{"id":2076,"date":"2026-04-12T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/reviews\/2020\/11\/20\/21583411\/age-of-calamity-hyrule-warriors-breath-of-the-wild-prequel-zelda-review-nintendo-koei-tecmo-switch"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:52:12","slug":"hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-is-a-must-play-for-zelda-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-is-a-must-play-for-zelda-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a must-play for Zelda fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two things most people will tell you about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild<\/em><\/a>. One, that the genre-defining open-world adventure is amazing, if not one of the best games of all time. And two, that they wish they could experience it all over again, fresh.<\/p>\n

So far, Nintendo hasn\u2019t yet perfected the mind-erasing tech necessary to make that happen, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity<\/em><\/a> might be the next best thing. It\u2019s like discovering the director\u2019s cut of your favorite movie, or finding out that the author of a great book has a lot more where that came from. For dozens of hours, Age of Calamity<\/em> allows you to spend more time with beloved characters in a world you may not have wanted to leave in the first place. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is that Age of Calamity<\/em> pays homage to everything that made Breath of the Wild<\/em> great while also establishing its own distinct sense of grandeur.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure you\u2019ll get nearly as much out of Age of Calamity<\/em> if you didn\u2019t play Breath of the Wild, <\/em>or if you are a hardcore \u201cMusou\u201d fan who is hoping that Koei Tecmo pushed its signature hack-and-slash series into new ground. If anything, Age of Calamity<\/em> seems like a crossover game meant to introduce new people into the genre, which is known for its large-scale battles and flashy combat. In some ways, the game already assumes you\u2019re invested in the characters from its epic story.<\/p>\n

Breath of the Wild<\/em> takes place in a ravaged world a hundred years in the future, with many of its heroes of myth long dead by the time Link wakes up. You go on to save the day, of course, but there was a deep sense of melancholy and pathos in knowing the enormous price that was paid to ensure your eventual victory. Age of Calamity<\/em>\u2019s proposition as a prequel to that is a juicy one: What if I could play through all the events I heard about in Breath of the Wild<\/em>? <\/p>\n

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\"Link <\/picture> <\/span> <\/span> Image: Koei Tecmo Games\/Nintendo via Polygon<\/cite> <\/span> <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Age of Calamity<\/em> starts in that catastrophic future, and then inexplicably throws a mysterious robot into a time time traveling vortex.<\/a> I was immediately intrigued by that premise, and spent the entire time wondering how \u2014 or if \u2014 things might deviate from the timeline I played in BOTW<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Everything that I took for granted in Breath of the Wild<\/em> doesn\u2019t necessarily exist in Age of Calamity<\/em>, at least not at first. I get to watch as the Sheikah Towers get erected, and how Zelda convinces the Champions to pilot the Divine Beasts<\/a>. Despite knowing exactly what everything was and where the overarching story was going, I was still thrilled to take part in all of it.<\/p>\n

It helps that Koei Tecmo obviously have a deep love for the source material. The Japanese developer found ways to incorporate nearly every element from BOTW<\/em> into Age of Calamity<\/em>, from collecting Koroks for power-ups to gathering ingredients for status-affecting cooking. Even minor things, like bespoke animations for every character, are imbued with an undeniable reverence and joy. Link doesn\u2019t just kill his enemies with a sword, y\u2019all. He\u2019ll shield surf on a Lynel\u2019s face, too.<\/p>\n