Monday, October 20, 2014

Review: Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

Link's back and this time, he is not alone.
The Legend of Zelda series and I have a bit of a complicated relationship.  I tried playing the original a handful of times, but never went the distance and beat it.  The first LoZ game I took seriously was Twilight Princess and I loved that game.  The next Zelda game I finished was Skyward Sword.  I think about that now and am floored.  Since SS, I've beaten Wind Waker HD, Link to the Past, Link between Worlds and Ocarina of Time 3D.  I'm planning on playing Minish Cap as soon as I beat the original Metroid (I beat Super Metroid a few months ago for the first time).

Since Skyward, I've tried really hard to play new Zelda games when I can. Hyrule Warriors is NOT a traditional Zelda game.  Does this make it a bad game?  No, but let's get into the nuts and bolts of how HW works.

Hyrule Warriors was built by the team that gave us the Dynasty Warriors series, hence the name.  This is not a reskinned version of DW.  It is like they took the two series and melded them together.  Thematically it is 80% Zelda, but gameplay wise it's about 40% or so Zelda.  A Zelda oriented control scheme helps keep it familiar Zelda fans (like myself).  DW fans can choose a Warriors oriented control scheme if they wish.

The game is based on the concept of controlling battlefields.  There are keeps and outposts you have to conquer and claim for your army (which isn't always Hyrule's).  This is a huge departure from normal Zelda games.

Your attacks cause massive amounts of damage.  You can use one of many characters (the count is over a dozen with the new update).  All of the characters have different move sets and types of combos, super attacks, magic gauge attacks, etc.  You pick up new items as the story oriented Legend Mode progresses.  These items are occasionally used to solve puzzles, but mostly to kill enemies.  There are power ups for your items that cause even more damage.  You are taking out dozens of enemies at a time in some cases.  You are a god and they are bugs to be crushed (well you can create literal giant bugs with Agitha to crush your metaphorical bugs)

The fan service for Zelda is dripping out of every pore of this game.  From the items, to the weapons, to the characters, Zelda fans will love all of the references to other games (which includes the time hopping storyline).  For example, if you power up your hook shot, you shoot it into the air and pull the Majora's Mask Moon down onto your unsuspecting enemies.  Awesome.



There is a leveling up system to make your characters stronger.  You can use rupees to make your lower level characters stronger (the rupees automatically go into your pouch without the need to physically touch them).  The Training Dojo can only be used to level up to your highest ranked character's level. So you still have to do the leg work of leveling at least one of your characters up.

Your weapons can be replaced, upgraded and given new attributes.  New weapon categories for some characters allow them to play like a completely new character.  See Link's Ball and Chain for a good example.

The game's story is pretty good.  It's straight forward and it's new characters are welcome additions.  Cia, the main villain, is a little scantily clad for a Zelda game, but even she is an interesting character.

The Adventure mode looks like the original LoZ (even newer characters have 8-bit sprites to venture around the map).  Once you decide to fight on a square, you fight a Hyrule Warriors level with certain requirements to earn certain items.  These can be items to unlock other secrets in this mode, weapons or even characters (a few can only be unlocked in this mode).  This mode is a favorite of mine.  The newest DLC added another map to Adventure Mode (Yes!).

One thing I thought was funny is that in the new DLC, you can use Link's horse Epona as a weapon. Your weapons appear on the battlefield when you kill enemies.  Your weapons are in little bags.  So I found a giant 1,000 pound animal in a tiny sack!



Overall Hyrule Warriors is a solid game.  Surprisingly the repetitive nature of the DW is down played with a lot of different modes with different objectives and an occasional puzzle.  The couch co-op increases the replayability of the game with friends and family.  Everyone will have their favorite character to play as.  The fact still remains that the game can get a little brainless sometimes and isn't as good as most of the mainstream Zelda games (despite actually being able to play as Zelda).  The game isn't earth shattering, but it IS a hell of a lot of fun.  If you're on the fence, give it a chance, I really enjoyed my time with this game.

8.3 out of 10 horses in a bag

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