{"id":1406,"date":"2026-04-11T08:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5fb4e82de4b0d3ea05ca615f"},"modified":"2026-04-11T08:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:52:22","slug":"hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild<\/a> fans want, it\u2019s more Breath of the Wild, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity<\/a> is here to give us\u2026 something kinda like that. Like the previous Hyrule Warriors games<\/a>, this is Zelda as seen through a Dynasty Warriors<\/a> lens, but the key difference here is that Age of Calamity\u2019s premise takes us back to the events of The Great Calamity<\/a> referenced throughout Breath of the Wild<\/a>. This is the story of the Champions, of Zelda\u2019s struggle to awaken her power, and of the resurrection of Ganon. The resulting game is a great fit for Koei Tecmo\u2019s famous 1 vs 1000 gameplay, and also a fun new spin on a much-loved world.<\/p>\n

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity really does feel like a love letter to Breath of the Wild. It goes out of its way to include as many of the signature elements of that game as it can, from the bestiary and Sheikah powers, through to cooking, Koroks, clothing options and paragliding, and they really set the tone \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

Age of Calamity is packed with systems, mechanics, locations, and Easter eggs pulled from its predecessor, and coming across these is a joy. Of course Link can shield surf! Or parry Guardian lasers. And why shouldn\u2019t he wield tree branches, soup ladles, and mops as weapons? And why not cast Magnesis to yank treasure chests out of the ground or use an Octorok to polish up rusty weapons? And what could be more normal than tuning the Sheikah Sensor to find ingredients across the map? My more than 40 hours with Age of Calamity were filled with moments in which Koei Tecmo\u2019s reverence for the source material was abundantly clear.<\/p>\n

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Age of Calamity is able to expand upon this world in a number of areas too. There\u2019s a large cast of playable characters for one, letting you get a sense for how deadly Impa was as a young woman, or how skilled the Champions were in battle during their prime. We even get to pilot the Divine Beasts, and while these missions aren\u2019t actually all that<\/em> exciting, they\u2019re still a good palate cleanser, as well as an effective way to bring Breath of the Wild\u2019s backstory to life, and to make these lumbering titans feel more real than they ever did before.<\/p>\n

Age of Calamity really does feel like a love letter to Breath of the Wild.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps the most significant new twist, however, is also likely to be the most divisive. The opening cutscene introduces us to a miniature Guardian who comes alive at the moment Zelda\u2019s powers awaken \u2013 when all hope is lost \u2013 and then travels back in time to warn the heroes about what is to come. Now, the Guardian itself is adorable, sure, but the time-travelling motif naturally raises the question of whether this prequel will follow the events as described in Breath of the Wild, or whether it will create its own timeline by altering the past.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to directly answer that question here, as the story should be yours to discover, but what I will say is that while many events transpire<\/em>, and there\u2019s plenty of high-stakes drama, the actual characterisation along the way is pretty lacking. Zelda, for instance, spends a big chunk of the time playing the one note she played in most of the memories in Breath of the Wild \u2013 namely, self-doubt that she\u2019ll ever unlock her power and be useful. It\u2019s disappointing that she\u2019s played so straight when this was an opportunity to do more with, well, all of the main characters, actually.<\/p>\n

This is especially awkward because in battle, Zelda is a straight-up brawler \u2013 she wields the Sheikah Slate as her primary weapon<\/em>, and yet, this badass killing machine is still meek, bookish, and lacking confidence as far as the story is concerned. There\u2019s even an escort mission in which she can\u2019t fight, despite the fact that \u2013 mere moments earlier \u2013 she was slaughtering hundreds if not thousands of Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, and everything else Hyrule\u2019s got. If Age of Calamity can toss a time-travelling Guardian into the mix, surely it could\u2019ve done a little more with Zelda, too?<\/p>\n

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Another way to look at it is that Breath of the Wild\u2019s story was disjointed by design \u2013 you pieced it together as you came across memories and other flashbacks, whereas here we have a storyline that runs from start to finish, yet still doesn\u2019t really tell us anything meaningful about its characters.<\/p>\n

None of this should really be a surprise, though, because Age of Calamity is not trying to be a Final Fantasy game. Big events are often delivered through narrated text on-screen (with some pretty questionable voice acting), while the cutscenes are largely just brief interludes that help keep the story going, or show off something cool. The primary purpose of the overarching story really is to provide a backbone for ever-evolving gameplay across the dozens of hours of Age of Calamity. And in this capacity it serves its purpose admirably.<\/p>\n

Impa Slap<\/h2>\n

While I\u2019d have liked a little more insight into the characters, the Rock Roast of this game really is its combat. The foundation is deliberately simple, with every character having an array of different combos based around regular attacks transitioning into strong attacks, as well as a unique central mechanic. Impa, for instance, uses ZR to place symbols on enemies which she can then absorb with strong attacks to create mirror images of herself. Absorb three symbols and she\u2019s at full power, with a line of clones fighting to either side of her. Impa can feel absurdly powerful in this state, spraying a barrage of blades at anyone in even the vaguest of vicinities. This feeling of power only grows as you upgrade her weapons and start to take advantage of seals \u2013 weapon augmentations \u2013 that suit her play style.<\/p>\n

Impa can feel absurdly powerful… spraying a barrage of blades at anyone in even the vaguest of vicinities.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s impressive is that every character in the roster is this distinct. Urbosa, for instance, has a lightning gauge which can be channeled \u2013 one segment at a time \u2013 into extra-powerful strong attacks in her combos. Her fighting style is very much like a dance, and I love how she balances elegant, contained moves with outright devastation. Her lightning gauge is instantly refilled after using a weak-point smash too, allowing you to chain together shockingly effective sequences of moves.<\/p>\n

Mipha, meanwhile, literally swims around the battlefield, and her key mechanic lets her close the distance to enemies by bursting from fountains, then juggle them in the air before launching them again with another fountain, and so on. Seals that do extra damage to airborne enemies work well for Mipha’s tridents.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to also<\/em> tell you about some of the insane characters you\u2019ll unlock later on, but that would be spoiler territory, so instead I\u2019ll just say: woah<\/em>. Age of Calamity has some awesome surprises and some truly deep cuts that fans are really going to love. They don\u2019t all land \u2013 some characters are more intuitive to use and more robust in design than others \u2013 but still, the overall roster is a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

Coming back to what we can<\/em> discuss, Link is perhaps the most traditional character, but he also offers up the most variety: he boasts different combos, special attacks, and ZR mechanics based on the weapon type he\u2019s using \u2013 sword and shield, spear, or the two-handed weapon category. Sword and shield, for instance, opens up parrying, shield surfing, and a rapid-fire bow, whereas two-handed weapons let him sacrifice some of his own health to juice up attacks. He\u2019s a powerhouse.<\/p>\n

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Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – Screenshots and Art<\/p>\n