- Format Wii U
- Developer Omega Force/Team Ninja
- Publisher Nintendo
- Released September 19th
- Rating PEGI 12
Zelda meets Dynasty Warriors. It was obviously going to raise a few sceptical eyebrows. Not everyone's keen on the Dynasty Warriors series. There's a lot of misinformation such as "you just go around pressing one button and kill loads of dudes". You definitely press at LEAST two. Storming the battlefield as feudal warriors, or Gundams, or overpowered gods, or Luffy the stretchy pirate from One Piece, it's not for everyone. Decimating thousands of foes, unleashing super-powered attacks, dashing back and forth between objectives, suddenly encountering Lu But. Sure, you can pass on that, right? Wait, why? It sounds awesome. And it is. I've always thought so, anyway.
I think some of the problem with the Dynasty Warriors series and its related spinoffs is that the games can be intimidating. The latest Dynasty Warriors game has over 80 playable characters for example, while the latest spinoff, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, has over 140. Joan of Arc's in that one too. But while these games can be a little intimidating to a newcomer, Hyrule Warriors isn't really like that. It's been designed with the Zelda audience in mind, as well as the Dynasty Warriors lot. As such, it is lower on content in some ways - there's nothing close to 140 characters, and the structure is a lot more linear and comprehensible.
Calling Hyrule Warriors a Zelda-themed Dynasty Warriors isn't entirely correct. A lot of effort's been made here to combine both series. The core concept's the same; you pick a hero, charge out onto the battlefield and complete a number of objectives that all revolve around capturing and defending keeps. Things are mixed up though by the inclusion of the familiar Zelda series items; bombs, boomerangs, bows and more. Rather than simply serving as sub-weapons (which they do also), the items are required to pass certain parts of the game, or to defeat certain enemies. Deku Babas, for example, can only be killed by being shot with the bow.
Then there are the bosses; huge, screen-filling monstrosities from the Zelda series, many of which require item usage in a way that'll leave Zelda fans nodding their heads in recognition and appreciation. King Dodongo, who shows up in the early game, has to be fed bombs in order to reach his weak point. A later boss requires a certain item to bring him crashing down to earth. It's all very familiar, yet feels totally fresh in this new form.
Once you're in control of a hero, you'll spend a lot of time tapping X and Y, performing regular and strong attacks and comboing them together. Combos and abilities can be upgraded via the bazaar, a between-missions method of boosting your character. Then there's the obvious things like dodging, guarding, locking on. Fairly standard hack and slash affair. Certain enemies (mainly the bosses) can't be taken down just by hacking away though; you have to weaken them using certain methods until a weak point gauge appears. Chipping away at them at this point damages them, and eventually when the gauge expires, your hero performs a cinematic finishing move.
To add to the arsenal, there's a Special meter which lets you unleash a weapon-specific decimating attack, which when timed right can clear dozens of enemies at once. Then there's the Focus Gauge; Hyrule Warriors' version of magic, which when activated powers up your attacks, and eventually culminates in a giant, destructive attack which can expose the weak point gauge of even the largest bosses.
While the game's low on characters compared to Dynasty Warriors games - unless there are some exceptionally well hidden that I haven't found, there's thirteen playable characters - it makes up for it in additional modes. Legend mode is the meat of the game; the story mode which has to be played through to unlock most of the characters, many of the weapon times, and all the stages. Then there's Free-Play mode, which lets you play any of the story missions with any character. Adventure mode is my personal favourite though; it takes the form of a tile-based map styled after the original Legend of Zelda, and each tile contains a different mission with a number of parameters and rewards.
One mission might let you unlock a heart container if you're playing as Impa for example, but also grant you an item no matter who you're playing as. The items; Zelda stalwarts like the compass, bombs etc are used here on the map screen; certain tiles require you to 'search' to unlock their secrets, or sometimes even to progress at all. It's a neat method that encourages stage replay without becoming tedious, mainly because the missions themselves are so exceptionally fun.
The objectives are pretty varied in Adventure mode. Some of them take the form of basic 'clear a map, defeat a boss' missions, or some task you with picking the correct enemy out of a line-up and only defeating that one while avoiding the others. There are missions that challenge you to kill X number of enemies within a time limit, or missions where every hit received deals massive damage, both to enemies and to yourself. Then there are boss rushes and all sorts. There's also an impromptu multiplayer mode, where if a friend happens to be playing the same section, you might see them in-game, and can team up with a 'ghost' of their character to reap greater rewards.
Every single aspect of Hyrule Warriors is great fun and utterly compelling. I've easily been losing hours at a time to it. Everything it tries to do, it pulls off with aplomb; there's not a single aspect I've disliked, or found to be a misstep. Charging onto Hyrule Field as Link, with the main theme kicking in, hundreds of enemies swarming you, is an unrivalled experience. It's hugely different to the first time you step out onto that very same field in, say, Ocarina of Time, but no less exhilirating. It may be a slightly unexpected direction for a Zelda release, but it is one that pays off.
No comments:
Post a Comment