Keep calm and cut down moblins
By Paul Hunter
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has that familiar comfort if you have been with the Hyrule Warriors series from the start. The Zelda musou spin-off that started as a curious experiment has grown into a strong series, and this time it aims right at the era Tears of the Kingdom only teased. If you already love hacking and slashing through entire armies in a few button presses, you will feel at home almost immediately.
This time the focus is the Imprisoning War that sits in the background of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Instead of hearing about it in cutscenes, you jump into it directly as Princess Zelda and a roster of ancient Hyrule heroes. The campaign is presented as proper canon, and that gives every victory and setback a strong sense of weight since we known the impacts in later games of the Zelda timeline.
As a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, it takes advantage of the system's capabilities with nice visuals and smooth action even when the screen fills up with Bokoblins, Constructs, and effects. The games also makes it easy to team up with friends and family with split-screen co-op or GameShare. With a map that fills up with missions and side fights, it feels built for long sessions where you just keep clearing “one more” quest.
Is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment the right way for Zelda fans to finally dive into this slice of the series' history? Let’s find out!
She is found by her ancestors, King Rauru and his Hylian wife, Queen Sonia, and from there you watch them try to deal with the emerging threat of demon king Ganondorf. Zelda already knows exactly how bad Ganondorf can get, so a lot of the early story is her trying to push that warning through while everyone else still thinks they can trust him. The fallout of those choices is what shapes this whole era.
The narrative splits its time between Zelda’s side of the conflict and a second group built around the Mysterious Construct and his Korok partner Calamo. The Construct mirrors Link in some ways, and the story takes its time revealing why he exists and how he fits into the bigger picture. By the time the truth comes out, his role in the war and his connection to Zelda’s situation make solid sense.
Story scenes are frequent, high quality, and have weight to them. You get quiet moments with Zelda and Rauru, energetic arguments over what to do next, and clever scenes where Ganondorf is scheming and making moves. There are plenty of familiar faces and locations if you have played recent Nintendo Switch games, and the way it all wraps up left me really satisfied with how this period eventually leads to the events in Tears of the Kingdom.
Where it gets fun is how all 20 heroes handle. Everyone has their own pattern of strikes and charged moves, and once you get a hang of that, their Unique Skills give you even more offensive tactics. Those are mapped to a button combo and act as quick answers to specific threats. For example, Zelda can unleash her Temporal Counter to reflect incoming projectiles, while Mineru can call upon her Boundless Energy technique to halt energy consumption for a short period of time.
Sync Strikes add a cool bit of planning and can quickly swing the battle in your favour. Every character fills a Sync gauge while they fight, and when two of them are topped off, you can pull those units together and trigger a combined attack. There are loads of different pairings, so half the fun is seeing what happens when you bring unlikely allies side by side. It also means you think more about who you send where instead of spreading everyone out.
Zonai devices are the other big pillar. They replace the old rune skills and become your elemental toys. You can slot them into combo enders, toss them into the stage to act as traps, or even rely on them for counters when bosses flash big warning markers. I had a stretch of missions where I leaned on bombs and flame tools, dropping them into choke points and then luring big mobs through. Watching those explode right as a Sync Strike landed felt so satisfying.
Level layouts stay straightforward, and before long you can almost predict where the next base will appear, but the on-rails flying stages, challenge missions, and steady sense of weapon growth kept me excited to hit “deploy” again and again.
The missions target 60 frames per second and stay close to that mark. I ran dozens of stages in handheld mode on the couch and a similar amount docked on a TV, and in both cases the action stayed consistenly smooth. Only when I stacked several huge attacks at once in a massive crowd did I notice a momentary dip, typically bouncing back to 60fps quickly.
Co-op can take that down a notch but it still feels good. Running local multiplayer at around 30fps is a fair trade considering how flashy the effects can get when you're both unleashing devastating full-screen moves.
Visually, the game present ancient Hyrule in all its glory. The world has vast fields, fortified outposts, and familiar structures in their early state, while The Depths give you harsher, gloomier battlefields. Enemies look detailed and animate nicely, and there is something satisfying about watching a whole wave of Horriblins and Lizalfos topple when a big move lands.
Story pre-rendered cutscenes run at a lower frame rate than gameplay, but they look sharp and are staged with a good mix of wide shots of armies and close-ups for key character moments. Zelda, Rauru, and Ganondorf all look fantastic with their detailed cel-shaded style.
Menus and UI play it smart by borrowing from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The world map looks like it is presented on a Purah Pad, icons are clear, and even when the map fills up it never feels cluttered. The soundtrack and English voice work are also fantastic, tying action and story together, and the built-in music player is a neat perk once you have a few favourites.
Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Developer: AAA Games Studio, Koei Tecmo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Hack and Slash
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has that familiar comfort if you have been with the Hyrule Warriors series from the start. The Zelda musou spin-off that started as a curious experiment has grown into a strong series, and this time it aims right at the era Tears of the Kingdom only teased. If you already love hacking and slashing through entire armies in a few button presses, you will feel at home almost immediately.
This time the focus is the Imprisoning War that sits in the background of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Instead of hearing about it in cutscenes, you jump into it directly as Princess Zelda and a roster of ancient Hyrule heroes. The campaign is presented as proper canon, and that gives every victory and setback a strong sense of weight since we known the impacts in later games of the Zelda timeline.
As a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, it takes advantage of the system's capabilities with nice visuals and smooth action even when the screen fills up with Bokoblins, Constructs, and effects. The games also makes it easy to team up with friends and family with split-screen co-op or GameShare. With a map that fills up with missions and side fights, it feels built for long sessions where you just keep clearing “one more” quest.
Is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment the right way for Zelda fans to finally dive into this slice of the series' history? Let’s find out!
Story and Narrative
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment wastes no time dropping you into one of the biggest moments in Zelda history. The story picks up right after Princess Zelda is thrown back in time at the start of Tears of the Kingdom and plants her in a Hyrule that is at the brink of war.She is found by her ancestors, King Rauru and his Hylian wife, Queen Sonia, and from there you watch them try to deal with the emerging threat of demon king Ganondorf. Zelda already knows exactly how bad Ganondorf can get, so a lot of the early story is her trying to push that warning through while everyone else still thinks they can trust him. The fallout of those choices is what shapes this whole era.
The narrative splits its time between Zelda’s side of the conflict and a second group built around the Mysterious Construct and his Korok partner Calamo. The Construct mirrors Link in some ways, and the story takes its time revealing why he exists and how he fits into the bigger picture. By the time the truth comes out, his role in the war and his connection to Zelda’s situation make solid sense.
Story scenes are frequent, high quality, and have weight to them. You get quiet moments with Zelda and Rauru, energetic arguments over what to do next, and clever scenes where Ganondorf is scheming and making moves. There are plenty of familiar faces and locations if you have played recent Nintendo Switch games, and the way it all wraps up left me really satisfied with how this period eventually leads to the events in Tears of the Kingdom.
Gameplay and Mechanics
If you already like Warriors-style action, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment feels like someone took that template and just kept layering fun gadgets and tag-team tricks on top. The basics are familiar: you rush to flashing points on the map, you clear zones by wiping out whatever stands there, and you keep one eye on side objectives so you do not lose some random outpost while you are busy.Where it gets fun is how all 20 heroes handle. Everyone has their own pattern of strikes and charged moves, and once you get a hang of that, their Unique Skills give you even more offensive tactics. Those are mapped to a button combo and act as quick answers to specific threats. For example, Zelda can unleash her Temporal Counter to reflect incoming projectiles, while Mineru can call upon her Boundless Energy technique to halt energy consumption for a short period of time.
Sync Strikes add a cool bit of planning and can quickly swing the battle in your favour. Every character fills a Sync gauge while they fight, and when two of them are topped off, you can pull those units together and trigger a combined attack. There are loads of different pairings, so half the fun is seeing what happens when you bring unlikely allies side by side. It also means you think more about who you send where instead of spreading everyone out.
Zonai devices are the other big pillar. They replace the old rune skills and become your elemental toys. You can slot them into combo enders, toss them into the stage to act as traps, or even rely on them for counters when bosses flash big warning markers. I had a stretch of missions where I leaned on bombs and flame tools, dropping them into choke points and then luring big mobs through. Watching those explode right as a Sync Strike landed felt so satisfying.
Level layouts stay straightforward, and before long you can almost predict where the next base will appear, but the on-rails flying stages, challenge missions, and steady sense of weapon growth kept me excited to hit “deploy” again and again.
Presentation and Audio
Looking at the presentation, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment looks fantastic, easily the best graphics yet for the series on Nintendo platforms. Using the power of Nintendo Switch 2, the game pushes a lot of enemies, effects, and big bosses at you, and it mostly does so without sacrificing performance.The missions target 60 frames per second and stay close to that mark. I ran dozens of stages in handheld mode on the couch and a similar amount docked on a TV, and in both cases the action stayed consistenly smooth. Only when I stacked several huge attacks at once in a massive crowd did I notice a momentary dip, typically bouncing back to 60fps quickly.
Co-op can take that down a notch but it still feels good. Running local multiplayer at around 30fps is a fair trade considering how flashy the effects can get when you're both unleashing devastating full-screen moves.
Visually, the game present ancient Hyrule in all its glory. The world has vast fields, fortified outposts, and familiar structures in their early state, while The Depths give you harsher, gloomier battlefields. Enemies look detailed and animate nicely, and there is something satisfying about watching a whole wave of Horriblins and Lizalfos topple when a big move lands.
Story pre-rendered cutscenes run at a lower frame rate than gameplay, but they look sharp and are staged with a good mix of wide shots of armies and close-ups for key character moments. Zelda, Rauru, and Ganondorf all look fantastic with their detailed cel-shaded style.
Menus and UI play it smart by borrowing from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The world map looks like it is presented on a Purah Pad, icons are clear, and even when the map fills up it never feels cluttered. The soundtrack and English voice work are also fantastic, tying action and story together, and the built-in music player is a neat perk once you have a few favourites.
The Verdict
As a package, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment brings together sharp musou action, an excellent Tears of the Kingdom prequel story, and rock-solid performance into something easy to recommend. The combat gives you a ton of satisfying tools, and the visuals and audio match that high ambition. Co-op is the icing on top, turning big set-piece fights into shared chaos. It is a top-tier entry for both Zelda and Warriors fans.Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment details
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2Developer: AAA Games Studio, Koei Tecmo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Hack and Slash
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.