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Preview: Hyrule Warriors

Hyrule Warriors is an odd beast. On one hand, it’s kind of brilliant to pair the universe of The Legend of Zelda with the gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. On the other, it takes everything that makes Zelda, Zelda and replaces it with endless hacking and slashing. I’m torn. At this stage it’s great to see games of any description coming to Wii U, but at the same time I’m not convinced that Nintendo has made the right choice here.

The crossover of Warriors and Zelda fans — outside of Japan at least — isn’t likely to be all that large, but perhaps I’m being overly critical. The most important thing is how the game plays; from my experience at E3 it’s not too shabby, although not something that has managed to get me hyped. It’s an odd situation when something holding The Legend of Zelda label and featuring Link doesn’t illicit joy and instead barely raises an eyebrow.

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If you’re familiar with the Dynasty Warriors games then you basically know everything you need to about Hyrule Warriors. It’s Dynasty Warriors in a Zelda suit. You could say that Hyrule Warriors is Buffalo Bill and has systematically kidnapped, thrown down a well, force-moisturised and then skinned several Legend of Zelda games to fashion into a Zelda suit. If that sounds macabre and something of a Frankenstein, well that’s how Hyrule Warriors plays.

In my hands-on I was only able to use Link and it was initially off-putting to see him move so quickly towards hordes upon hordes of enemies. Hyrule Warriors looks like Zelda, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like Dynasty Warriors… which is the point I suppose. The magic of The Legend of Zelda hasn’t been captured though, so the game feels like a shallow grab for your hard earned. Link is able to carry out various combos attacks by alternating horizontal and vertical slashes which generally end in a devastating final flurry, one of which being his signature Spin Attack. Other Zeldaisms found in Hyrule Warriors include opening a chest to the fanfare typical of the series, using said bombs to blow up boulders and enemies and force feeding them to King Dodongo.

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Part way through my playthrough, King Dodongo entered the field and my objective changed from fighting the horde to defeating the giant lizard. I tried to slash him a few times and found him to be basically invincible. He sort of wandered around on the spot for a while, generally just trampling everything underfoot and then he started breathing in to charge up for his flame breath attack. It was then that I realised that I was — kind of — playing a Zelda game. I threw my bombs as he inhaled and sure enough they were dragged down his gullet and exploded inside of him.

The explosion left Dodongo flipped onto his back and vulnerable to my attacks. I repeated the process three times (as is customary) and victory was mine. It was fun and had a touch of classic Zelda, but it still didn’t feel right. It was window dressing on an otherwise standard Dynasty Warriors experience. I know I keep harping on about how Hyrule Warriors is too much Warriors and not enough Hyrule, but I’ve never been a fan of the Warriors series and haphazardly slapping Link and a random assortment of The Legend of Zelda’s characters into that franchise just doesn’t do it for me. It might for you and if that’s the case then all the better. But it’s not for me.

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Hyrule Warriors does boast high production values. The game world and characters are very pretty and nicely rendered and everything is nice and crisp and colourful thanks to the Wii U. There are a huge number of playable Zelda characters included and the line-up features many females which is great. It’s even better that despite being developed by Tecmo Koei there aren’t an abundance of barely covered breasts on display. What a refreshing change of pace.

If you’re a huge Zelda fan you might get a kick out of Hyrule Warriors and if you’re a Dynasty Warriors fan you’re sure to find something to love. For me though the whole concept feels off. There’s not enough Zelda to make the Zelda fan in me excited and to overlook the fact that Hyrule Warriors could have just as easily been made as DLC. Dying for something to play on your Wii U? Maybe pick up a copy come September. There’s certainly potential for a lot of fun, but in my short time with it I wasn’t sold.

Hyrule Warriors will be available exclusively for Wii U on 20 September.


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DeltaPhoenix08