And now, for my next trick, I will write about one video game while listening to the music from another.
I don’t normally do demos. I don’t really have the time to spend playing video games as I used to, so my gaming nowadays tends to involve games that I know are going to move and inspire me. I’ll poke at something new every so often, typically depending on word of mouth and recommendations from friends and family. And I daresay 90% of my gaming comes from established franchises in and around the genre of Role-Playing Games, most notably the Final Fantasy series of games and—my personal favorite—the Legend of Zelda series.
It is from the latter that a new game is being released later this month. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is both a follow-up to the Wii-U / Switch game Hyrule Warriors and a prequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The first of these is a hack-and-slash game very much in the style of the Dynasty Warriors games, themselves a series I enjoyed for many years, especially while in college. It’s amazing how much I actually learned about Chinese history just from playing those. As for Breath of the Wild, I could probably spend an entire diatribe just talking about my emotional investment there.
Age of Calamity falls into an odd space between the two. Or rather, it will once it is released on November 20. There is a playable demo available on the Switch, one that comes with the promise of being able to transfer any progress made in it over to the full game. I probably would have considered playing the free demo anyway, but when I heard that, I was sold.
And… I enjoyed the heck out of it. If Hyrule Warriors is Dynasty Warriors with Legend of Zelda elements, Age of Calamity is actually a blend of Hyrule Warriors and Breath of the Wild. It actually plays like a hybrid of the two, not just a hack-and-slash-in-Hyrule game. The TLDR is, the player controls one of a small number of heroes, guiding one army in battle with another. There are set events, heroes on both sides, items to collect across sprawling battle fields, and the opportunity to level up both characters and equipment. Success in these sorts of games comes not only from being a superior fighter in one-on-one combat, but from understanding the flow of battle between two large groups fighting on a dozen fronts simultaneously, and knowing when and where the tide of battle depends on heroic intervention.
This was (and still is, I assume) how the Dynasty Warriors games are played. And this is how Hyrule Warriors unfolds. But Age of Calamity integrates an immersive storyline based on events taking place 100 years prior to the start of Breath of the Wild. There are cut scenes and cinematic events, voice actors, and a world map taken straight out of the modern iteration of the Kingdom of Hyrule. There are even some long-lived characters appearing in both games, giving the player a chance to learn some of their background story. And while the epic battles are still there, Age of Calamity also boasts item collections, forging, cooking and side quests very much in line with Breath of the Wild. And this is all from a “simple” demo.
There is also a dramatic difference in fighting styles. I always found the majority of characters in the Dynasty Warriors games to be similar in play style, just with different combos and weapons. Hyrule Warriors diversified this a bit (to be expected, given the diversity of characters within it). But in Age of Calamity, the three playable characters felt completely different from one another, sometimes to the point that I felt as though I was playing a completely different game with them. I ended up defaulting to the character who felt most like previous games in this line, but once the full version comes out, I am looking forward to experimenting and finding a new way to play.
Overall, I was amazed by what was “supposed” to be a short demo. It took me hours of playtime to reach its end, and I still feel as though I could go back and discover new angles and elements. I may still do so, especially knowing that any extra grinding or item accumulation I pull off will benefit me in the full game. I was expecting Hyrule Warriors part 2, and instead I found myself right back in Breath of the Wild territory, tears in my eyes and goosebumps on my arms as old favorites reintroduced themselves to me.
It’s not Breath of the Wild 2, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is certainly looking like it will be a worthy bearer of the Hylian royal crest.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Demo: 9 / 10
Written while listening to the Soundtrack of Final Fantasy IX (2000), composed by Nobuo Uematsu.
The Artist and the Engineer 