Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Is Adding A Lot More Depth To Combat

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I recently had a chance to play about 20 minutes of the new Hyrule Warriors game, Age of Imprisonment, and it has a lot to offer fans of both The Legend of Zelda and Musou-style games. Importantly, this game is officially part of the Zelda storyline. Unlike the previous game, Age of Calamity, which played with alternate timelines, Nintendo is confirming that the events of Age of Imprisonment are canon and will be considered true within the main Zelda story. We already know how the story ends with Ganondorf, but this game explores what happened before and after those events, answering some long-held questions.

As a fan, I’m really excited about the characters they’re including in Age of Imprisonment! From what I’ve seen – Zelda, Rauru, and Mineru – the roster looks fantastic and has a ton of potential. It’s shaping up to be a really fun group of characters to play as!

While exploring the underground with Rauru, Mineru, and Zelda, we learned it was Zelda’s first time down there – she hadn’t even known this place existed! Mineru explained that the depths contain several important locations and that she’s been gathering constructs to study them. She couldn’t explore on her own until Zelda arrived, as Zelda’s light powers are effective against the constructs.

Each character fought in their own way. Zelda used both a unique Zonai sword and magical light attacks, while Rauru favored spears and energy beams. Mineru, meanwhile, relied on a variety of devices built from Zonai technology.

Having played a lot of *Age of Calamity*, I quickly felt comfortable with the combat in this game, but even players with a little experience in similar action games should be able to learn it easily. It features all the familiar elements from the previous game – regular and strong attacks, combos, dashes, special moves, blocking, targeting enemy weak points, and collecting materials. The attacks are visually impressive, cover a wide area, and are just plain fun to use.

The R button menu in Age of Imprisonment has been revamped. Instead of the Sheikah Slate, it now features powerful, unique skills. You’ll find a strong dash and vertical attack, plus the ability to use Zonai devices at any time. Even better, you can use these devices to perfectly counter enemy attacks! The Y button dash counters incoming attacks, like a construct’s forward lunge (borrowed from Tears of the Kingdom), while the X button counters aerial attacks, such as a Frox’s leap. While these attacks deal damage on their own, timing a counter is much more effective, as it allows for an additional follow-up attack. These skills have a cooldown, similar to the Sheikah Slate abilities. You can also customize the A and B buttons with different Zonai equipment, each with unique properties, accessible through the directional pad menu. This allows you to adapt your loadout based on enemy weaknesses. Just remember that Zonai equipment requires Zonai batteries, which need to be recharged.

What’s great is that you can set up certain devices in the environment and they’ll work on their own, increasing your overall damage output. Because there’s no risk of hitting yourself, you can freely use things like flame emitters as part of a powerful attack strategy – thankfully!

Like in Tears of the Kingdom, enemies in this game have familiar strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Frox still love to eat bombs and are vulnerable to attacks on their eyes or the ore deposits on their backs. If you’re already familiar with Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll quickly understand how to defeat enemies here.

The biggest difference in this game compared to Age of Calamity is the introduction of Sync Strikes. These aren’t just strong attacks that need two characters – the fact that they *require* teamwork changes how you play. Musou games are usually about splitting up and taking on different parts of the map, but Sync Strikes force you to think about when to combine forces and when to work alone. It’s a fresh take on the traditional Musou formula.

I think Sync Strike attacks are a huge improvement to the game. Before, in the Age of Calamity, players mostly sent characters off on their own missions. Now, teaming up two characters for a Sync Strike feels like a much faster and more dependable way to defeat enemies. This makes you think more carefully about how you position your units and plan your attacks, especially since Sync Strikes take time to charge.

Every time you combine characters for a Sync Strike, the resulting attack is different. You might get powerful, controllable beams or even see a character transform into a stronger form, like Mineru’s upgraded construct. Because some attacks will work better than others depending on the situation, players will have lots of chances to try different combinations and find the best strategies. Creating all these unique Sync attacks for every character in the game sounds incredibly challenging for the developers, but that also means the game will likely offer a lot of strategic depth and customization options.

Even though the preview was brief and ended with a small hint of what’s to come, I already have a strong feeling that Age of Imprisonment is going to be excellent. The game seems really solid even now, and I’m even more hyped for its November 6th release knowing there are still more characters to be revealed!

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2025-09-25 04:10