“The Triforce is the harmonious union of Power, Wisdom, and Courage.”
…a hero clad in green would restore peace to the land.”
Warning: As always, here’s the complimentary “read at your own risk because there will be spoilers” message. With that, lets get down to business.
Overview: The land of Hyrule is facing dark times yet again by the hands of malevolent forces. Enemies of the Royal Hylian Family are on a quest to reconcile the 4 fragments of the Evil Spirit: Ganondorf. Once the Evil Spirit materializes, it will begin a quest to gather the fractions of the Triforce to rule the Land of Hyrule under a midst of evil and terror. It is up to Link and his allies to travel through perilous terrains and engage in tenacious battles to maintain the wicked forces at bay.
Sorceress Cia and the Triforce
Gameplay: Hyrule Warriors has the options of using the Wii U’s GamePad or any Wii U compatible controller. Personally, the Pad is a buzzkill if you’re a person who looks at the map in these types of open world games – the map so minuscule you can barely see entrances. Memorizing the controls is effortless. You may have a tough time memorizing the combo moves for each character, but that’s about it. There’s 4 difficulties: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Hero; and I have to say each of them live up to there names. Hero mode is NO JOKE – learn your dash and block. The game has Legend Mode, which is basically the story of the game. Adventure Mode deals with challenges you complete to obtain new, powerful weapons and characters. Lastly, Free Mode let’s you play any mission with any character unlocked. Hyrule Warriors not only promotes the importance of battling for the forces of light, but also engulfs the player on the other side of the battle field and get a taste of the darkness. Classic items like Bombs, Hookshot, Boomerang, and Potions are available. Hyrule Warriors is a level based game. This is where the Training Dojo comes in handy – where you can pay to level up characters. Blacksmith services are available to create custom weaponry. Weapons add attack power to your character and/or special skills (e.g., material droppings ratio increase) that take effect in the battle field. Some weapons have “locked skills” and you will have to meet certain requirements to “unlock” the skills. Normally, it is killing a certain amount of enemies with that specific weapon. There is also a Badge system which lets you gain new skills for each character by collecting specific material drops from your enemies. Characters also get combo moves and special attacks each unique to each character. Hyrule Warriors also supports 2 player mode, one uses the Pad while the other person gets the television screen, for every scenario.
The Cast
LouCyo’s reaction: Overall, Hyrule Warriors gets a 8.5. Just to get it out of the way: the GamePad-Map issue mentioned earlier in this post is totally warranted. It’s annoying. Apart from that, even though Hyrule Warriors is not a breakthrough game, it is a nice twist to the usual gameplay of all prior Zelda games. Especially by letting you take control over a plethora of characters which were always at a arm’s reach, but never accessible. Playing as anybody in the Hylian world but Link is actually exciting – refreshing in some way. Getting a chance to actually watch the abilities and celestial powers of well known characters like Zelda or Impa themselves is mind blowing. While we’re on the “classic icons” wagon, you’ll also get to see legendary enemies like Fire Breathing King Dodongo and Arthropod Cyclops Monster Gohma in a whole new light. Again, refreshing. Moreover, characters are not limited to one type of weapon. For example, not only is the Hero in Green skilled with blades, but also he masters the arts of magical rods and gauntlets.
One of the features I thoroughly enjoy is being able to play 2-player on this game without having to split the screen is a godsend. Oh, my how AMAZING it is to not be distracted by the other person!
Players have the choice to storm through the game while on Easy Mode and get to know the twists and turns of this new chapter of Hyrule’s history. After you “win,” there’s really nothing else to do but side quests. Side quests are the heart of this game, hands down. So, unless you’re an anal Gamer (like myself) and want to collect everything as if it was one of your major life’s goals, you will easily lose interest once you finish story mode. Without scenarios like the Gold Skulltulas hidden all over and Adventure Mode, the game lacks some luster. I do want to point out that Adventure mode is challenging. It is challenging as fuck. Don’t care how skilled you think you are, it is not easy. Especially when you get your new characters on level 1 and need to get a defeat 500 bosses on a level just to get a Piece of Heart. Also, good luck unlocking the Master Sowrd’s skill. I dare you.
What do YOU think about Hyrule Warriors? Am I judging it too harshly? Let me know!
See you around!
P.S. – A friendly warning: Cuccos are still a thing and, yes, they are still evil.
Lou-Cyo Reviews 