Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - Review

The Warriors series has been such a long-standing franchise, going back as far as the 90's. While it never was a huge selling series compared to other juggernauts, it has managed to attract a steady following throughout the years and countless entries. Within that time, it has managed branched out to apply its' distinctive formula to other franchises, like One Piece, Fire Emblem, and Zelda. Being the third entry in this spin-off series, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a companion to Tears of the Kingdom, fleshing the bits of story out in the past that are glimpsed in that game.

Taking place in the past (where Zelda vanishes to at the start of Tears of the Kingdom), you get to experience the full events of the Imprisoning War. Being something you only witnessed as scattered memories in that game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment allows you to actually take part in yourself. Whilst the bulk of the story reflects what's shown through flashbacks you would have seen if you had played Tears of the Kingdom, characters and backstory is greater fleshed out here through in-game dialogue and extra cutscenes. Despite narrative never being the core focus in these games (gameplay/combat taking precedent), the story is enjoyable and characters are quite likeable, Calamo being a particular favourite.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is made up of various different stages that can be selected from the world map. This map acts as your hub, allowing you to choose what to do next, from main quests, to countless other small combat encounters that fill the map up as you progress. There are also many tasks where you just need to provide certain materials (which can be gained from shops, completing quests, and killing enemies), and you will be provided with character improvements and others boons as a reward. Due to the sheer amount of missions/quests, it can get quite arduous in the later stages of the game to keep on top of them all, and fatigue can begin to creep in. However, the consistently fun combat does prevent this feeling for the most part.

There's something about the Warriors style of gameplay that makes it so addictive and that it rarely gets old. If you've played any of the prior Dynasty Warriors games or the many spin-offs, then you'll know that hacking through hordes of enemies like butter is utterly satisfying and therapeutic. You will regularly unlock new characters to use, each with their own unique abilities (and able to equip certain types of weapons). In addition, to reflect the IP it's based off, you will able to use various different mechanical, Zonai devices; from one that shoots out flames or other elements, to one that can shoot enemy projectiles back at them.

There are also the series standard special attacks, where once you fill up a gauge from killing enemies, you can unleash an AOE attack to deal large amounts of damage. Similarly, you can regularly call on your allied heroes to make follow up attacks if they are near. This will help to fill a secondary gauge (further filled from exploiting enemy weaknesses) which upon being filled alongside another character, you can perform a sync attack. This is unique for each possible pairing of characters and also deals massive damage. With everything together, the combat never gets dull.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the game performs in general. The prior Hyrule Warriors game on the original Switch ran notoriously poorly, often looking more like a slideshow than a functioning game. While Age of Imprisonment still suffers from time to time, particularly when large amounts of enemies including multiple bosses are on screen, it still hold up surprisingly well. Visually, it looks on par with Tears of the Kingdom, with that timeless, cell-shaded style pops with vibrant colours.

At the end of the day, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment won't win any awards for complex game design or narrative prowess. But not every game needs to aspire to that, where people might just be in the mood for a straightforward adventure which oozes fun stress relief, and it succeeds in that regard. It's the type of game that anyone can pick up, switch their brains off and enjoy, which is perfectly fine to me.

Score = 8/10