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I have to vent about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.


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This game is dog shit.

 

The story missions are okay. It's fun to see Hyrule with different gameplay. Even if the map is bizarrely broken up into a series of winding corridors displayed on a microscopic mini-map, so that when I'm moving around I'm just staring at the map instead of the actual gameplay. And there's no moving between two areas of different elevations, even if it's just a tiny ledge (with a huge invisible barrier around it to further punish actually looking at the gameplay). The wonky camera makes it even harder to figure out which narrow entrance to which narrow corridor, especially when big enemies get inside.

 

The challenge missions constitute the worst game I've ever played under a Nintendo brand. Savage time limits and almost no healing item spawns, requiring farming story missions to restock unless you pay Nintendo $20. I'll be ten levels higher than recommended and attacking enemies nonstop and still fail to the time limit. And yes, I have learned all the weapon fusing techniques and weak point strategies. It's not my fault that I've been grinding with Zelda for hours and still haven't gotten any good weapon drops.

 

The gameplay is horrendously unbalanced. Enemies are either meaningless fodder or sponges that can take literally hundreds of hits to kill. There is no middle ground. Then multiple strong enemies appear at once, constantly attacking from offscreen as my character is sent tumbling around, juggled to death in three helpless seconds because there's no invulnerability. This gameplay does not work with z-targeting mechanics. Not even close.

 

Also the menus have the player constantly clicking analogue sticks even while face buttons go unused. Because apparently this game wasn't physically draining, uncomfortable, and painful enough to play. Mentally too, because missions are 30 minutes of constant button mashing and squinting at that damned mini-map.

 

The characters have no balance. If they're not Link or Revali, or Impa apparently, they're trash. Great Fairy literally does not even function properly with the game's mechanics and requirements.

 

This whole game is trash. Bye. 

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I played this game on hard then very hard difficulty my whole campaign so the damage sponge you speak, I'm aware but I though that was just a thing on higher difficulty.

 

Everything else can be subjective but I may have just built a tolerance to the warrior games setup and this to me is the best Zelda warrior game setup., Not much better than the OG Zelda warrior. Also, side of Zelda bias too.

 

Honestly the best theme warrior game I played is the Persona 5 sequel spin-off. This and like the rest have their issues for sure again I probably just built a tolerance for the gameplay.

 

Your personal nit picks with certain games gameplay is a reoccurring thing so I forgive this opinion of Age of Calamity. I respect it but don't share the same sentiments.

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2 hours ago, Link, the Hero of Dreams said:

Welcome to the Mugen Warriors series, where the whole thing about the series is a grind and a chore to complete. It’s also like that for the Fire Emblem and Persona Warrior games as well. 
 
I have yet to play and beat Hyrule Warriors D.E. too .

I played the demo for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes extensively. It has much better maps (plus associated mechanics and controls), but the combat feels very dull. I don't see why a Warriors game couldn't use the best of both.

 

2 hours ago, DLurkster said:

I played this game on hard then very hard difficulty my whole campaign so the damage sponge you speak, I'm aware but I though that was just a thing on higher difficulty.

 

Everything else can be subjective but I may have just built a tolerance to the warrior games setup and this to me is the best Zelda warrior game setup., Not much better than the OG Zelda warrior. Also, side of Zelda bias too.

 

Honestly the best theme warrior game I played is the Persona 5 sequel spin-off. This and like the rest have their issues for sure again I probably just built a tolerance for the gameplay.

 

Your personal nit picks with certain games gameplay is a reoccurring thing so I forgive this opinion of Age of Calamity. I respect it but don't share the same sentiments.

I'm also playing on Hard, because these days Normal is actually Easy and Easy is just autoplay.

 

I get that some of my gripes are with the Warriors series in general, but some parts of it are especially poorly adapted to Age of Calamity. And after churning out dozens of these games, I expected the developer to have a MUCH better handle on their gameplay's vision.

 

OH AND I DIDN'T EVEN MENTION THE DIVINE BEAST STAGES. Holy shit those have nearly had me chucking my controllers through the TV. I love motion controls. Like, I couldn't play Halo for my life but since the moment Nintendo gave me a gyroscope I've been 360 no-scoping keese halfway across Hyrule. I can't even believe the shots I make so effortlessly. But these stages? I didn't know it was even possible for something under the Nintendo brand to be so horrifically dysfunctional. Even beyond how it bizarrely uses the left joy-con instead of the right, I cannot for my life find any consistency to the way it detects movement--and I'm pretty sure that its center is constantly moving, like when using the touch screen for Super Mario 64 DS. This developer managed to take the most awesome possible scenario and make it possibly the single most disappointing gaming experience of my life.

 

The only good one was Vah Naboris, and only because it doesn't lose any playability with motion controls off. Still a grind, though. Not at all how the developers probably wanted it to play out, because if you charge in then you go from full health to dead in five seconds.

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1 hour ago, Destiny Hero said:

OH AND I DIDN'T EVEN MENTION THE DIVINE BEAST STAGES. Holy shit those have nearly had me chucking my controllers through the TV. I love motion controls. Like, I couldn't play Halo for my life but since the moment Nintendo gave me a gyroscope I've been 360 no-scoping keese halfway across Hyrule. I can't even believe the shots I make so effortlessly. But these stages? I didn't know it was even possible for something under the Nintendo brand to be so horrifically dysfunctional. Even beyond how it bizarrely uses the left joy-con instead of the right, I cannot for my life find any consistency to the way it detects movement--and I'm pretty sure that its center is constantly moving, like when using the touch screen for Super Mario 64 DS. This developer managed to take the most awesome possible scenario and make it possibly the single most disappointing gaming experience of my life.

 

The only good one was Vah Naboris, and only because it doesn't lose any playability with motion controls off. Still a grind, though. Not at all how the developers probably wanted it to play out, because if you charge in then you go from full health to dead in five seconds.

Oh yeah, I forgot the divine beast gameplay. I think I forgot; not some of what you mention but in BotW, these weren't the dungeon we exactly asked for.

 

You pretty much summed up the divine beast gameplay in this game. For me I am down the middle how they went about, it controls bad (especially Vah Rudania on death moutain, it's fun if you just get thru it but multiple times of failure doesn't make it much fun) but the other half of me the (Zelda bias) is like cool we're actually riding and controlling these divine beasts. So those 2 warring thoughts just neutralize each other as meh, it was alright. Thus, why I forgot there were playable divine beasts.

 

My fave was the first divine beast you go to Vah Ruta. Something about blasting torrent of water at your foes is a lot of fun.

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They packed a lot into this game… Too much, I think, and in the wrong ways. It can’t keep my focus like HW: Definitive Edition did, so I wait for the twice a year I can see my brother when he can co-op with me just to force the advance. Lol

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10 hours ago, Uni said:

They packed a lot into this game… Too much, I think, and in the wrong ways. It can’t keep my focus like HW: Definitive Edition did, so I wait for the twice a year I can see my brother when he can co-op with me just to force the advance. Lol

I didn't play Age of Calamity in co-op but my 2nd run thru of HW on the Wii U I played co-op. It was around the time the DLC for that game came out Cia Tale, I believe it was called.

 

Any game that has co-op in usually makes game easier to plow thru not difficulty wise just to get to point A to point B. Oh, can't forget fun too. Co-op can be fun but not all games can pull that off, at least the original HW did to me on top of it being easy.

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I just unlocked Riju the chief and I'm baffled by how this character, too, passed Nintendo's quality control. As if the game wasn't chaotic enough already, they zip all around the screen while moving physically too--and so does the camera. I can't tell where my character is or what they're doing, let alone what the enemies are doing.

 

That's another major flaw with the Warriors series--you need to carefully watch what the big enemy is doing, but your character's giant, flashy attacks obscure the screen with overdone effects and flashes. Similar pitfall to Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, which I got on sale around the same time. The graphics and animations are probably beautiful, but they're so fast and overdone that I can't actually see them. The old Wii graphics look like Pong by comparison, but I've appreciated them much more because I CAN SEE THEM.

 

Anyway, I'm playing on Normal now because apparently there's no change in rewards in Age of Calamity and damage sponges are not a fun challenge anyway. It's usually too easy now, but I can enjoy that if only out of a sense of vengeance.

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  • Chrom featured this topic

Other than the seemingly impossible challenges I did enjoy the game. I like when they add a bit to these Nintendo Warriors games that make them feel different, even though it ends up taking longer to beat them.

 

 

On an unrelated note:

@Winston_Snakehole (R-NY) They need to re-release both Chameleon Twist games. I beat the first one but never got past the first area in the 2nd game. It also didn't help that they were Blockbuster exclusive back then.

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3 hours ago, TKrazyO said:

On an unrelated note:

@Winston_Snakehole (R-NY) They need to re-release both Chameleon Twist games. I beat the first one but never got past the first area in the 2nd game. It also didn't help that they were Blockbuster exclusive back then.

I concur. I had originally thought they'd be different if they didn't have the "passed around rental" feel to them, but they remain liminal masterpieces.

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I will say, this game is much better on Normal mode--without Hard's endless damage sponges and near total removal of healing item drops on non-story stages. Which, by the way, is one of the dumbest design choices ever. It's like Skyward Sword's hard mode, which is just the same game again except the player is forced to backtrack to the Skyloft marketplace to heal every few minutes. There are a lot of choices to NOT repeat from Skyward Sword, and that one makes half of them look like BOTW.

 

The game is too easy on this difficulty because I've figured out how to stun lock enemies. It's either too easy or way too unfair.

 

Maybe I'm just in a good mood because I FINALLY got a midair attack multiplier for Revali, and a big stack of them on a strong bow.

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Endgame spoilers

 

Spoiler

That was the most disappointing final boss ever. The final battles were underwhelming too--should've been WAY more Guardians.

 

The tiny Guardian's ending almost made me cry. But it was botched by the game casually revealing that it has an actual name only at this point, and the cheesiness of everyone surrounding Zelda as she mourned. Plus they REALLY undermined all the Calamity's supposed destruction when THIS is the line Ganon crosses. Killing thousands of people across the land is fine, but how dare he break this little robot. Seriously?

 

That's so dehumanizing and it bothers me greatly. Mixed with the gameplay of Warriors being a super overpowered player mowing down hordes of generic enemies, it gives a strong sense of "I'm special because I'm me, and everyone who isn't me or someone I know personally is just fodder for us to step on." Zelda: Ayn Rand Edition.

 

Zelda being the main character of the story was really cool, but the writers also botched everyone else. Even her supposedly rough relationship with Link is nowhere to be found. How could they write a story about Zelda and forget about the main dynamic of her relationship with the series protagonist!?

 

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