Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the second game in the Hyrule Warriors universe. The first Hyrule Warriors game came out in 2014, and like that game, the Age of Calamity is a hack-and-slash video game loosely based around the Legend of Zelda universe. The game was published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and by Nintendo internationally for the Nintendo Switch console in 2020.

When the Age of Calamity first got out, it got a lot of positive reviews. People were talking about the game, and although there were some negative reviews, most people loved the game. 

The Story Is Everything You Want

If you’ve played The Legend Of Zelda; Breath Of The Wild, you’d know that the only fault the game has is that it’s not longer; and this game is the perfect remedy to that fault. 

When Breath of The Wild starts, the world is a hundred years into a future that is a dystopian hell. Hyrule has fallen, and the world is in disarray. Age of Calamity starts in that catastrophic future too, but moments after the game begins, you’re powered hundred years into the past. 

With this time-traveling trick, you’re thrown into the past where you can experience all the great battles and adventures that you hear of in the Breath of The Wild. 

It’s easy to imagine that since this game is a prequel to the Breath of The Wild, and that there would be no twists, turns, and adventure. Since you know the end of the game, you may expect that there can be no surprises, but you would be wrong. Despite being a prequel, there are still enough twists and turns to keep you engrossed in the story. Even if you do know where some actions would lead (as you should if you loved Breath of The Wild), The Age of Calamity still makes the journey worthwhile. 

If you’re just a Legend of Zelda fan and would like to experience the story in another dimension, then the Age of Calamity is the game for you. It uses as much source material from Breath of The World as possible, and while you cannot strictly say it is a prequel, it has that Legend of Zelda feel that you’d most probably like. 

The Gameplay is Excellent 

The hack and slash style of the game is perfect for the story. As you go through the vast map, you’ll encounter loads of minions that you’ll have a great deal of fun cutting down one by one (or two by two). Of course, you’ll encounter higher-level adversaries, and the gameplay gets even better. There are hundreds of ways to counter their attacks, and you’ll find breaking their defense to be a task that you’ll enjoy.

Gameplay like this sounds simplistic, but that’s the fun of Hyrule Warriors. There’s an extensive roster of players to choose from, and all of them have enough combat variety and styles to make sure no clash is ever the same, and the game doesn’t get repetitive. If you’re looking for a game of strategy, Hyrule Warriors; Age of Calamity is not the game you should be looking at. While there are several minor tactical decisions you could make during battle, your victory will mostly be dependent on how long and how hard you can fight.

The Graphics Are Great, Not Amazing

When you play a video game, you want to get immersed entirely, and you don’t want to worry about tiny details about graphics and whatnot. Well, the Age of Calamity may not give you that. Sure, some players have played without noticing the low-quality textures and the way scenery suddenly pops in your view. But now that you’ve read this, you probably won’t miss it. While the game’s art style makes these issues not so noticeable, it’s still somewhat apparent to the trained eye. 

Another issue is that it could become buggy when you’re in the middle of the action. When special effects start splashing all over your screen, the game gets sluggish, and you’ll probably notice this the most in the two-player mode (I’ll NOT recommend it). One last buggy issue about the game is that the camera tends to get lost looking at tiny things— especially when fighting a huge character. 

Verdict 

Despite the many issues with the game’s graphics, Hyrule Warriors; Age of Calamity is a game that you can get lost in if you’d like. The storyline is coherent, fun, surefooted, predictable, and unpredictable at the same time. It pays homage to one of the greatest games in the open-world genre and takes you through a journey of magic, love, loyalty, and bravery. 

You may not get the hype if you didn’t like the Legend of Zelda or haven’t heard of it, and that’s okay (it’s not). However, very few games make killing hoards of identical monsters sprinkled with highly powered bad guys as fun as the Age of Calamity. The rhythm of hacking and slashing through demon flesh will undoubtedly entertain you, even if you’ve never heard of Zelda.