activate Focus Energy, which makes all your attacks all the more powerful and deadly.  There will also be a unique powerful special technique that is temporarily available while using Focus Energy for each fighter.  Every character controls a little differently mainly from each having different animations in attacking and all will take a bit learning the best combos to execute.  You can just button mash if that is your style, although taking the time to actually learn the combos can benefit you a lot more and make tough fights a lot easier.  Along with each character fighting differently they can also equip alternate weapons to make certain missions a bit smoother to accomplish.

After every completed mission you will acquire experience and keep the rupees obtained within the levels.  There are also treasure chests to be found that can reveal new weapons, items for use or even a ton a rupees.  The experience will level up your currently equipped character to make them stronger and if you don’t want to level each character individually there is a simpler method once you’ve leveled up at least 1 playable fighter.  The simpler method is called the dojo. Say you have Link at level 20, you can spend your rupees to upgrade each character to match him without having to take them into battle.  You also can use the items and materials you gather from enemies within the levels to level up skills and even add new combos to make your string of attacks longer and more powerful.  There is also options to level up weapons and even combine weapons to create more powerful ones with special attributes.  The amount of replay in this game is absolutely amazing and can keep hardcore grind fans busy if they feel like 100% completing everything.

There is a co-op option available to delve into, although it is only local and that hinders my interest just a little bit.  When you do local co-op, one player will use the gamepad screen to play and the other will use the TV screen.  When playing cooperatively the graphics actually get degraded to help the game run a lot better and still be able to have tons of enemies on the screen at one time.  There still is some slow down at times when playing co-op and that does frustrate a little, but it is still playable and quite enjoyable.  Online play would have enticed many fans a lot more, especially since lately it seems we live in an online focused era with games.  Having said that, it still is a lot of fun playing couch co-op and wrecking tons of enemies with a friend or family member.

Many modes exist within Hyrule Warriors aside from the typical story mode and one of them that stands out is Adventure Mode.  This mode gives you an old school Legend of Zelda map from the classic NES version and you have certain mission requirements that challenge you.  Each tile has a different objective that you need to complete to progress or unlock special items.  There is a little fan service on this mode also with knowing where secrets were on the overworld map from the original classic game.   For example, obtaining a candle you can burn a tree to reveal a secret area that was also a secret within the older original Legend of Zelda.

Hyrule Warriors doesn’t stand out visually and that isn’t a bad thing, but they do manage to keep a lot of action and enemies on the screen at one time with no slow down.  The graphics are still nice to look at while exploring the lands of Hyrule or even Skyloft while cutting downs hundreds of enemies.  The sound is incredible with the sword slashing, enemy screams and even the classic secret tune that sounds when finding solutions or hidden items.  Hyrule Warrior’s soundtrack is very upbeat and takes some of the classical Zelda music and turns it into an adrenaline filled masterpiece.

The Recommendation

The Legend of Zelda has been a longtime favorite for most gamers since the original NES and Hyrule Warriors doesn’t disappoint.  Although, this game is nothing like a typical Zelda adventure it still holds the attention of most die-hard fans like myself.  I feel online co-op would’ve been an amazing addition to this game and quite possibly amped up the already high replay value.  This is a purchase worth investing in if you own a Wii U and I feel that even the less die-hard fans can enjoy it.  Honestly, if you bought a Wii U then it was most likely for Nintendo games in the first place and this one has that polish that Nintendo is well known for.