This review is of the Wii U version and all its DLC. The 3DS version and DLC are not taken into account.

Lately, the Nintendo Switch has been receiving many Wii U ports. Games like Mario Kart 8 and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze are getting second chances to succeed on the Switch. One title that would inevitably be ported was Hyrule Warriors. It came from a company infamous for rereleasing games, and had already been ported to the 3DS. So, when Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition was announced, it didn’t come as a surprise to anybody. The game won’t be out for another month, so what better way to prepare than to take a retrospective look at the original?

The Warriors series has always been known for crossovers. However, it wasn’t until Hyrule Warriors released in 2014 that a Nintendo IP got the Warriors treatment. Another major IP, Fire Emblem, would receive its own Warriors game, which was released in 2017. Evidently, these games have been successful, since KOEI Tecmo plans to bring Dynasty Warriors 8 to the Switch. What allowed Hyrule Warriors serve as the gateway for the Warriors series to enter the modern Nintendo market? Was it a truly good game that holds up in 2018, or was it just well timed?

The story of Hyrule Warriors mixes a plethora of Zelda characters from across the series with a new cast of characters made up for this title. The sorceress Cia watched over the world, until one day when she saw Link. She fell madly in love with him, despite his destiny to be with Zelda. Soon, the light in Cia leaves her soul as she succumbs to the corruption of Ganon. She uses her power to conjure up an army of darkness to attack Hyrule Castle. Zelda forsees this attack, and soon the military is mobilized in order to mount a defense.

This generation’s reincarnation of the hero Link is a trainee in Hyrule Castle when the castle finds itself under siege. This prompts him to abandon his normal duties and contribute to the fight. While Cia’s forces are subdued, the Princess goes missing, prompting Link and Impa to set out to find her. Soon, the two meet Sheik (Who could that be?) and Lana, whose backstory is intertwined with Cia’s (Elaboration would lead to massive spoilers). Soon, the quarter attempts to assault Cia and her two henchmen, Volga and Wizzro, as Cia begins rituals to revive Ganon. When the 4 meet Cia, she activates her trap: splitting up the group by sending them to different eras of history. This is where the crossover begins.

At this point on the story, everything has occurred to the current generation of Hyrule. Familiar names, such as Link, Zelda, and Impa do not pertain to the protagonists of other games. That all changes after this point in the story. The legendary heroes of Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword are brought forth to current time. The Darunia, Midna, Fi, etc. find themselves entangled in the mess of a war Cia created. This is just the beginning of the story, but anymore would be delving a bit too deep into spoilers.

Hyrule Warriors‘ story does a decent job piecing together an inherently illogical scenario. Some of the character’s choices were foolish and felt out of character, but it helps stitch together a bigger picture. The idea of summoning gates felt a bit out of place, but anything is possible in the world of Zelda. Most characters, of course, originate outside of Warriors, and don’t have too much development as a result. Considering that this is a game meant for fans of Zelda games, this is acceptable, and what is there is enough for those unfamiliar with the characters. The OC’s developed well throughout the story, which was imperative to their successful assimilation into the lore rich world of Hyrule. I felt sympathetic for Cia and Volga by the end of the story, as their story turned into a tragic fall. The story was certainly not the highlight of Hyrule Warriors, but it certainly fulfilled the duty of creating some explanation for the state of the world.

The Warriors series pioneered the Musou genre (After all, the name Musou came from the Warriors games). This genre is defined by the sheer amount of enemies and hack-and-slash gameplay. This is carried over in Hyrule Warriors. Most enemies are extremely weak and don’t contribute much to battle, but a few are threats to the player. These enemies carry out specific roles, such as being the captain of a keep, carrying a key, or weakening player controlled keeps. Of course, the player also has their own army, but the army is just as useful as the enemy’s. In Hyrule Warriors, the units, like everything else, are Zelda themed. Bokoblins are one of the primary enemies, with Moblins, Gibdos, and Stalfos as commanders. Different ranks of Hyruleans and Gorons fill Zelda’s army. Despite being a Warriors game with a Zelda skin, the soldiers were surprisingly well made. Every grunt in the waves of red and blue had very fine details, indicating the amount of work that went into the game. I was astonished when I saw enemies reference older Zelda game with their attack style, such as the Gibdo’s stun ability. Of course, the foot soldiers weren’t the only type of enemy. There were also many types of bosses. The majority of bosses were playable characters, including the villains. There were a few giant bosses scattered throughout the game. 5 iconic bosses, including King Dodongo and Argarok, were enemies at appropriate points in the story (Zant’s palace for Argarok and the world of OOT for Dodongo). These bosses definitely changed the gameplay, as they could easily steamroll through the player army. I wish there were more, so that other iconic Zelda bosses could change the gameplay of some of the repetitive levels. Even if it was just a cameo in Adventure mode, more bosses would have made Hyrule Warriors a bit less tedious to play for extended periods of time. Of course, stages have to be designed around the boss’ appearance, so I can forgive the lack of utilization. Hyrule Warriors is certainly not just a Warriors game with a Zelda skin, and the enemy/boss design corroborates this idea.

Of course, what good are enemies if you can’t fight them? Hyrule Warriors features 13 characters in the base game, with many more available through DLC and in the Legends edition. There are the obvious ones, such as Link, Zelda, and Lana, but there are also many villains (like Girahim) and rather odd choices like Agitha. Every character has at least one moveset, and no two characters feel alike. Each character has a unique weapon class, such as rapiers, tomes and staves. There are 3 levels of the class, with the 2nd and 3rd unlocked by completing a certain adventure mode level or through the story. Every weapon has a rarity ranging from 1 to 5 stars, which impacts how much power the weapon has. Weapons also have skill slots, which are randomly assigned (with a few exceptions) and add small effects to the weapon. Some skills require the weapon to kill a certain amount of enemies before the skill unlocks (though accelerating the process with rupees is always an option). Every weapon has a weak and strong attack, as well as many combos that lead to unique effects, such as arrows of light raining down from the heavens, or charging through the enemy lines. No combo feels the same, allowing the player to experiment and choose a weapon that fits their playstyle. However, these combos are not unlocked from the beginning. They, like many other things, are locked behind the badge system. This system allows characters to unlock new combos, more bottle storage, more special attack gauges, and many other essential powers. In exchange for a certain amount of rupees and materials, the skill will unlock. The materials are dropped from enemies after defeating them. Obviously, what drops is dependent on the enemy, though the rarities of the drops differ. Sometimes, a few extremely rare materials are required to unlock a skill. This is where one of my complaints come in. It can take hours just to unlock a single badge, despite the effects being obligatory for late game success. This means that I only used a few characters, since I could only gain enough rare materials to invest in them. I’d love to use niche characters more often, but because I don’t want to grind all the materials to give them more skills, I couldn’t use them effectively in the post game content. Luckily, the essentials, i.e. special gauges, combos, and bottles, were all easy to unlock, meaning that I could use most characters in mid-level content. Despite requiring a large amount of investment, Hyrule Warriors’ character system is generally well made and makes no 2 characters alike.

Hyrule Warriors’ battles imitate the Warriors series in every way. Every battle takes place on a stage, filled with many keeps, outposts, gates, and, of course, troops. The keep system is perhaps the most important concept in Hyrule Warriors, as almost everything is connected to it. Every keep is controlled by an army. In it, troops of the owner spawn for the defense of the keep. Every keep has a gauge, which can be depleted by defeating some of the aforementioned defenders. Once depleted, the keep boss will appear, and once they are defeated, the possession of the keep will switch to the attacker. In general, any closed gates in enemy keeps open up after they are conquered, allowing for an advance into enemy territory. Outposts are dotted in between keeps. Each has a captain (who is always out) and a few troops. Outposts fall much more quickly than keeps, but contribute to battle by putting a bit of pressure on enemies.

Considering that keeps don’t produce troops to aid the player’s assault, it can be easy to assume the keep system as superfluous, especially early on. However, this is the opposite of the truth. Keeps serve as buffer zones, giving the player more time to complete objective before the enemies overrun the main base. Remember, the majority of units are helpless, so once the player leaves an area, it will likely be overrun. When a squad of keep saboteurs are headed for the main base, the player must either defeat or delay them. By capturing the keeps around the main base, the player causes the saboteur to focus all efforts on the keeps around the base, but not the base itself. Most enemies act like this, prioritizing capturing individual keeps, even if it won’t contribute to the battle. Of course, the player’s army acts like this as well, so the player must capture keeps ahead of time if they want their army to move efficiently. It exemplifies the time management aspect of Hyrule Warriors. If the player wants to defeat a few bosses in the western portion of the map, they must weigh the costs and benefits of capturing a few bases in the east. Doing so will take time away from the western front, but will buy the player more time before the inevitable fall in the east. This kind of thinking is riddled throughout Hyrule Warriors, as maps become more complex and mistakes become more costly. Some Adventure Mode maps also have special effects that encourage the capturing of keeps. Many boss keeps cause harmful elemental effects on the player, which can only be dispersed with the corresponding elemental fairy. Said fairy is trapped in another keep, which must be captured to free her. Another effect comes in the form of enemy spawns. Some stages have buffed enemies that spawn in enemy controlled keeps. These enemies are nuisances, so capturing the keeps are essential for player victory. Finally, many keeps contain heart pieces and new weapons. Who doesn’t like more health?

Personally, I like the keep system the way it is. The importance of it is naturally learned as the game is played, instead of being dumped in one large tutorial. The keeps are simple enough to be a core concept, while having enough variables to stay fresh throughout the game. I think it would have been nice to select whether a portion of the keep troops should begin roaming, as some of the keeps saw no action in entire stages. It would have been better for those troops to spread out. Of course, this is a game about a war, and very few things are ever in your control during a war. The keep system manages to play a role in everything done in Hyrule Warriors, while not feeling too in-your-face.

Throughout this entire review, Adventure Mode has been referenced, yet never explained. Despite being a “secondary” mode, Adventure Mode holds most of the content in Hyrule Warriors. Set in a recreation of the original Legend Of Zelda‘s map, Adventure Mode contains new unlockable characters, weapons, heart containers, and Skulltulas. Starting off in the same place as Link in the original, players must complete the challenges on each tile. While these aren’t as long as the story maps, they are certainly much more strenuous. After clearing a stage, a rank from C to A is given. This score is based off of a set of 3 criteria: enemies killed, damage taken, and time taken. To get an A, all 3 parameters must be in the A range. Even if you got A in enemies killed and damage taken, if you took 15:01 to complete the stage as opposed to the 15:00 limit, it’s an instant B. I couldn’t care less about getting the heart pieces locked behind A, but many Lv. 3 weapons can only be unlocked by completing an extremely challenging stage with a perfect rank. This led to many stressful battles, as well as the dreaded grinding mentioned earlier. Want Agitha’s final weapon? Unless you’ve investing hours leveling her badges and level up, you probably won’t get it. However, the challenge just made it all the more satisfying to complete the mission with the coveted A. To progress, a certain rank must be obtained to go either left, right, up, or down of the challenge. Of course, the specific rank depends on the stage. There is a reward for unlocking every weapon, but I won’t spoil it here (Rest assured, it makes the hours lost on the hardest stages worth it).

One of my favorite parts of adventure mode was the item system. Much like the original Legend of Zelda, many items, such as bombs, candles, and hook shots are required to find all the secrets. Many tiles require an item to be used in order to unlock the chance to unlock the reward (unlock²?). These are all the same as the original game, so it’s another layer of fan service for Zelda fans. These items can be obtained by completing certain stages. My one complaint with this system is the imbalance of items. At times, I’d have 8 bombs that I have no use for, while not having the hookshot I need to progress. This was frustrating, as it added another layer of grinding to an already grind filled game. Overall, I enjoyed adventure mode. It may have been frustrating at times, but it provided fun content, while single handedly doubling the size of the game. The references were a nice touch, and made it feel more like the original. Being able to play scenarios designed to challenge a specific character was admittedly very fun, despite being tedious to complete at times. If it wasn’t for Adventure Mode, I doubt I would have sunk over 250 hours into Hyrule Warriors (And that was when I had hardly touched the DLC!).

Warriors games have always been known for looking and sounding great, and this holds true in Hyrule Warriors. The soundtrack is primarily composed of guitar remixes of famous Zelda tracks. They’re all very good, and help transform the world of Zelda into a battlefield. There weren’t any I particularly disliked, but some tracks were undeniably better than others. That’s forgivable, though, since the game also comes with a BGM selector. If you like a certain piece over the current one, nothing is stopping you from changing the track. Hyrule Warriors also looks great. As mentioned previously, every character has a very detailed design, but they also have a series of detailed alternate clothing. The environments generally look good, with vibrant colors and exquisite details. The design changed to reflect the eras of Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword accurately. Sadly, the amazing presentation, combined with the number of troops on screen, meant that sacrifices in performance had to be made. On the Wii U, slowdowns often occurred in local multiplayer, and were less frequent yet still present in single player. I would have loved to be able to change the settings to prioritize performance, just like in Fire Emblem Warriors. Overall, though, the game still ran decently. Hyrule Warriors looks and sounds great, despite having performance issues.

I feel that Hyrule Warriors never managed to balance the “Warriors” and the “Zelda”. Obviously, as a Warriors game, it is primarily focused on the gameplay of such a game, but I feel that the first Nintendo crossover of the series didn’t have enough Zelda in it. Most things were just cameos and changed behaviors to fit those of Zelda characters. I would have loved to have open areas to roam between battles, as opposed to being limited to menus and battlefields. I feel that there could have been more puzzle-based challenges in the story, even if they were minor, to make the game feel like Zelda. This problem became especially noticeable when the game is compared to Fire Emblem Warriors. In that game, the command system in the menu system has been heavily expanded upon in order to reflect the strategy aspect of Fire Emblem. In an ironic sense, the items in Hyrule Warriors reflect Zelda better than most of the references. Besides a few enemies and scripted scenarios, the bow, boomerang, bombs and hookshot are made obsolete due to how weak they are. One of Zelda‘s ongoing problems is that most items are never needed after the dungeon you find them in, just like in Hyrule Warriors. While it certainly doesn’t ruin the game, I wish Hyrule Warriors had more of the “Hyrule” in its title to balance out the “Warriors”.

There were 2 problems that I felt were ingrained in Hyrule Warriors: repetition and grinding. The game doesn’t have many stages, so after playing 250+ hours of the same stages, they become very boring to play. The game tries to mix it up by blocking certain paths, deactivating/activating certain keeps, and changing who you fight and what you have to do. I was able to play it all because I legitimately enjoyed the Warriors gameplay, but many people will certainly have a hard time enjoying it. Of course, it’s only made worse by the grinding. To be able to complete late game challenges meant for level 255 characters, the aforementioned investment is a must. Sure, some processes can be accelerated with rupees, but it didn’t feel like enough. Most people won’t be able to play the majority of the game due to how much of it repeats itself, and how much you have to manually repeat. These aren’t easy to fix, as they are problems as deep as the keep system to fix; fixing them could mess the entire game up. These are natural drawbacks of Warriors games, and might prevent enjoyment of the game.

Another thing worth mentioning is the amount of DLC and versions Hyrule Warriors has. 4 years later, the original Hyrule Warriors doesn’t even have a quarter of the content. The first expansion came in the form of 4 DLC packs, which were also available as a 20 dollar bundle. The first added a new backstory for the three villains, Cia, Volga, and Wizzro. The 5 levels take place throughout the story, and make the villains feel like people instead of “the bad guys”. There was also a new Adventure Mode map released, which had a standard layout, but had extra effects on every level, such as no healing, shielding, or damage allowed. These contained new costumes and new weapons, just like the first. The next focused on Twilight Princess and added Midna’s true form as a playable character. It also had a new adventure map, which was completely new. It had new challenges, but more importantly, new rules. Many new items, such as the Oocoo, were used in this map. The effects of the Twilight also played a role in the map by providing gateways that teleported players to the other side of the map. The third DLC focused on Majora’s Mask, adding Young Link and Tingle. There was also a new adventure map, once again with new items. This time, the map had the “72 hours remain” concept that was so important in Majora’s Mask. Progress across the map is wiped, but items obtained remain. Finally, the fourth DLC added a challenge mode that lets the player play as the final boss and a giant Cucco. This had the least content of the 4, but is naturally cheaper.

The DLC is a must buy if you liked the base game. Considering that it doubles the content of the game for only 20 dollars, it’s an amazing deal if you like Hyrule Warriors. However, I feel that it is very similar to the base game, even with all the new adventure maps. So, if you didn’t like the base game and hope the DLC would change things, you will be disappointed. I wish there were new maps that came with the DLC, such as Termina from Majora’s Mask. It would have made it easier to justify playing all the DLC, instead of “you’ll 100% the game”. But for 20 dollars, it’s still a steal. The ridiculous thing is that this is only half of the content.

In 2016, Nintendoyt released a port of Hyrule Warriors on the 3DS called Hyrule Warriors Legends. This contains all of the Wii U version and DLC, except challenge mode. It also has new characters such as Tetra, Toon Link, and Skull Kid. Plus, it has new Wind Waker maps and a story centered around Linkle and Wind Waker. Would it surprise you to hear there was more DLC released? Another 4 part DLC was released for the 3DS was released, presumably adding just as much content as the Wii U’s DLC. I wish I could give my thoughts of the 3DS version and DLC, but I haven’t played enough of it to give the same quality as the 250+ hour experience of the Wii U version. That’s why this review is of the original and its DLC, but nothing else.

Sadly, the only part of the 3DS content that carries over to the Wii U version are the new characters. That’s where the new Switch version comes in, called Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition. This new version is launching in May of 2018, but is already is out in Japan. It seems that the only new thing in it are Breath of The Wild costumes for Link and Zelda, two characters who already have many alternate costumes. However, it contains 140 dollars of content, which will most likely last 500 hours or more if the 3DS had as much content as it looked to have. If you want Hyrule Warriors, the best idea is to wait until May and buy the Definitive Edition. However, only time will tell whether or not people who had the older versions should buy this new one.

Hyrule Warriors is a great game packed with content, despite a few issues. The gameplay feel natural yet complex, as the many systems are slowly learned as the difficulty increases. The many challenges become a bit repetitive, but are great if you enjoy the gameplay. Accompanied by a great soundtrack, this Hyrule looks beautiful, despite a few performance issues. The repetition will undoubtedly stop some from enjoying the game, but it shouldn’t be a problem for others. The many versions and DLC’s leave this original game relatively small, despite having 250 hours of gameplay. If you own a Wii U, Hyrule Warriors is a must buy.