It’s funny that, despite touching nearly every genre in the last 40 years, Nintendo isn’t really known for action games — at least not their own. Although the company is a heavyweight in the “action-adventure” and platforming lanes (like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario, respectively), when it comes to making titles that are more combat-focused, they often team up with outside forces. One of their most fruitful partnerships has been with Ninja Gaiden and Dynasty Warriors publisher, Koei Tecmo, on a string of Zelda spin-offs called Hyrule Warriors.
The first Hyrule Warriors launched for the ill-fated Wii U console in 2014 and was basically a Zelda-flavored take on the musou sub-genre of action games inspired by Dynasty Warriors. Players could control a huge cast of classic characters from the franchise in a toybox mash-up of different eras, wiping out armies of bad guys at a clip. It was silly fun, but not particularly ambitious. Its successor, 2020’s Age of Calamity, substantially upped the ante by positioning itself as a prequel to the Zelda series’ best entry, Breath of the Wild (2017); but it, too, had some issues.
Now, with its third attempt at making a musou game truly worthy of the Zelda name, Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have finally hit the mark. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (out Nov. 6) delivers on everything promised by its predecessors — lovable characters, an epic story, and ridiculously over-the-top action — much better than before. At its core, it remains a Dynasty Warriors-style experience, which is inherently too repetitive for some, but Age of Imprisonment does just enough differently, utilizing the Zelda world and gameplay to stand apart.
Going back to the start
For Zelda fans, the most pressing issue surrounding Age of Imprisonment will certainly be the game’s place in canon. While the 2014 game was basically its own thing that used plot devices to bring together fan-favorite characters, the second entry in the franchise overplayed its hand by promising to deliver a full-on prequel to Breath of the Wild, only to pull the rug as a time-traveling alternative history lesson.
Editor’s picks
Although Age of Calamity let players travel back 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild to live out the conflict that ultimately wiped out everything (including its cast), the time travel aspect of the story served as a fan-servicey compromise with a happy ending. Rather than letting Link, Zelda, and Hyrule’s guardians fall in battle as they’re destined to in the pyrrhic victory to stave off Ganon, their knowledge of the future allows them to prevent The Great Calamity altogether. It made for a fun “what if” scenario, but was met with derision by fans who wanted to see the more somber Seven Samurai–like tale play out authentically.
With Zelda as its lead, the third Hyrule Warriors game is both prequel and interquel to Tears of the Kingdom.
Nintendo
From the onset, Age of Imprisonment promises to quell any lingering fears that it’s setting up another bait-and-switch, starting with a quick refresher on the opening sequences of Tears of the Kingdom (itself a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild) to catch audiences up. Some years after defeating Ganon, Link and Zelda stumble across an underground tomb where the decrepit corpse of the villain’s human form, Ganondorf (played again by Critical Role’s Matt Mercer), is imprisoned. Of course, they accidentally reawaken the evil entity, and Zelda is dropped into a portal that sends her back in time thousands of years to the very dawn of the kingdom of Hyrule.
Zelda’s trek through time plays out as a side story in Tears of the Kingdom, told entirely through flashbacks. That game is firmly Link’s adventure, with the princess sidelined to find a way back to her own era and help stop Ganondorf’s reign of terror. Age of Imprisonment depicts this story.
Related Content
Due to strict embargoes from Nintendo, the larger story of Age of Imprisonment remains a secret, but anyone who’s played Tears of the Kingdom can glean a lot of the setup. Zelda meets King Rauru and Queen Sonia, the founders of Hyrule (and her genetic ancestors) who are betrayed by Ganondorf before he becomes the Demon King. From here, it’s a traditional “putting the team together” plot where Rauru and Zelda must liberate different regions and align with various soon-to-be sages who will help seal away their enemy for millennia.
The “Mysterious Construct” resembles Link but has its own story to discover.
Nintendo
But being a prequel (and technically an interquel, too) doesn’t mean that there aren’t surprises in store. The various sages from each of Hyrule’s different races (Gerudo, Goron, Rito, and Zora) all have affecting backstories and differ substantially from their descendants, whom players know intimately from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. There’s also a new duo whose story weaves in and around the primary plot to stop Ganon: the diminutive and smart-mouthed Korok, Calamo, and the automaton known only as the Mysterious Construct — who looks a lot like Link.
There are many other playable characters, too, although their identities are also under embargo. But the key thing to know is that Age of Imprisonment works harder than its predecessors to introduce compelling original characters that flesh out the various cultures of Hyrule better than either of the previous Warriors games — closer to the intricate lore of the mainline Zelda titles.
And while the constant wave of additions to the story backfills gaps to the point of over-explanation (think: the Star Wars prequels), it all does wonders to give The Legend of Zelda its own sweeping epic saga closer in the vein of The Lord of the Rings than the series has ever had. In Zelda, all the biggest battles happen in the periphery to be recalled; now, they’re front and center.
Unrestricted warfare
Regardless of whether a Warriors game tells a compelling story, it’s the action that will be paramount. 2014’s original entry was mostly a vanilla musou game with a Zelda coat of paint; Age of Calamity managed to much better incorporate the aesthetic and many of the mechanics of Breath of the Wild into its design but was plagued by technical issues stemming from the underpowered Switch hardware.
Team synergy is one of many angles to approach combat.
Nintendo
Age of Imprisonment both controls and performs leaps and bounds better than its predecessors. Wisely leaving the OG Switch behind to develop the game as a Switch 2 exclusive, Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have created an action title capable of harnessing the current-gen console’s power to run smoothly — an absolute must for an experience like this. While the number of enemies on screen or the visual draw distance of faraway objects isn’t quite at the level of similar titles like Dynasty Warriors: Origins (2025), Age of Imprisonment runs at a buttery 60 frames per second in most instances, even when combat heats up.
There’s some occasional hiccups and stuttering during cut scenes and, frankly, pretty flat textures and detail in the environments, but you can see Nintendo’s focusing on what it does best: making the game run well while masking the seams behind a very pretty art style. While it’s not exactly a feat of technical wizardry like Donkey Kong Bananza, it’s gratifying to play a Hyrule Warriors game that arrives in top shape from day one rather than operating mostly okay until an eventual update or re-release irons out the issues.
Part of what makes the experience run smoothly is the fact that everything’s been slowed down to some degree. Generally, Warriors games can be breakneck experiences, ushering players from battle to battle at full sprint, and even the encounters themselves devolving into button-mashing melees. There’s still plenty of spamming to be done, but there’s a greater methodology to it all. Even at full sprint, the characters are moving at a relatively normal speed, with levels designed to be smaller, yet dense, to reduce the amount of backtracking and desperate ping-ponging all over the map.
Cinematic moves show off each character’s battle prowess with pinache.
Nintendo
Age of Calamity’s claim to fame was incorporating Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah Slate powers (Cryonis, Magnesis, etc.) into real-time combat. By turning the mainline game’s abilities from puzzle-solvers to rapidly employed weaponry, it made smart use of systems that might not otherwise have a place in an action game of this type. Much like how Tears of the Kingdom built on and amplified the complexity of its predecessor, Age of Imprisonment does the same.
In combat, each character has access to the basic action game fare: light and heavy attacks, dodge, block, and a screen-clearing special ability. There’s also five assignable “actions,” ranging from unique character moves to Zonai devices like flame emitters and canons — the latter players will remember as the Lego-like mechanical pieces they could use to build their own machines in Tears of the Kingdom. But like that game, a ridiculous number of items can be used to bolster attacks in battle. Mundane loot like monster teeth and eyeballs all have different effects when paired with a basic attack, making for a mind-boggling number of combinations for how to dole out punishment.
Though most normal enemies simply come in waves and can be pummeled however you like, larger bosses and fiends require whittling away at their shield and stamina, which opens scripted cinematic attacks at their weak points. Each character has their own specialized sequences for these moments, and can go a step further once their synergy meter fills, allowing two fighters to do a special team-up that’s also customized to each individual pairing.
The action gets heavy, but the game continues performing much better than its predecessors.
Nintendo
On top of all that, there’s elemental effects (like burning and freezing), and a Rock, Paper, Scissors-like system where certain actions can negate specific enemy attacks based on their type. If a Moblin springs to the sky to do a devastating red-hued dive, utilizing an upward-facing ability will leave them reeling; opportunities like this are abundant. Oh, and you can swap between three or four characters on-the-fly, depending on who is present for the level for plot purposes.
With a dizzying number of options, you’d think combat in Age of Imprisonment would be overwhelming, but it really isn’t. Short tutorials effectively instruct players how to utilize the multitude of powers at their disposal, and they can even opt to keep the visual manual on display as needed. Gameplay is filled with on-screen prompts to remind players of the many time-sensitive actions, and even the CPU-controlled companions do a decent job of showing up once their various gauges are filled as if to say, “We can do this, and this, and this!”
Outside of the core loop of endless combat, there are also other stages that introduce entirely new design concepts to the musou genre. One early level shortly after the arrival of the Mysterious Construct as a playable character quickly pivots into Star Fox-esque shooting section with the robot transforming into a winged fighter jet. It’s kind of ingenious, really. By intricately addressing basically every misstep from previous Hyrule Warriors games, Age of Imprisonment delivers on the potential of the franchise that Nintendo and Koei Tecmo only somewhat broached in years past.
As a Zelda title, it effectively continues the worldbuilding from the Beath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom duology; it also provides a sense of real agency for the princess herself, who somehow hadn’t even starred in her own game until last year’s disappointing Echoes of Wisdom. As a musou, it also manages to elevate the well-worn trappings of the subgenre by incorporating a shocking amount of actual Zelda mechanics.
Trending Stories
After much trial and error, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment finally gives both its heroine and the players the action-packed adventure they deserve.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment launches on Nov. 6 for Nintendo Switch 2.
