Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment review for Nintendo Switch 2

If I had a nickel for every time Nintendo released a Zelda game with “canon” lore in cahoots with Koei Tecmo, I’d have two nickels. Now, as we all know, that’s not a lot, but it’s strange that it’s happened twice. First we got Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity back on the Switch 1 some years ago, and today we have Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Age of Imprisonment follows the story of Zelda while trapped in the past after disappearing in the start of Tears of the Kingdom, showcasing her journey in assisting Rauru in battling the Demon King Ganondorf before he is sealed away until we awaken him at the start of ToTK.

Hyrule Warriors, for those that are unaware, is a Zelda spinoff of a long-running series called “Dynasty Warriors”. It’s a hack and slash game where it’s you versus literal thousands of enemies, although they’re more like fodder for the absolute slaughterhouse that is the player. The main difference being that instead of being set in Japan or China, Hyrule Warriors is set in, well, do you really need me to tell you? It’s Hyrule, it was only ever gonna be Hyrule. It also features a cast of characters you’re familiar with from Tears of the Kingdom and an absolutely massive list of original characters to fill out the roster. This sounds bad, but honestly some of these new characters are genuinely great. Besides, unless you want a Warriors game with nobody but like Zelda, Rauru, and Mineru, you’re gonna have to compromise a little here.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s gameplay is about the same as your typical Warriors game but with some twists based on the Zonai tech and elemental prowesses of Hyrule’s inhabitants. Zelda herself can mix up her attacks with her time powers, the Zora characters can use water to clear out muck and deal bonus posture damage to fire enemies, the Gorons can use fire and blow up boulders, etc. In addition to that, you’ll gain access to various Zonai devices as you progress and do side content. These will allow you to counter certain attacks, deal elemental damage, give you another movement option, and more. They do add some fun depth into the mix, especially with a character fulfilling the role of Link. To avoid spoilers for those that haven’t played yet, I won’t mention who or what that character is, but they have unique interactions with the Zonai devices you’ll acquire with their moveset.

The story is about what you’d expect if you’ve played Tears of the Kingdom and watched the memories from the dragon tear locations. For instance, there’s a scene in Tears that shows a Gerudo invasion being led with a hoard of Molduga on the way to attack and Rauru fends it off. Instead of just being a cutscene, you’ll play that sequence and its surrounding events. I think it expands on the story beats we got to touch on before in a nice manner and really adds some depth to what we assume Zelda had to deal with while being stuck in an ancient Hyrule.

I think the story also adds a bit more to how Hyrule came to unify, which is honestly a fun thing to add in. Obviously we know the Zora and Goron tribes all knew about Hyrule and its monarchy, but they fully became allies during Age of Imprisonment’s story. We also get a look into the Gerudo tribe and what went on behind the scenes of their politics. Obviously Ganondorf being around is no good and would cause the Gerudo to attack Hyrule and its allies, but we do see groups of Gerudo splinter off to ally with Rauru instead. Seeing the Gerudo go from skeptical to enemies to allies throughout the story is some extra depth that’s very much appreciated. It helps that Age of Imprisonment has an arguably much better implemented “prequel” story than Age of Calamity with its weird retconning.

I can’t speak on to what will or won’t be added in the future yet, so be aware there may be additions. Age of Calamity added a skill system later on completely changing the use of characters, so that’s something to consider. For what’s in the game already, I do think that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a great title, especially if you’re already a fan of the Warriors games and the Zelda franchise and seeking more. It runs nice and smooth on Switch 2 albeit with some framedrops, at least in single player. Multiplayer immediately caps the game to 30fps. I both understand why they do this but I also wish it didn’t have to. On the plus side of multiplayer, it does support the Switch’s GameShare feature, so anybody without a copy of the game that owns any Switch model can stream it to their console and play alongside you. This was great to randomly jump into some co-op action with a friend when we wanted to play without him having to drop money on the game.

As it stands, I think Age of Imprisonment is a genuinely fun game with a nice story expansion on something we already sorta understood from Tears of the Kingdom. The characters, while not really being mainstay Zelda characters, are fun, the music is incredible and harkens back to some familiar tracks from throughout Zelda history, and the areas all blend into their respective territories throughout Hyrule. It runs great, feels good to play, and having the GameShare feature is always a big plus.

Not everything is all sunshine and rainbows, however. Like I said, it does have its share of frame drops, especially during super attack animations. Multiplayer only being a locked 30 even if it’s not all on the same console is a bummer. I think the biggest confusion is whether Zonai devices and characters overlapping in gimmick was entirely intentional to let you only rely on one character or not. For instance, as stated previously, the Zora can use their innate water prowess to clear up sludge and break fire-attuned enemies easier. That’s nice for that character not requiring a device, but you get a fire hydrant Zonai device that just spews water out anyway doing both of those things, so in a way it makes unlocking some of the characters irrelevant. I get that the Zonai tech played a huge part in Tears of the Kingdom, and as a result putting them in the game that runs alongside Link’s adventures in the present makes sense, but they almost seem pointless in this use case. Adding on to this, did we really need Korok seeds back again? There’s not a four digit number of them this time, but I think we can leave this mechanic behind by now.

Taking everything into consideration, I do think this is a better Hyrule Warriors than Age of Calamity was. You can tell they learned a bit from issues with that game, especially the writing. Age of Imprisonment mostly improves upon its predecessor albeit with some caveats that don’t superbly impact the player experience. The characters are all fun to play as, the music is great, and the mechanics all blend together pretty well in combat, mixing into one enjoyable concoction. With the holidays coming up, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is definitely a contender for your list if you’re looking for a nice Zelda story with some mindless hack-n-slash fun.

Note: Nintendo provided us with a Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment code for review purposes.