The Legend of Zelda games are no strangers to recreating the universe in a similar yet distinct way. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is another one of these adventures into an alternate timeline. Nintendo’s seemingly immortal series receives another refresh from devs, Koei Tecmo and AAA Games Studio, the creators of the Dynasty Warriors series, and they fuse their gameplay styles seamlessly into the realm of Hyrule on Nintendo Switch 2. 

In this particular iteration, Zelda is the one swept into a different timeline, specifically back into the past of Hyrule, to the age of imprisonment. Alongside her new friends King Rauru and Queen Sonia, the journey begins, where Zelda will uncover the history of the Zonai and how it shaped the future of Hyrule, acting as a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom. Harnessing the power of light, Zelda and friends must purify evil, defeating minions called “Shades” and, of course, encountering The Legend of Zelda’s ultimate antagonist, Ganondorf.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has visuals quite similar to Tears of the Kingdom, while feeling like its own entity. With a gorgeous light bloom effect, colourful environments and stunning character models, Hyrule and its inhabitants are breathtaking to look at. From the opening cutscene, I was in awe, especially with how incredible the Zonai king and queen looked, and the visual quality stands up in-game as well. 

Those who have played the Dynasty Warriors series will be familiar with the “musou” gameplay, essentially a sub-genre of hack-and-slash games, which focuses on taking on massive crowds of enemies at a time. It seems like an overwhelming concept, but it is handled with plenty of ways to take the simple hack-and-slash concept and enhance it with the addition of freely interchangeable characters, each with their own movesets, use of Sync Strikes for team-ups and Zonai devices, like bombs and flamethrowers, to deal with a crowd in one sweep.

The fast-paced hack-and-slash gameplay is incredibly satisfying, with hits feeling impactful, and combos being able to obliterate crowds and for larger enemies, there’s enough variety to keep you on your toes. 

Exploration via the world map plays quite differently from the traditional open-worlds of the Legend of Zelda series. Here, it plays more like a strategy-game campaign, with Story Battles, quests and “aside quests” used to collect resources, gain skills and level up characters. Completing points on the map opens up more of Hyrule. The linear gameplay can, at times, feel repetitive after a while, but there are enough switch-ups on objectives and special conditions to keep things moving. I do wish there were more opportunities for world exploration, as the short stints in each area didn’t allow much time for appreciating the environments.

Battles strike a nice balance of needing to focus on what’s happening around you and adjusting strategy as needed. There are various difficulty levels, from Easy to Very Hard, making it pretty accessible to most players. Some missions are more challenging than others, with timed objectives, denser crowds of enemies and bosses.

As a bonus, there’s a “Two-Player Mode” that allows for local co-op splitscreen when docked or using GameShare, facilitating local co-op play with another Switch 2 being used by the second player. 

 I was surprised there were limited framedrops considering how many enemies and particle effects were on-screen at a time. The game performed slightly better docked and looked incredibly crisp on the big screen, with characters and the world popping perfectly, and with only minor drops or graphical issues. The handheld mode looks nice, but it loses some detail in the character models and experiences some small drops, as well as a few instances of slow texture loading. Still, with the Switch 2’s screen and graphical capabilities, it’s an excellent title for the big screen, on the go, or a cozy night in bed snuggled up with the handheld mode. 

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment feels like its own entity, but with plenty of elements that The Legend of Zelda fans will adore. The soundtrack goes from beautiful orchestral numbers to epic battle themes. The sounds as I hacked, slashed and slammed through enemies were glorious, and the addition of a few iconic “Zelda” trills throughout was a feast for the ears. I greatly appreciated the fully voice-acted cutscenes, which allowed me to really enjoy delving deeper into the characters and their world. The interactions felt engaging, and I felt emotionally invested in the party members.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment takes the action-adventure series into a different direction with hack-and-slash gameplay. The game expands the lore of the The Legend of Zelda series, while feeling like an entirely new world.

Written by: Yasmin Noble