Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a spin-off game of The Legend of Zelda seriesWarning: {{TLoZ|Series}} is deprecated. It takes place in the world of Breath of the Wild in a different timeline during the second Great Calamity due to the actions of a time-traveling Guardian.[1]
On February 17, 2021, downloadable content for the game was announced, called the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass. It was released in two waves, the first, Pulse of the Ancients, being released on June 18, 2021, and the second, Guardian of Remembrance, on October 29, 2021.[2][3][4]
Story
Development
By mid-2012, following the reception to Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda seriesWarning: {{TLoZ|Series}} is deprecated producer Eiji Aonuma had determined that the franchise was in urgent need of reinvention, in order for it to remain relevant. Aonuma decided that the development team would focus on rethinking the conventions of Zelda, and that this would largely center around two misconceptions:[5]
- That Zelda games needed to be linear
- That Zelda games were strictly meant to be single player experiences
The development team tackled the notion of non-linear Zelda games with A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. While both games were in development, Nintendo was approached by publisher Koei Tecmo, whose studios had previously worked with the company on titles like Metroid: Other M and Fatal Frame, with a proposal to develop a new kind of Zelda game using its Omega Force studio—the team behind the Dynasty Warriors series of games.[6] The original pitch by Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi involved a number of elements that were staples of Zelda, such as dungeon exploration, with elements of the Warriors series mixed in to create something new. However, Nintendo "Fellow" Shigeru Miyamoto asked that Hayashi graft the world of Zelda onto Dynasty Warriors gameplay instead.[7]
At the time, Aonuma had been playing One Piece: Pirate Warriors, another Warriors-style game developed by Omega Force, and saw the potential in a similar crossover with Zelda.[8] Development of this game, dubbed Hyrule Warriors (Zelda Musou in Japan), was completed in 2014, making it the first multiplayer Zelda game since Four Swords Adventures. In parallel, a small portion of the Zelda team also worked with Grezzo, the studio responsible for Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D, to develop Tri Force Heroes, a three-player Zelda game for the Nintendo 3DS.
While work progressed on Breath of the Wild, Aonuma had already begun thinking of ways to explore another multiplayer Zelda title, this time using lessons the team had learnt from the development of that game.[9] After development wrapped, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and art director Satoru Takizawa pitched Aonuma the idea of a second Warriors title, this time set in Breath of the Wild's past, against the backdrop of that game's "Great Calamity" event. Fujibayashi and Takizawa already had some sense of the kind of game they wanted to see, and the extent to which they had thought through their plans spurred Aonuma to discuss a second collaboration with Koei Tecmo.[10]
Yosuke Hayashi would serve as producer on the new project, alongside Omega Force's Masaki Furusawa, the director of the first Hyrule Warriors. Ryota Matsushita, who had served as a game designer on Samurai Warriors 4, Warriors Orochi 4, and Dynasty Warriors 9, was tapped to direct. Once the game's core elements had been decided upon, Omega Force proposed an outline for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, with the Zelda team supervising each draft of the plan.[11]
Omega Force collaborated much more closely with the team this time around, than they had on Hyrule Warriors. Elements such as gameplay, graphics, the depiction of Hyrule, and all character dialogue were discussed with the Zelda team to ensure consistency with Breath of the Wild.[12] Breath of the Wild's characters had fragments of lore scattered throughout that game, and Omega Force used these as a starting point. They held discussions with the Zelda team to understand the team's impression of each character, which helped flesh out their personalities in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.[13] In the case of characters that were now going to require younger variants, such as Impa, Purah, and Robbie, Omega Force proposed new designs for each.[14]
Prior to development, Aonuma had requested that the Zelda team allow Omega Force a degree of freedom whilst creating the movesets for each playable character, which would allow them to explore more outlandish special moves for each.[15] While designing moves for the game's cast, Omega Force based Link, Zelda, and Impa on existing archetypes—namely, a knight, a mage, and a trickster.[16] Of the three, Zelda proved hardest to design, owing to the fact that she was never intended to be a fighter in Breath of the Wild, and that making her a combatant would potentially be at odds with her personality. The development team eventually settled on the idea of Zelda being driven by a sense of duty and taking up arms using the Sheikah Slate, using her backstory in Breath of the Wild as a point of reference.[17] In contrast, Impa's moveset came together more smoothly, as a byproduct of her being from the ninja-like Sheikah tribe.[18] According to the developers, the individual Sheikah Slate abilities for the rest of the cast were easy to derive from their personalities as well.[19]
During development, the team used its learnings from having worked on the first Hyrule Warriors, but encountered challenges while deciding how to integrate the open-world design of Breath of the Wild into the stage-based style of a Warriors game. The development team ultimately chose to design each stage to be more three-dimensional, with height or interconnected terrain, to create the feel of a more expansive world.[20] Omega Force found that working on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity required less trial-an-error than its predecessor, as it had already understood how to incorporate Zelda-like concepts into a Warriors game, and was instead able to allocate resources towards creating a game that was of higher quality.[21] All throughout development, the Zelda team reviewed each aspect of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity to ensure that the game inherited the look and tone of Breath of the Wild.[22]
The following members of the The Legend of Zelda seriesWarning: {{TLoZ|Series}} is deprecated team are credited as part of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity's credits:[23][24]
Name | Credit on Age of Calamity | Credit on Breath of the Wild | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Yoshiyuki Oyama | Nintendo Zelda Team | Senior Lead Artist - Character / Item | |
Ryuji Kobayashi | Nintendo Zelda Team | Senior Lead Artist - Animation | |
Manabu Takehara | Nintendo Zelda Team | Lead Artists - Structural | |
Keijiro Inoue | Nintendo Zelda Team | Senior Lead Artist - VFX / Technical | |
Daigo Shimizu | Nintendo Zelda Team | UI Design | |
Makoto Yonezu | Nintendo Zelda Team | Senior Lead Artist - Landscape | |
Aya Shida | Nintendo Zelda Team | Wildlife Art | |
Tomohisa Saito | Nintendo Zelda Team | Graphics/Terrain Programming | |
Atsushi Asakura | Nintendo Zelda Team | Graphics/Terrain Programming | |
Yoshiyuki Sawada | Nintendo Zelda Team | Technical Artist | |
Manaka Kataoka | Nintendo Zelda Team | Music | |
Yasuaki Iwata | Nintendo Zelda Team | Music | |
Koji Kondo | Nintendo Zelda Team | Not credited on Breath of the Wild. | |
Daiki Iwamoto | Supervisor | Assistant Director | |
Satoru Takizawa | Supervisor | Art Director | Pitched the idea for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. |
Takuhiro Dohta | Supervisor | Technical Director | |
Hajime Wakai | Supervisor | Sound Director | |
Hidemaro Fujibayashi | Scenario Supervisor | Director | Pitched the idea for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. |
Eiji Aonuma | Zelda Franchise Supervisor | Producer |
Note: At present, it is unknown whether all of the employees listed above are permanent members of the The Legend of Zelda seriesWarning: {{TLoZ|Series}} is deprecated team. Some (like Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi) have worked on the Zelda series throughout most of their careers, while others move between various Nintendo projects as required.
Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to Hyrule Warriors's which is itself a based on Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series of video games, in which characters fight large armies of enemies and generals on a battlefield, with the the setting and characters originating from The Legend of Zelda seriesWarning: {{TLoZ|Series}} is deprecated, specifically from Breath of the Wild. As such, it is much more combat-intensive that most Zelda games, with hordes of enemies on the screen at once.
Controls
The player controls multiple characters throughout the game including Link, Zelda, Mipha, Urbosa, Revali, Daruk, and Impa through the story, with the player being able to switch characters on the fly depending on the scenario. Characters also fight alongside regular Soldiers and other playable characters, and the game will alert if an ally requires assistance. The player can use many abilities seen in Breath of the Wild such as Magnesis, Cryonis, Stasis and Remote Bombs. The player can also use multiple elemental rods, such as the Fire Rod, Ice Rod, and Lightning Rod.
Gameplay Footage
Game Information
Graphics
Audio
Limited Edition
A limited treasure box edition of the game was released in Japan. It included a copy of the game, an acrylic art plate, a parasail blanket, and a metal charm.[25]
Speedrun Records
Category | Runner | Time | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Any% (Easy) | Naoto09 | 3h 47m 56s | April 6, 2021 |
Any% (Easy, New Game+) | Temchee | 2h 29m 48s | August 17, 2022 |
Any% (Normal) | Erusoru | 4h 7m 7s 490ms | March 21, 2021 |
Any% (Normal, New Game+) | Temchee | 2h 31m 56s | August 4, 2022 |
Any% (Hard) | Naoto09 | 5h 11m 24s | Feburary 1, 2019 |
Any% (Hard, New Game+) | Temchee | 2h 35m 37s | July 19, 2022 |
Any% (Very Hard) | potetofry | 7h 39s | Feburary 1, 2021 |
Any% (Very Hard, New Game+) | Temchee | 2h 41m 53s | June 8, 2022 |
Any% (Apocalyptic) | Piccol_Link_ | 8h 33m 100ms | May 8, 2022 |
Any% (Apocalyptic, New Game+) | Temchee | 2h 48m 37s | January 21, 2022 |
Any% Co-op (Easy) | ulysses0112 snowgirl ulysses0112 |
3h 51m 52s | October 2, 2022 |
Any% Co-op (Easy, New Game+) | Zelda1Fan Locke Zelda1Fan |
3h 16m 2s | November 11, 2021 |
Any% Co-op (Normal) | ulysses0112 snowgirl ulysses0112 |
4h 12m 34s 970ms | June 17, 2022 |
Any% Co-op (Normal, New Game+) | SnowNights brother SnowNight SnowNights brother |
3h 32m 34s 48ms | June 7, 2021 |
Any% Co-op (Hard) | ulysses0112 snowgirl ulysses0112 |
5h 10m 16s 210ms | June 3, 2022 |
Any% Co-op (Hard, New Game+) | Zelda1Fan Locke Zelda1Fan |
3h 34m 37s | July 18, 2022 |
Any% Co-op (Very Hard) | — | — | — |
Any% Co-op (Very Hard, New Game+) | — | — | — |
Any% Co-op (Apocalyptic) | — | — | — |
Any% Co-op (Apocalyptic, New Game+) | — | — | — |
100% (Easy) | Cartiss | 30h 2m 15s | January 17, 2021 |
100% (Medium) | — | — | — |
100% (Hard) | — | — | — |
100% (Very Hard) | — | — | — |
100% (Apocalyptic) | — | — | — |
Post-Launch Content
Updates
Update | Version 1.0.0 |
---|---|
Release Date | November 19, 2020 |
Content |
|
Update | Version 1.0.1 |
Release Date | November 19, 2020 |
Content |
|
Update | Version 1.1.0 |
Release Date | May 20, 2021 |
Content |
|
Update | Version 1.2.0 |
Release Date | June 18, 2021 |
Content |
|
Update | Version 1.2.1 |
Release Date | June 29, 2021 |
Content |
|
Update | Version 1.3.0 |
Release Date | October 26, 2021 |
Content |
|
Update | Release Date | Content |
---|---|---|
Version 1.0.0 | November 19, 2020 |
|
Version 1.0.1 | November 19, 2020 |
|
Version 1.1.0 | May 20, 2021 |
|
Version 1.2.0 | June 18, 2021 |
|
Version 1.2.1 | June 29, 2021 |
|
Version 1.3.0 | October 26, 2021 |
|
Expansion Packs
Pack | Release Date | Content |
---|---|---|
Digital Version pre-order bonus | November 20, 2020 | Lucky Ladle |
Error: Invalid title Purchase Bonus | May 28, 2021 | |
June 18, 2021 |
| |
October 29, 2021 |
|
Listings
Characters
Bosses
Enemies
Scenarios
Challenges
Items
Objects
Translations
Credits
Reception
Sales
On November 24, 2020, four days after the release of Age of Calamity, Koei Tecmo stated via Famitsu that the game had shipped over 3 million combined physical and digital copies worldwide, becoming the first game in the Warriors franchise to reach 3 million shipments as well as becoming the best-selling Warriors game of all time.[26] As of January 2022, the game has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[27]
Nomenclature
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Language | Names | |
This table was generated using translation pages. To request an addition, please contact a staff member with a reference. |
Gallery
External Links
References
- ↑ Nintendo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch , YouTube, published September 8, 2020, retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ↑ Nintendo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – Expansion Pass Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch , YouTube (video), published February 17, 2021, retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ↑ "Available June 18 on Nintendo eShop" — Nintendo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass Wave 1 – Pulse of the Ancients , YouTube (video), published June 15, 2021, retrieved October 3, 2021.
- ↑ "Available October 29" — Nintendo, Nintendo Direct - 9.23.2021 , YouTube (video), published September 23, 2021, retrieved October 3, 2021.
- ↑ "Aonuma: Our mission in developing this new Zelda game for Wii U is quite plainly to rethink the conventions of Zelda. I'm referring to things such as the player is supposed to complete dungeons in a certain order. That you are supposed to play by yourself, the things that we've come to take for granted recently. We want to set aside these "conventions," get back to basics to create a newborn Zelda so players today can enjoy the real essence of the franchise. We had actually worked on this kind of challenge with Skyward Sword, but we weren't able to put efforts in changing the linear structure of the game. I hope to be able to talk with you in more detail about how it will change after I see it come together a bit more." —Eiji Aonuma (Wii U Direct - Nintendo Games 1.23.2013.)
- ↑ ""When Mr. Hayashi approached me for this collaboration, he said, 'let’s rethink our preconceived ideas of what we can do with a Zelda game'."" —Eiji Aonuma (Interview: Eiji Aonuma and Yosuke Hayashi on Hyrule Warriors and Shigeru Miyamoto's Definitive Role.)
- ↑ "At first, when Hayashi-san approached me, he wanted to make this title closer to a Zelda game than a Dynasty Warriors game — that extended to having boss battles in the dungeons and [having] certain characters in the game. However, Mr. Miyamoto came along and up-ended the tea table, saying, 'No, that should not be the case. What we’re doing here is grafting Zelda onto the Dynasty Warriors experience.' It was a reversal of the original proposal from Hayashi-san, which was adding elements of Dynasty Warriors onto the Zelda franchise. It ended up being the other way around based on Miyamoto’s direction." —Eiji Aonuma (Interview: Eiji Aonuma and Yosuke Hayashi on Hyrule Warriors and Shigeru Miyamoto's Definitive Role.)
- ↑ "At the time I was playing a Musou collaboration game called One Piece: Pirate Warriors. In this game, you are fighting a battle where there are many bases on the battlefield, and you have to figure out what order you take the bases in — and also the timing in which certain things occur. This is not something that had been in previous Zelda games, and so it was a very exciting idea for me to connect with." —Eiji Aonuma (Interview: Eiji Aonuma and Yosuke Hayashi on Hyrule Warriors and Shigeru Miyamoto's Definitive Role.)
- ↑ "I would like to take what I learned from Breath of the Wild and see if we can somehow fuse those learning points into another multiplayer Zelda. For example, with Tri Force Heroes, which followed a similar format of Four Swords, there was a multiplayer involved in that game. That's definitely a possibility and we will continue to [experiment] throughout the Zelda franchise." —Eiji Aonuma (Zelda Producer: After Breath of the Wild, Next Game Could Be Multiplayer.)
- ↑ "The idea came from Breath of the Wild’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and art director Satoru Takizawa. When they first pitched the “Great Calamity” as a setting for a Musou game, I was very interested but wondered if there would be difficulties when crafting the story. From there, we deliberated on how things would go, and the two of them already had plans in mind. Driven by how serious Mr. Fujibayashi and Mr. Takizawa were, I decided to consult with Hyrule Warriors producer Yosuke Hayashi." —Eiji Aonuma (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity devs on how the game came to be, Nintendo wanting it to be a new experience, more.)
- ↑ "After mixing in the core game elements, we were able to propose an outline from our side. We received close supervision from the first rough drafts of the storyline, and we kept in mind the point to balance ‘new experiences in the world of the past.’ Whenever we fleshed it out, were were supervised with each addition therein." —Ryota Matsushita (Koei Tecmo Developers Discuss the Freedoms and Challenges in Working With the Zelda Team to Create Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.)
- ↑ "The previous Hyrule Warriors games were filled with Zelda conventions. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild broke these conventions entirely, and perhaps it's the same for everyone here, but for someone like me, who's been playing Zelda games for a long time, this was an extraordinary experience. It's a new, special title for me. Unlike the previous Hyrule Warriors games, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was developed by working closely with the Zelda team in every step of the process, including gameplay direction, graphics, world, and all dialogue. And while we maintain the distinct gameplay style of the Warriors series with exciting '1 vs. 1000' battles, and a wide variety of playable characters, this became the only game that will let you experience the world 100 years prior to the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild firsthand." —Eiji Aonuma (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - A story 100 years before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.)
- ↑ "We created various characters’ personalities and their relationships to Link during Breath of the Wild’s development. However, we consulted with the Musou team to flesh that out in this game. Like with Purah, who ages quite strangely. I feel like we allowed her charms – and just her as a character to shine in this title." —Eiji Aonuma (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity devs on how the game came to be, Nintendo wanting it to be a new experience, more.)
- ↑ "I’m so glad we at Koei Tecmo were able to propose designs for Impa, Purah, and Robbie. Every character had fragments of rich lore scattered throughout Breath of the Wild, so we used those as clues to match the Zelda team’s impression and establishment of the characters. That’s how we formed their depictions of 100 years past. I felt it resembled how Link regained his memories in Breath of the Wild through little spurs." —Ryota Matsushita (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity devs on how the game came to be, Nintendo wanting it to be a new experience, more.)
- ↑ "While the theming is that of Breath of the Wild, a combat-centric game like Hyrule Warriors may have things like ‘special techniques for tearing up hordes,’ and I wanted them to be able to go a little crazy with those things without having to be too conscientious of the frame work... That is the perspective I asked the Zelda team to take in their management of the project." —Eiji Aonuma (Koei Tecmo Developers Discuss the Freedoms and Challenges in Working With the Zelda Team to Create Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.)
- ↑ "As for Impa’s style, that came together smoothly. Both as a factor of fighting with Sheikah Tribe techniques, and for balance between the three starting party members: the orthodox knight in Link, the mage-like Zelda, and the third member being a ninja-styled character with tricky abilities fit perfectly. So I think it came together naturally." —Ryota Matsushita (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Developers Discuss Their Approach to Combat in Recent Interview.)
- ↑ "In Zelda’s case, she remained a challenge throughout production. No matter how you cut it, she wasn’t really envisioned as a warrior-princess, so it wouldn’t do to suddenly have her performing these Warriors-style actions. However, she is a person driven by her sense of duty, so what emerged as the action she should take in her situation was the Sheikah Slate-based combat." —Ryota Matsushita (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Developers Discuss Their Approach to Combat in Recent Interview.)
- ↑ "As for Impa’s style, that came together smoothly. Both as a factor of fighting with Sheikah Tribe techniques, and for balance between the three starting party members: the orthodox knight in Link, the mage-like Zelda, and the third member being a ninja-styled character with tricky abilities fit perfectly. So I think it came together naturally." —Ryota Matsushita (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Developers Discuss Their Approach to Combat in Recent Interview.)
- ↑ "That came together unexpectedly smoothly. The individual personalities and fighting styles of Breath of the Wild’s characters are consistently unique, so it was easy to give them that distinction. For instance, if we ask ourselves, “What would Revali do if asked to fight using the Stasis Rune?” we could get very strong, detailed, opinionated answers that, “Revali would obviously use it like this!” which we were able to piece together to create his actions. Everyone was able to give an answer quite readily. [laughs]" —Ryota Matsushita (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Developers Discuss Their Approach to Combat in Recent Interview.)
- ↑ "A lot of the direction for how we integrate the Zelda setting and its rewarding gameplay into the Warriors systems came from our prior experience with Hyrule Warriors, but we encountered new challenges this time when deciding how to integrate the open-world systems of BotW into the stage-based design of Warriors. Basically, instead of changing the stage-by-stage structure of the game, we designed each stage to be more three-dimensional (with height or interconnected terrain) to create the feel of a more expansive world than before." —Eiji Aonuma (Why The Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Team Made A Breath Of The Wild Prequel.)
- ↑ "The previous game was a challenge in terms of incorporating the concepts of one game into a different game, and we went through a lot of trial and error on the ground. As a development team, we had a number of things that we weren't able to achieve or would've done differently in hindsight. We didn't need to repeat that trial and error for Age of Calamity, and I think that allowed us to allocate those resources towards increasing the quality of the game." —Yosuke Hayashi (Why The Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Team Made A Breath Of The Wild Prequel.)
- ↑ "To ensure that the game inherited the look and tone of BotW, we asked the Zelda team to review every detail of what we made. They consistently suggested ways to make the game exponentially more fun, while simultaneously showing great respect for the ideas the Warriors team had for this game as an action game." —Ryota Matsushita (Why The Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Team Made A Breath Of The Wild Prequel.)
- ↑ Koei Tecmo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity credits , , retrieved May 5, 2021.
- ↑ Koei Tecmo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity credits , , retrieved May 5, 2021.
- ↑ TREASURE BOX , GAMECITY, retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ↑ Switch『ゼルダ無双 厄災の黙示録』全世界の累計出荷300万本突破。『無双』シリーズ初の記録 , Famitsu, published November 24, 2020, retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ↑ "『#ゼルダ無双 厄災の黙示録』の全世界累計出荷本数が400万本を突破しました。プレイしていただいた皆さま、誠にありがとうございます。
1月10日(月)までセールも開催中ですので、この機会にぜひお楽しみください。
■購入はこちら
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000028021.html
#ゼルダの伝説 #Zelda" — @zelda_musou on Twitter, January 5, 2022 (Archive)