Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have announced a new Zelda game today. While it might not be the Breath of the Wild 2 update you were hoping for, the new Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is set to explore the events that lead to the narrative told in Nintendo’s latest Legend of Zelda game. Head below the fold for a closer look at the brand new trailer along with some light gameplay footage and developer commentary that hit this morning.
New Zelda game — Age of Calamity:
The new Zelda game is a direct continuation of the Hyrule Warriors spin-off that initially launched on Wii U in 2014. It is essentially a mash-up of the long-running Dynasty Warriors series — a franchise known for putting the player up against hordes (hundreds or more) of enemies at once — and the Zelda franchise. While the previous Hyrule Warriors titles were indeed filled with Zelda references, characters, and conventions, Age of Calamity (as the name suggests) appears to be almost canonical in terms of its involvement as a prequel of sorts. It is set 100-years before the events of Breath of the Wild and will feature the Great Calamity. This world-changing event set the story of Breath of the Wild into action but we never really got to experience it first-hand like we will in the upcoming Hyrule Warriors title.
Massive-scale Zelda battles:
The debut announcement trailer for the new Zelda game starts out with a voice-over narration: “You are now ready to hear what happened 100-years ago.” While specific details on gameplay are hard to come by still, the story setup sounds like an interesting one and the game will, if the new trailer is any indication, feature Zelda and other favorites from Breath of the Wild along with various enemy types, and more. It appears, much like the previous Hyrule Warriors experiences, that many of the characters will be playable, not just Zelda and Link.
We catch a glimpse of the vibrantly colored Hyrule seen in BotW with what appears to be a very similar graphical touch — the characters, enemies, and game world look nearly identical to their BotW counterparts.
Continuing its recent trend of announcing games on Twitter with a debut trailer and a release date that’s right around the corner, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is coming November 20, 2020.
9to5Toys’ Take:
The main draw of the Dynasty Warrior games — and subsequently the Hyrule spin-offs — are the ridiculously massive battles. While we aren’t sure for certain, we did hear 1v1,000 mentioned briefly as part of today’s new Zelda game announcement. We never actually get a look at a battle quite that large in today’s footage, but you can bet on Age of Calamity continuing the trend of large scale wars. That, in combination with a direct narrative tie-in to Breath of the Wild, makes this Hyrule Warriors release even more relevant and interesting than ever.
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