Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: I Loved It, and I Feel Cheated

Image: Nintendo

This critique contains spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I had not played video games for 25 years.  Then came The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The Legend of Zelda premiered in 1986 as an eight-bit top-down style adventure game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  It involved an elf-like warrior named Link wandering through the land of Hyrule, seeking out eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda.  Critics lauded the game for its open world style of play, which took Link through mountains and forests in search of his objectives.  Over the decades, The Legend of Zelda would form a series with a cast of familiar characters and its own lore.    

Breath of the Wild (2017) set off an earthquake in the Zelda franchise.  It took the open world concept of the first Zelda and turned it into a 3D experience where Link could climb on nearly every surface and any point on the map, no matter how distant, could be visited and fully explored.  It gave the player unprecedented freedom to discover.  Much is made of the fact that Link can jump in this series,* but what brought me back to Zelda, to video games, is that Link could also FLY.

* Link was also able to jump in one of the earliest installments, The Adventures of Link.     

As in, he could climb to the top of the highest peak, jump off, and soar through the sky across long distances with the aid of his paraglider.  Before Breath of the Wild, I had little interest in video games.  I had played the original Zelda and the follow up installment, then hung up my NES because I (reasonably) did not want to spend my free hours playing games when I could be doing something more productive.  At most, I enjoyed scripted computer games like Telltale, where you did not need much skill or a new game system, but your choices were critical.  Yet the freedom promised by Breath of the Wild hovered before me like in an elixir during a particularly stressful period of my life.  Fuck it, I wanted to fly!  And so I purchased a Nintendo Switch console and the game.

Happily, Breath of the Wild delivered on its promise.  I spent hundreds of hours jumping off mountain tops and soaring, as well as solving puzzles, riding bears, shooting dragons, and upgrading outfits.  Oh, and there was also a story.  It begins with Link waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection after having nearly died one hundred years ago in a war against the demon beast, Calamity Ganon.  Link has lost all of his memories and needs to recover them in order to defeat Calamity Ganon once and for all.  Meanwhile, the land of Hyrule sits in ruin, infected by Calamity Ganon’s malice, and the only reason it is not worse is because Princess Zelda has been using her godlike power to keep Calamity Ganon contained within Hyrule Castle.  Yet her power is weakening, and she will eventually fail unless Link can destroy Ganon with “the sword that seals the darkness,” the Master Sword.

Despite these dire stakes, the main criticism directed at BOTW is that it does not have enough story.  That criticism is understandable.  The purpose of the game is that you have the freedom to go wherever you want.  You could ignore all story elements and go straight to Hyrule Castle to take on Ganon.  You could ignore King Rhoam’s advice to seek out Impa in Kakariko Village.  You could spend hours collecting Korok seeds or grinding for materials.  The story does not direct you — you discover the story, which exists in fragments all over Hyrule.  To some people, this makes for an unsatisfying experience with relatively low stakes.  I disagree.  Once you start to uncover the storyline, you realize that it is quite deep, and haunting.  

Years before Calamity Ganon struck, King Rhoam (King of Hyrule, Princess Zelda’s father) received a prophecy of its return, and that the only way to defeat it was to unearth advanced technology from 10,000 years ago designed by a people called the Sheikah.**  The King heeded the prophecy and over the years, several robotic relics called Guardians and four enormous animatrons called Divine Beasts were dug up from rock.  Meanwhile Zelda recruited pilots of the Divine Beasts — known as “Champions” — from the various races across Hyrule.  Zelda herself struggled unlock her godlike power to seal Ganon away for good, which caused her great distress, as well as resentment toward Link for being able to carry out his role as the knight who weilded the sword that sealed the darkness.  

** The Sheikah still exist in the series, with some (like Impa) loyal to the Kingdom of Hyrule, while others worshipped Ganon and called themselves the Yiga.

Zelda in Breath of the Wild.

Anyway, things went horribly wrong.  Ganon arose without warning and quickly corrupted both the Guardians and Divine Beasts with its malice.  The four Champions — Mipha, Urbosa, Daruk, and Revali — were killed by “blight” monsters made from Ganon’s malice, and their spirits remained trapped in the Divine Beasts.  Guardians roamed the land and caused unprecedented destruction, until not even Link could fend them off any longer.  He fell, gravely wounded, and Zelda’s sealing power awoke as she strove to protect him.  Then after placing the Master Sword back in its stone in Korok Forest, Zelda returned to a Hyrule Castle infested with Ganon malice and out-of-control Guardians to face Ganon alone.  Yes, alone.  And she succeeded at keeping Ganon contained for one hundred years.

That seems like more than enough story for one game.  However, another reasonable criticism is that while the story is good, it is merely backstory that the player does not get to experience, as most of it happened one hundred years before the events of BOTW.  Enter Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Age of Calamity is not an official Zelda game, but rather a sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors, which was developed by Koei Tecmo and featured a mishmash of characters from various Zelda titles and a non-canon storyline.  That Hyrule Warriors was an offshoot of Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series, which features hack and slash battles of “one versus one thousand” style of gameplay.  While Age of Calamity also features hack and slash gameplay, its overall product makes a strong argument that it is, in fact, a Zelda game.  It was developed in close partnership between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, features the same art style as BOTW, and even has the same voice actors.  Marketed as a prequel to BOTW, it places players in the time period of the Calamity, back before Hyrule was ravaged and decayed fragments were still recognizable as buildings.  The player gets to be involved in the intense battles that took place before and after Ganon reemerged.  

In the time between announcement and release, fans were thrilled at the thought of being able to finally witness the Calamity, even if it meant ultimately watching characters we cared about… die.  A game where battles ultimately resulted in losses, with one final ray of hope in the end, felt like a very mature and different sort of game.    Of course, anyone who has played Age of Calamity knows that's not what happened.  Rather than a direct prequel to BOTW, Age of Calamity is a “what if the Good Guys won?” scenario taking place in an alternate timeline.  The difference is marked right from the opening scene, where a small egg-like Guardian is awakened in Hyrule Castle by Zelda’s sealing power just as it emerges.  The Guardian somehow hears Zelda’s cry (from miles away near Fort Hateno) that she must protect everyone, and immediately creates a portal to go back in time.  However, just as the little Guardian is about to dive in, a corrupted Guardian shows up to kill it dead (how did it know?), and the little Guardian manages to escape and go back in time, followed by traces of malice from the corrupt Guardian.

From there, the changes to the existing storyline multiply.  Link, Zelda, and the other characters get access to super-powerful Sheikah runes and other tech that were not available to them in the original timeline.  They learn about the emergence of the Calamity before it happens and rush to stave it off.  Unexpected alliances are formed, and eventually all of Hyrule unites to take down Calamity Ganon once and for all.  This time, they actually succeed.

Zelda in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

If Age of Calamity asks the question “What would it take for the Good Guys to win?”, the answer seems to be “Multiple deux ex machinas.”  Even with the gift of foresight and souped up technology, the Good Guys cannot stop the Calamity from emerging.  The four Champions still become trapped in their Divine Beasts and are on the verge of defeat and death when the four latter-day Champions from BOTW — Sidon, Riju, Teba, and Yunobo — drop in through time portals created by the egg Guardian.  Without this last-minute intervention, the Champions would have suffered the same fate as in BOTW and, arguably, so would the rest of Hyrule.  

Age of Calamity is a blast to play.  I thought I would get bored with hack and slash gameplay, but after the first two missions, it gets very involving.  And the story, while different from what happens in BOTW, works well on its own terms.  I even became teary eyed when Link had to destroy Terrako (the egg) after it became infected with Ganon malice.

That said, like many BOTW fans, I can’t help but feel somewhat cheated.  Not only did we not get to experience the events that led to BOTW, but the ones that took their place were arguably less impactful.  And now we have questions about how or whether the alternate timeline will affect the BOTW timeline. 

Less Impactful: To begin, I think it is wrong to characterize the Age of Calamity as the only timeline where the Good Guys won.  The Good Guys also won in BOTW, but it took them far longer and cost them a lot more.  Some have described this storyline as the one where Zelda stopped doubting herself and became the leader she was always meant to be, but that also happened in BOTW.  She may not have given directions on a battlefield, but she sure did direct Link, Impa, and others from miles away in Hyrule Castle with her mind.

One of my biggest regrets is that we never got to play out BOTW Zelda’s confrontation with Ganon.  With the fate of Hyrule at stake, and nearly everyone she knew dead or gravely wounded, Zelda would have needed great courage to make the journey to and through Hyrule Castle.  Especially since she did not know whether her sacrifice would yield success, given the uncertainty of Link’s recovery.  I would have loved a scene at the Shrine of Resurrection where Zelda told Impa, Purah, and Robbie what she had to do.  Would they have understood, or begged her to stay behind?  Would they have given her some Sheikah tech to help battle the corrupted Guardians, Lynels, and Moblins she was sure to face?  We’ll never know.       

Age of Calamity’s Zelda seems weaker by comparison, both mentally and physically.  With a full army and the might of the Divine Beasts behind her, she freaks out when a Blood Moon means that they’ll have to spend a little more time killing monsters before entering Hyrule Castle.  Imagine her reaction if she learned that her counterpart waited one hundred years before the final battle.  

Moreover, her sealing power does not seem as strong.  Some have claimed it is because the monsters in Age of Calamity are stronger due to the BOTW malice intermingling with the existing malice, but I don’t know if that’s confirmed.  Even if it were, I don’t believe that the monsters, blights, or Ganon are stronger than they were in BOTW.  Regardless, Age of Calamity presents a situation where Zelda is battling Calamity Ganon with Link and the Champions, yet cannot muster enough power to dent Ganon, let alone contain him, until the egg sacrifices its life to weaken Ganon somehow.     

And speaking of less impactful, let’s look at Zelda’s relationship with Link.  In BOTW, Zelda started off resenting Link, then befriending him, then feeling love for him that awoke her sealing power just as his life was about to end.  In Age of Calamity, the central relationship is not between Zelda and Link, but rather Zelda and Terrako.  It is Terrako who repeatedly saves the day, and Terrako that Zelda cries over when she believes he/it could be dead.  This — and the foregrounding of other characters with bolder personalities — has the effect of sidelining Link, the “hero”.  As a result, when Zelda’s sealing power awakens — when Link is under threat from the blights — it is not clear whether she feels romantic love for him, or views him as a friend or brother.

That said, it is nice to see Zelda, for once, not defined by her relationship with Link.  Throughout most installments of the series, she was a background or endgame character whom Link had to free from Ganon.  Even in BOTW, she remained in the background, accessible only through memories of the past.  In Age of Calamity, the story is actually about her, and therefore showcases her relationship with a range of people, from Link to her father to Impa to Urbosa.          

Discrepancies.  Another issue raised by The Age of Calamity is how the alternate timeline could impact the BOTW timeline.  You might assume that the alternate timeline exists in order to prevent direct contradictions with the already established timeline.  Even so, there is a question of why certain characters, such as Astor, were created if the Zelda series did not intend to do anything more with them.  And if BOTW 2 continues the storyline of the first BOTW, could the latter-day Champions take what they learned in Age of Calamity and apply it to that game?

There are a number of tantalizing possibilities.  However, what I find problematic about the timeline split is how many implausibilities it took to create the split in the first place.  Zelda assembled Terrako when she was a child, and for several years it sat deactivated in the box in her study.  Her sealing power woke it, and then moments later, it travelled through the portal.  How, then, could it have gotten pictures of the Calamity’s destruction of Hyrule, including its infection of the Divine Beasts?  Some have suggested that it could have received those images from the malice that traveled with it through time, but the malice would have had to infect Terrako, which it did not do until late in the game.  Others have suggested that it was Zelda’s sealing power (and other psychic power) that not only gave Terrako information about the Calamity’s destruction, but also gave it the power to create portals.  That would make sense, but has not been confirmed in-game or by the creators.  It is also possible that Terrako could have made trips to other parts of Hyrule before going back in time.  Regardless, it is an annoying logical question mark that you have to gloss over in order to embrace the game’s premise.

The split also leads me to wonder why Zelda, Link, and company did not take some actions in BOTW that they took in Hyrule Warriors.  By the second-to-last memory in BOTW, Zelda is aware that the Divine Beasts were corrupted.  Yet as far as I know from Creating a Champion, Zelda and Link never attempted to rescue the Champions.  Maybe it was because they were positioned too far away, whereas in Age of Calamity, they were conveniently positioned close together in preparation for a strike.  

Another question is why the Yiga Clan never turned against Calamity Ganon in BOTW.  From Age of Calamity, it is clear that resurrected Ganon was created partly from the life-force of Yiga Clan members.  If this was likewise the case in BOTW, shouldn’t that Master Kohga have also turned against Ganon?  Or are we to assume BOTW’s Calamity Ganon arose spontaneously, with no sacrifices needed?     

Gameplay Odds and Ends.  What I find amusing about the Age of Calamity timeline is that much is made of the Divine Beasts, yet in the final battle, they do not matter at all.  When the humanoid Calamity Ganon first rises, and Zelda despairs that no one is able to touch it, I thought: “I’ll bet the Divine Beasts could.”  Wasn’t that the purpose of having them right there in Hyrule Field?  (Never mind that that seems like a tactical blunder — the four Beasts could easily access the Castle from the far corners of Hyrule, and would have been less vulnerable to attacks by hoards of Guardians and monsters.)  Yet after the initial blast of energy — the effects of which are promptly undone by a blood moon — the Divine Beasts are never used again, even though they are capable of destroying thousands of enemies in minutes.  By contrast, the BOTW Divine Beasts cut Ganon’s strength in half before the battle began.

That brings me to another point: I don’t think the blights or monsters are any stronger in Age of Calamity than they are in BOTW.  They may look much cooler, but they are not tougher to defeat.  Take, for instance, a Lynel: Age of Calamity provides elemental Lynels as well as your standard red/blue/white/silver variety.  Yet that does not make them stronger, but weaker.  All Lynels in Age of Calamity are vulnerable to ice, fire, and electrical strikes, especially the elemental Lynels.  They are also vulnerable to damage dealt by the Sheikah runes.  By contrast, the BOTW Lynels can still deliver elemental strikes (as each carries a bow with elemental arrows) while being impervious to damage from elemental weapons.  Damage from a Sheikah bomb is like a scratch.

Similarly, the four blights are not as tough as their BOTW counterparts.  Age of Calamity Thunderblight Ganon does not cause metal spikes to rain down from overhead that it then explodes.  Waterblight Ganon does not turn the floor into an ocean or hurl multiple ice blocks at your head.  Windblight does not deliver powerful strikes from a distance that makes it difficult to strike back.  Fireblight… well Fireblight is easy to defeat in both games.  As for Age of Calamity’s Ganon, it initially seems more powerful, but is actually easier in some key ways.  You can deal real damage to this Ganon with Sheikah bombs, whereas BOTW Ganon is barely damaged by bomb arrows from a three-shot bow, which are much more powerful.  Moreover, BOTW Ganon gets a shield in the second stage that you cannot break unless you make the right tactical moves.  It is easy to talk about how basic BOTW Ganon is now that we’ve studied its move set for three years, but initially — especially if you have to fight Ganon at full health — it is quite a fight.              

Conclusion.  Age of Calamity is worth buying and playing through.  You get to see certain characters as they looked when they were younger (Impa, Robbie) and how landmarks like Akkala Citadel and the Temple of Time looked before they were destroyed.  Yet as nice as it is to see the Good Guys score a decisive win, a part of me hurts to not be able to see the Calamity as it played out in the BOTW timeline.  There were tragic and heroic tales there that could have made for a satisfying game experience.  Unless BOTW 2 addresses them, the only way we will see them is through our imaginations.