Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity announced (NSW, Releases 11.20.2020)

[Fabulously Olivier]

Maybe Paya will also be in with a less ninja more tech moveset?

[Etrurian emperor]

29 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Maybe Paya will also be in with a less ninja more tech moveset?

Paya and by extension her parents are a bit too busy not being born yet for Paya to be playable. 

I think you may mean her sister Purah. She might be like that. She seems to be voiced by the same woman as Lissa if the dlc is to be believed. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

So when is the 2nd character announcement happening today?

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

So when is the 2nd character announcement happening today?

I think they meant Daruk who's technically a new character in the sense that his gameplay hadn't been shown yet. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

21 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think they meant Daruk who's technically a new character in the sense that his gameplay hadn't been shown yet. 

Bummer... oh, well, the game has been nothing but hype so far.

[Sire]

GameXplain has some new-ish videos regarding HW: Age of Calamity from Game Live Japan. Don't think they have been shared here yet.

5 Min Gameplay, Guardian Battle - https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=f8k6h5US3BE&ab_channel=GameXplain
-- Only occurs near the very end, but cuts off. However, the "Rune Powers" may be applied in different ways per character.
15 Min Gameplay, Daruk & Link's Spear - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWIEKl2EKU4&ab_channel=GameXplain
Daruk Gameplay Overview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52vk8nEGIJw&ab_channel=GameXplain

I haven't seen them myself yet, but overall the game looks great! A part of me wants to get the HW Switch port in celebration (and to play the new story missions and mess around with new characters), but the grind to level everyone is insane.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Sire

[Etrurian emperor]

I think Impa being more ''Moe'' this time around might have been thanks to Urbosa. The baddass, maternal guardian to Zelda already exist in Urbosa so Impa's usual role would be redundant.

[Fabulously Olivier]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think Impa being more ''Moe'' this time around might have been thanks to Urbosa. The baddass, maternal guardian to Zelda already exist in Urbosa so Impa's usual role would be redundant.

I think you're right. But also, no one is more "Moe" than best girl/fish Mipha. 

[Etrurian emperor]

Something interesting to note. We can see the main characters in Gerudo town where some event happens where they must protect Zelda. We can also see Link rather than ''Linkle'' in this scene, meaning that in this game Link was allowed into Gerudo town without crossdressing. Kind of a shame really. The idea of Zelda and Urbosa arranging the disguise for a thoroughly flustered Link would have been a fun little scenario. It also detracts a little bit of the worldbuilding. 

 

[Gregster101]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Something interesting to note. We can see the main characters in Gerudo town where some event happens where they must protect Zelda. We can also see Link rather than ''Linkle'' in this scene, meaning that in this game Link was allowed into Gerudo town without crossdressing. Kind of a shame really. The idea of Zelda and Urbosa arranging the disguise for a thoroughly flustered Link would have been a fun little scenario. It also detracts a little bit of the worldbuilding. 

 

Maybe something happened between the 100 year gap that caused Gerudo Town to suddenly ban men? I dunno, maybe there will be an arbitrary excuse for why Link can enter without a disguise

[Lord_Brand]

I don't care for crossdressing, so I don't mind. Far as I'm concerned, the "No Men in Gerudo Town" law is stupid, sexist, and inconvenient. BotW would have been better off without it.

[indigoasis]

Another case could be that, since Link is one of the heroes here, he's allowed in for that reason? He's Zelda's bodyguard too, after all. Unless there's something in BotW that contradicts that theory, that's an explanation for why Link is allowed in just fine.

I should also note that Urbosa is there, so she easily could have let Link in since she was the Chief of the Gerudo at the time. Even then, I really don't think that they're gonna have the time to worry about a male (Link in this case) being in Gerudo Town since it looks like they're about to battle. It's better to have a capable warrior at your side than kick him out of the fight just because he's a dude.

[Lord_Brand]

Exactly! Might as well not have that law and be open to all travelers like every other town in Hyrule. Would have saved us a good few trips to the inventory to equip clothing that is otherwise functionally useless. Sure, it grants heat resistance, but so does Desert Voe Armor, with significantly better defense, and you can cool yourself down by eating chilly food or equipping frost weapons. But you still have to switch to the Gerudo outfit every single time you want to enter the town, all because the game says so. At least Goron City offers a much better excuse to wear Flamebreak Armor (you'll literally catch fire), the armor itself provides defense on par with most of your other armor sets so you can feel justified wearing it outside the city, and you're presented with an alternative in the form of Fireproof Elixir.

But, enough of my ranting about Gerudo Town in BotW. It's interesting that Link doesn't have the Master Sword here. Could just be a choice of equipment, but I'm curious to know if there's a storyline reason.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Lord_Brand

[indigoasis]

5 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

But, enough of my ranting about Gerudo Town in BotW. It's interesting that Link doesn't have the Master Sword here. Could just be a choice of equipment, but I'm curious to know if there's a storyline reason.

He probably just doesn't have it yet at this point in the game. He'll get it later on, I'm sure, so it's most likely related to the games weapon progression system, assuming there is one.

[Lightchao42]

Younger Robbie and Purah are here!

[Etrurian emperor]

Good to see Purah still has a bit of Lissa in her. And young Robbie is just amazing

 

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

Younger Robbie and Purah are here!

Technically, it's older Purah if we're talking about physical age rather than chronology. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

I love these additions. Just add in the King and maybe a new character or two and we're golden.

[Lord_Brand]

I haven't seen the trailer yet, but Purah already looks hot. 💜 Looking forward to seeing her, Robbie, and Rhoam's movesets later today.

EDIT: Okay, now I've seen the trailer. So, no gameplay this time, but still neat to see Purah and Robbie in their prime. I'll be very surprised if they aren't playable.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Lord_Brand

[Etrurian emperor]

15 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

I haven't seen the trailer yet, but Purah already looks hot. 💜 Looking forward to seeing her, Robbie, and Rhoam's movesets later today.

EDIT: Okay, now I've seen the trailer. So, no gameplay this time, but still neat to see Purah and Robbie in their prime. I'll be very surprised if they aren't playable.

The British description of the trailer implies they don't be playable, describing them as a ''brain trust'' 

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The British description of the trailer implies they don't be playable, describing them as a ''brain trust'' 

Well, we'll probably find out for sure today, as there is a treehouse on the game.

[Florete]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The British description of the trailer implies they don't be playable, describing them as a ''brain trust'' 

That's vague at best, and I doubt they'd spend a trailer on non-playable characters, especially known characters like these two who people definitely want to play as.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I was definitely expecting a deeper dive in the presentation. Zelda and Urbosa got showcased in a main story mission. The biggest reveal is the world map screen which is being used to contextualize the mission structure. It looks great but makes me wonder if they plan on sectioning off the game's content between a Story Mode and Adventure Mode like in the previous game. I'm guessing they're not. They also show how you use the game's various resources (excess weapons, foodstuffs, and materials) to complete what look like side objectives that also strongly impact character progression like Link's moveset expansions. I'm happy to see a replacement of the grindy badge system, but weapon upgrading looks pretty unengaging. Only providing miniscule (5 or less percent) increases to the character's parameters. The game's UI implies you could upgrade the sledgehammer 20 times, but their commentary claimed it was only 5 times so I'm not sure what else to make of it.

I do appreciate the confirmation that our weapons don't break, however. They really teased us by cutting away from the main mission when the Molduga showed up. As well as by showing Mipha clearly in the roster but not selecting her. I can't help but notice how massive the maps are - seemingly encompassing all of that region. I have to wonder what the boundaries are on each mission and whether the player can get creative in their approaching of far off objectives. Knowing that the maps would be this large, I find myself wishing that things like the paraglider and climbing were in the game. It's starting to seem like the game developers were equally confused whether they were making breath of the wild or a warriors game. Here's hoping it all makes more sense when the game is in our hands.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I'm really worried about the inclusion of Korok hunts. One of the worst parts of HW is how it breaks the flow of gameplay (in a genre that's all about constant action, objective pressure, and time efficiency) to hunt down heart pieces and golden skulltulas. 

 

That kind of "keep replaying the level or use a guide" gameplay loop is not something I want in my Warriors game. I just want to be immersed in the action.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I'm really worried about the inclusion of Korok hunts. One of the worst parts of HW is how it breaks the flow of gameplay (in a genre that's all about constant action, objective pressure, and time efficiency) to hunt down heart pieces and golden skulltulas. 

 

That kind of "keep replaying the level or use a guide" gameplay loop is not something I want in my Warriors game. I just want to be immersed in the action.

I've gone back to the grind in Hyrule Warriors in the past few weeks and I have much to potentially say on this. The KO count is my least favorite thing because the player is forced to stop and grind kills, and sometimes the benchmark is so high there aren't 1600 enemies in the map to kill in the first place. You need to wait as bases periodically spawn more for you, but also be careful not to take that base by killing the keep boss. But above all I wish the game just told you the numbers you need for an A rank on each map by pausing. So much information is deliberately kept from the player to force them into using a guide in order to avoid having to replay that map for something they missed. Having a guide up for everything is tedious and defeats the idealized purpose of "zelda gameplay" where the player is searching for treasure.

Golden Skulltulas incidentally got better in the Hyrule warriors re-releases, because you often have other characters to command. And their only real purpose is to serve as "warp points" for objectives like that whenever you don't want to run across the map one more time. The ocarina warping is also a big help in this regard, but very few of the missions have those warp points to use.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Glennstavos