Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (ゼルダ無双 厄災の黙示録, Zelda Musou Yakusai no Mokushiroku) is a hack and slash video game for the Nintendo Switch developed by Koei Tecmo Games and Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and by Nintendo worldwide. It is a sequel to 2014's Hyrule Warriors in terms of gameplay, but is seen as a prequel of sorts to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game was released on November 20, 2020. Unlike the previous Hyrule Warriors which was a celebration of the Zelda franchise and had it's own original story, Koei have worked closely with Nintendo to ensure that the story and gameplay mechanics are fully canonised within the Breath of the Wild continuity.

The game itself takes place in an alternate continuity, created when a Diminutive Guardian from the original timeline travels back in time to avert the damage of the Great Calamity.

Prologue
Beginning at the flashback from Breath of the Wild when Zelda first unlocked her divine power, a small guardian leaps back through time just as Calamity Ganon begin to destroy Hyrule Castle. The diminutive protector tries to protect Zelda from experiencing the anguish she did at Link's "mortal" wounds (BotW begins with Link's recovery from said wounds finally finishing). Alongside the princess and her knight, the heroes of Hyrule are gathered to try and foil Calamity Ganon's resurrection, while BotW Calamity Ganon's own power also arrives in the past, influencing others to ensure the future grants him his victory. The story told closely follows what happened in the BotW timeline until after Ganon's emergence, where it deviates dramatically.

Chapter 1
The small guardian arrives in the past to a Hyrule currently at peace, but already preparing for the Great Calamity as foretold. King Rhoam is sending his troops, among them being Link, to fight a group of Ganon's monsters attacking Hyrule Field. During this battle, Link comes across the deactivated small guardian, before then seeing Impa being pursued by several Bokoblins. As she spots Link and asks for his help, she trips and tosses the Sheikah Slate she was holding towards Link. As Link moves to catch it, the Sheikah Slate activates, awakening the small guardian, who summons a Sheikah Tower that scares off the Bokoblins chasing Impa, but leaving her and Link puzzled by its appearance and the small guardian. After the battle, the small guardian heads for the castle as Link and Impa pursue it. They soon meet up with Princess Zelda, but when Link catches the small guardian and holds it aloft when it tried to approach Zelda, Impa shows Zelda the Sheikah Slate and how it and the small guardian are somehow linked due to the Sheikah Slate working in the small guardian's presence.

After telling King Rhoam, he allows Zelda to take the small guardian to Robbie and Purah for analysis, escorted by Link and Zelda and several troops. During their journey, they are suddenly attacked by a Guardian Stalker possessed by Ganon's Malice that tried to assassinate Zelda before Link blocked the laser shot when he saw the targeting laser zero in on Zelda's forehead. As they try to flee the corrupted Guardian, the small guardian reveals it can activate some of the Decayed Guardians in the area, using them to weaken the Guardian Stalker until Link can deliver the final strike, blowing the corrupted Guardian to pieces. Concerned about what happened, the group continue on their way to the Science Academy, unaware of what appeared to be a corrupted version of the small guardian was secretly watching them before turning and walking away.

Inside the lab, Robbie and Purah reveal what they managed to extract from the small guardian's memory banks, and reveal the horror of the Great Calamity that is to come, as the small guardian brought back an ominous warning of its coming, and Hyrule now must prepare for it. Zelda herself vows not to let this dark future come to pass on her watch.

Chapter 2
Thanks to having been warned in advance by the small guardian of the Great Calamity's coming, Zelda heads off with Link and Impa to recruit the pilots of the Divine Beasts from the Rito, Goron, Zora, and Gerudo races.

Heading up to Goron City on Death Mountain to recruit the stalwart Daruk, he's more than willing to help Zelda against the Calamity, but first had to retrieve Divine Beast Vah Rudania from the crater of the volcano, and it did not help that the path was filled with Ganon's monsters, some affected by elemental energy, making them more dangerous than normal. Nevertheless, they are able to push through to the summit, reach the Divine Beast, and Daruk personally pilots it down the mountain to take out all the enemies in his way as its official test run. Afterwards, he assures Zelda he's on board for being the Goron Champion and pilot of Vah Rudania. Then, believing Link must be starving after all that, he gives him a Prime Rock Roast to eat, and as Link digs in, Impa and Zelda watch with some uneasiness, while Daruk apologizes and promises to have more in the future for everyone, much to Zelda's uneasy gratitude.

In Zora's Domain, Zelda meets with Zora King Dorephan about having his daughter, Crown Princess Mipha, pilot Divine Beast Vah Ruta as the Zora Champion. Dorephan politely refuses under the surmise he can't put her in harm's way if the knight chosen to seal the darkness has not appeared yet. Before Zelda can try to convince him otherwise, word comes of the domain being under attack by Ganon's monsters. Meanwhile, Mipha was alone with Link and having a chance to meet the small guardian before a guard arrives with word of the attack. When Mipha learns that her father is leading the defense, but the king though her younger brother, Prince Sidon, was safe with her, Mipha, with Link's support, decides to head out to find Sidon herself. Helping out her father's troops along the way, she learns that Sidon went to Ploymus Mountain, home of the dreaded Lynel. After fighting the Lynel off and forcing it to retreat, Mipha reunites with Sidon, only to then learn that the Lynel has returned with reinforcements to attack the domain. The small guardian then points out the Sheikah Slate to Zelda, on which an image of the Divine Beast has appeared. Understanding what it means, Mipha mans Vah Ruta, and uses it to save her father as he was about to be attacked by an Electric Moblin, causing the surviving monsters to lose nerve and retreat in the face of the Divine Beast's firepower. Refusing to let them escape, Mipha pursues them in the Divine Beast and annihilates every last one of them, saving the domain. Having seen things firsthand at how dire the situation has become, Dorephan agrees to have Mipha pilot Vah Ruta, but under one condition: Promise him she'll come back safely.

On their way to Rito Village, Link and Impa find themselves attacked by the Rito for no apparent reason. Confused to why they are being attacked by them, they fight their way past the Rito and several of Ganon's monsters affected by elemental energy until reaching the village, only to be engaged by the Rito commander himself, Revali. During Link's duel with Revali, he is disarmed of his shield, and Revali deploys a smokescreen around Link before moving in for the kill. Just before Revali can shoot Link in the back at point-blank range, Zelda arrives, wearing her winter attire, and her shout for them to stop gives Link enough time to block and deflect Revali's arrow. Afterwards, Revali explains that his countrymen and himself were attacked by monsters led by a strange guardian that bore a similar resemblance to the small guardian accompanying the princess, so they were on the alert for similar attacks, and mistook the small guardian as the one that attacked them earlier, hence their hostility to Link and Impa before Zelda intervened. Nevertheless, Revali knows that Zelda wants him to pilot Divine Beast Vah Medoh, and while he's more than happy to do so, he still has his reservations about Link, unsure if the so-called "pathetic knight" in her service is worthy of being the knight to seal the darkness, before the small guardian intervenes to declare itself a knight to the princess as well, much to Revali's annoyance and disbelief.

Zelda soon heads to Gerudo Town to recruit the Gerudo Chieftain and good friend of hers, Urbosa, only to find herself, Link, and Impa being chased by the Gerudo warrior women. Confused as to why the Gerudo are being hostile to them, they are forced to fight their way past them to reach the Chieftain's palace in Gerudo Town. Once there, Zelda tries to speak to Urbosa about what's going on, only for Urbosa to have her honor guards surround the princess' group as she personally prepares to kill Zelda herself. Just as she charges to strike and Link moves to protect Zelda, Urbosa is struck by lightning, electrocuting her so badly that she immediately collapses unconscious at Link and Zelda's feet, before the voice of another Urbosa is heard at the entryway, that one having been the one to summon the lightning to electrocute the Urbosa about to attack Zelda with a snap of her fingers. As everyone is initially confused by what just happened and why there are two Urbosas, the one that summoned the lightning proves she's the authentic one by calling Zelda by her nickname, "Little Bird", which only the real Urbosa would know. As for the one that got zapped and called Zelda "Princess Zelda", with a malicious cackle, the phony Urbosa reveals herself to have actually been the Yiga Clan top banana himself in disguise, Master Kohga. His cover blown thanks to the real Urbosa having shown up just in time to stop him, Kohga summons his Yiga Clan warriors to fight Urbosa, her warriors, Link, Impa, and Zelda, while he retreats. Fighting the Yiga and clearing them out of Gerudo Town, the group then scare them off by awakening the giant Molduga that lived in the desert. With most of his forces having ran away in fear of the Molduga, Kohga is forced to face Urbosa and the others at his main camp, but despite his best efforts with his Yiga ninja magic, Kohga is defeated and cornered by Link and Urbosa. Before they can either take him into custody or execute him, his elite second-in-command Blademaster, Sooga, arrives to rescue him and make their getaway. Meeting up at Divine Beast Vah Naboris, Urbosa explains the situation with the Yiga Clan to Zelda and the others, before agreeing to pilot Vah Naboris to put an end to their troublemaking out of her loyalty to Zelda due to being good friends with her late mother, the Queen of Hyrule, offering any help to Zelda if she needs it due to being a mother figure to her after the Queen passed.

Meanwhile, in their hideout, Kohga and Sooga meet with their ally, who after voicing his disappointment in them, turns his attention to his harbinger of Calamity Ganon, revealed to be the very same guardian Revali referred to earlier, who offers the robed figure a vision of the dark future of Calamity Ganon's rule over Hyrule, as the figure refuses to let anyone, or anything, alter Hyrule's fate for the better.

Gameplay
Like the previous Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity mixes the hack and slash gameplay of Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series of video games with settings, characters, and other elements from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. In addition to retaining the combat, material crafting, and weapon-upgrade systems from Hyrule Warriors, the game incorporates environmental puzzle solving and the use of the Sheikah Slate tool from Breath of the Wild. Confirmed playable characters include Link, Princess Zelda, the Four Champions – Daruk, Mipha, Revali, and Urbosa – and the Sheikah warrior, Impa. The game features compatibility with Nintendo's amiibo figures, with figures of the Four Champions having been re-released alongside the game.

Compared to Breath of the Wild, the game is not completely open world but still rewards the player for completing missions and side quests in specific areas of Hyrule. The weapon durability system is also removed (in the original Breath of the Wild, all weapons except the Master Sword were breakable, and even that had a durability mechanic in the form of charges). Also, compared to the previous Hyrule Warriors, the Badge and Fairy systems are also removed, with quests now giving the rewards of added combos and Hearts. Battlefields are redesigned similar to One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 to have a more naturalistic feel and less of an emphasis on securing strongholds and regular bases like its predecessor.

Many of the game's features are returning mechanics either from Breath of the Wild or Hyrule Warriors. Food can be cooked before every battle to provide a boost that lasts as long as that conflict. The recipes are mostly the same from BotW, with similar effects. Although weapons no longer degrade, they can be fused together like in HW, increasing their might and passing on useful skills that increase combat ability. Both of these resources thrive off of the materials available from the battles, which are the same goods found in BotW.

Modes
All of the modes of Age of Calamity are contained on one world map of Hyrule, which is exactly like the map from BotW. There are, however, several different functions offered on this shared map.


 * Story Mode - consists of seven chapters and 20 battles. They tell the story of how Hyrule prepared for and fought Calamity Ganon. This story follows a parallel timeline to the one from BotW, with a different ending then what was seen in the other game.
 * Challenges - These are typically shorter battles with special stipulations, like time limits, character limits, or extra objectives to fulfill. They are similar to the Adventure mode from Hyrule Warriors, but more manageable compared to Hyrule Warriors complete edition's full collection of maps.
 * Quests - These are static events that the player while playing the story mode. They provide increased comboes, extra heart containers, etc. at the cost of their requested materials. Completing enough of these in areas of the map earns large rewards of rare materials.
 * Services - They are locations on the map that sell goods, train characters' level (up to the highest leveled character the player possesses), dye clothing, upgrade and smith weapons, and test out combos on a neutral battle map. They are unlocked and upgraded as the story progresses, including permanent discounts. The merchant shops are all travelling, so they only have a chance to spawn between battles at the different stables unlocked.

Development
The game was revealed via a trailer that was released on September 8, 2020, presented by Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi. The game features the same art assets as Breath of the Wild, but uses the more combat-focused gameplay style of the previous Hyrule Warriors game. More info was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show on September 26.

According to Hayashi, the game came into reality when Aonuma approached him to make a new Hyrule Warriors game about the events of the Great Calamity, which were never properly shown in Breath of the Wild. Aonuma felt that the battles would complement well with the style of a Warriors game. Nintendo's Zelda developers worked more closely with the development team at Koei Tecmo than on Hyrule Warriors, providing advisement and assistance on Age of Calamity 's gameplay direction, graphics, world, and dialogue.

Characters

 * Link
 * Impa
 * Zelda
 * Mipha
 * Daruk
 * Revali
 * Urbosa
 * Hestu
 * Sidon
 * Yunobo
 * Teba
 * Riju
 * Master Kohga
 * King Rhoam
 * Great Fairies
 * Maz Koshia
 * Terrako
 * Calamity Ganon

Non-Playable Characters

 * Purah
 * Robbie
 * Sooga
 * Astor
 * Harbinger Ganon

DLC-Unlockable Characters

 * Battle-Tested Guardian
 * Purah
 * Robbie
 * Sooga

Stages

 * Hyrule Field
 * Breach of Demise
 * Zora's Domain
 * Death Mountain
 * Tabantha Frontier
 * Gerudo Town
 * Hyrule Outpost
 * Great Hyrule Forest
 * Crenel Peak
 * Akkala Citadel
 * Yiga Clan Hideout
 * Damel Forest
 * Hyrule Castle
 * Lanayru Wetlands
 * Hyrule Ridge
 * Hateno Fort
 * Great Plateau
 * Hyrule Castle Town