Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment becomes the next first‑party published game to maintain the cadence that has driven Nintendo Switch 2’s impressive launch‑year momentum. From tyre-screeching transcontinental rallies in Mario Kart World to recklessly pounding terrain in Donkey Kong Bananza or dunking hoops in Drag x Drive to Mega Evolving your favourite pocket monsters in Pokémon Legends Z-A, it’s felt like there’s been something for everyone – a sentiment that third-party support and some sensational indie games have only bolstered.
Even with the colourfully chaotic Kirby Air Riders and mystery-shrouded Metroid Prime 4: Beyond still to come within the next month, it was the chance to once again return to this Hyrule – ancient Hyrule, for that matter – which I have been eagerly anticipating. Is this first project from Koei Tecmo’s newly formed AAA Games Studio everything that I hoped it would be? In short, yes.
Where Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition went triumphantly all-in on fan service, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment bears more similarity to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in its structure and approach. Except this time around, you have the chance to witness Princess Zelda, King Rauru, Mineru, worldly Goron chief Agraston, skilled Zora queen Qia, quick-witted Rito leader Raphica, compassionate Gerudo leader Ardi, and other legendary warriors stand alongside the people of Hyrule to lead the fight to reclaim their homeland from Demon King Ganondorf’s tyrannical control.
Nintendo has pitched this as the “complete, true story” behind the Imprisoning War. It broadens what we already know about its fear-inducing events shown through fleeting memories in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which were unlocked by discovering Dragon Tears hidden in hillside-spanning Geoglyphs. Fear not, there’s no time-hopping miniature Guardian in sight. This is not a bait-and-switch like the criticism levelled at Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and there are more than enough revelations about the kingdom-spanning turmoil that Princess Zelda, King Rauru and their entourage had to courageously confront in the past.
Those who haven’t played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or managed to see the game through to its climactic conclusion needn’t worry, either. For me, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a two-way bridge. It’s another effort to encourage those who want nothing more than to dash around battlefields mindlessly slaughtering hordes of enemies to check out the mainline The Legend of Zelda games that they are tied to, but, in the other direction, to introduce those who have been transfixed by Link’s recent open-air adventures to the merciless hack-and-slash Musou action from the long-running Warriors series. To achieve that, it portrays the events that lead up to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom without the expectation that everyone has played it.
As with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the game’s content is steadily unlocked and accessed on a map of Hyrule. Conquering the main story-based battles pushes you through Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s several Chapters, rewarding you with new icons that litter this map. These could be for facilities like the Weapon Research Base, where you can strengthen each character’s armaments with Zonaite Steel, parting with hard-earned Rupees at Training Camps to level up a character, or purchasing rare materials from one of many Supply Depots.
There are also level-based Challenges to distract you, and Quests also return, requiring you to exchange materials to gain access to new facilities, receive discounts on their services, unlock the Material Sensor, or gain new abilities or bonus hearts to strengthen each character. The developer has also introduced “Aside Quests,” which, other than a peculiar name, offer combat-oriented challenges like exploiting enemy weaknesses, performing perfect dodges, unleashing special attacks, or defeating a specific enemy type. Their completion showers you with Rupees, Zonaite Steel, weapons and other materials, offering a trickle of rewards that are worthy of your focus to help strengthen your gathered allies.
Before heroically charging into battle to liberate Hyrule’s lands from the Demon King’s clutches, when making your preparations, you can choose to use your gathered camp supplies to cook a meal. These activate Camp Effects, your accumulated ingredients impacting Combat, Support or Special categories. The active effects available to you from the start increase the Special-Attack charge rate, boost the experience that your characters earn, or reduce the Unique Skill cooldown time, respectively. Complete specific Quests, and these can be changed to other active effects like dealing more damage with Zonai Devices, boosting the chance of extra materials dropping, or increasing your movement speed.
Stood on the battlefield, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment remains as accessible as these horde-destroying spin-offs ever have been. The regular attacks (Y Button) that your character performs can be comboed into a strong attack (X Button), with multiple button combinations resulting in differing concluding attacks. Princess Zelda quickly became a firm favourite, where, as an example, one combo (YYYYX) sees her swirl her Blade of Light around like a ribbon dance to devastating effect. Mineru’s summoning constructs and using Autobuild to combine Zonai devices for her attacks is another standout, too. While it becomes obvious which characters players will gravitate to more, there wasn’t, to me at least, a single character that I felt wasn’t a worthy addition to the roster.
You can continue to dodge (B Button) or guard (hold ZL Button) against incoming attacks, dodging at the last moment temporarily slowing down time to let you perform a Flurry Rush. Special Attacks (A Button) are also back, which you can unleash to rack up your kill count once their golden-coloured gauge is full.
Where Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment excels is in how it builds on what has come before. Each character has access to exclusive Unique Skills (hold R Button + Y, X, A or B Button), that, when correctly used to counter an attack from a powerful enemy, can make them immediately vulnerable. Whether an enemy is preparing to charge at you or perform a leaping attack, successfully reacting to these moments with the right counter repeatedly created some thrilling moments, especially in the game’s many boss confrontations. Their weak-point gauge suddenly exposed, I’d rush in to whittle it down before delivering a devastating blow to deplete a chunk of their health. You can tag team an ally in to deliver the countering blow, too, helping to make battles feel less like a one-character rampage.
Another clear success that elevates the game even further is how Zonai devices have been integrated. From setting enemies ablaze with a Flame Emitter, hurling a Time Bomb down a Frox’s throat or zipping around the battlefield on a Rocket, their inclusion further widens the strategic options at your disposal. Their use does deplete your energy gauge, which recharges automatically once it turns red, or you can recharge it instantly with a battery. While a playful addition early on, learning how to combine these or using them to expose elemental weaknesses can pack a punch. You can freeze an enemy with a Frost Emitter to then hurl a Time Bomb at them to deal major damage, for example, whereas enemies covered in Sludge will be hard to damage until you use a Hydrant to wash it away.
The devastation doesn’t end there, either. Fighting near an ally gradually fills a character’s sync gauge, which, when two characters are filled, allows them to perform a Sync Strikes. Every single character can perform these with each other, and, after a quick handclap or fist bump in keeping with “hands” as a major theme Nintendo had for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, their effects depend on which combination of characters team up. Qia temporarily imbues your attacks with water and increases your defence, for example, whereas Princess Zelda and King Rauru’s Sync Strike sees them unleash unrelenting beams of light, which you can direct with the control sticks. The gameplay mechanic encourages experimentation, and certain combinations, which I’d rather not spoil for you, are gloriously spectacular in the devastation that they leave behind.
Whether choosing to play docked in TV mode or curled up on the sofa in Handheld mode, I found the game’s technical performance to be stable, consistent and never detracted from the experience despite how many enemies are crammed on screen. I went back to play Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and was slightly startled at the leap in comparison, to the point that I hope there’s some chance the previous game could receive an update to perform better on Nintendo Switch 2. The soundtrack is incredible, too, a particular favourite being a Gerudo Valley remix that I could easily listen to on repeat all day.
With Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, AAA Games Studio has masterfully interwoven The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s playfully experimental gameplay systems with its own Musou pedigree. The plight surrounding the war for ancient Hyrule is endlessly captivating, and, while clearly most attractive to lore nerds like me for plugging the gaps in Nintendo’s original tale, the end result is a game that is a legend in its own right.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by Nintendo
