Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity tells the story of the Great Calamity, the pivotal war in the Breath of the Wild timeline that is essentially its entire reason for being. Anybody remotely familiar with the 2017 masterpiece probably knows by now how Age of Calamity is meant to unfold: Series hero Link loses a near-fatal battle with Calamity Ganon and falls into a hundred-year slumber while Princess Zelda is imprisoned in Hyrule Castle. This is also the fateful war in which the four champions of the Divine Beasts are supposed to meet their demise.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Developer: Omega Force
Price: $60
Platform: Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with Nintendo Switch code for review
Warning. This review contains minor story spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Only this isn’t really that story. Despite what you may have read about Age of Calamity, it isn’t a prequel to Breath of the Wild. Rather, it’s an altered timeline – a fact I don’t mind spoiling since it’s readily apparent from the outset. Age of Calamity begins in very much the same conquered and dilapidated version of Hyrule previously explored by the Hero of the Wild. As the mechanical, spider-like war machines known as guardians continue to wreak havoc long after the Great Calamity has been decided, a box topples off a workshop shelf. A much smaller, egg-shaped guardian known as Terraco crawls out and then is immediately blasted through a rift in space-time, sending the R2D2 fill-in character to the beginning of the war.
Cue eye roll.
From here it’s easy to see the familiar route this story is taking. Knowing the tragedy that befalls Hyrule, Terraco aids Link and friends throughout the upcoming war. Though Terraco isn’t a playable character in the main story, it lends a hand in scenes that maybe played out more disastrously in the original timeline. (This is never explicitly mentioned, but it is kind of the point of altered timelines.) Ultimately and predictably, Terraco’s interference changes the outcome of the Great Calamity in favor of our heroes, rendering the events of Breath of the Wild nonexistent.
Age of Calamity isn’t really a Nintendo-developed game, and the Omega Force team that worked on this project are entitled to tell their own story. The Legend of Zelda series is also no stranger to time travel, having relied on the trope in the past as both a mechanic and plot device in great hits like Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Ages. So a tiny robot dropping in from the future to save the day isn’t totally out of left field. But going down the most derivative and obvious path seems like a bizarre choice, especially when Breath of the Wild explicitly lays out the foundation for a compelling prequel in its opening act. A retelling of that history may have been predictable (it’s not like this rendition is any less so anyway), but at least it would have given greater depth and vivacity to previously established context. Instead, the framework given to Age of Calamity is clunky and undermines the overarching narrative.
Even as a standalone title, the story is, at best, awkward and cliché. Even in 2020, stories dealing with altered timelines have had better offerings. But Age of Calamity does, at least, renew some of the series’ characters. Zelda, for example, shows with even greater doubt her ability to protect her friends. She is, more than once, the centerpiece of an evocative scene and exhibits the dynamism a well-written character should. Master Kohga of the Yiga Clan is another example of a character whose development only improves through Age of Calamity.
In every other regard, Age of Calamity falls short of the fantasy it’s trying to sell. Its main draw is the Warriors-style gameplay that places Breath of the Wild’s cast on the frontlines of the Great Calamity. For those unfamiliar with the genre (much like myself prior to this game), it just boils down to controlling a small platoon of Hyrule’s finest warriors through the series of battles that make up the war.
I appreciate the philosophy on wartime strategy the genre tries to promote. Task-driven events like capturing an outpost or taking out a high-ranking leader of an enemy faction amidst a densely populated skirmish give the whole affair a sense of grandeur and realism. And all of that is certainly on display here. I’m not sure how Age of Calamity stacks up to genre juggernauts like Dynasty Warriors, but it seems like maybe its approach is too mindless. It’s painting in broad strokes while ignoring the finer details that I’d expected before going in. The bulk of its loop is spent wiping out hundreds – sometimes even thousands – of enemies in a single battle and often simply by mashing the same button over and over. Omega Force does offer tremendous variety in playable characters and abilities. Link alone can choose between three weapon styles before any scenario, and every character has access to Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah runes – another consequence of Terraco’s meddling. But this becomes moot once you realize that every enemy is susceptible to the same strategies and techniques. There’s nothing here to encourage or reward deviating from the chronic button mashery except your own willingness and gumption. Even the game’s bosses are subject to the same brainless hacking and slashing. They do, however, add much needed change of pace to Age of Calamity’s frenetic and bombastic battles. Unlike smaller foes, bosses have shields (called a weak-point gauge) that need to be whittled away before you can do any considerable damage to their health bar.
There is a lot of smoke and mirrors working to make your squad and the environment look the part. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching bokoblins fly through the air like bowling pins after throwing a volley of scintillating bombs their way. Players also get to pilot the Divine Beasts, four colossal machines capable of destroying anything in their wake. These missions were some of the few times when the sheer chaos I was creating was actually believable. Like the Sheikah runes, with their inclusion comes something else that feels wholly Breath of the Wild. Despite how many complaints I have about this game, the world was at least a familiar and comfortable one.
Perhaps a lot of my problems extend from my unfamiliarity with the Warriors genre. Everything on display looks accurate, but it’s clear there are several mechanisms missing to really sell the illusion. Age of Calamity tells two incongruent stories: One where we’re constantly on the verge of defeat as Calamity Ganon besieges the land and one where we’re living out an indomitable power fantasy as we cut down tens of thousands of enemies with a single character.
The Final Word
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity fails to deliver any meaningful fantasy through its story or its gameplay. There is small comfort found in its characterization and more superfluous mechanics.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
