Hey all! Gaarasaiyan here with another review for the ages! Combining two amazing franchises into one isn’t easy but it works with this game. What is it you ask? Why it’s Hyrule Warriors for the WiiU. So lets get to it!
All of China… er, I mean Hyrule, will know your power!
As stated, this is a mash up of two popular game series. It is part Dynasty Warriors and Part Zelda. Zelda isn’t the first to get the mash up treatment. There has also been Gundam and Dragonquest; though the Dragonquest one hasn’t made it stateside yet. It fits with Zelda quite well, which is a tad bit unexpected yet both welcomed. You fight hordes and hordes of the classic enemies including bosses as your favorite Hyrule hero, unless you choose villian. If you pick a bad guy you’ll be fighting the good guys of course.
Crush them with your might.
Every character has multiple attacks that do devestating damage, but they also individually wield special attacks that are in a league of their own. When the gauges fill, it’s time to bring the pain. By pressing a simple button you can unleash a mighty special attack that kills any normal enemy in it’s path. The sequences are quite beautiful as well. The controls are simple and adjustable. You can play with a Zelda style or Dynasty style set up, but either of them are quite easy to learn and pick up. Anyone will have a blast simply running around slaying baddies, but unfortunately for you there is more to it than that..
Don’t let the enemy flee!
Each mission, as well as story missions, have a certain objective. Some are as simple as killing everything, but others require your attention to detail. You will get notfications of an enemy fleeing or your ally is about to fall, in which case whatever you are doing you must rush to that part of the map and prevent this from happening. Sometimes it’s a rush and a lot of fun, but other times you get a bit annoyed. Overall, it actually adds a challenge to the game and I personally like that.
There’s always a story with Zelda…
Every Zelda game always has a story, but it’s more or less the same in most instances. Zelda has been kidnapped or something, go save her, then kill Ganon and stop him from sinking the world into darkness. This isn’t always the case but most of the time it is. This time it isn’t so simple. The plot of this is a little more mature. Without spoiling characters in the game and ruining the end I will say only this: There is an all powerful Magician…She has the hots for link…She sees that Link likes Zelda…Then the jealousy happens. That’s all you get from me. There is a great more to that story but I highly recommend that you play it for yourselves. Out of all the Dynasty warriors mash ups this had the most interesting story out of them all and was the most fun to keep playing to see the story unfold.
Help me defeat the enemy. Now that you’re here things seem off.
There is one major drawback to this game that I cannot forgive. Well two to be honest. For one there is no online co-op. That is a bit disappointing. But what’s worse is when you play couch co-op the quality of the game drops significantly when playing two player. The WiiU’s hardware isn’t strong enough to do what it does without lowering the overall quality of the game. Graphics drop in quality as does the game itself. In single player you’ll see a hundred or more enemies in front of you at any given time. But in Multiplayer the numbers drop you’ll rarely see more than 30 at a time. While this may not seem like a big deal, it is. A base may have 100-200 enemies on the map. But with 20-30 appearing at a time it takes away from the difficulty of the game, and also makes something like capturing a single base last way longer than it should. You have to kill the enemies in front so the game can render more in front of you. This is a major let down and nearly ruined my co-op experience. My co-op partner didn’t mind so you may not either, but for me I noticed and I hated it.
I’ve saved the world…THERE’S MORE?!?!
Aside from the story mode in the game, there is a few other modes as well. It has an adventure mode which is quite fun and honestly worth the play. There is also a mission select where you can replay any story mission with any character you choose. This offers tons of more gameplay time and in itself makes the game worth the price in my opinion. There is also DLC that adds even more to the game, and if you have the funds I recommend getting them all. I would have to say adventure mode is my go to mode. With each DLC you get a map of an overworld. The core game gives you the original Zelda for NES overworld map for you to explore. The map is broken down into squares. You move your character to a square and it has goals such as: Defeat the enemies in under 5 minutes. After doing this you’ll get a grade that will enable to to move in one of the directions of the map. Depending on your grade, you may be able to only move in one direction. But get the best grade and you’ll be able to move in more directions. Each square also has classic Zelda items that are used to reveal secrets on the map. It’s honestly hard to put into words but trust me when I say it’s a blast to play.
What now?
Well once you have finished adventure mode and story mode the only thing left I guess is to replay missions and hope you get a higher tier weapon or something new. All in all, you won’t be bored before you get to this point. The game offers 80+ hours just for the story and adventure mode and this isn’t counting the DLC. The game looks beautiful (As long as you’re not playing with a buddy) and in all honesty, I expected much less than what I got in content. Overall I give Hyrule Warriors an 8/10. It’s worth the purchase and most certainly worth the play.
