Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity • Gaming • Switch • Eurogamer.net

Deleted user 12 September 2020 10:59:30

Might as well fight the spam with a new thread.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be released on November 20th 2020.

It's a Warriors game with a Zelda skin so fans of BOTW shouldn't get too excited. I expect it to be as button mashingly fun and janky as HRW.

A news update is due near the end of this month. Probably treehouse style stuff where they spend an hour going over features that should take 5 minutes to explain. Oh, and surely details of a season pass. Warriors games always have bucket loads of dlc.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/uDMWRRAEogs

Zelda HRW site: https://www.zelda.com/hyrule-warriors/

UK eshop: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Hyrule-Warriors-Age-of-Calamity-1838129.html

Edited by rice_sandwich at 11:00:23 12-09-2020

Derblington 12 Sep 2020 12:52:52 35,161 posts
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I’m super curious but it’ll have to wait until next year. Launching the day after Cyberpunk means there’s no chance for me for a while.

Malek86 12 Sep 2020 13:02:53 12,331 posts
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We're already in the Age of Calamity of the EG forums, this is hitting a bit too close to home.

nickthegun 12 Sep 2020 13:04:17 87,711 posts
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ZuluHero wrote:
Actually can't wait for this, loved Hyrule Warriors.

Same. I know I’m in a minority but I’m more interested in this than if it had been another mainline Zelda game.

Armoured_Bear 12 Sep 2020 16:40:05 31,233 posts
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I love the trailer, be great if the gameplay isn’t just pure DW mash-em-up.

Saul_Iscariot 12 Sep 2020 16:45:31 4,399 posts
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I enjoyed HW on the Wii U, much more than I expected too. I hadn’t played a Dynasty Warriors game before, so really didn’t know what to expect. But it was really cool, if somewhat easy.

Deleted user 12 September 2020 17:08:27

@Armoured_Bear

I fully expect a traditional style Warriors game but with nods to BOTW. Hopefully there will be quality of life improvements over HRW.

Deleted user 12 September 2020 17:10:50

@Saul_Iscariot

The Adventure maps on the Switch version can be pretty difficul as they really mix things up. It depends if you use an over levelled character respective to the level of challenge or not. Hero mode difficulty is no cakewalk in the main story.

Saul_Iscariot 12 Sep 2020 22:20:27 4,399 posts
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@rice_sandwich Cool. As I said I really liked the Wii U game. If the Switch game has a little more depth then I am all for it.

GloatingSwine 13 Sep 2020 10:30:09 3,916 posts
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The progression curve on the Switch version in Adventure mode is much shallower than on the Wii U version, because it has all the DLC built in from the start it ramps up the difficulty over all nine maps rather than just the one original one.

That means you'll be repeating the same missions a lot less often because you don't need to farm levels and materials for upgrades.

Plus you get Linkle, who is gloriously OP.

Deleted user 29 October 2020 08:01:17

Very negative first impressions on the demo for me. Although I'm warming to it quickly the more I play. Performance is a bit jankier than I had expected, although it's a Warriors game so the bar was not set too high in this respect.

So I kind of like what I see despite the rough ages and less than lovely looks in docked mode. I'm not sure about the elemental powers, they seem fiddly to activate.

Probably the main thing that makes it a buy / no buy is whether there's an extended adventure mode in the same vein as Hyrule Warriors. The campaign is fine but the real fun was in the adventure mode.

Mola_Ram 29 Oct 2020 08:06:12 26,187 posts
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Yeah the appeal of the original for me was the sheer amount of love they put into the Adventure Mode. Hopefully it can be replicated somehow in this one.

gamecat 29 Oct 2020 11:51:12 1,230 posts
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Replaying a bit of HRW before this, not got the demo yet, have they done anything with the battle messages being so delayed they are almost useless? And is the mini-map still really hard to decipher in handheld?

Deleted user 29 October 2020 12:24:09

@ZuluHero

I expect 2 player mode to be almost unplayable due to the frame rate.

Mola_Ram 29 Oct 2020 13:09:29 26,187 posts
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My issue so far, is that they've added so much stuff that it feels more complicated than it needs to be. It's nice that I can use the glyph things from BotW, and the hang-glider, but the combinations - Hold R and press this to use Cryonesis! Press and hold A after an aerial to do that! Absorb things with X! - kind of hurt my brain. I think Musou games are better when they're not bogged down with too many systems.

Deleted user 29 October 2020 13:39:50

@Mola_Ram

I agree. Selecting the bow, boomarang etc. in HRW was enough of a faff and that was only a couple of buttons. I always found that I had to stand still at less than ideal times in order to select special weapons in HRW. Calamity looks far more fiddly.

Duffking 29 Oct 2020 17:20:49 16,964 posts
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Enjoyed the demo, performance is a bit iffy but hopefully will be better for the final release, demons are usually several months old code by default.

Malek86 29 Oct 2020 17:49:47 12,331 posts
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Performance isn't too bad in handheld mode. A bit ropey, but no big issues.

In docked mode though... wtf is going on? It looks like it should be 60fps except it's hitching heavily all the time. Not very playable if you ask me.

minky-kong 29 Oct 2020 19:26:30 14,787 posts
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Enjoyed the demo, so assuming the full version reviews well I'll probably get this for Christmas.

grassyknoll 31 Oct 2020 14:48:46 754 posts
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I genuinely feel like it's a constant 20fps all the time. It feels absolutely awful to control. I'm so so disappointed.

DakeyrasUK 31 Oct 2020 15:35:47 5,311 posts
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Yeah I had no issues with the frame rate on this (I played solely in docked mode).

mumtoucher 31 Oct 2020 16:12:04 805 posts
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No bother here either With framerate, I really enjoyed it, can’t wait for 20th - this has gone from a maybe to a must buy for me now.

ghearoid 31 Oct 2020 16:24:59 3,758 posts
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I've been playing the demo again and haven't had an issue with frame rates. I've noticed some pop-in with background trees but that's it. Nothing spoiling my fun. Getting it day one!

gamingdave 9 Nov 2020 15:00:11 5,087 posts
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Downloaded the demo at the weekend and have been enjoying it, quiet a generous demo too with the ability to replay the levels once powered up a bit.

Coming into the DW series cold I had no real expectations, and whilst the combat felt a bit button mashing at first, now I have the abilities unlocked I'm finding there is decent depth in the combat system with each character demanding a different play style. I like the way it ties into BotW too.

Performance at times does seem to be poor, though is inconsistent in what causes the slow down. Hopefully that will be improved before launch.

2-player is a nice touch too and had a lot of fun playing with my boy, but the performance takes another dive and at times the resolution was really suffering.

Lots of fun to be had though and definitely think this is on the xmas list now.

mrcrumley 9 Nov 2020 21:31:36 630 posts
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Had a bash, docked, and enjoyed it. Didn't really notice any frame rate issues tbh.

Deleted user 19 November 2020 08:39:15

So the EG review gave the game a 'recommended' and suggests that the frame rate isnt' quite as bad as the demo, although it is still janky (to be expected with a warriors game). I might get this for an xmas present so I won't be jumping in on day one. I still have loads of HRW left to finish so I suppose I'm in no hurry.

This is the stand out paragraph for me:

quote from review:

Beneath all that, though, this is still a musou game - something that will either make you run a mile or hungrily contemplate hundreds of hours spent in its company. I lean more towards the latter camp, and the soothing nature of a good musou feels like the perfect salve right now. It's nothing more complex than managing a small mob of characters you've levelled and tooled up yourself across packed, self-contained and in this instance expansive battlefields, sending thousands of enemies skywards. It's about as therapeutic as it gets, the video game equivalent of popping bubble wrap and a power fantasy delivered in a laid-back fashion - complemented here by outrageously entertaining interludes where you control the divine beasts and wreck an even more overstated brand of havoc on entire armies. If it's simple satisfaction you're after, wrapped up in the warm blanket of a much-loved game, Age of Calamity delivers and then some.

Tricky 19 Nov 2020 09:58:32 5,088 posts
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Yeah it's on the Christmas list for my youngest after he couldn't stop playing the demo. I might dabble too if I'm bored with XSX/PS5 games by then.