Hyrule Warriors Legends: A Review and Mini Rant

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    Since I don’t have a Wii U, I felt rather left out on the whole Hyrule Warriors hype, since it had raving reviews, so I’m glad that there’s a 3DS version now, and with updated content to boot. And now here it is- I can get the full Hyrule Warriors experience and more now.

 

    Lemme tell you- even on Easy mode, this game proved challenging for me. I’ve never been much of a strategist. Before this, the most strategic games I ever played were Risk and Fire Emblem. And maybe some Dungeons and Dragons. It’s definitely nothing like I’ve ever played before, especially in a Zelda game, but I’ve gotten used to it now, so I say it’s a rather welcome change. Although they upped the difficulty of the AI, and I think they expect way too much of the player to try and A-Rank seemingly impossible-to-A-Rank missions in Adventure Mode just to progress through the map and gain new weapons.  I often find myself confounded as to how one can get 1200 kills in under 15 minutes with less than 4000 damage done to you. Though for some characters, like Sheik, Linkle and Link, can accomplish this without much effort, with other characters it’s a challenge- and it also depends on the mission itself.

 

    I admit I am let down by a few things. One of them being that alerts on like enemy invasions or allies needing help, are often very delayed because so much is going on. Sometimes, shit just keeps happening over and over again and it feels like certain missions really drag on, especially on huge maps with no owl statues to warp to. Secondly, you have the music. It’s great, but the tracks that have a particular heavy emphasis or focus on using electric guitars just don’t cut it. They’re executed improperly. They sound like punk rock and that’s not what I need in a Zelda game. If you’re going to mix electric guitar and drums with Zelda songs, do it the right way- a la Nightwish style music. Symphonic metal, not punk rock!

 

    I feel like I should also touch up on skins. I feel that they should be more than just cosmetic. It’s really off-putting to play in Wind Waker Ganondorf robes but hear his HWL voice, or playing as Skyward, Twilight and Ocarina Link with HWL Link’s voice- and yet Fierce Deity Link (not the skin, the weapon), retains the original voice files. And rather than unlockables through Adventure Mode on 3DS or as paid DLC for the Wii U version, I feel that they should have been incorporated into Legend Mode- incorporated into the story. Imagine- HWL Link, Zelda and Impa meeting their counterparts from the other timelines. That would have made for a much more interesting story. And same thing for Ganondorf, imagine him pairing up with his past selves. And on that note- it’s a shame WW Ganondorf had no role in the Wind Waker epilogue either. Or even Toon Link for that matter. What, is it just too awkward for two different Links to meet up?

    
Another thing I noticed is that unlike the Wii U version, most of the cutscenes seem to be prerendered this time, rather than using the in-game graphics. In the Wii U version, you could even use skins to change how a cutscene looked, i.e. Proxy meeting Skyward Link when you go back to play The Armies of Ruin. I suppose this is an understandable change though, since it’s different hardware than the Wii U and they want the story mode’s scenes to look the same as on Wii U. At least the skins show up when opening a chest or completing a mission. One of my current favorites to use is the Outset-inspired tunic for Link.

 

    And speaking of Link- one thing that ever so slightly bothers me is that Skyward Link has become a lefty. Now as much as I really dislike Skyward Link being a righty, it just feels a little awkward seeing it suddenly corrected after playing Skyward as much as I did. In truth, I feel no Link should ever be a righty. I mean it would have been okay if the Skyward manga wasn’t ambiguous and was straight up non-canon- then Skyward Link could be the First Link and thus be a righty- the left handedness being a result of Demise’s curse. But as it was requested by Anouma himself and at least tries to tie up some lose ends left by the actual game, I can’t see it being non-canon either. Nintendo needs to speak up and confirm it already.

 

    I’m not going to bash the story- despite my above statements stating skins should have had their proper voice acting, handedness and should have played roles in the story to spice it up. Aside from those, I actually really enjoyed the story. A lot of people bash it for its romantic under/overtones, and for bringing three eras together. “Oh no, that doesn’t make sense at all! It’s bad! Good thing Aonuma said it doesn’t count!” You know what I say? FUCK Aonuma. He may be the head of the Zelda team but the timeline has enough errors and loose ends as it is; he’s bound to say something stupid about it. Just lookit what he said about Tri Force Heroes.  And another thing- he’s forgotten how alternate universes work in the Zelda franchise. You either have timeline splits, or pocket worlds, both of which are brought in via the Gate of Souls’ timeshifting (see below). You can’t have a pocket Hyrule. Plus you have certain locations. The Valley of Seers being similar to Lanaryu Desert, the Temple of the Sacred Sword- at least the sanctuary part- being similar to the Lost Woods in TP where the Master Sword was located, the way Faron Woods- a TP location, is depicted (kind of open and with lots of big trees, like the Beta Forest). Even Lana’s in-game dialogue suggests it’s meant to be canon. “So this is what Hyrule was like when the Twilight invaded.

 

    And how does the bringing in of other eras from the past not make any sense? Did you people NOT play Skyward Sword? Remember TIMESHIFTING? The Gate of Souls is essentially a more powerful version of The Gate of Time, only it doesn’t have to be a physical thing- it can be conjured up purely through magic too. I mean come on. Think about it. The Valley of Seers is in a Desert with odd formations and colored rocks. Timeshift stones are also found in the Desert. It could very well be an alteration to the timeshift stones that enable such terraforming to bring in other eras on a massive scale. An alteration so great it doesn’t even need a physical gate. Plus, Lana has a Gate of Time WEAPON, which the Level 3 version of is the Gate of Souls. If that doesn’t tell you that the Gate of Souls is a magically enhanced Gate of Time, I dunno what will.

 

    RE: the romantic under/overtones of the story. No big deal. There’s always been a dynamic between hero and princess. And before you complain about Cia being sexualized- stop and think. Zelda’s armor is also sexualized- a literal breast plate is part of her armor, and her dress is more open, shoulders exposed, etc. So why is Cia a big deal when her sexualized outfit also has an emphasis on her boingy bits? Because she’s the villain? Because she fell for Link? I feel that I must remind everyone that the sexualization of Cia is a plot point. She didn’t do all this on her own. While she was acting as Guardian of Time, she came under Ganondorf’s influence. It was this influence that resulted in some of the deadly sins, like lust and envy. Cia KNEW the outcome already- as revealed in the story, and yet she went ahead and let herself be consumed by Ganondorf’s influence anyway. She wanted to see if she could change the future.

 

    And now to address some things in the story that may not make sense to you. If it’s implied to be post TP- how did Impa know about the Era of the Hero of Time? Well, I assume the role of Guardian of Time was created by the Royal Family and that some information from said guardians were passed onto the Royal Family. Impa was told about the Era of the Hero of Time, but Zelda withheld information regarding Sheik, hence why Impa has no clue who Sheik is when they first meet.

 

    Then there’s the fairy claiming to be Navi. This been corrected in the 3DS version as the dialogue boxes during gameplay say just “Fairy”. Thank God. That was a big error. Navi would never forget who Zelda was. Random fairy though? Yeah. Totally makes sense. It was even pink like a recovery fairy. Again, changed in the 3DS version- now it’s whitish blue, so just a generic non-recovery fairy.

 

    Now, regarding the different eras. At which points in time do these rifts and terraforming occur? Here’s my take on it. For the Era of the Hero of Time, it must be early on into the Adult timeline- well, after the 7-year timeskip, but it must be when Link was starting his new adventure as an adult. Why? Neither Ruto nor Darunia have gone to their respective temples yet, or perhaps Darunia went in real quick to grab the Megaton Hammer, as in-game dialogue kinda suggests. “I’ve got the Legendary Hammer!” For Twilight Princess- this is post-game. Midna has been turned BACK into an Imp by Cia, and later on, Ganondorf says to Zant and Ghirahim that if they don’t obey, they will die again. They’re resurrected. For the Era of the Knight of Skyloft, it’s pre-game. Link has not pulled the Goddess Sword from its pedestal. Simple enough. However later on you do unlock the Skyward Skin- and Link didn’t receive his uniform until after pulling out the Goddess Sword if I recall.

 

    For the Era of the Great Sea- it’s a bit harder to tell. Seeing as the Phantom Sword is an upgrade, it could be post Phantom Hourglass. But with Tetra on Windfall, and the King of Hyrule alive and well, it’s difficult to place. It could be when Tetra met the King- things could have been interrupted. After all, she was away from her crew at the time anyway so of course she’s separated from them. If it’s not at that point, perhaps some time after finding New Hyrule, Tetra went back to the Great Sea to visit the islands. That could very well explain why Link wasn’t with her in the story. And as for Aryll having a pirate’s charm? It could have been given to Aryll post Wind Waker, before setting sail for the Realm of the Ocean King. Doesn’t really make sense how they paired off the Lokomo Sword with Wind Waker’s Mirror Shield though.


    I’m a bit disappointed that the decline timeline has barely been touched upon. All we’ve got for that are skins of Hilda and Classic Link, oh and the stylized White and Magical Swords. We’ve got Marin coming as DLC later on though, plus a Link between Worlds pack which might include Ravio. It’s a shame Koei Tecmo has tensions with Capcom however. If they didn’t, maybe we would see content from the Oracles games, or perhaps even Minish cap. Imagine playing as Veran, Onox or Vaati.

 

Ok, so time to actually tally up a score for this game:

Gameplay/Difficulty: 8.0

Story Mode: 9.0

Music: 7.5

Replay Value: 8.5

Overall score: 8.25

    It’s a marvelous game, and imo, a welcome departure for the Zelda franchise. While not perfect it doesn’t deserve unwarranted bashing for slotting itself post-Twilight or having some romantic elements and sexualization justified by storyline events. Koei Tecmo did a marvelous job and still is with the upcoming dlc updates. It’s sad- Nintendo’s Zelda team is so focused on being secretive about Zelda Wii U that their efforts on other games churned out in the meantime have been slipping. Tri Force Heroes had a terrible story and TPHD is just gross looking without bump mapping and specular lighting or upped polys. Nintendo, when a third party is handling your franchise better than you are with better storylines, that’s a wakeup call to stop focusing so much on being quite while developing your main project and learn to better multitask.

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