Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmenthas a lot of expectations to live up to. For one thing, it has a chance tobridge the gap between two of the bestZeldagamesin recent memory:Breath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom. Exploring the Hylian history behindTOTK’s time-traveling plot, it’ll establish an important part of theZeldatimeline, directly portraying the Imprisoning War once and for all.
But besides that,Age of Imprisonmentis also a sequel to two excellentZelda-themed hack-and-slash games: the originalHyrule Warriors, andAge of Calamity.It’ll need to build on the mechanics those games have introduced, and right their wrongs by tweaking certain lacking elements, in order to meaningfully move this subseries forward.
Age of Imprisonment Needs To Keep The Story Focused
An Important Piece of Zelda History
To begin with, I believeAge of Imprisonmentcould benefit from a more focused story. That’s never really beena feature ofWarriorsgames in general; they tend to portray decade-spanning epics, introducing large casts of characters and frequently jumping around in space, time, and focus as needed.
Butthat kind of thing doesn’t typically work forZelda. Despiteits deceptively complicated timeline, most individual games in theZeldaseries stick to relatively simple stories: there’s a crisis in Hyrule (or, rarely, elsewhere), and Link needs to collect X, Y, and Z to defeat Ganon once again.
That goes double forAge of Imprisonment, which deals withone of the most central pieces ofZeldalore: the Imprisoning War, when Ganon first rose to power and was sealed away by the Sages. I suspect I’m not the only fan of the series who’s curious to see how it’s portrayed, and I hopeAge of Imprisonmentdoes it justice.
Age of Calamitywasn’t even a proper prequel, as its plot twist contrasts with the actual continuity. InWarriorsspinoffs especially, stories tend to degrade into fan service, introducing beloved characters for no other reason than because fans want to see them.Age of Imprisonmentcan do much better, giving us a prequel with a story that makes sense.
Hopefully Progression Will Be Quicker And More Meaningful
Hyrule Warriors Makes It Difficult To Progress
In addition,I hopeAge of Imprisonmenttakes the time to improveHyrule Warriors' systems of progression. In order to power up your characters - especially as you approach the endgame - you have to do quite a bit of grinding. There’s a fair degree of farming and collectible hunting involved, which slows the process significantly.
And even when you do level up fully,it’s not all that meaningful: you’re the same character you started out as, just with more damage and defense. A more meaningful and flexible system of character customization would do it some good.
Age of Imprisonmentis really the first brand-new game of the Switch 2 era, so I’d love to see it make some generational leaps. In terms of story and gameplay, there’s a lot of room for improvement in the nextZeldahack-and-slash installment. Hopefully,Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmentsuccessfully builds on the series' legacy.
