Hyrule Warriors is a decade old?! Oh my gosh...I used to play that game so much, I was obsessed. I played it on the WiiU, 3DS and Switch. The music, the gameplay, the story, all of it was amazing. That game was a great way for me to bond with my father as he and I would play it together. This game still holds up well, but I never see anyone talk about it anymore.
One of my favorite examples of them getting a multitude of references out of a single mechanic is the warp system. You use an ocarina to play the ballad of gales, which summons a tornado from the side of the screen to warp you to an owl statue. That's Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Zelda 1, and Majora's Mask referenced with ONE mechanic. This game OOZES with classic Zelda charm in a way no piece of media ever has or likely ever will, and as a lifelong fan, it has its hooks in me. I've been playing this game in some form or fashion on and off since it came out all the way back in 2014, and ive been playing my DE file on and off since it came out as well. Still not finished cuz i sometimes take months long breaks. I'll max everything out one of these days though!
Yeah I still keep finding new references every day since completing this video. A great tribute to the franchise. It'll take a lot of time before I complete the DE as well. 80 hours in I still have 3 whole characters to unlock.
It finally made my favourite character skull kid playable, which i wanted from smash bros since ages.overall i think they added pretty much every character you could ask for by the time of release, vaati is pretty much the only one who is missing. Was a strange choice to include Marin instead of him since there arent to many bad guys in the Franchise.
Hyrule Warriors is my "unwind" game. Running two or three missions is a good way for me to zone out and just relax. The subtle choices of trying to optimize results without stressing too hard about the outcome is a fun way to let me autopilot and just enjoy myself. I've played it (and to a lesser extent, Age of Calamity) passively for years, and fully intend to continue doing so. Love this game.
@@Degonytewithout a doubt. I actually love that game too but in the context of BotW. I love the first HW because it really is a celebration of the classic 3D Zelda titles made by fans for fans. Age of Calamity is a celebration of Breath of the Wild purely and deepens my love of those characters and settings. I look forward to your take on it
So what if it's "mindless button mashing"? Not every game needs to be that deep. It's a sick musou game featuring fan favorite Zelda characters cutting down hoards of enemies of varying scale, all in iconic Zelda locations to the tune of remixed Zelda scores, and that's all I could really ask for.
lol right. this is a fourty minute video of a guy going “NUH UH THE GAMES SUPER COMPLEX AND DEEP YOU HAVE TO RESPECT IT AND ME” but like. its not. and thats ok! I like all the Musou games, and theyre all just me slapping my hands gently across my controller as I enjoy watching various men explode away from me. They arent deep at all though, and its kind of sad to see someone so convinced that a game must be complex to be fun.
There's nothing wrong with a game being a masher, but I think the warrior games could be so much more if the combat was designed to be more complex, or difficult. Sadly, even though the sheer number of enemies is the main selling point, I believe the hoards are the thing that drags the combat down. All of your attacks have to be massive oversized hit boxes so that you can catch all the enemies. The quantity of enemies can also regularly obscure your vision, so enemies that are a threat to you have to much more obvious tells, usually with a massive glowing indicator that they're about to hit you. Finally because they're everywhere you are generally mashing the attack button constantly as a means of moving around. My main warriors game is Fire Emblem warriors three hopes, and this moving problem is so much more hilarious in that game if you use a cavalry or Pegasus unit since your primary attack are designed to fight while moving, you will carry one group of enemies into another then another until you go all the way across the map carrying a small tidal wave of enemies. All that being said if warriors was more complex it probably wouldn't be the casual comfort game that it is. Alot of people like it because you can just sit down, turn your brain off, and solo an entire war.
@@vivil2533 I kinda agree that the hordes and huge attacks brings the combat down. But that's not any excuse for it, Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce is amazing and deep af with its combat, feeling more like a DMC instead of a Warriors game, although, that game did lower the number of enemies. Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is amazing with its combat, Deep Crimson on 3DS as well, both game have so much depth, while maintaining big number of enemies and simple inputs. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, has one of, if not, THE BEST combat in musou games, with its simple yet really good view on how the characters can be fun. All of these games i've mention, has one thing in common. They have Animation Cancels... You can cancel most of the attacks with good dodge movement that let you combo it into another move, and on that note, these 3 games doesn't have the entire combat being "Y > B | Y > Y > B | Y > Y > Y > B | Y...", they all have little variations... Strikeforce has Dash + Strong Attack, Up and Down variations of the same move... Shinovi Versus has jump attacks and multiple followups to it. Pirate Warriors 3 has "B > Y | B > B > Y..." variations and a Unique move button that is the main mechanic and depth of the character. All of this with good animation cancel with the dodge, makes the simple button mashing combat into a impressive and fun hack n slash with a lot of fun buttons to press. OFC, you CAN still play all of the games i mentioned just button mashing or using the biggest move you have to clean the screen. But not on the harder difficulty, which makes those games really enjoyable and balanced in depth while being simple. I know ppl like musous as comfort of not thinking while playing, but having a game that you CAN think but you don't have to, is a much better choice. There are other musou games that share stuff with what i said and tbh they need more attention imo.
I think that it cannot be understated the surprise you can get from the different characters in getting their mechanics. One I particularly remember was Zant, who for the longest time I had no interest in using as he just looks random and unweidly, as fitting of his TP appearance. He is particularly bad with button mashing in stunning himself, but once you figure out his beraerk mechanic his strategy becomes clearer. Young Link alters the importance of the magic meter, where he just becomes a monster if you get the right set-up. Also, Ghirahim, I love Ghirahim.
Yup, a day after making this video I unlocked the Dominion Rod for Zelda and it once again shook up how I played the game. Zant is another one I have my eyes on. I'm not using him much at the moment because he seems too mechanically complex to just pick up and play, but I plan to sit down one of these days and really learn how to use him in combat.
by right setup we mean all special bars right because golly does that boy eat, when i got hardstuck on certain missions I'd just usually have P2 set up with YL to sweep the mission, doesnt really work with AoC, but all the characters just feel good in that game oddly enough
@elivcdxv1852 It has been a while since I played him, but I think there were ways to keep Young Link's bar filled up by defeating enemies even as Fierce Deity. You had to keep very active if you wanted to get the most of the transformation. And sometimes avoid doing things breaking pots to fill it up if you thought a transformation later would benefit more.
@DuskyPredator oh that is absolutely the way, you just turn him into a perpetual motion engine that runs off the suffering of his enemies, it really helps that he's just extremely good baseline and only gets better
@@elivcdxv1852Young Link is probably my favorite character to play in terms of mechanics and spectacle. Child form is strong as a character on his own with good room clearing potential, but Fierce Deity form is just an absolute monster. Plus who doesn't love cutting the moon in half when you're about to run out of magic and then destroying their weakpoint gauge just to pump your special bars back into your magic gauge and doing it all over again? Can't remember which mission it was but I remember there was one I was able to keep my magic from draining the entire mission once I activated it and it felt so good. Also just love the idea of the Hero of Time having gone through so much shit between OoT and MM that he's forsaken his shield and opted for a two-handed berseker fighting style instead.
I really wish we'd gotten a proper sequel to this Hyrule Warriors instead of Age of Calamity. AoC isn't bad at all, I enjoyed it, but there's something special about the first one that AoC doesn't capture. I played HW originally on Wii U, and it was my first Warriors game so I wasn't sure I'd even like it, but I quickly fell in love and spent dozens of hours in it. I skipped the 3DS version because I couldn't imagine the game feeling good there, so I was so excited when it was announced for Switch with all the content of the previous versions and ended up playing the absolute hell out of it. I did most of my play time when it came out, but I still go back every now and then because I sometimes just get the itch to. I never technically *finished* it, but all I've got left is some grinding in the giant cucco mode and fairy stuff, which is not exactly the most thrilling content.
I've been thinking about the choice to make Age of Calamity so closely related to Breath of the Wild and it probably just made more sense for them to tie it closely to a super successful Zelda title rather than trying to outdo the original in terms of approach and scope when the Definitive Edition was released only 2 years before AoC. It would've been easier to market a Breath of the Wild prequel than 'another' Hyrule Warriors game with new mechanics that only the more hardcore fans would care about. If I'm not mistaken, Age of Calamity outsold the original Hyrule Warriors by quite a bit, so it worked for them (though part of this will also be down to the Switch being much more popular than the Wii U). I do hope we'll eventually get another game with more of an 'anthology' approach though.
the story of the game just already works and is just good by zelda standards to begin with, despite being so different in terms of gameplay, all the story beats are absolutely there and nearly all of the characters are great save for like, wizzro and that's just because i think he's a fun villian to hate, he's got the saturday morning bad guy vibe down to an art
@@Degonyte I think AoC beating HW has more to do with people who otherwise dislike musou games picking it up purely because it's a BotW prequel. And the people who first got into the series with BotW, at that.
@@AnAverageGoblin On a difficulty standpoint, complete disagreement, while I might have a few mixed feelings about the narrative effectively just being a large mixup and a hop away from what originally happened, I think it did a great job when it came to the addition of the weapon skills that allowed you to get at pretty dumb with setups. My personal biggest complaints with the gameplay is the lack of pretty much any actual scoring system, I'm completely fine with the removal of the damage requirement (Weapon skills that scale things based on remaining/lost HP would've been made irrelevant), but KO's becoming effectively worth nothing is rough. Difficulty wise, I definitely had more of an actual challenge going through AoC than I ever did base game Hyrule Warriors outside of skipping maps in adventure mode to start things early with DE, AoC making it way more possible for the player to actually lose a mission, even if there are so many mid-stage objectives let me have a ton more fun with it, but I know some people would definitely prefer to just not have to worry about that since some enemies/certain scenarios can make it feel like a slog if all that happens is continuous brick walling, but luckily during the stages I felt like this happened a lot the Divine Beast sections were skippable. I think the only way you're going down in original Hyrule Warriors is if you're fighting enemies at least 10-20 levels above you and not making an active effort to stunlock them into oblivion, either that or you fail because you ran out of time doing that, but with how many routes there are to take in the games first two adventure mode maps, that should never happen since at least one or two of your characters should absolutely have access to a level 2 weapon, and if they don't, it's super easy to get the Master Sword to Link-Sweep to begin with. It's definitely got less overall fan service to the overall series considering it's laser-focused on one specific time period and isn't "SubSpace Emissary"ing it by letting a lot more fan favorites appear, but the amount it does have for the people who enjoyed the game it's based off of is definitely making an attempt to be there, though i for sure saw a lot of people who were upset because they thought the game would be an actual retelling of how things went bad/down instead of what they got, so that's a 50/50. Gameplay wise I don't feel like a single character felt "bad" to play as the moment I touched them outside of Hestu, but any mission in HW/HWL/HWDE I got stuck playing as Darunia or Ruto was usually the point where I'd just try to bypass that by using a Wii-Mote to just do the mission with another character, because while it's more than likely just mostly preference, those two just feel rough to play for an extended period of time. i think they did a banger job with the music, but it's definitely not capable of scratching those ear-buzzes i got from hyrule warriors, and i know that's not a "my taste in music is too different now" thing, because Eclipse of the Moon/Sun is far and away one of the best tracks i've personally ever heard for hype as far as "oh this is definitely the end" The individual stages all having their own "quest" descriptions is a nice touch even if it's just text, and the addition of the sensor so you can find what stages have what items specifically once you know what you're looking for to upgrade something is also a great addition, it's super small since people would likely just look it up online to begin with, but the option being there and readily available is just good ease of access i'm extremely happy they stopped at one expansion all things considered, since while the updates and maps definitely works for base game HW since it's going through established time periods and giving people fan favorites and some odd picks, AoC can't really do that because of setting limitations, what is incredibly disappointing though is that Cia and Lana, along with other HW natives/originals didn't get an addition as a sort of Historia pack, I think it would've been more than welcome to see characters like Wizzro and Volga come back, but on that topic, it's also kind of a hard miss that they didn't make the villains *all* fully playable, I doubt there's a niche that Astor could've filled, as well as the blights, but if they were going to make Ganon himself playable, it's just kind of "why not?" at that point.
Wow. This video and this comment section has made me feel so seen and I’m so glad this game is getting the love it deserves. I would’ve never guessed a video about this game almost a week before 2025 would attract this so many people commenting the same sentiments, but it makes me so happy to see it. Thank you for giving us fans the platform to enjoy this tremendous game!!!
Yeah, honestly I didn't expect this much engagement on a video about an old and, by Nintendo standards, obscure game, but it's clear that many of us haven't forgotten about Hyrule Warriors!
I LOVE Hyrule Warriors, and I love that you addressed the depth that it has that often goes unnoticed. This was a really great video! To share a bit of my own experience, I first played the Wii U game when it came out. Now, on my save file for Definitive Edition I've beaten every adventure mode level with an A rank, gotten every reward, and gotten every badge for every character. I still like to play this save file sometimes so I actually wrote two C++ programs that select a random character and a random level out of the game's ~1000 levels to make sure I'm not playing the same stages over and over. I'm currently hyperfixated on it and am working on getting "perfect" weapons for all my characters. I.e. weapons with the highest rank, stars, number of slots, and the best skills in each slot. I'd really love for them to make a new Hyrule Warriors with the crossover style of the original. I'd love to see new playable characters, enemies, giant bosses, and maps. I was brainstorming about this recently and wrote a whole list of characters I'd like to play as, with my favorites probably being Nabooru from Ocarina of Time, the Deku Princess from Majora's Mask, and Makar from Wind Waker.
Makar is a character I also really would've liked to see, given that Medli is also in it. With Age of Calamity having been such a success commercially, I think a new Hyrule Warriors game is inevitable, so here's hoping!
Here's how my love of Hyrule Warriors started... In October of 2014, a Gamestop was showing off a demo of the original Hyrule Warriors. I fell in love with it and asked for the game as my birthday present in November. A few months later, I went on a vacation with a friend to a cabin in the woods. We didn't have any internet or wifi access. But I brought my WiiU with HW. My friend and I put several hours into that game and enjoyed grinding out outfits and weapons. More recently, with the release of the Definitive Edition, we go to each other's houses and plan on 100%-ing the game. Which is quite a feat since one guy estimates it's about 1,000 hours worth of content! We're about 200 hours in, so we have a way to go!
I played the original on Wii U back in the day, and I owe it to Hyrule Warriors that I met my best friends at all. Also, it was the Definitive Edition, Fire Emblem Warriors (I love it and will die on that hill), and Age of Calamity that prompted me to hack my switch and get emulation running via ryujinx at all. These titles have such an addictive gameplay loop, and specifically with the spinoffs so much love and care put into them by people who are clearly fans of what they're working on. Not just with references either, but just... Things like how MM!Link was made so cutesy and expressive, just to further expand upon the personality he displayed both in the original game and in the official art/concepts. Just... Absolutely brilliant spinoffs that deserved better than to be canned by game journalists as much as they did.
as "boring" as the warriors royals from FE:W may be, i have absolutely nothing against that standard shonen vibe, love those games but it made me wish awakening to a remake or HD despite the game not actually being that old because of how good it looked; so many good times and moments playing couch coop with friends
I absolutely agree with your conclusion, there’s just something so good about the original Hyrule Warriors that I can never quite place my finger on but I know it’s always a great game to go back to and play, even if I just go in to grind for character levels (I’m on a journey to 100% the game eventually, and part of what I have left to do is getting character levels all the way to max!). You’ve made a great video about a game that goes under the radar nowadays, I appreciate that it’s still able to get some love even after 10 years of it being out!
Fun fact: I bought Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition before I purchased my own Nintendo Switch and was fully ready to have just this game on my console for a while.
The way I was just talking to a friend about the "mindless button mashing" phrase that got thrown around constantly at this game's release just yesterday, perfect timing! Amazing perfect video, and the gameplay in the background being great too absolutely helps that. The setup on Gohma at 19:30 to maximize damage while he's down, using superarmor to ignore the Redead scream's stun at 23:37, this is gameplay from someone who knows how the game really works! And @ why people don't talk about the game as much anymore is because I feel like everything that could be said about the game has already been said in the past 10 years. I based my channel and made a ton of videos about this game, but I haven't made any for years since I'm not sure what more could be said. But you can bet that me and all of the other fans of this game will swarm to any new discussions about the game, like this video!
Thanks! The fact this game isn't really talked about anymore (relatively speaking of course) wasn't really a complaint of mine, I was just convincing myself that reviewing a 10-year-old game wasn't a dumb idea. Judging by all the comments and feedback I've received, it seems like a huge amount of people still have love for this game and that it has its own place in Zelda history. If this video can serve as a reminder of that, then it's mission accomplished!
When Hyrule Warriors first came out I had it on my Wii U, and I spent over 700+ hours on it. Over time I stopped playing the games as much but I still adore them and think they don't get talked about enough.
this game was two IPs that were fundamentally different in gameplay form fitted them both together and it just worked that's impressive no matter how you slice it
I'm so glad this showed up in my feed. I loved Hyrule Warriors when I played it at launch, and now I'm waiting for my new copy to arrive to play this masterpiece again!
I absolutely love this game, it's the game where I always say I'll play just one more level and then end up playing 10 more levels. People can call it what they want but it'll always be incredibly fun to me even after a couple hundred hours in
I am also addicted to this old game in the last two months! It's my Nintendrought game. I am having an incredible time with it. Just finished the Master Quest Adventure Map. (~250 hours or so) This game is SUPER slept on, especially by Zelda fans. This game is incredibly full of the exact kind of fan service that Zelda fans, especially long time ones would get a huge amount of mileage out of if they put in the time.
I fully agree. It's like if Super Smash Bros. was fully dedicated to just celebrating the Zelda franchises. I've been playing through the 3D Zelda games concurrently, and the more I relive these stories the more clear it becomes that Hyrule Warriors was made by hardcore Zelda fans.
I'm so glad that The Algorithm recommended this video to me, it was great! I enjoyed the WiiU version but only did the base game story content. I picked up the Switch version intending to sink my teeth into it more, but it's been laying on my shelf forgotten for years now. But this video reminded me about it and made me want to open up that box!
Hyrule Warriors is one of my favourite games out there! About 2 years ago I had a pretty rough health time and had to spend a lot of my days just in my house doing nothing. I played so much of that game in that time just to keep occupied, and grew to love every character and weapon (great fairy I’m sorry you’re the only exception you’re terrifying and also kinda clunky). So glad to see it being showed the love it deserves
every once in a while i get that urge to play this game again. 600 hours wasn't enough, i guess. will always be a top 10 game for me. happy to see it getting the attention it really deserves.
Also, my theory on why koei was less restricted than other companies are when they take on Nintendo's main series is because they're closer to nintendo than others. Not only have they made other spinoffs for the fire emblem series for example, they even worked a lot on the writing of a main line fire emblem (3 houses). That, in my opinion, proves that the two companies are quite close, closer than we imagine
Don't you have that reversed? Most of the successful partnership with Nintendo and Intelligent systems happened after Hyrule Warriors(Obviously, HW is a WiiU game and the Fire Emblem games are Switch games).
@lpfan4491 yes I agree, the things I'm describing happened after, but they still show that Nintendo and koei have some proximity. Maybe it built up with Hyrule warriors, but it certainly feels like these companies are close, and in a good relationship, which would explain why they could do what they did with Hyrule warriors and with the fire emblem games later
This game is amazing. While I haven't played it in awhile, what makes this game fun is the sheer amount of content in it. You'll never run out of things to do. I've gotten 100% on the story mode and I'd like to finish the rest of the adventure maps(having completed a few of them), but other games keep pulling me away. This is still a fantastic game because it's very polished and plays well. So I'd definitely like to come back to this whenever I can.
Thank you for this video on HWDE. I love this game. I love the silly story, and the Wind Waker epilogue is full of heart. The only thing that annoys me is the npc teammates don't do anything, but that also adds to the strategy and time management. I even like the Ganon levels when I do feel like button mashing. Beating bosses with ease feels pretty good. :) Thanks for shouting out Warriors Dojo. He was the only guy giving this game some love. I would be lost without his guide videos.
Hyrule Warriors is so good It's probably one of my most played games from my Switch/Wii U/3DS ! This game can afford to had a lot of fan service and just being fun with it ! I hope we will get a real sequel for the Switch 2. Age Calamity was fun... but it didn't catch the same vibe from the first.
Hey man, I was recommended your vid in the almighty algorithm. I just want to say thanks for bringing this game to my attention. I tried it a bit and was immediately having a blast, so much so that I absolutely needed to get a physical copy, so I ordered it online. It should be arriving soon. This game slaps so hard. Thanks again.
**slams table** THANK YOU! I loved the original Hyrule Warriors, even when I haven’t played it in years. I love how unique each characters’ moves are, how the character design translate into a game in updated graphics and artstyle, Impa, Ghirahim, Link, and Ganondorf’s designs (damn characters made me realize I was bi and my girl crushes in the past WERENT just phases), HW Link is now the only version of Link I currently simp for, how Cia was pretty much a representation of Link fangirls (and feeling like the game was calling me out), the music, and all that in an underrated console, AAAAAA- Yeah the game impacted me more than people think. It’s pretty much a love letter to the fans at the time. I remember how fans were theorizing on which character was gonna be revealed next, and rejoicing or raging depending on who we got. I can’t hate this game. BUT LOOK AT GANONDORF’S HAIR! I’ve been wanting to see Ganondorf with that kind of hair for the next main line after he was announced, so I’ve been waiting for so long. 😂 Ghirahim redesign (can we even call it that?) is just **muah!** He resembles how fans portray him, and given how much of a love letter to the fans the game is, it makes sense to me and I love it! Sheik was my fave fighter 😂 Btw I one time I was trying to get the Lv. 2 weapon for Great Fairy, then got the Lv. 3 weapon before the Lv. 2 weapon by complete random at the results screen 😂 Agitha was grueling to play until you level up… a lot, but holy it crap does it feel awesome beating someone’s butt with bugs sometimes
Bro, Hyrule Warriors is one of my favourite games of all time. I have all 3 versions and it's just so fun. Before HW the only other game I played was Link's Awakening DX for the Game Boy. So this game kinda reintroduced me to the series, even though I did always follow it. It really deserves more love.
Since release i have been (very slowly) working my way to 100%ing this game. i absolutely adored it from day 1, and to this day stand by how amazing it is. it's a personal favorite game for me, and now, with the just the challenge mode left, i'm stoked for finishing it. i always wanna show others, as every single milimeter of the game is designed with Zelda fans in mind
I loved this game so much as a kid!! I was a huge Zelda fan back then so I was all over it. I always thought the character designs were underrated, Zelda’s design in it will always be my favorite Zelda design.
This is one of the few games I come back to when I end up getting bored with other games, when I first played I hardcore focused on playing mostly the Links unless I got pushed off of them to unlock a weapon, because the Links (And I do mean all 3) are all hilariously overpowered in their own ways. It was only recently that I started to explore the other characters more in depth and makes me question why every Dark Element character is designed with some of the best AoE attacks in the game when their element benefits from attacking a single target lol. I've been enjoying the games in new ways since every weapon tries to do new things. The slower characters I'm still struggling with but I think I'm finally understanding how to use Agatha properly after not really enjoying playing them for a long time. (I did unlock all the level 4+ weapons before really starting to experiment though, so, enemies don't exactly last for long, but I think I kinda enjoy being able to experiment without having to worry about a boss tanking my attacks for 20 minutes.) I will say that it's not the only Nintendo Warriors game I come back to though, Fire Emblem Warriors I find fun in a bit of a different way, not as much gameplay variety, but the strategy elements taken from Fire Emblem and put into FE Warriors I do really enjoy
Zelda’s rapier is one of the most satisfying weapons to use, I adore how her combos change depending on her change. It makes it feel so flexible and powerful to me! I also adore the weight of Impa’s giant blade, and the speed of Volga’s spear and Sheik’s harp. Twili Midna feels so versatile and powerful, and Cia has such excellent crowd clearing blasts! The combat feels so tactile!
i play this game a lot myself i've been playing it off and on for years now and only feel like now am i geting close to finishing all adventure mode maps
I love HW! I've played the entirety of the two games with my mom, and we love the gameplay. And recently, we decided to redo the first one since it's a really fun and easy game to play without pressure in the evenings.
Hyrule warriors legends was my most played 3ds game and definitive edition was my second most played switch game it’s my favourite game ever. Fire emblem warriors is also fire
One time I ignored a random cucco spawn and it managed to create it's own army that took over the entire map and nearly wiped out both me and the enemy in the process, forcing us to effectively work together with what remained to push them enough that the original mission could actually play out as intended. As far as I'm concerned, any game where that kind of insanity can happen entirely unscripted is a goddamn masterpiece.
I had a very similar experience with Fire Emblem Warriors. These games really have so much depth that is easily overlooked by most people who don’t give them a real chance. Glad you had a good time with HW and if you like the gameplay you might like Fire Emblem Warriors since it has better AI for the other characters you deploy since they use the weapon triangle in combat and can actually defeat enemies well when not controlled
Recently I've been playing Guilty Gear 2: Overture and it made me realise how much hidden potential the warrior's genre has. It is a hack and slash warriors game combining RTS, MOBA and Fighting Game elements where 2-4 player fight to destroy their opponent's master ghost on the other side of the map. What sets this game appart from other warriors games is the emphesis on unit control and macro game. Each point captured generates income which you can use to summon different units and command them where to go. Diffrerent units counter eachother, for example armour beats melee, magic beats armour, melee beats magic. You can issue different move orders during battle as well as purchace items from the shop such as staffs that can buff your units or debuff enemy units within it's range. It is also possible to pick up units and manually place them at various points on the map to help disrupt your enemy's flow of capture units. This adds a level of macro strategy that most warriors don't have and emphisises the "commander" aspect of a warriors game It also takes a lot of inspiration from it's fighting game roots and has a combat system designed around big flashy combos and brings over many mechanics from the main frachise such as the tention bar, overdrives, roman cancles and bursting your opponent's combos. This give the combat a higher skill ceiling than is usually seen in these times of games and brings life to commander on commander battles. The game is really fun and its a shame that we've never gotten a sequal to it as it did not sell very well. It would be cool to see another game like it, even if from another frachise as the old hardware it was built for limits its scope in terms of unit count, controls and graphics. If you're curious you should try it out. The campaigne is interesting story wise but its more of just an extended tutorial for the multiplayer which is where the game truely shines. Currently the community is small but we still host matches often via the overture discord server
Played the Wii U version and I loved it so much. It felt like a love letter to fans at the time. I've been tempted to get the Definitive Edition too for all the added content. This game introduced me to the musou genre and showed me I really enjoy that gameplay loop.
Hey chief. I'm only a few seconds into the video, but there is a dedicated community towards pushing the game. I've been in it optimizing everything for the last ten years. We even have a dedicated server to it. There's even guides we've worked on for Age of Calamity and Definitive Edition, and I upload content to my channel for folks. The server is unarguably the single best place to find resources for both games.
Ok I know theres lots of pages and threads on reddit and gamefaqs for helping people find stages to grind materials or guides for collectibles but I didn't think there'd be something like a server. is it discord? Is it public? I'd love to be a part of it for how long I've been grinding at that game.
It’s so rare to see HWDE videos in 2024! This game is one of my favorites, I’ve played all 3 installments over the past 10 years. I have about 330 hours in this game. I’ve 100% all maps except the rewards map, I’m currently finishing up legend mode skulltulas. I agree that I didn’t really see this game as a grind, it’s something I could revisit and just unwind. I’ve become pretty comfortable playing most characters. It being easy makes it so relaxing but I wish your health wasn’t so over bloated. It makes dying menial. I’ve been finishing up this game lately. Not sure what I’ll do after I finish 100%ing legend mode (the usurper king hard skulltula) I think mindless button mashing is kind of the end result and starting point with this game. You can quickly see the shortcomings of your combos and where you should use other combos. General movement feel as well. Even some characters have special sidestep attacks like young link lol. It all flows really well. I have a really deep love for this game and I’m glad you have the same appreciation!
Yeah, the difficulty in this game is a bit unusual in the sense that defeat rarely comes from dying, but more from mismanaging something on the battlefield or not making your targets in the challenge maps. I've yet to reach endgame, but I've heard some people say that the game just loses its challenge after you reach max level with enough characters. I am already noticing now on my level 100+ Sheik that I can barely fail any challenges, even on the harder maps. Luckily there's enough stuff you can do to keep things interesting like picking a new character/spec to play around with. Currently I'm trying to wrap my head around Dominion Rod Zelda and that's a lot of fun. It's inevitable that I'll eventually overlevel most characters, but with hundreds of hours of content that's not something I can be too mad about at the end of the day. But yeah I guess there is no need for 3 rows of hearts to be available to every character.
@ yeah the game gets really easy. It’s a 180 from how hard the Wii U map balancing was, which was extremely difficult. They massively overcorrected. I highly recommend going out of order for a more difficult experience (try getting Volga’s 4+ weapon early! I did that and it was quite hard.) I have YL & Link at 255, and Lana near level 200. Even lvl 90 characters can sweep levels. It’s an easy romp.
Man I loved this game. I put hundreds of hours into the Wii U version and then another hundred in the Switch version, getting every single weapon unlock for every character. It just scratches this itch that the Age of Calamity or Fire Emblem Heroes doesn't. I wish there was a mod or an update released that balanced the less powerful characters and made everyone enjoyable to play.
I played this game for literally years to 100% it. The hard part was getting an A rank on The Nightmare Closes In. I've never played a game as cathartic as this, including Age of Calamity.
19:41 Very true. Technically you can button mash in most combat based games but a lot of games have deeper combat systems for those who want to engage with them. The problem usually comes from how easy it is to learn and how useful the more complex moves are. A bad button masher will have 10 button combos that do the same damage as mashing the same 2 light and heavy attack buttons.
One of my fondest memories of this game was in Chapter 4 of story mode on Legends, where i stalled the manhandla fight so hard that the game got confused and told me to Defeat The Allied Base Quickly!
I only recently got that version mostly for the purpose of this review so I haven't played it a lot, but from what little I did play it seemed like a bit of a technological marvel! I'll invest a bit more time in it once I get through most of the content in the Switch version.
@Degonyte I don't have access to a powerful pc or a Switch so being able to play a game like this on the console that was my childhood dream for so long is amazing. It's so fun, it even got me interested with the other Warriors games too
People tend to dislike that version because of how much it struggles to do the trademark Musou thing of spawning gazillions of hordes. I personally liked it though as my first time playing Hyrule Warriors (or actually any Musou)
@Eichro I like it too! The enemies being a little funky are so charming to me, the way they were so creative so the 3ds can handle all characters on screen
I very much played this game with button mashing but I adored just being able to play characters like Impa, who in most Zelda games is usually is just 'there' after Zelda's captured and the story kicks off. The different weapons you can unlock, outfits etc. And the different enemies you can run into being taken from multiple Zelda games is awesome. And with the scenarios in challenge mode you can find yourself defeating Zelda as Ruto, some very fun dynamics! I really need to get around to buying the definitive version and the BotW prequel. I've only played the Wii U version.
As someone who played this game's Adventure Mode to 100% completion on the Switch, which took hundreds and hundreds of hours.. ..Yes, this is a true statement. It'a pretty fun going back to the games this game referenced and spotting the referneces. (as I played TP and SS after playing HWDE.) It's genuinelly great fun even if the story is pretty stupid, the character movesets have SO many references, the music was also awesome, you felt like a god whenever you used focus spirit..getting 1000's of kills in one focus spirits took true skill and felt awesome.. I also loved the little touches like how Kakariko was in Twilight Field or how Twili Midna's focus spirit spoilers is almost the exact same camera angle as TP's ending..I could name more but this comment is long as is. However I do think AoC had better pacing, balance, and gameplay mechanics IMO (the slate system is sooo much better than the HWDE item system, having flurry rushes and parries made combat more skill based..) in exchange for the awful framerate. At least AoC only took 100 hours to 100% complete..this took like 600-700. AoC was actually the instigator for me replaying BOTW and finally enjoying it, funnilly enough. Also the shop theme from SS is burned into my head because of this game lmao. Honestly, I used to write off this game as boring but now that I've beaten it I kind of miss it. Maybe I should 100% challenge mode and Ganon's Fury..
I love this game to pieces and it’s been such a pleasure watching your video, also I totally agree that the sexualization of the characters adds to the charm, like I wouldn’t be combing through the twilight map as much if it wasn’t for the cape less Ghirahim costume being a collectible XD
I have been playing this game a lot for the past 2-3 years ever since I started playing it and I still am enjoying the game a lot to this day, it’s a shame that Hyrule Warriors never gets much attention nowadays even though it could be considered a Zelda game. Another thing I really enjoy about the game is the original characters like Volga, Cia, Wizzro, Lana and Linkle. After playing as Volga a lot and him having a really cool character design and really fun gameplay, he has became one of my most favourite game characters of all time. I like replaying story missions for fun as this game got me fully used to the Warriors style combat of fighting huge hoards of enemies. I have played Age of Calamity before this game, but at the end of the day, I prefer the original Hyrule Warriors more.
I love Hyrule Warriors, played it so much during my days at university on the Wii U! I also have the other two verwsions but never got as far as with the original again. But I'd really like to pick up the Switch version again, I mean HW is a very good game to play a map or two and then call it a day again. I especially loved the music, design, love to "Zelda detail & easter eggs" and combat.. holy shit I can play as Ghirahim goddamnit xD
i'm also a huge fan of Hyrule warriors, i always seem to go back to it at some point, i've already stopped playing it like 5 times, and then started playing again after months maybe even a year. also i don't know if you know and chose to not mantion that or something, but there's a 2 player split screen coop mode. on any mission preps, when you choose your character, if you've got a second controller plugged in you can have a second player in the press of a button. anyways, awesome video, as you said, this game is way better than people give it credit for.
I love Hyrule Warriors. The Switch version makes me a little sad though, for example it seems to use the lighting engine that the 3DS version uses making it more like the 3DS version+ when I would have liked it if it looked more like the WiiU version that looks the best by far. The WiiU version also uses the gamepad for 2 player mode where one person gets the gamepad screen and the other gets the TV, I'm not as sad about this since that is the WiiU's unique feature after all and there really isn't any console that can do that. On the other hand the Switch version does have the ability to change between commanders mid-battle which can allow for a little more freedom and strategy (if it doesn't make things a little easier since you won't have to run across the whole map for a split second save since you can just switch to the commander who is already there.) as well as the ability to give commands to the other commanders to go certain places. Both of these features are also on the 3DS, but not WiiU. All in all, I'm glad to see a video talking about one of my favorite games! I think all of the versions of this game are great, though the Switch one is probably the best in every way other than looks and 2 player (and even then not actually a deal breaker, more preference) and since it has all the DLC content in it and more people own a Switch than a WiiU it's the easiest to recommend too. But for the 4 other WiiU owners out there if you wanted to play 2 player, it's always nice to be able to use the gamepad ;) the poor under used beloved gamepad.
Small correction: Hyrule Warriors Legends omitted some modes added in the final DLC OG Hyrule Warriors, as the 3DS could not handle Challenge Mode or Ganon's/Cucco's Fury. PS: Ironically, the costume they added to OG HW to celebrate the announcement of HW:L, Classic Tunic, was unobtainable in US copies of HW:L because it was a pre-order bonus for the Collector's Edition, which only launched in Europe and Japan. Luckily, the Denfinitive Edition has EVERY little bit of Promo DLC in it: Dark Link, OoT Link/Zelda, TP Link/Zelda, SS Link/Zelda, OoT/TP Ganondorf, WW Ganondorf, Classic Tunic, and even all those My Fairy clothes that were promotional in HW:L!
Thanks, I keep having to remind myself that the extra modes are a thing haha. The Definitive Edition is indeed a blessing because I remember back in the day that the content was so scattered that I just straight up lost track of it.
I played the WiiU version a good bit back in the day. I never played the 3DS version, nor the switch version, but I’d love to get my hands on the Switch version and play this game again. I do have Age of calamity, and I did play a little bit of it, but i haven’t gotten too far into it. I hope they do more Warriors games based on Nintendo IPs, heck…i know there’s one for fire emblem. Personally…I’d love it if they collaborated with hasbro, and made a Transformers warriors game. Just call it Cybertron warriors. Anyway, great essay video good sir!
I've played a disgusting amount of all three releases (1000+ hours on both Wii U and Switch, several hundred on 3ds). I think that it's probably the best Musou game. Maybe it's Nintendo being very insistent on quality control but I can't help but feel like Koei Tecmo does some of it's very best work when they are doing games with their series. I get that the Musou games aren't for everyone but they always seem to get an undeserved amount of scorn by default and that's a shame. There are lots of things to love about Hyrule Warriors as both an absolute Zelda fanatic (which I certainly am) or a more casual fan. It's got a largely fun to play cast with a bunch of unique movesets, great redesigns for Link, Zelda and Ganondorf (honestly probably my favorite Ganondorf design, he looks cool as hell), a ton of really cool deep cuts throughout, great music. It rules.
I think my thing with musou games is that I absolutely adore them, but I have to take long breaks between playing individual titles because of how similar the gameplay is. Once you've played one musou game (to me) you've kinda played them all, save the differences between characters and their animations or maybe a few minor mechanics. That being said, they make mashing the same combos over and over with luffy or link or whoever feel satisfying enough to keep me playing.
This game was so fun. I have all three versions, but it's the Switch one that I 100%ed. Also, it got me to check out other Warrior-type games, like the One Piece and Dragon Quest ones.
I love this game for all the reasons you've brought up in this video and more. It's the adventure mode that really carries it for me though. I've played a few other warriors games (age of calamity and persona 5 strikers) and while the gameplay is amazing in those games, they just kinda end after the story is done. Meanwhile HW:DE has missions after the story where Zelda and Ganondorf have to team up to tackle the real threat to hyrule, Tingle.
Hyrule Warriors set the bar for pretty much every Warriors style game for me and I have been very disappointed each time a new one comes out with less content than it. I'm still bitter that both Fire Emblem Warriors games did not allow the player to play as the villains in free play mode. This was something Hyrule Warriors not only did, but it also had unique story missions for them as well. Age of calamity was okay but it ended up being sidelined in favor of TOTK. I love playing as the villains in these games. Let me play as the villains Koei Tecmo.
I clicked on this because I've recently re-tried getting into Musou games with Hyrule Warriors. I played Fire Emblem Warriors before and... liked it well enough (though in my opinion, it focuses WAY too much on the series' modern iterations rather than a general appreciation for the series) but I always found the games sorta stressful and overwhelming - not the combat, I loved that part, but the battlefield dynamics and bombardment of missions. It's a lot, *especially* if you can barely read the text and the map screen on a bigger TV. I'm having fun now, but it's because I hooked up my Switch to my PC monitors. Playing it at PC size and desktop range from the monitor, the UI feels SO much more appropriate to how quickly you are supposed to glean stuff from it. It's perhaps my biggest issue with the genre and such a weird anomaly too, because I haven't had that issue with an entire genre before. (Fresh glasses prescription btw, since I've had that thrown at me before) It's cool hearing from someone who likes this game, because I confused my UI issues with disliking the genre. But all the elements praised here are things I generally enjoy.
Hyrule Warriors is a decade old?! Oh my gosh...I used to play that game so much, I was obsessed. I played it on the WiiU, 3DS and Switch. The music, the gameplay, the story, all of it was amazing. That game was a great way for me to bond with my father as he and I would play it together. This game still holds up well, but I never see anyone talk about it anymore.
they cooked so hard with almost every aspect imo. the soundtrack was super great
One of my favorite examples of them getting a multitude of references out of a single mechanic is the warp system. You use an ocarina to play the ballad of gales, which summons a tornado from the side of the screen to warp you to an owl statue. That's Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Zelda 1, and Majora's Mask referenced with ONE mechanic. This game OOZES with classic Zelda charm in a way no piece of media ever has or likely ever will, and as a lifelong fan, it has its hooks in me.
I've been playing this game in some form or fashion on and off since it came out all the way back in 2014, and ive been playing my DE file on and off since it came out as well. Still not finished cuz i sometimes take months long breaks. I'll max everything out one of these days though!
Yeah I still keep finding new references every day since completing this video. A great tribute to the franchise.
It'll take a lot of time before I complete the DE as well. 80 hours in I still have 3 whole characters to unlock.
I’m proud to let you know that FE Warriors Three Hopes has just as much references and tributes. It seems Nintendo is still cooking with warriors
@@Niam_Haru three hopes has content from fire emblems outside Three houses??
Hyrule Warriors is a musou masterpiece. So much content, I could play 1000 hours and idk if I'd finish. Also, it has my favorite Impa design ever.
Not just best Impa design either. I think nearly all of the main cast looks the best they ever have in the series with this game.
@@wesnohathas1993 Ah. I used to agree. But that Ganon design from Tears... Holy hell. That Mf is HOT 😂 Im sorry.
It finally made my favourite character skull kid playable, which i wanted from smash bros since ages.overall i think they added pretty much every character you could ask for by the time of release, vaati is pretty much the only one who is missing. Was a strange choice to include Marin instead of him since there arent to many bad guys in the Franchise.
it's nice to see a new hyrule warriors video be made so close to 2025
Hyrule Warriors is my "unwind" game. Running two or three missions is a good way for me to zone out and just relax. The subtle choices of trying to optimize results without stressing too hard about the outcome is a fun way to let me autopilot and just enjoy myself. I've played it (and to a lesser extent, Age of Calamity) passively for years, and fully intend to continue doing so. Love this game.
Playing through the full story in one night with one of my friends back in middle school is a treasured memory. This game deserves more love.
The fact that juggling, juggle decay, and dash animation cancel exists makes this game a fun your make your own combo hack n slash
HW:Age of Calamity was my second most played game of 2024
Yeah I'm looking forward to playing that one too. I already have it but it was recommended I play Breath of the Wild first.
@@Degonytewithout a doubt. I actually love that game too but in the context of BotW. I love the first HW because it really is a celebration of the classic 3D Zelda titles made by fans for fans. Age of Calamity is a celebration of Breath of the Wild purely and deepens my love of those characters and settings. I look forward to your take on it
@@AnthonyDGreen I'm currently playing Breath of the Wild so I'll get there eventually!
@@Degonyteyou’ll love age of calamity when you get to it; you’re in for a great time :)
I LIKE ARGUING WITH PEOPLE ONLINE THAT HYRULE WARRIORS AGE OF CALAMITY CANON AND MY REASON IS FAR MORE SOUND THAN THEIRS.
10 years later and I’m STILL amazed by how good the characters and animations look
So what if it's "mindless button mashing"? Not every game needs to be that deep. It's a sick musou game featuring fan favorite Zelda characters cutting down hoards of enemies of varying scale, all in iconic Zelda locations to the tune of remixed Zelda scores, and that's all I could really ask for.
lol right. this is a fourty minute video of a guy going “NUH UH THE GAMES SUPER COMPLEX AND DEEP YOU HAVE TO RESPECT IT AND ME”
but like. its not. and thats ok! I like all the Musou games, and theyre all just me slapping my hands gently across my controller as I enjoy watching various men explode away from me. They arent deep at all though, and its kind of sad to see someone so convinced that a game must be complex to be fun.
There's nothing wrong with a game being a masher, but I think the warrior games could be so much more if the combat was designed to be more complex, or difficult.
Sadly, even though the sheer number of enemies is the main selling point, I believe the hoards are the thing that drags the combat down.
All of your attacks have to be massive oversized hit boxes so that you can catch all the enemies. The quantity of enemies can also regularly obscure your vision, so enemies that are a threat to you have to much more obvious tells, usually with a massive glowing indicator that they're about to hit you.
Finally because they're everywhere you are generally mashing the attack button constantly as a means of moving around.
My main warriors game is Fire Emblem warriors three hopes, and this moving problem is so much more hilarious in that game if you use a cavalry or Pegasus unit since your primary attack are designed to fight while moving, you will carry one group of enemies into another then another until you go all the way across the map carrying a small tidal wave of enemies.
All that being said if warriors was more complex it probably wouldn't be the casual comfort game that it is. Alot of people like it because you can just sit down, turn your brain off, and solo an entire war.
@@vivil2533 I kinda agree that the hordes and huge attacks brings the combat down.
But that's not any excuse for it, Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce is amazing and deep af with its combat, feeling more like a DMC instead of a Warriors game, although, that game did lower the number of enemies.
Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is amazing with its combat, Deep Crimson on 3DS as well, both game have so much depth, while maintaining big number of enemies and simple inputs.
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, has one of, if not, THE BEST combat in musou games, with its simple yet really good view on how the characters can be fun.
All of these games i've mention, has one thing in common. They have Animation Cancels...
You can cancel most of the attacks with good dodge movement that let you combo it into another move, and on that note, these 3 games doesn't have the entire combat being "Y > B | Y > Y > B | Y > Y > Y > B | Y...", they all have little variations...
Strikeforce has Dash + Strong Attack, Up and Down variations of the same move...
Shinovi Versus has jump attacks and multiple followups to it.
Pirate Warriors 3 has "B > Y | B > B > Y..." variations and a Unique move button that is the main mechanic and depth of the character.
All of this with good animation cancel with the dodge, makes the simple button mashing combat into a impressive and fun hack n slash with a lot of fun buttons to press.
OFC, you CAN still play all of the games i mentioned just button mashing or using the biggest move you have to clean the screen.
But not on the harder difficulty, which makes those games really enjoyable and balanced in depth while being simple.
I know ppl like musous as comfort of not thinking while playing, but having a game that you CAN think but you don't have to, is a much better choice.
There are other musou games that share stuff with what i said and tbh they need more attention imo.
Still a more complex game than any Zelda game tbh
@@lotrfan4237 Zelda games don't exist to have complex gameplay, weird argument to make lol.
I think that it cannot be understated the surprise you can get from the different characters in getting their mechanics.
One I particularly remember was Zant, who for the longest time I had no interest in using as he just looks random and unweidly, as fitting of his TP appearance. He is particularly bad with button mashing in stunning himself, but once you figure out his beraerk mechanic his strategy becomes clearer.
Young Link alters the importance of the magic meter, where he just becomes a monster if you get the right set-up.
Also, Ghirahim, I love Ghirahim.
Yup, a day after making this video I unlocked the Dominion Rod for Zelda and it once again shook up how I played the game. Zant is another one I have my eyes on. I'm not using him much at the moment because he seems too mechanically complex to just pick up and play, but I plan to sit down one of these days and really learn how to use him in combat.
by right setup we mean all special bars right
because golly does that boy eat, when i got hardstuck on certain missions I'd just usually have P2 set up with YL to sweep the mission, doesnt really work with AoC, but all the characters just feel good in that game oddly enough
@elivcdxv1852 It has been a while since I played him, but I think there were ways to keep Young Link's bar filled up by defeating enemies even as Fierce Deity. You had to keep very active if you wanted to get the most of the transformation. And sometimes avoid doing things breaking pots to fill it up if you thought a transformation later would benefit more.
@DuskyPredator oh that is absolutely the way, you just turn him into a perpetual motion engine that runs off the suffering of his enemies, it really helps that he's just extremely good baseline and only gets better
@@elivcdxv1852Young Link is probably my favorite character to play in terms of mechanics and spectacle. Child form is strong as a character on his own with good room clearing potential, but Fierce Deity form is just an absolute monster. Plus who doesn't love cutting the moon in half when you're about to run out of magic and then destroying their weakpoint gauge just to pump your special bars back into your magic gauge and doing it all over again? Can't remember which mission it was but I remember there was one I was able to keep my magic from draining the entire mission once I activated it and it felt so good. Also just love the idea of the Hero of Time having gone through so much shit between OoT and MM that he's forsaken his shield and opted for a two-handed berseker fighting style instead.
I really wish we'd gotten a proper sequel to this Hyrule Warriors instead of Age of Calamity. AoC isn't bad at all, I enjoyed it, but there's something special about the first one that AoC doesn't capture. I played HW originally on Wii U, and it was my first Warriors game so I wasn't sure I'd even like it, but I quickly fell in love and spent dozens of hours in it.
I skipped the 3DS version because I couldn't imagine the game feeling good there, so I was so excited when it was announced for Switch with all the content of the previous versions and ended up playing the absolute hell out of it. I did most of my play time when it came out, but I still go back every now and then because I sometimes just get the itch to. I never technically *finished* it, but all I've got left is some grinding in the giant cucco mode and fairy stuff, which is not exactly the most thrilling content.
I've been thinking about the choice to make Age of Calamity so closely related to Breath of the Wild and it probably just made more sense for them to tie it closely to a super successful Zelda title rather than trying to outdo the original in terms of approach and scope when the Definitive Edition was released only 2 years before AoC. It would've been easier to market a Breath of the Wild prequel than 'another' Hyrule Warriors game with new mechanics that only the more hardcore fans would care about.
If I'm not mistaken, Age of Calamity outsold the original Hyrule Warriors by quite a bit, so it worked for them (though part of this will also be down to the Switch being much more popular than the Wii U). I do hope we'll eventually get another game with more of an 'anthology' approach though.
the story of the game just already works and is just good by zelda standards to begin with, despite being so different in terms of gameplay, all the story beats are absolutely there and nearly all of the characters are great save for like, wizzro and that's just because i think he's a fun villian to hate, he's got the saturday morning bad guy vibe down to an art
@@Degonyte I think AoC beating HW has more to do with people who otherwise dislike musou games picking it up purely because it's a BotW prequel. And the people who first got into the series with BotW, at that.
Age of Calamity is very bad tho. fails at everything it set out to do and it was abandoned as soon as they squeezed an extra 20 bucks out of it.
@@AnAverageGoblin On a difficulty standpoint, complete disagreement, while I might have a few mixed feelings about the narrative effectively just being a large mixup and a hop away from what originally happened, I think it did a great job when it came to the addition of the weapon skills that allowed you to get at pretty dumb with setups.
My personal biggest complaints with the gameplay is the lack of pretty much any actual scoring system, I'm completely fine with the removal of the damage requirement (Weapon skills that scale things based on remaining/lost HP would've been made irrelevant), but KO's becoming effectively worth nothing is rough.
Difficulty wise, I definitely had more of an actual challenge going through AoC than I ever did base game Hyrule Warriors outside of skipping maps in adventure mode to start things early with DE, AoC making it way more possible for the player to actually lose a mission, even if there are so many mid-stage objectives let me have a ton more fun with it, but I know some people would definitely prefer to just not have to worry about that since some enemies/certain scenarios can make it feel like a slog if all that happens is continuous brick walling, but luckily during the stages I felt like this happened a lot the Divine Beast sections were skippable. I think the only way you're going down in original Hyrule Warriors is if you're fighting enemies at least 10-20 levels above you and not making an active effort to stunlock them into oblivion, either that or you fail because you ran out of time doing that, but with how many routes there are to take in the games first two adventure mode maps, that should never happen since at least one or two of your characters should absolutely have access to a level 2 weapon, and if they don't, it's super easy to get the Master Sword to Link-Sweep to begin with.
It's definitely got less overall fan service to the overall series considering it's laser-focused on one specific time period and isn't "SubSpace Emissary"ing it by letting a lot more fan favorites appear, but the amount it does have for the people who enjoyed the game it's based off of is definitely making an attempt to be there, though i for sure saw a lot of people who were upset because they thought the game would be an actual retelling of how things went bad/down instead of what they got, so that's a 50/50.
Gameplay wise I don't feel like a single character felt "bad" to play as the moment I touched them outside of Hestu, but any mission in HW/HWL/HWDE I got stuck playing as Darunia or Ruto was usually the point where I'd just try to bypass that by using a Wii-Mote to just do the mission with another character, because while it's more than likely just mostly preference, those two just feel rough to play for an extended period of time.
i think they did a banger job with the music, but it's definitely not capable of scratching those ear-buzzes i got from hyrule warriors, and i know that's not a "my taste in music is too different now" thing, because Eclipse of the Moon/Sun is far and away one of the best tracks i've personally ever heard for hype as far as "oh this is definitely the end"
The individual stages all having their own "quest" descriptions is a nice touch even if it's just text, and the addition of the sensor so you can find what stages have what items specifically once you know what you're looking for to upgrade something is also a great addition, it's super small since people would likely just look it up online to begin with, but the option being there and readily available is just good ease of access
i'm extremely happy they stopped at one expansion all things considered, since while the updates and maps definitely works for base game HW since it's going through established time periods and giving people fan favorites and some odd picks, AoC can't really do that because of setting limitations, what is incredibly disappointing though is that Cia and Lana, along with other HW natives/originals didn't get an addition as a sort of Historia pack, I think it would've been more than welcome to see characters like Wizzro and Volga come back, but on that topic, it's also kind of a hard miss that they didn't make the villains *all* fully playable, I doubt there's a niche that Astor could've filled, as well as the blights, but if they were going to make Ganon himself playable, it's just kind of "why not?" at that point.
Wow. This video and this comment section has made me feel so seen and I’m so glad this game is getting the love it deserves. I would’ve never guessed a video about this game almost a week before 2025 would attract this so many people commenting the same sentiments, but it makes me so happy to see it. Thank you for giving us fans the platform to enjoy this tremendous game!!!
Yeah, honestly I didn't expect this much engagement on a video about an old and, by Nintendo standards, obscure game, but it's clear that many of us haven't forgotten about Hyrule Warriors!
I LOVE Hyrule Warriors, and I love that you addressed the depth that it has that often goes unnoticed. This was a really great video!
To share a bit of my own experience, I first played the Wii U game when it came out. Now, on my save file for Definitive Edition I've beaten every adventure mode level with an A rank, gotten every reward, and gotten every badge for every character. I still like to play this save file sometimes so I actually wrote two C++ programs that select a random character and a random level out of the game's ~1000 levels to make sure I'm not playing the same stages over and over. I'm currently hyperfixated on it and am working on getting "perfect" weapons for all my characters. I.e. weapons with the highest rank, stars, number of slots, and the best skills in each slot.
I'd really love for them to make a new Hyrule Warriors with the crossover style of the original. I'd love to see new playable characters, enemies, giant bosses, and maps. I was brainstorming about this recently and wrote a whole list of characters I'd like to play as, with my favorites probably being Nabooru from Ocarina of Time, the Deku Princess from Majora's Mask, and Makar from Wind Waker.
Makar is a character I also really would've liked to see, given that Medli is also in it. With Age of Calamity having been such a success commercially, I think a new Hyrule Warriors game is inevitable, so here's hoping!
I had a blast with this game, sank a few hundred hours into it.
Here's how my love of Hyrule Warriors started...
In October of 2014, a Gamestop was showing off a demo of the original Hyrule Warriors. I fell in love with it and asked for the game as my birthday present in November. A few months later, I went on a vacation with a friend to a cabin in the woods. We didn't have any internet or wifi access. But I brought my WiiU with HW. My friend and I put several hours into that game and enjoyed grinding out outfits and weapons.
More recently, with the release of the Definitive Edition, we go to each other's houses and plan on 100%-ing the game. Which is quite a feat since one guy estimates it's about 1,000 hours worth of content! We're about 200 hours in, so we have a way to go!
I played the original on Wii U back in the day, and I owe it to Hyrule Warriors that I met my best friends at all.
Also, it was the Definitive Edition, Fire Emblem Warriors (I love it and will die on that hill), and Age of Calamity that prompted me to hack my switch and get emulation running via ryujinx at all. These titles have such an addictive gameplay loop, and specifically with the spinoffs so much love and care put into them by people who are clearly fans of what they're working on. Not just with references either, but just... Things like how MM!Link was made so cutesy and expressive, just to further expand upon the personality he displayed both in the original game and in the official art/concepts.
Just... Absolutely brilliant spinoffs that deserved better than to be canned by game journalists as much as they did.
as "boring" as the warriors royals from FE:W may be, i have absolutely nothing against that standard shonen vibe, love those games but
it made me wish awakening to a remake or HD despite the game not actually being that old because of how good it looked; so many good times and moments playing couch coop with friends
I absolutely agree with your conclusion, there’s just something so good about the original Hyrule Warriors that I can never quite place my finger on but I know it’s always a great game to go back to and play, even if I just go in to grind for character levels (I’m on a journey to 100% the game eventually, and part of what I have left to do is getting character levels all the way to max!).
You’ve made a great video about a game that goes under the radar nowadays, I appreciate that it’s still able to get some love even after 10 years of it being out!
Fun fact: I bought Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition before I purchased my own Nintendo Switch and was fully ready to have just this game on my console for a while.
I did the exact same thing with the WiiU version, Knew I had a banger on my hands.
Lana deserved so much better.
The way I was just talking to a friend about the "mindless button mashing" phrase that got thrown around constantly at this game's release just yesterday, perfect timing!
Amazing perfect video, and the gameplay in the background being great too absolutely helps that. The setup on Gohma at 19:30 to maximize damage while he's down, using superarmor to ignore the Redead scream's stun at 23:37, this is gameplay from someone who knows how the game really works!
And @ why people don't talk about the game as much anymore is because I feel like everything that could be said about the game has already been said in the past 10 years. I based my channel and made a ton of videos about this game, but I haven't made any for years since I'm not sure what more could be said. But you can bet that me and all of the other fans of this game will swarm to any new discussions about the game, like this video!
Thanks! The fact this game isn't really talked about anymore (relatively speaking of course) wasn't really a complaint of mine, I was just convincing myself that reviewing a 10-year-old game wasn't a dumb idea.
Judging by all the comments and feedback I've received, it seems like a huge amount of people still have love for this game and that it has its own place in Zelda history. If this video can serve as a reminder of that, then it's mission accomplished!
When Hyrule Warriors first came out I had it on my Wii U, and I spent over 700+ hours on it. Over time I stopped playing the games as much but I still adore them and think they don't get talked about enough.
Such a gem that sadly rarely gets the recognition it deserves
This is still my most played wiiu/switch game. I’ve tried other musuo games but this one has the adventure fields.
this game was two IPs that were fundamentally different in gameplay form fitted them both together and it just worked that's impressive no matter how you slice it
I'm so glad this showed up in my feed. I loved Hyrule Warriors when I played it at launch, and now I'm waiting for my new copy to arrive to play this masterpiece again!
I played Definitive Edition back in 2022, and thought to myself halfway through the game, "Damn, why didn't I play this game sooner." Great video!
I absolutely love this game, it's the game where I always say I'll play just one more level and then end up playing 10 more levels. People can call it what they want but it'll always be incredibly fun to me even after a couple hundred hours in
It's nice to see someone covering Hyrule Warriors, for a Spin Off it's quite a good game.
I am also addicted to this old game in the last two months! It's my Nintendrought game. I am having an incredible time with it. Just finished the Master Quest Adventure Map. (~250 hours or so)
This game is SUPER slept on, especially by Zelda fans. This game is incredibly full of the exact kind of fan service that Zelda fans, especially long time ones would get a huge amount of mileage out of if they put in the time.
I fully agree. It's like if Super Smash Bros. was fully dedicated to just celebrating the Zelda franchises. I've been playing through the 3D Zelda games concurrently, and the more I relive these stories the more clear it becomes that Hyrule Warriors was made by hardcore Zelda fans.
I'm so glad that The Algorithm recommended this video to me, it was great! I enjoyed the WiiU version but only did the base game story content. I picked up the Switch version intending to sink my teeth into it more, but it's been laying on my shelf forgotten for years now. But this video reminded me about it and made me want to open up that box!
This is literally one of my favorite games of all time, the amount of replayablity that's offered always has me coming back for more
Hyrule Warriors is one of my favourite games out there! About 2 years ago I had a pretty rough health time and had to spend a lot of my days just in my house doing nothing. I played so much of that game in that time just to keep occupied, and grew to love every character and weapon (great fairy I’m sorry you’re the only exception you’re terrifying and also kinda clunky). So glad to see it being showed the love it deserves
Thanks for the thoughtful and well written videos
every once in a while i get that urge to play this game again. 600 hours wasn't enough, i guess. will always be a top 10 game for me. happy to see it getting the attention it really deserves.
Yes finally someone praising this game. there is a tiny following of fans and we are all starving for Content. this game is so good but so underrated
Also, my theory on why koei was less restricted than other companies are when they take on Nintendo's main series is because they're closer to nintendo than others. Not only have they made other spinoffs for the fire emblem series for example, they even worked a lot on the writing of a main line fire emblem (3 houses). That, in my opinion, proves that the two companies are quite close, closer than we imagine
Don't you have that reversed? Most of the successful partnership with Nintendo and Intelligent systems happened after Hyrule Warriors(Obviously, HW is a WiiU game and the Fire Emblem games are Switch games).
@lpfan4491 yes I agree, the things I'm describing happened after, but they still show that Nintendo and koei have some proximity. Maybe it built up with Hyrule warriors, but it certainly feels like these companies are close, and in a good relationship, which would explain why they could do what they did with Hyrule warriors and with the fire emblem games later
This game is amazing. While I haven't played it in awhile, what makes this game fun is the sheer amount of content in it. You'll never run out of things to do. I've gotten 100% on the story mode and I'd like to finish the rest of the adventure maps(having completed a few of them), but other games keep pulling me away. This is still a fantastic game because it's very polished and plays well. So I'd definitely like to come back to this whenever I can.
Thank you for this video on HWDE. I love this game. I love the silly story, and the Wind Waker epilogue is full of heart. The only thing that annoys me is the npc teammates don't do anything, but that also adds to the strategy and time management. I even like the Ganon levels when I do feel like button mashing. Beating bosses with ease feels pretty good. :)
Thanks for shouting out Warriors Dojo. He was the only guy giving this game some love. I would be lost without his guide videos.
Hyrule Warriors is so good It's probably one of my most played games from my Switch/Wii U/3DS !
This game can afford to had a lot of fan service and just being fun with it !
I hope we will get a real sequel for the Switch 2. Age Calamity was fun... but it didn't catch the same vibe from the first.
Hey man, I was recommended your vid in the almighty algorithm. I just want to say thanks for bringing this game to my attention. I tried it a bit and was immediately having a blast, so much so that I absolutely needed to get a physical copy, so I ordered it online. It should be arriving soon. This game slaps so hard. Thanks again.
The algorithm must have chosen you. You got my view from it! I love these musou games, especially fire emblem warriors!
Hyrule Warriors deserves respect for giving us that sweet Twili Midna model...
**slams table** THANK YOU!
I loved the original Hyrule Warriors, even when I haven’t played it in years. I love how unique each characters’ moves are, how the character design translate into a game in updated graphics and artstyle, Impa, Ghirahim, Link, and Ganondorf’s designs (damn characters made me realize I was bi and my girl crushes in the past WERENT just phases), HW Link is now the only version of Link I currently simp for, how Cia was pretty much a representation of Link fangirls (and feeling like the game was calling me out), the music, and all that in an underrated console, AAAAAA-
Yeah the game impacted me more than people think. It’s pretty much a love letter to the fans at the time. I remember how fans were theorizing on which character was gonna be revealed next, and rejoicing or raging depending on who we got. I can’t hate this game.
BUT LOOK AT GANONDORF’S HAIR! I’ve been wanting to see Ganondorf with that kind of hair for the next main line after he was announced, so I’ve been waiting for so long. 😂 Ghirahim redesign (can we even call it that?) is just **muah!** He resembles how fans portray him, and given how much of a love letter to the fans the game is, it makes sense to me and I love it!
Sheik was my fave fighter 😂
Btw I one time I was trying to get the Lv. 2 weapon for Great Fairy, then got the Lv. 3 weapon before the Lv. 2 weapon by complete random at the results screen 😂 Agitha was grueling to play until you level up… a lot, but holy it crap does it feel awesome beating someone’s butt with bugs sometimes
Bro, Hyrule Warriors is one of my favourite games of all time. I have all 3 versions and it's just so fun. Before HW the only other game I played was Link's Awakening DX for the Game Boy. So this game kinda reintroduced me to the series, even though I did always follow it. It really deserves more love.
Dynasty warriors is peak comfort gameplay, now letting me play tingle makes it peak gameplay in general
Since release i have been (very slowly) working my way to 100%ing this game. i absolutely adored it from day 1, and to this day stand by how amazing it is. it's a personal favorite game for me, and now, with the just the challenge mode left, i'm stoked for finishing it. i always wanna show others, as every single milimeter of the game is designed with Zelda fans in mind
you can play as tingle, therefore it is a masterpiece
I get a motivation boost every now and then for this game for like 5 months straight and just get so much stuff in the adventure maps randomly
I loved this game so much as a kid!! I was a huge Zelda fan back then so I was all over it. I always thought the character designs were underrated, Zelda’s design in it will always be my favorite Zelda design.
Bro i was addicted to this game i played it more then wild and tears.
This is one of the few games I come back to when I end up getting bored with other games, when I first played I hardcore focused on playing mostly the Links unless I got pushed off of them to unlock a weapon, because the Links (And I do mean all 3) are all hilariously overpowered in their own ways. It was only recently that I started to explore the other characters more in depth and makes me question why every Dark Element character is designed with some of the best AoE attacks in the game when their element benefits from attacking a single target lol.
I've been enjoying the games in new ways since every weapon tries to do new things. The slower characters I'm still struggling with but I think I'm finally understanding how to use Agatha properly after not really enjoying playing them for a long time. (I did unlock all the level 4+ weapons before really starting to experiment though, so, enemies don't exactly last for long, but I think I kinda enjoy being able to experiment without having to worry about a boss tanking my attacks for 20 minutes.)
I will say that it's not the only Nintendo Warriors game I come back to though, Fire Emblem Warriors I find fun in a bit of a different way, not as much gameplay variety, but the strategy elements taken from Fire Emblem and put into FE Warriors I do really enjoy
Zelda’s rapier is one of the most satisfying weapons to use, I adore how her combos change depending on her change. It makes it feel so flexible and powerful to me! I also adore the weight of Impa’s giant blade, and the speed of Volga’s spear and Sheik’s harp. Twili Midna feels so versatile and powerful, and Cia has such excellent crowd clearing blasts! The combat feels so tactile!
Big nostalgia watching this! Remember getting the 3ds version for Christmas exactly 8 years ago!
I played tf out this game and young link was my goat, using the triforce attack to build up magic meter for the fierce deity mask
love seeing a hyrule warriors video in 2024. cheers, and i hope you enjoy age of calamity if/whenever you get to it.
i play this game a lot myself
i've been playing it off and on for years now and only feel like now am i geting close to finishing all adventure mode maps
I played this game straight through for like two months in the last year -- it's so ridiculously fun.
I love HW! I've played the entirety of the two games with my mom, and we love the gameplay.
And recently, we decided to redo the first one since it's a really fun and easy game to play without pressure in the evenings.
Hyrule warriors legends was my most played 3ds game and definitive edition was my second most played switch game it’s my favourite game ever. Fire emblem warriors is also fire
One time I ignored a random cucco spawn and it managed to create it's own army that took over the entire map and nearly wiped out both me and the enemy in the process, forcing us to effectively work together with what remained to push them enough that the original mission could actually play out as intended.
As far as I'm concerned, any game where that kind of insanity can happen entirely unscripted is a goddamn masterpiece.
Learning the hard way that you should not ignore malcontent chickens on the battlefield is a core component of the Hyrule Warriors experience.
As someone who liked the original hyrule warriors on Wii u, I loved age of calamity. I hope you have a good time when you get around to it
hyrule warriors is highly slept on
I had a very similar experience with Fire Emblem Warriors. These games really have so much depth that is easily overlooked by most people who don’t give them a real chance. Glad you had a good time with HW and if you like the gameplay you might like Fire Emblem Warriors since it has better AI for the other characters you deploy since they use the weapon triangle in combat and can actually defeat enemies well when not controlled
Recently I've been playing Guilty Gear 2: Overture and it made me realise how much hidden potential the warrior's genre has.
It is a hack and slash warriors game combining RTS, MOBA and Fighting Game elements where 2-4 player fight to destroy their opponent's master ghost on the other side of the map. What sets this game appart from other warriors games is the emphesis on unit control and macro game. Each point captured generates income which you can use to summon different units and command them where to go. Diffrerent units counter eachother, for example armour beats melee, magic beats armour, melee beats magic. You can issue different move orders during battle as well as purchace items from the shop such as staffs that can buff your units or debuff enemy units within it's range. It is also possible to pick up units and manually place them at various points on the map to help disrupt your enemy's flow of capture units. This adds a level of macro strategy that most warriors don't have and emphisises the "commander" aspect of a warriors game
It also takes a lot of inspiration from it's fighting game roots and has a combat system designed around big flashy combos and brings over many mechanics from the main frachise such as the tention bar, overdrives, roman cancles and bursting your opponent's combos. This give the combat a higher skill ceiling than is usually seen in these times of games and brings life to commander on commander battles.
The game is really fun and its a shame that we've never gotten a sequal to it as it did not sell very well. It would be cool to see another game like it, even if from another frachise as the old hardware it was built for limits its scope in terms of unit count, controls and graphics. If you're curious you should try it out. The campaigne is interesting story wise but its more of just an extended tutorial for the multiplayer which is where the game truely shines. Currently the community is small but we still host matches often via the overture discord server
Played the Wii U version and I loved it so much. It felt like a love letter to fans at the time. I've been tempted to get the Definitive Edition too for all the added content.
This game introduced me to the musou genre and showed me I really enjoy that gameplay loop.
I love it I still play it every year because i have such fond memories of it
I loved this game but tbh, your joy about the game is fucking infectious, keep enjoying games dude!
(note: maria refers to itself in third person)
maria hasnt watched the video yet but thank you so much for making it
Hey chief. I'm only a few seconds into the video, but there is a dedicated community towards pushing the game. I've been in it optimizing everything for the last ten years. We even have a dedicated server to it. There's even guides we've worked on for Age of Calamity and Definitive Edition, and I upload content to my channel for folks. The server is unarguably the single best place to find resources for both games.
Ok I know theres lots of pages and threads on reddit and gamefaqs for helping people find stages to grind materials or guides for collectibles but I didn't think there'd be something like a server. is it discord? Is it public? I'd love to be a part of it for how long I've been grinding at that game.
It’s so rare to see HWDE videos in 2024! This game is one of my favorites, I’ve played all 3 installments over the past 10 years. I have about 330 hours in this game. I’ve 100% all maps except the rewards map, I’m currently finishing up legend mode skulltulas.
I agree that I didn’t really see this game as a grind, it’s something I could revisit and just unwind. I’ve become pretty comfortable playing most characters.
It being easy makes it so relaxing but I wish your health wasn’t so over bloated. It makes dying menial.
I’ve been finishing up this game lately. Not sure what I’ll do after I finish 100%ing legend mode (the usurper king hard skulltula)
I think mindless button mashing is kind of the end result and starting point with this game. You can quickly see the shortcomings of your combos and where you should use other combos. General movement feel as well.
Even some characters have special sidestep attacks like young link lol. It all flows really well. I have a really deep love for this game and I’m glad you have the same appreciation!
Yeah, the difficulty in this game is a bit unusual in the sense that defeat rarely comes from dying, but more from mismanaging something on the battlefield or not making your targets in the challenge maps.
I've yet to reach endgame, but I've heard some people say that the game just loses its challenge after you reach max level with enough characters. I am already noticing now on my level 100+ Sheik that I can barely fail any challenges, even on the harder maps. Luckily there's enough stuff you can do to keep things interesting like picking a new character/spec to play around with. Currently I'm trying to wrap my head around Dominion Rod Zelda and that's a lot of fun. It's inevitable that I'll eventually overlevel most characters, but with hundreds of hours of content that's not something I can be too mad about at the end of the day. But yeah I guess there is no need for 3 rows of hearts to be available to every character.
@ yeah the game gets really easy. It’s a 180 from how hard the Wii U map balancing was, which was extremely difficult. They massively overcorrected. I highly recommend going out of order for a more difficult experience (try getting Volga’s 4+ weapon early! I did that and it was quite hard.)
I have YL & Link at 255, and Lana near level 200. Even lvl 90 characters can sweep levels. It’s an easy romp.
Man I loved this game. I put hundreds of hours into the Wii U version and then another hundred in the Switch version, getting every single weapon unlock for every character. It just scratches this itch that the Age of Calamity or Fire Emblem Heroes doesn't. I wish there was a mod or an update released that balanced the less powerful characters and made everyone enjoyable to play.
I played this game for literally years to 100% it. The hard part was getting an A rank on The Nightmare Closes In. I've never played a game as cathartic as this, including Age of Calamity.
19:41 Very true. Technically you can button mash in most combat based games but a lot of games have deeper combat systems for those who want to engage with them. The problem usually comes from how easy it is to learn and how useful the more complex moves are. A bad button masher will have 10 button combos that do the same damage as mashing the same 2 light and heavy attack buttons.
One of my fondest memories of this game was in Chapter 4 of story mode on Legends, where i stalled the manhandla fight so hard that the game got confused and told me to Defeat The Allied Base Quickly!
A friend of mine bought me Hyrule Warriors on 3DS for Christmas back when it came out, and I loved it! Wish there were more Zelda games like this.
First time playing it now and am OBSESSED with the 3ds verson, its insane how this game runs on it, but am glad it does
I only recently got that version mostly for the purpose of this review so I haven't played it a lot, but from what little I did play it seemed like a bit of a technological marvel! I'll invest a bit more time in it once I get through most of the content in the Switch version.
@Degonyte I don't have access to a powerful pc or a Switch so being able to play a game like this on the console that was my childhood dream for so long is amazing. It's so fun, it even got me interested with the other Warriors games too
People tend to dislike that version because of how much it struggles to do the trademark Musou thing of spawning gazillions of hordes. I personally liked it though as my first time playing Hyrule Warriors (or actually any Musou)
@Eichro I like it too! The enemies being a little funky are so charming to me, the way they were so creative so the 3ds can handle all characters on screen
It feels like yesterday when I first Played Hyrule Warriors on Wii U
I very much played this game with button mashing but I adored just being able to play characters like Impa, who in most Zelda games is usually is just 'there' after Zelda's captured and the story kicks off.
The different weapons you can unlock, outfits etc. And the different enemies you can run into being taken from multiple Zelda games is awesome. And with the scenarios in challenge mode you can find yourself defeating Zelda as Ruto, some very fun dynamics! I really need to get around to buying the definitive version and the BotW prequel. I've only played the Wii U version.
Never played it despite owning a 3DS and Wii U... so it was very enjoyable, thank you for the video!
I still play hyrule warriors till this day. It’s so fun.
As someone who played this game's Adventure Mode to 100% completion on the Switch, which took hundreds and hundreds of hours..
..Yes, this is a true statement. It'a pretty fun going back to the games this game referenced and spotting the referneces. (as I played TP and SS after playing HWDE.)
It's genuinelly great fun even if the story is pretty stupid, the character movesets have SO many references, the music was also awesome, you felt like a god whenever you used focus spirit..getting 1000's of kills in one focus spirits took true skill and felt awesome..
I also loved the little touches like how Kakariko was in Twilight Field or how Twili Midna's focus spirit
spoilers
is almost the exact same camera angle as TP's ending..I could name more but this comment is long as is.
However I do think AoC had better pacing, balance, and gameplay mechanics IMO (the slate system is sooo much better than the HWDE item system, having flurry rushes and parries made combat more skill based..) in exchange for the awful framerate. At least AoC only took 100 hours to 100% complete..this took like 600-700. AoC was actually the instigator for me replaying BOTW and finally enjoying it, funnilly enough.
Also the shop theme from SS is burned into my head because of this game lmao. Honestly, I used to write off this game as boring but now that I've beaten it I kind of miss it. Maybe I should 100% challenge mode and Ganon's Fury..
I love this game to pieces and it’s been such a pleasure watching your video, also I totally agree that the sexualization of the characters adds to the charm, like I wouldn’t be combing through the twilight map as much if it wasn’t for the cape less Ghirahim costume being a collectible XD
I have been playing this game a lot for the past 2-3 years ever since I started playing it and I still am enjoying the game a lot to this day, it’s a shame that Hyrule Warriors never gets much attention nowadays even though it could be considered a Zelda game. Another thing I really enjoy about the game is the original characters like Volga, Cia, Wizzro, Lana and Linkle. After playing as Volga a lot and him having a really cool character design and really fun gameplay, he has became one of my most favourite game characters of all time. I like replaying story missions for fun as this game got me fully used to the Warriors style combat of fighting huge hoards of enemies. I have played Age of Calamity before this game, but at the end of the day, I prefer the original Hyrule Warriors more.
I love Hyrule Warriors, played it so much during my days at university on the Wii U! I also have the other two verwsions but never got as far as with the original again. But I'd really like to pick up the Switch version again, I mean HW is a very good game to play a map or two and then call it a day again.
I especially loved the music, design, love to "Zelda detail & easter eggs" and combat.. holy shit I can play as Ghirahim goddamnit xD
i'm also a huge fan of Hyrule warriors, i always seem to go back to it at some point, i've already stopped playing it like 5 times, and then started playing again after months maybe even a year.
also i don't know if you know and chose to not mantion that or something, but there's a 2 player split screen coop mode.
on any mission preps, when you choose your character, if you've got a second controller plugged in you can have a second player in the press of a button.
anyways, awesome video, as you said, this game is way better than people give it credit for.
I love Hyrule Warriors. The Switch version makes me a little sad though, for example it seems to use the lighting engine that the 3DS version uses making it more like the 3DS version+ when I would have liked it if it looked more like the WiiU version that looks the best by far. The WiiU version also uses the gamepad for 2 player mode where one person gets the gamepad screen and the other gets the TV, I'm not as sad about this since that is the WiiU's unique feature after all and there really isn't any console that can do that.
On the other hand the Switch version does have the ability to change between commanders mid-battle which can allow for a little more freedom and strategy (if it doesn't make things a little easier since you won't have to run across the whole map for a split second save since you can just switch to the commander who is already there.) as well as the ability to give commands to the other commanders to go certain places. Both of these features are also on the 3DS, but not WiiU.
All in all, I'm glad to see a video talking about one of my favorite games! I think all of the versions of this game are great, though the Switch one is probably the best in every way other than looks and 2 player (and even then not actually a deal breaker, more preference) and since it has all the DLC content in it and more people own a Switch than a WiiU it's the easiest to recommend too.
But for the 4 other WiiU owners out there if you wanted to play 2 player, it's always nice to be able to use the gamepad ;) the poor under used beloved gamepad.
Small correction: Hyrule Warriors Legends omitted some modes added in the final DLC OG Hyrule Warriors, as the 3DS could not handle Challenge Mode or Ganon's/Cucco's Fury.
PS: Ironically, the costume they added to OG HW to celebrate the announcement of HW:L, Classic Tunic, was unobtainable in US copies of HW:L because it was a pre-order bonus for the Collector's Edition, which only launched in Europe and Japan.
Luckily, the Denfinitive Edition has EVERY little bit of Promo DLC in it: Dark Link, OoT Link/Zelda, TP Link/Zelda, SS Link/Zelda, OoT/TP Ganondorf, WW Ganondorf, Classic Tunic, and even all those My Fairy clothes that were promotional in HW:L!
Thanks, I keep having to remind myself that the extra modes are a thing haha.
The Definitive Edition is indeed a blessing because I remember back in the day that the content was so scattered that I just straight up lost track of it.
A gem for sure.
hell yeah someone actually acknowledges the og one
Played it on the Wii U 3ds and switch. I wish every series could get a mosu game as good as this
I played the WiiU version a good bit back in the day. I never played the 3DS version, nor the switch version, but I’d love to get my hands on the Switch version and play this game again. I do have Age of calamity, and I did play a little bit of it, but i haven’t gotten too far into it.
I hope they do more Warriors games based on Nintendo IPs, heck…i know there’s one for fire emblem.
Personally…I’d love it if they collaborated with hasbro, and made a Transformers warriors game. Just call it Cybertron warriors.
Anyway, great essay video good sir!
I've played a disgusting amount of all three releases (1000+ hours on both Wii U and Switch, several hundred on 3ds). I think that it's probably the best Musou game. Maybe it's Nintendo being very insistent on quality control but I can't help but feel like Koei Tecmo does some of it's very best work when they are doing games with their series. I get that the Musou games aren't for everyone but they always seem to get an undeserved amount of scorn by default and that's a shame. There are lots of things to love about Hyrule Warriors as both an absolute Zelda fanatic (which I certainly am) or a more casual fan. It's got a largely fun to play cast with a bunch of unique movesets, great redesigns for Link, Zelda and Ganondorf (honestly probably my favorite Ganondorf design, he looks cool as hell), a ton of really cool deep cuts throughout, great music. It rules.
Hyrule Warriors raised me TURN IT UP!!!!
I think my thing with musou games is that I absolutely adore them, but I have to take long breaks between playing individual titles because of how similar the gameplay is. Once you've played one musou game (to me) you've kinda played them all, save the differences between characters and their animations or maybe a few minor mechanics. That being said, they make mashing the same combos over and over with luffy or link or whoever feel satisfying enough to keep me playing.
This game was so fun. I have all three versions, but it's the Switch one that I 100%ed. Also, it got me to check out other Warrior-type games, like the One Piece and Dragon Quest ones.
I love this game for all the reasons you've brought up in this video and more. It's the adventure mode that really carries it for me though. I've played a few other warriors games (age of calamity and persona 5 strikers) and while the gameplay is amazing in those games, they just kinda end after the story is done. Meanwhile HW:DE has missions after the story where Zelda and Ganondorf have to team up to tackle the real threat to hyrule, Tingle.
Hyrule Warriors set the bar for pretty much every Warriors style game for me and I have been very disappointed each time a new one comes out with less content than it. I'm still bitter that both Fire Emblem Warriors games did not allow the player to play as the villains in free play mode. This was something Hyrule Warriors not only did, but it also had unique story missions for them as well. Age of calamity was okay but it ended up being sidelined in favor of TOTK. I love playing as the villains in these games. Let me play as the villains Koei Tecmo.
I clicked on this because I've recently re-tried getting into Musou games with Hyrule Warriors. I played Fire Emblem Warriors before and... liked it well enough (though in my opinion, it focuses WAY too much on the series' modern iterations rather than a general appreciation for the series) but I always found the games sorta stressful and overwhelming - not the combat, I loved that part, but the battlefield dynamics and bombardment of missions. It's a lot, *especially* if you can barely read the text and the map screen on a bigger TV. I'm having fun now, but it's because I hooked up my Switch to my PC monitors. Playing it at PC size and desktop range from the monitor, the UI feels SO much more appropriate to how quickly you are supposed to glean stuff from it. It's perhaps my biggest issue with the genre and such a weird anomaly too, because I haven't had that issue with an entire genre before. (Fresh glasses prescription btw, since I've had that thrown at me before)
It's cool hearing from someone who likes this game, because I confused my UI issues with disliking the genre. But all the elements praised here are things I generally enjoy.