Hyrule Warriors is a game blend of the Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors. I personally have never played a Dynasty Warriors game. But I have played every single TV consile Legend of Zelda game many times and I have played Mystic Heroes (a very similar game to Hyrule Warriors) many times. This review will just address the main (im my opinion) points fo the game and at the end I'll give my conclusion.
Graphics/Aesthetics
I have read many people complain that Hyrule Warriors has terrible graphics. I disagree with this totally. Sure there is no High Definition perfection here, but what we get are presented with looks very good. The cut scene videos are very very good. Almost Blizzard Entertainment quality (this is a huge compliment). The only downside I have on the cut scenes is it seems the subtitles and voices were changed to english but the video part is not changed at all, meaning the characters mouths still move in Japanese. I am not 100% sure about this but I thought I felt this as I was watching the cut scenes.
The game menus are done very well. It's easy to understand everything and what each game mode is. The game does not tell you that you have to beat the first Legend Mode level to unlock most of the other game modes. I do have one issue. The view your characters area seems to only have Link and Impa in it for me. Even though I have finished Legend Mode. I don't know why this is. Also at times the game says I have earnt various historical data. But I have no idea where this historical data is to view it. Feels like a bug to me. Other than this the menus look nice and are very easy to navigate.
Music/Sound
I listened to some of the music samples before I played the game and they just sounded wrong to me. But as I listened to the same pieces in game, they sounded ok and well done. I think a traditional legend of Zelda game could not (and should not in my opinion) have a rock/electric guitar styled soundtrack. But for this game it seems to work. You can choose any music you want to play in the background of your levels too which is very nice. Overall I think the music chosen fits in the game very well, but I don't this soundtrack is one people will be playing for generations to come in iTunes. Zelda SNES soundtrack? Sure it's a masterpiece. Hyrule Warriors soundtrack? Very well done, fits very well within the game, but the music does not tell the story here, it only sets the mood while the battles tell the story.
Gameplay
You can play Hyrule Warriors 3 ways.
- Wiimote
- WiiU Gamepad
- WiiU Pro Controller
I have tried all 3 and they all work well. The only concern I have with all 3 is that is there is no way (I know off) to turn off the Gamepad's screen while playing. I know it has information on it but when playing with a different controller I'm not looking at the Gamepad at all.
The good parts though are that one controller is not inherently better than the other. It's just up to your preference. The information on the WiiU GamePad you can get in the in Battle Menu by pressing start so you don't miss out on anything. And you can customise the buttons to any layout you want so everyone should be happy there too. The controller inputs feel relatively lag free in single player despite the large number of sprites on screen at once. Having to memorise which combo attack does what is not really needed. Just smash out any that fancy you and most of them do damage. Also the game features special attacks that use a full focus meter. They are relatively powerful but their animations feel a little disjointed at times. By that I mean not fluid in battle, it's like time stops, the animation sequence for the special attack happens then time returns and you do damage. It's not too bad and you can get used to it but the first few times it did get to me somewhat.
There are three main modes in the game:
Legend Mode
This is the main story. You play mission after mission till you beat the game. Mostly each mission is the same thing, take as many forts as you can and kill whoever the mission objective says while protecting all your allies. And it's not as easy as it seems. Having your main base over run and losing because of this happens a lot if you're not careful. Also knowing when to attack and when to defend is important too. Lots of thought needed. Legend mode has 4 difficulty modes. Easy/Normal/Hard. These difficulties are fine, they progress well and hard is hard in the right ways with the a decent weapon. The difficulties differ mostly with the amount of enemy health and amount of damage you take. The enemy AI for the most part is the same on all difficulties. The difficulty aries from the fast it's harder to protect everyone when things take longer to die and hurt you more. Hero on the other hand, which is the 4th and hardest difficulty just feels like a grind. Hero difficulty is unlocked when Legend mode is completed. You need to seriously grind character levels, good weapons and materials for badges to not have Hero difficulty feel like a marathon where you die in a few hits but the enemies take forever to beat.
Easy/Normal/Hard is a great experience and very fun. Hero is not . . . but this leads me on to the next game mode.
Adventure Mode
This is a map, same one as in Zelda 1. 128 map squares. Each map square has a battle scenario in it. This is where you'll spend a while in to earn everything. The issues here is most of these battles here are very hard and require good weapons and character levels to get A rankings on. And many of the battles here have rewards that require specific characters to earn. This means you have to grind up levels, weapons and materials for badges just to be able to do many of these battles. Also most of the good weapons are unlocked in adventure mode itself meaning you have to grind levels and get the best random weapons you can before you can unlock the better weapons here. The fact you can buy alt levels up to your highest levelled characters level is a very nice idea. But that ***** becomes very expensive, so +EXP attributed weapons help to lessen the grind for EXP and gold (to buy levels) for all of your characters. Adventure mode is a grind and requires a grind before you can do it properly.
Free Mode
This mode is exactly the same as Legend Mode except you can play any character you have unlocked in any level. This is the place that people will farm gold and levels before seriously attempting Adventure mode. All the items (including the skulltulas) that are in Legend Mode can be acquired here too. (Hard/Hero mode Skulltulas still have the same character requirements. Do them on hard and not Hero mode unless you are looking for an insane challenge).
Conclusion
I think Hyrule Warriors overall is a nice concept. A game of one army vs another army set in the Legend of Zelda universe. And it works very well. Looks very good, plays very well. Legend mode does feel a little on the short side. But it is a very interesting mode and the story there I really enjoyed. Past this mode (ie Hero difficulty and Adventure Mode) is a real grind. You are killing the same horde of enemies you've seen in Legend Mode over and over and over. Sure Adventure Mode mixes the formula to a lot to make things interesting, but it's major downside is the barrier to entry. You require some serious grinding to get the A rankings in Adventure Mode. Legend of Zelda fans used to games with little to no grinding (Skyward Sword material grinding excepted) will feel this as a big shock. But if you are ok with this, then you have a great game with many hours of (somewhat repetitive) fun.
My Review Score
8/10
- Dynasty Warrior and Mystic Heroes fans should certainly look at this game.
- Legend of Zelda fans should really think before buying this game as it's nothing like any other Legend of Zelda game before it.
- Fans of games with randomised loot drops (the weapons and materials) should take a look too. If you hate this kind of game, maybe Hyrule Warriors is not for you.
- I personally love the game, bit it's certainly an acquired taste hanse the rating. For me 9/10 is something so good even non fans would love it.
, Zelda 
, Impa, Sheik, Ganondorf and Lana 
