THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: AGE OF CALAMITY REVIEW

 

I finished recently the Main Quest of Age of Calamity and as always I would like to express my opinion on the new Zelda experience that Nintendo offered us.

For the ones that live under a rock with a Korok, it’s not a regular Zelda game, but a Hyrule Warriors title, with a lot of hack and slash, battlefields and lots of Champions to choose from.

So if you remember my Hyrule Warriors Legends review – if you don’t look it up on my blog – I really love warfare in the Zelda Universe and seeing a Breath of the Wild prequel like that, made me so hyped about owning and playing that game.

So after finishing the Main Quest let’s move into the review about the things I liked and the things that I would change.

First about the things that I liked about the game:

1. This one is a given. I love fantasy warfare, the battles were amazing and the whole “war atmosphere” was right there. So if you at least liked Hyrule Warriors then you will LOVE Age of Calamity.

2. The storyline is great and really gives even more value to Breath of the Wild, since the 2017 title had given us only bits and pieces about the history of Hyrule and the Calamity.

3. Every place of Hyrule can be a huge battlefield. From Hyrule Castle to Faron Woods and Death Mountain to Gerudo Desert we experience battles that will decide the future of the land.

4. Very large roster of monsters and bosses, with many element versions of bosses we see in Breath of the Wild, the boss battles never get boring and every one of them can make you sweat a bit.

5. Loved the map system of choosing the next battle or side-battle you will venture on. Great way of feeling like a general in the war against the forces of Calamity.

6. The playable Champions give even more depth to the characters we met in BotW just in memories and some cutscenes. You can now feel real connected with them, since you fight by their side.

7. The Hyrule Military Training, the Blacksmith, the Shops on Hyrule Field and all the sidequests really give more possibilities on strategizing your way through the game

8. The level of cutscenes and storytelling is through the roof. Really, the final cutscenes from the Main Quest can make you feel so many things like anger, depression, excitement and relief. What an amazing story.

9. There is also an after-ending Quest that will give you at least more 5-6 hours of battling through Hyrule.

10. The music of the game is a masterpiece once again. I loved so many tracks from the game and there are points that the music even changes when something happens on the battlefield, like a particular enemy appears or you deplete an enemy’s Weak-Point Gauge.

11. Using the Divine Beasts. That is all.

 

Now the things that I would/could change:

1. The game’s battles are getting a bit repetitive at some point. If you want to get the full experience of the Main Quest you have to battle through 20 Main Battles and 122 Side Battles, which can be tiresome after some point.

2. Well it happened again. Age of Calamity is a prequel and a sequel at the same time. So in the new Unified timeline we now have two new branches coming after Age of Calamity. The one that the Champions fail, which leads to Breath of the Wild and the one that the Champions succeed with the help of the future Champions as we see in the end of Age of Calamity. Really Nintendo? REALLY?

3. Playable Characters like Hestu, Maz Koshia or the Great Fairies, really ruin the emersion for me. To be fair I never used them unless the Side-Battle I was on, forced me to.

 

In conclusion, is Age of Calamity a good game? HELL YES. For me is a game that gave more lore and history to this new Unified Timeline’s Hyrule, something that Breath of the Wild didn’t do for me. I really hope that Hyrule Warriors Style games will be a thing for the future of the franchise.

 

My top-5 Champions to use:

1. Link – Lv69

2. Impa – Lv68

3. King Rhoam – Lv66

4. Revali – Lv65

5. Daruk – Lv65

 

At the end of the War, my Warrior's Log was looking like this:

109.651 enemies Killed

109.923 Rupees Looted

 

Bosses Defeated Counter:

Revali: 4

Teba: 1

Sidon: 1

Link: 1

Daruk: 3

Master Kohga: 4

Sooga: 9

Astor: 2

Impa: 2

Mipha: 3

Urbosa: 3

Hestu: 2

Monk Maz Koshia: 1

Kysa, the Great Fairy: 1

Cotera, the Great Fairy: 1

Tara, the Great Fairy: 1

Mija, the Great Fairy: 1

Guardian: 45

Malice Guardian: 15

Fire Guardian: 6

Ice Guardian: 4

Electric Guardian: 3

Lynel: 6

Blue Lynel: 7

White Lynel: 7

Silver Lynel: 4

Malice Lynel: 2

Ice Lynel: 2

Fire Lynel: 5

Electric Lynel: 7

Stone Talus: 11

Igneus Talus: 8

Frost Talus: 5

Malice Talus: 1

Hinox: 8

Blue Hinox: 4

Black Hinox: 8

Malice Hinox: 3

Fire Hinox: 6

Ice Hinox: 6

Electric Hinox: 8

Stalnox: 6

Molduga: 4

Waterblight Ganon: 3

Fireblight Ganon: 3

Thunderblight Ganon: 3

Windblight Ganon: 3

Harbinger Ganon: 1

Calamity Ganon: 1

You can buy "Age of Calamity" here