Hyrule Warriors Legends
Musou (Kill 'Em All Simulator)
1 Player
System: 3DS
Developer: Omega Force/Ninja Theory
Year of Release: 2016
Beat Legends Mode: November 5th, 2016
I've hardly been able to use this, my favorite of all titles! Over two years ago now (wow!) I beat, and wrote about, Hyrule Warriors. I didn't think it reinvented the wheel or anything, but it never set out to do that. It brought fast and frantic, if simple, gameplay to the Wii U in the universe of Zelda. And it was, honestly, a ton of fun. Since then not only has a great deal of DLC been released, but a remake on 3DS has come out as well. Does that conversion worry anyone else?
First and foremost, if you have any inkling to get this game you'll want a New 3DS. I happened to have picked one up prior to buying Legends, but just look up some videos to see the difference. It's technically playable on the original 3DS models, but, eh. The other immediate concern is the huge hit to graphic fidelity. I'm pretty vocal about how little graphics matter to me, but Hyrule Warriors on Wii U is a damn fine looking game. The switch to 3DS is a little jarring, but it looks fine enough. You can transfer all the new characters and weapons to the Wii U to see them in their full glory at least. Finally, my last major caveat... You can't transfer Wii U progress into the 3DS version. This is what took me so long to beat Legends. Slowly plucking away at it, usually when new DLC came out, until I finally got through all the old material and finally got into the new story bits.
I didn't mean to front load this with negativity, but these are three fairly big problems that really rubbed me the wrong way (I'm still playing though, so clearly they aren't so bad). Anyone looking to get into Legends should keep the above in mind though. It does bring many improvements to the game as well! There's a lot of new content to play through, but before I get into that I want to talk about a few key changes that really breath new life into Hyrule Warriors.
Instead of being forced to play as one character, as in the Wii U version, you can switch between various playable characters, depending on the mission. This is an amazing addition. It might have been done to make up for the loss of cooperative play, but it winds up being even more useful. By clicking on the map you can tell characters where to go on the map, now the AI controlled characters are horrible and hardly accomplish anything. Properly utilizing this feature allows you to jump across the entire map though. You can continue holding down the fort as you send another character to deal with a incoming horde, and as they cut them off take control and wreck them without losing too much ground back in the home base. In adventure mode it's even more useful as you can bring Link along who tends to be much more powerful than other characters, while still making sure to have the right characters for item unlocks. Essentially, you can just use overpowered characters to help pick up collectibles for other characters that are weaker, or you just don't enjoy playing. This alone, for me, makes Legends worth looking into.
There are a few other minor changes. When characters gather around large boss enemies they're weaken the boss, while gaining helpful passive bonuses. On top of that, taking out boss weak point gauges seems to be much easier to accomplish overall. I don't know if this was done to accommodate the portable nature of the port, or if they just realized hacking away at the same enemy for twice as long isn't necessarily more interesting. Two new items were added, the hammer is used almost exclusively on the new Wind Waker map, and an ocarina. The ocarina is the other big game changer. This allows you to wake up owl statues around the map and freely warp between them by using the ocarina. Increasing the player's mobility is always a boon in my eye.
The two new Wind Waker focused maps are done much better than I expected. The first consists of three different islands that have bled into the world of Warriors. As such the map consists of a bit of the Forsaken Fortress, Dragon Roost and Windfall islands, linked by land bridges provided by the natural area these islands appeared on top of. I'm not explaining it very well, but once I realized what I was looking at I was very happy with it. The other is the amalgamation of the Wind and Earth Temples. It's neat. The downside being that these maps only show up in two story missions, and, I assume, only on the Great Sea's adventure maps. Shame, because I really like them.
Awkwardly I'm just going to mention My Fairy. They felt the need to include a weird little dress up fairy mode, that gives you, basically, a bomb to use in levels. I've literally never activated the ability though, so I'm not sure how it works. Different fairies exist for each element, and you can feed them food to power them up, and as you play the various adventure maps you'll unlock clothes to dress them up in. It's not a bad addition, just entirely pointless so far.
Prior to all the DLC releases for Legends they added in all the original DLC characters from the Wii U game, Cia, Volga, Wizzro, Twili Midna, Young Link and Tingle. I wrote about Hyrule Warriors before all this came out, but I did keep up with it on that platform as each pack came out. All of these characters have surprisingly different play styles. Cia has a really powerful stomp ability, and can summon in dark links to attack for her. Volga attacks incredibly fast and hits hard. Wizzro is almost strictly long range and really fun once you get used to him. Young Link focuses heavily on magic use turning into Fierce Diety Link as long as he keeps the bar up. Tingle and Twili Midna interested me to a much lesser degree, but they're still fine additions.
Legends introduced a whole slew of new characters as well though, Linkle, the female version of Link, Tetra, Toon Link, the King of Red Lions and fucking Skull Kid finally. Linkle can be ridiculously strong with ridiculous range, very worthy of the title of "female Link". Toon Link plays like a sillier Link, Tetra utilizes her gun, a scimitar and water magic, and King of Red Lions beats people over the head with a sail before TURNING INTO A BOAT TO CRUSH THEM. I LOVE IT. Skull Kid is a little underwhelming in my experience, but they nailed him as a character perfectly. His movements and noises are great, and the fact that he attacks with Tatl, Tael and the fucking moon is just perfect. The also included Ganon's fucking Trident, which is something I was hoping for all along. Medli was released for free shortly after Legends came out, and while she's fine, she's another character I haven't put much time into playing as yet.
The Legends specific DLC has added even more weapons and playable characters, Marin, Toon Zelda, Ravio and Yuga with Boots for Linkle and the Sand Wand for Toon Link. Marin, Ravio and Yuga all do a fine job of representing their characters from their respective games. Toon Zelda though, oh man. When it was leaked that Toon Zelda was going to be added I was a little nervous, thankfully they did they best possible thing. In Spirit Tracks a ghostly visage of Zelda follows you around, and, on occasion, possesses a Darknut suit of armor. That is the playable character here. She isn't amazingly powerful, but I just adore the theme. As for weapons, the Boots are really kind of lame, Linkle's crossbows are just fantastic weapons and the Boots just look more mundane as well. But the Sand Wand is awesome. Sure, you can kick up some sand, but HOLY SHIT. You just summoned a train and knocked out a whole group of enemies with it. I was worried they wouldn't embrace the DS iterations so much, but they didn't shy away at all. My only gripe with the new characters is that we didn't see anything from Minish, or the Oracle games. Hopefully a sequel can fix that.
Aside from a massive slew of new adventure maps a new story for Linkle, and the Wind Waker characters can be found in Legends mode. Like the main quest it reads kind of like fan fiction, so while it isn't terribly compelling the game itself is still a joy to play. That's what it comes down to. They managed to fit a full console sized release into a tiny portable cartridge while only really sacrificing the graphical power of a Wii U. If the original, or other Dynasty Warriors games, don't appeal to you then you already know how to feel about this one.
While Hyrule Warriors Legends isn't going to change anyone's opinion about Hyrule Warriors, I found a ton of enjoyment hidden away in Legends. Taken as a whole though I do think Legends is the stronger overall package. It's a shame you can't transfer over the new adventure maps and costumes to the Wii U version, because I would much rather be playing that beautiful rendition. But there's something about Legends that compels me to continue making progress. It's really difficult to say which version you should pick up. Hyrule Warriors was a wonderful game, but Legends adds some really helpful mechanics. Who the fuck am I kidding? No one owns a Wii U (seriously guys, why not?), if the game looks interesting to you, and you can handle the wonky graphics, I definitely recommend picking up Legends. I honestly didn't think that would be my reaction to this game. Just make sure you've got that New 3DS.
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