Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Switch 2) Review

The Imprisoning War, a significant event deeply rooted in the Legend of Zelda timeline, has long been a subject that I have wanted Nintendo to explore in full. Originally serving as the backstory for my favourite game, A Link to the Past, the Imprisoning War reared its head once again in Tears of the Kingdom. However, this Imprisoning War is a separate story to the events that transpired before A Link to the Past, thanks to the complexities around the Legend of Zelda’s chronology.

Those familiar with Tears of the Kingdom would know that much of the game’s narrative is set in the distant past, during Hyrule’s founding years. Zelda finds herself sent back in time early on in Tears of the Kingdom, and as Link collects Dragon Tears, pieces together key events in Zelda’s time by experiencing memories through the eyes of Zelda herself. Age of Imprisonment’s main purpose as a side entry in the series is to fill in the blanks between those memories, significantly expanding these memories into a full, coherent story.

What I enjoyed about the narrative in Age of Imprisonment is that unlike the first two Hyrule Warriors games, this game provides a canonical insight into the lore of Tears of the Kingdom. It successfully fills in many gaps and answers lingering questions left behind. As important as the Zelda timeline is to many, offering an official way to build upon the already excellent mythos of Tears of the Kingdom is a joy to experience. I am not going to touch on anything specific in the narrative, but I will say that it takes up a significant chunk of the game, and it’s clear that the game was built with the narrative in mind, rather than created for the gameplay.

Gameplay draws heavily from Tears of the Kingdom’s mechanics, and successfully weaves these systems into a Musou-like combat framework. Drawing on both Zonai devices and fusing mechanics, characters feel like they have a tonne more depth to their combat systems than in past games. Being able to swap in a Frost Emitter to freeze enemies walking through a shallow pond, followed by throwing a Time Bomb to cause massive amounts of damage is just one of many ways you can utilise more than just simple combo chains.

Getting into the depth of the combat system becomes more apparent in the higher difficulty levels. On Easy Mode, you can button-mash your way to victory, however on Normal and Hard modes, things become more tactical, with character positioning and timing becoming a key focus of every battle.

Every character feels genuinely unique to play as. There is a surprisingly deep roster of playable characters who play a pivotal role in the game despite Tears of the Kingdom only showing a handful of characters in the past. Many original characters created for the purpose of the game are genuine highlights and fit right in with the Zelda universe, with some providing a serious tone alongside Rauru and Zelda, and others providing some classic Zelda-like comic relief. The opportunity to explore the four champions of the past is also a highlight.

Every character can come together to perform a Sync Strike. Once two characters build up a meter to full capacity, a hit of the L button while they’re together launches an attack that brings the best of both character’s attacks together. These attacks aren’t simply another form of special attack. Once initiated, one of the characters begin a large-scale attack that requires input from the player.

Whether this is aiming the attack or mashing a button repeatedly, these attacks only go as well as the player allows them to. Once the first character finishes their attack, it is then seamlessly followed up by the second character, with their own controlled attack. Done well enough, these can cause devastating damage to the opponent. It was a lot of fun to experiment how different characters’ sync strikes work with other characters.

There is a nice break up of gameplay elements present throughout the main campaign. Even in the early stages of the main campaign, I’ve experienced main quests that involve taking over several forts before taking to the skies as a completely different character to track down a boss entity, then leading into an intense boss battle back on the ground. Some stages will take about 15-20 minutes, while others come with a warning about the commitment needed for the level, taking upwards of 40-45 minutes to complete.

The move to Switch 2 pays off the moment you turn the game on. Frame-rates are consistently at 60fps, and my tests of split screen action clocks in at a steady 30fps. This is good news considering Age of Calamity on previous Switch hardware struggled in two-player mode. There is a significantly improved draw distance, and the resolution bump allows Hyrule to shine on larger screen televisions. I was unable to attempt Game Share during my time with the game, but I do want to highlight that it is there for those wanting to experience two players with two full screen experiences.

The audio is wonderfully crafted to match the game as well. Spending some time near the Rito land of Tabantha Frontier replays a reorchestrated mix of Dragon Roost Island from Wind Waker, while other areas play soft piano music during quiet periods, before hitting more rapid, louder notes when danger nears. Especially for a Musou title, there has been a high level of attention to detail in the audio department, and adds real atmosphere to each battle.

Throughout the game, rupees and materials can be collected to upgrade weapons, enhance Zonai devices, and strengthen characters. There are also mini ‘aside quests’ that you can perform with your character mid-battle to gain more materials as well. As you collect materials, you can fulfil requests from the denizens of Hyrule. Fulfilling requests leads to getting larger combos and more hearts for characters, as well as other boosts that only serve to build your roster into an unstoppable force.

This does bring me to my only real criticism of the game. The mini side-quests that are present in the game play similarly to how Age of Calamity handled side-quests; offering small, bite-sized missions that last around five minutes or so. I thoroughly enjoyed these small distractions; however, others might find them a bit repetitive, particularly around grinding for certain materials.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment builds upon what made its predecessors so appealing. Koei Tecmo have clearly worked very closely with the mainline Zelda team to create an authentic, canonically significant adventure that ties in perfectly with Tears of the Kingdom. Despite some repetition around side-quests and minor grind, Age of Imprisonment explodes onto the Musou scene and sets a new standard for the hack ‘n slash genre. Zelda fans and Musou fans alike will find a lot to love in Age of Imprisonment.

Rating: 4.5/5