Games I Beat: Hyrule Warriors

Hyrule Warriors
Musou (Kill 'Em All Simulator)
1-2 Players (Local only)
System: Wii U
Developer: Omega Force/Ninja Theory
Year of Release: 2014
Beat Legends Mode: September 29th, 2014

So immediately following losing a month to DCUO I decided to really give Dragon's Dogma a serious go and it was splendid. Sadly Hyrule Warriors decided to come out and I ended up devoting all my time to that. Hopefully I'll write about Dragon's Dogma sometime (splendid game and all), but going simply off the title of this entry I don't think that's what I'm here to talk about today.

Hyrule Warriors is the out of left field marriage of the Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors series. From the get go I was actually pretty hopeful. I've never seriously played a Dynasty Warrior and while my limited experience felt repetitive, the coat of Hylian paint made it seem much more inviting to someone like myself already heavily invested in the Zelda series. Based on gameplay footage I assumed this was much more of a Dynasty Warrior game than a Zelda, and honestly I don't mind it at all. It does get repetitive, no doubt about it, but the different characters and weapons feel varied enough to make playing through it mostly enjoyable.

The game offers, more or less, two modes of play Legends and Adventure. Legends mode is the story, and while its of decent length I'm let down they didn't have a separate story for the heroes and villains at the very least. Adventure mode has a recreation of the first Zelda's map and each square has a different challenge with a variety of awards. I recommend playing through Legends first as progress there unlocks more squares in Adventure mode, but I ended up switching back and forth to earn certain upgrades.

I'll level with you, Legends comes across as almost "fan-fic-y" at times. Skip this if you care, but the story is shallow and nothing truly shocking happens. The sorceress Cia, who apparently watches over the time stream, decides she's fallen in love with Link the repeating hero throughout the ages, but he won't have any of it. So instead she decides to kill Link. It's eventually revealed that Ganondorf is possessing her and he's the true evil using her to acquire the triforce as per usual. Ultimately the Master Sword is powered by the friendship of your companions (no really they went there) and eventually you beat down Ganon (sans the dorf) himself. There is a short section where you play as Ganondorf rising to power, and while it plays like the rest of the game, I couldn't help but feel like a real badass doing so.

I have some minor issues with the plot, but ultimately it doesn't matter. Running around killing and maiming is what we all came here for and the game delivers in spades. The combo system couldn't be any simpler. You've got a weak attack and a strong attack it boils down to each combo essentially being more weak hits before a strong hit. It's simple but it honestly works really well. The animations for each character/weapon is usually nice and figuring out which attack to use when is honestly a really fun experience. When you finally get that perfect dance of death down it feels awesome murdering swathes of people. I really hope I didn't get put on some watch list for that comment... Eep.

In the end Adventure mode really is the main draw. After dumping hours of time into it there are still several challenge I've yet to beat, or at least not do well enough in to get a weapon. Sometimes by a mere few minutes, and let me tell you first hand. That shit is irritating. Sometimes it's my fault and when it is that's fine, but honestly missing by a few seconds just because a single player cannot traverse the maps in time to wreck devastating murder upon the unwitting moblins is just cheap feeling. There were more than a few times where I yelled a stream of obscenities for barely missing that A-Rank. Protip: 1200 kills, under 15 minutes, lose less than ten hearts, these are general rules for missions. I've found harder ones tend to be more lenient, at least as far as time and damage are concerned.

Altogether, Hyrule Warriors is an experiment I feel paid off well. Zelda's never had many spin offs and there's really no reason for that. I'm glad Nintendo is allowing some more interesting and new takes on their series, even if it happens to be by combining it with one of the simplest actions series around. I haven't touched the DLC yet, but there is a decent amount that already almost doubles the amount of content. I'll pick it up someday and may even write about it. Seriously if Skull Kid becomes a playable character how could I not?

Hyrule Warriors is worth a look, unless you hate both the universe of Zelda and the gameplay of Warriors. It can be a little simple, but honestly any die hard Zelda fan will find a lot to love. Likewise any diehard Warriors fan who has even a passing interest in Zelda will probably enjoy devoting some time to this game. I mean, maybe wait for a sale, but it's Nintendo, when do those games go on sale? *sad laughter*