SDCC 2014: Hands-On With ‘Hyrule Warriors’

Hyrule Warriors, the marriage between the Legend Of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors, has been well documented since its surprise reveal many a Nintendo Direct ago. New characters, weapons and enemies have been revealed at a rapid pace, and yet, it was still hard to get too excited over a game that at first glance, appeared to be another Dynasty Warriors with a Link skin. Could this new game bring some of the Zelda flair to a game play style that has felt stale for years now? Being ever so diligent, we hit the Nintendo Lounge at San Diego Comic Con to find out.

Featuring Link, Zelda and Midna as playable generals, I got the chance to play as the two ladies on display. Link gets enough screen time, don’t you think? At first glance, it may not look like it matters too much who you play as, but both characters offered a variety of combat options, making them both feel distinct.

Starting with Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule shows off her plethora of light magic attacks to eliminate foes that happen to surround her. With a unique mechanic that forces her to charge up her skills, a quick tap of the A button would fill up the meter, allowing her to end combos with devastating attacks, combining her newfound rapier skills with her proficiency with spells. When her special meter is all charged up, a light arrow that destroys anything in front of her emphasizes her dominance. It’s no wonder she’s usually in the background of the core franchise games. We can’t have her overshadowing the legendary hero, no can we?

With Midna, she doesn’t fight with a traditional weapon, and many of her attacks force her to get right in the faces of enemies. Yet when she attacks, she does so in a few ways, both of which take advantage of her magic from the Twilight Realm. Standard attacks create a wolf that she temporarily mounts, which attacks with the ferocity that Link had back in Twilight Princess. When surrounded, Midna does her best Bayonetta impression by swinging her transformed hair, damaging the enemies around her. After powering up, she uses her hair to spike a giant ball of energy down onto the field, devestating the opposition in the process. Well played, Twilight Princess.

Aside from the combat, the Zelda series has its fingerprints all over the objectives from the demo. While the structure of the maps will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s touched a Dynasty Warriors game, leading your character to different points on the map to eliminate enemy generals, the goal of each mission was surprisingly varied. For example, enemy reinforcements burst through a cave, opening a hidden path with a treasure chest containing bombs. Now added to my arsenal, they could be used to uncover paths as well as in combat, just like a core title.

When it came time to face off against the stage’s boss, (King Dodongo from Ocarina of Time), hacking and slashing wasn’t enough to take it down. In true LOZ fashion, puzzle solving came into play, forcing me to throw bombs in its mouth to do heavy damage. The reward for playing well was a cinematic flurry of attacks, leading to an easy victory once played right.

I might be still on the fence as to whether I would pick this up on day one, but from what we’ve seen, Hyrule Warriors offers more than we could have ever expected, joining aspects of both franchises to create a potentially special experience. In addition to the Adventure Mode, new weapons and characters shown during its dedicated Nintendo Direct, and it’s looking like this game is becoming more and more deserving of being on our radars.

Are you a believer yet? Hyrule Warriors will launch exclusively for Wii U on September 30th.