Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - Review

The Dynasty Warriors spin off/crossover with the Legend of Zelda series has gone on an interesting journey. It began as a “multiverse” adventure, throwing in different characters from the series' long history. Then there was Age of Calamity which provided an alternate take on the fall of Hyrule before Link reawakens in Breath of the Wild. Now we have Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, this time a canonical story set during Tears of the Kingdom. Time to set up camp with your Switch 2 and fight Ganondorf again!

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment takes place during the beginning of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where Zelda falls during Ganondorf’s reawakening and is transported back to the past. While Zelda’s story was told through cutscenes as Link would find memories left behind, this time you get to play it all out. Zelda meets King Rauru and Queen Sonia, the founders of Hyrule. With powers from Secret Stones, Zelda is trained to use her abilities while the Gerudo King Ganondorf attempts to seize the Secret Stone and overrun Hyrule. Alongside Zelda and Rauru’s story, there is also an adventurous Korok named Calamo who uncovers a mysterious Zonai construct. Both get caught up in the war against the new Demon King Ganondorf. 

It doesn’t take long before the game gets into the pivotal moments shown within Tears of the Kingdom, where Ganondorf plunges the world into darkness, or more accurately, blood red. What follows is the battle to reclaim Hyrule and rid the world of the newly unleashed monsters. And there are a lot of monsters. What kind of Musou game would end a battle without hundreds of dead enemies!

Outside of cutscenes before, during or after missions, the story is told through Musou battlefields. You often have to recapture bases throughout the map by clearing enough enemies within and defeating a stronger captain. A variety of conditions will often result in needing to win back bases, but then that is really just the ground level of these styles of games. Dig deeper and the real gold that brings Musou fans back every time is the wild, over the top battles, as every swing of a weapon can potentially knock back double-digits amount of cannon fodder. 

With the first Hyrule Warriors and the Age of Calamity, there was a comprehensive roster of known characters the team could draw from. For Age of Imprisonment this was a bit more of a challenge. While there were a few characters introduced through Tears of the Kingdom, the moments we got with Hyrule’s past warriors weren't filled with many characters. The positive is that it allowed the team to introduce new characters, with different weapons and movesets. The Rito, Gorons, Gerudo and Zora return, Hyrule needs champions after all, with a mix of Zonai such as Rauru and his sister Mineru and Hylians, most prominently Zelda. Along with Echoes of Wisdom, it’s great to have another game with Zelda front and centre. While not every character is going to be one you’ll be drawn to, there are more than enough that are different enough and are fun to switch between. 

It’s been long enough since the previous Hyrule Warriors game that I wouldn’t be able to list all the differences or what remains the same between the games comprehensively. Ultimately the old mission system returns, filling the map of Hyrule with the main missions surrounded by side missions. Upgrading characters continues to be represented as icons on the map also. When you have enough of the items, you can unlock more attacks to a combo, more hearts or attacks. There are enough small changes that add to combat, such as Zonai devices that can be held or placed to help deliver elemental damage, blow back projectiles or is just a bomb. There’s also special moves that are best used to counter red heavy hitting enemy attacks, stunning them to whittle down their shielding. Sync Attacks are also a new powerful attack that can be unleashed by two characters near each other out in the battlefield. Once the Sync gauge is filled and the activation prompt lights up you can unite for different flashy high damage attacks. Due to the variety of characters there are plenty of Sync Attacks to try out.

Returning is resource gathering - you’ll need materials, monster parts and the like for a few things. You’ll want smithing materials for upgrading weapons, items to boost your campsite’s effect on the field, and then there’s upgrades. You’ll need a wide variety of items to help unlock extra hearts and bonus attacks/combos, or to unlock additional locations for upgrades or training. You can get these through the game without succumbing to the grind for items, you should ideally find and unlock enough to keep your weapons strong. If you want to make every icon on the map show up as completed and feel the accomplishment of completing everything, then it might be a little less fun. But keep in mind that you don’t have to do that.

The biggest question for returning Hyrule Warriors players will be “How does it run?” Particularly after so many years of compromised Musou games on the original Switch. I can safely say it is so nice to be able to play a Musou game on the Switch 2 performing this well. HW: AOI handles big groups of enemies and all of the crew's flashy attacks with ease. While the frame rate remains pretty solid, it can still hit the odd bump every now and then when it gets super busy. They’ve done a great job throwing hordes of enemies at the screen alongside all the fancy special attacks 

Split Screen also returns, and stands up to the task. While you won’t get the pretty solid 60 fps, the 30fps is still a strong showing. Do keep in mind that not all missions are multiplayer, and if you’re playing through the game for the first time as a group there might be some turn taking. 

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment brings the world of Zelda back for another round of Musou chaos. Making good efforts to combine more of a narrative during battles, while still letting you knock around hundreds of Bokoblins. There is plenty to do as you liberate Hyrule from the Demon King, with DLC already dropping to add more. With the Switch 2 bringing the beefier hardware, Hyrule Warriors has never run better, while also retaining the lovely visual style from the Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdomgames. Age of Imprisonment is an easy recommend for Dynasty Warriors fans, and Zelda fans shouldn’t miss out either. 

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

+Age of Imprisonment is a good return back into the history behind Tears of the Kingdom

+The game looks and feels great on the Switch 2, running smoothly while fighting back 100s of enemies

The Cons

-The roster is less familiar here given the connection to Tears of the Kingdom

-Resources grinding is still a drag for completionists