YMMV / Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

• Angst? What Angst?: Zelda's relationship with Terrako comes into a strange point when the Terrako she's close with is from the future, but the possessed one by Ganon is from the present, but she doesn't seem to even express worry for her present-day toy as much as she does with the one from the future. It's almost as if she just accepted Future Terrako as a replacement. Ouch.
• Ass Pull: The future champions traveling back in time to save the original champions is a stretch for several people, considering that Terrako isn't even from the same time period as them.
• Awesome Art: The boxart has received a near-unanimous positive reception, with many people choosing to go physical simply because they like the boxart that much.
• Awesome Music: While the general consensus is that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had a good soundtrack, it was nonetheless quite divisive due to how understated it was for the most part, with only a few standout tracks capturing the epic vibe the series is known for. Age of Calamity, on the other hand, crafts a much more vibrant soundtrack, fitting the fast-paced gameplay of the Warriors series, while also showing off what Zelda's Orchestra can do. Some go as far as to say this is the best soundtrack the entire franchise has produced in recent memory. Notable tracks include:
  • "Overlooking Hyrule", a beautiful rendition of the game's main theme that's played when on the map, and "Battle of Liberation" which is a grand theme all around.
  • "The Knight Who Seals the Darkness" and its second iteration, two rousing renditions of The Legend of Zelda Main Theme played when Link first draws the Master Sword.
  • "With power Awakened", a powerful and soaring theme where the piano and violins celebrate Zelda finally unlocking her hidden powers, and promptly proceeds to disable in one-go all four of the Blights. This theme is a reprise of "Zelda's Awakening" from Breath of the Wild, and is a pretty apt theme for one of the battles which was the turning point for both Link and Zelda in the original game.
  • "In Dire Need", which plays when the Hyrulean forces are mounting a rescue to save the champions from the Blight Ganons. The theme conveys a sense of urgency, appropriate considering you are on a Timed Mission. What really sells this track is the music variation when you manage to put one of the bosses into their weakened state, celebrating your character turning the tables in their favor (even moreso if you play the respective champions from the original timeline when doing so.).
  • "Rescue Operation" is an epic battle theme with just a pinch of nostalgia mixed in.
  • "A Quiet Moment", a soothing and elegant piece that plays during touching moments in between battles. Elusive as these scenes are, this music highlights the simple joys and moments of respite the characters are able to enjoy. This theme playing during the Secret Ending makes the touching reunion with Terrako even sweeter.
  • "Overlooking Hyrule (After the Calamity)", which plays on the post-game map screen after the heroes have averted the Calamity. After listening to the doom-laden music that accompanied the Calamity itself for so long, it really gives you the feeling that it is finally over.
• Base-Breaking Character: Astor, the Prophet of Doom, has proven to be rather divisive. His fans appreciate him for being portrayed as dead-serious and intimidating, especially in light of several previous non-Ganon villains such as Zant and Ghirahim having rather Campy potrayals. Others consider him rather uninteresting for having less characterization than previous Zelda villains and for his relative lack of screentime and backstory.
• Breather Level: After the brutality that is Remnants of the Calamity, the next challenge is... Harbinger Ganon. Not even a harder version, just Harbinger Ganon. While he is a challenge, it's nothing next to fighting the four Blight Ganons two at a time.
• Broken Base: One of the biggest hurdles when discussing a Broken Base with fans or non-fans of the game is figuring out their disappointment or enjoyment either as a semi-prequel of Breath of the Wild, a sequel to Hyrule Warriors, or a fan of the Warriors franchise in general.
  • It is a Warriors game, a series of games well-known for its gameplay formulae and its shortcomings. While the Age of Calamity gameplay variations are, overall, well liked, not to mention the expanded story and interactions with the Champions, people used to the genre will be disappointed by the lack of side objectives and the complete lack of tactical aspect of this game, not to mention the overall bad gameplay performance of the title, which is unable to keep a stable framerate, with some missions and characters making the Switch struggle quite noticably. In addition to the problem with the tactical aspect, there are those who feel the difficulty of Age of Calamity comes solely from the limited time on the side missions and the bosses having a large pool of attacks rather than the more typical tactical requirements in Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, or even other Warriors games where managing your characters across the battlefield is more important than singular targets. That said, there are also those who argue boss fights in the franchise often are not particularly hard outside one annoying enemy or two, whereas the added difficulty in fighting bosses and other characters in Age of Calamity with their larger repertoire of attacks and focus on using the runes to create openings is an active benefit to the game and sets it apart.
  • Ever since it's revealed Terrako used Time Travel to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and actually succeeded in doing so, the fandom was divided on the game's canonical status with the rest of the mainline games. Fans who were disappointed about the happy ending of the game or have a strict standard of canon have insisted that the game was a non-canon spinoff, often citing details that Age of Calamity contradicts before the Alternate Timeline factor comes to play (namely that Link was supposed to already have the Master Sword with him since his childhood according to the Creating a Champion guidebook). Other fans disagreed with the stance, pointing out that unlike the first Hyrule Warriors, this game had direct involvement from the Breath of the Wild development team (even pitching and writing the story itself) and that the Zelda franchise was no stranger to retcons or split-timelines in the past, even pointing out that Creating a Champion was written from early development notes that could be subjected to change in the future.
  • Related to the previous note, a lot of people have pointed out that the writing of the game as a whole feels like fan fiction in terms of quality, since it has a lot of tropes that are associated with that type of media^note The whole story is essentially like a Fix Fic of the backstory of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are a couple of instances of Ass Pull in key moments, and even Terrako, while not a Self Insert character, many think he's written like a Spotlight-Stealing Squad Original Character. However, the opinions on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing are kind of split, since supporters argue there's nothing wrong with having that evey once in a while, specially in a Spin-Off game; not to mention that the original Hyrule Warriors was exactly that (although, unlike with Age of Calamity, the marketing didn't try to obscure that part). Detractors, on the other hand, think that this game being a Spin-Off doesn't excuse the lacking writing, or that at the very least, they should have tried to find a more elegant way of being a crowd-pleaser.
  • Link, following the tradition of being a Heroic Mime throughout the entire franchise, doesn't get to talk on-screen. While whether Link should be given his own voice or not was a long running debate in the fan base already, Age of Calamity is somewhat unique in this regard, and has given the "pro-voiced Link" side an additional argument. Age of Calamity is the game in the franchise that uses more extensively fully voiced cutscenes (over 2 hours of them, no less) and elaborated dialogue. However, every time that Link is about to actively join the conversation, the entire scene is halted on its tracks, and the other characters just awkwardly stop talking until something else draws their attention, or worse, the cutscene just... ends. And developers seem to have had realized this, since as a result, Link is pushed to the background during most of the game cutscenes run time, which majorly contributes to Link feeling dangerously close to being Demoted to Extra in the narrative. For people who advocate for Link receiving his own voice, Age of Calamity highlights the limitations of Link still behaving like a Heroic Mime, and that it demonstrates that this approach to the character has run out its course.
  • There's also some debate over the very nature of the game compared to the first Hyrule Warriors. Many wish this game had been a full blown Intra-Franchise Crossover like the last game, rather than centering itself entirely on the Breath of the Wild era. While a large amount of games were represented in the original, there were still plenty of games not represented (most notably the Oracle games and Minish Cap), there were many characters from other games that people wanted to play as (such as Groose, Vaati, or Saria), and most of the characters added in the original game's two waves of DLC didn't factor into the plot. Others simply wanted to see more from the original characters like Linkle and Lana. This gets especially loud for fans of the older games who never actually got into Breath of the Wild for one reason or another. And in terms of gameplay, there's also a lot of fans of the original who deeply miss the Magic Meter and My Fairy features due to how useful they were before.
  • How large the character roster is can also spark arguments for and against. Depending on who you speak to, there is a divisive opinion on who should and shouldn't have been playable in comparison to other titles. the previous Hyrule Warriors (30 characters plus extra modes with two others in the Definitive Edition), and other spinoff titles such as Fire Emblem Warriors (25 base game, 34 with DLC) or One Piece: Pirate Warriors (43 base game, 52 with DLC) have rosters filled with large swaths of characters in comparison to Age of Calamity (18 base game, 21 with DLC). Most of these titles have their own debates on the rosters, with some characters that players feel should be playable while others feel the number of the characters already available justify their NPC status and even others who are unhappy no matter what characters are made available. As such, this debate isn't even just limited to Age of Calamity, but can be sparked heavily given it has the smaller roster of many of the spinoff titles. Additionally, much like Fire Emblem Warriors, there are those who are upset that you have to pay to use characters included in the game (Sooga) as DLC while others are just happy they made a playable version available and are much more forgiving. Then it moves into the debate of how many unplayable characters should have been playable such as Astor, the Blight Ganons, Harbinger Ganon, and so forth. Discussions of this nature often compare previous rosters; the fact the original Hyrule Warriors allows you to play as all of the villains, whereas Age of Calamity only gives you the final boss and Master Kohga (Sooga with DLC). Essentially this is a landmine topic with a lot of nuances as to who justifies their argument how and under what criteria.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Fans who hate Revali due to his characterization as a jerk to Link in the original game are satisfied to be able to fight Revali in this game. To put the icing on the cake, Teba himself has a Broken Pedestal moment when he realizes how much of a jerk he is.
  • Using one of the four Champions to defeat the Blight Ganon who was meant to kill them in the original timeline, which can very easily be done in the final story mission. What's more, Age of Calamity implies that each Blight was far more powerful in the past and deteriorated with time as seen in Breath of the Wild, and yet because Link and co. were able to save them, the Champions are able to grow stronger still and come out on top solo.
• Character Rerailment: Even if he’s still voiceless, fans were very happy to find Ganon is still an intelligent and proud chessmaster rather than a mindless beast.
• Common Knowledge: The track "Revali, Ace Archer & Aviator" is very often uploaded to Youtube with the title "The Champion Revali". The latter name is actually from the song that plays while fighting your way to Revali, whereas the former is what plays in battle against him.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: It's pretty much a given that Link will be the one carrying the most weight, even if the player isn't familiar with the first Hyrule Warriors. He gets three movesets in a game where most characters are lucky to have more than one, all of them fast, powerful, responsive, and useful while fighting both groups and duels, and can use the Master Sword for one of them, which not only has very high attack power on a very fast weapon but throws out shockwaves if he's at full health for even more damage.
• Complete Monster: Astor, aka the Prophet of Doom, was born in a Hyrulean village and became obsessed with the power of Ganon. Becoming a self-styled prophet of Ganon and allying with the Yiga Clan, Astor plots to unleash the monstrous Calamity Ganon on the world so it would either submit to his own twisted will or be destroyed. Astor makes several attempts on Princess Zelda's life to prevent her from unlocking the power that would seal Ganon away; rips the souls out of his own Yiga allies to empower his Blight Ganons; and even orders Ganon to devour the heroes in the final battle at Hyrule Castle to fulfill his destiny as the man who brought forth this age of Calamity.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Long-ranged enemies, in particular, can become formidable foes, especially at Very Hard. A seemingly innocuous rock blast from an Octorok or a water spit from a Lizalfos can knock out 4 hearts at most, but then they all add up because they're grouped and are off-screen. These enemies sniping you from afar can potentially kill you without you even noticing that it becomes a priority to take them out first before the captain/boss.
  • Fire Lizalfos can breathe fire. Unlike the usual "get hit once for massive damage" projectile attack, these Lizalfos instead have a hitstun effect. You'll most likely get hit twice or thrice (and more if you get stuck in a corner). What's nasty is that these things can stunlock you effortlessly because they're in groups.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Sooga, Master Kohga's right-hand man, for being a Hypercompetent Sidekick foil to his master. Many players were disappointed in his being Killed Offscreen, only to be surprised during the second DLC release that it expanded upon the details of his character. The portrayal of his Undying Loyalty as an attempt to pay Kohga back for saving his life and asking only for a vague promise of payback later helped win over fans of the game who felt he was underutilized during the main story. While we never truly saw the end to Sooga, fans found themselves enraptured with this new member of the cast.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Due to the game being released over a year after the announcement of the unnamed sequel to Breath of the Wild, with series producer Eiji Aonuma also stating that Age of Calamity was intended to tide players over until the release of said game, many fans have predicted that this title will contain some key hints or Foreshadowing towards the sequel's story. The mysterious hooded figure shown in the second "Untold Chronicles" trailer prompted even more speculation.
  • One of the most prominent theories since the announcement is that the Foregone Conclusion about the Champions dying and Hyrule nearing extinction is actually a Red Herring, since the series is the poster child for multiple timelines co-existing. Meaning that there is the possibility of the Champions surviving in a Golden Ending, which could spin-off into a timeline of its own. This is exactly what happens in the game: the Champions all survive, thanks to their successors coming in from the future to save the day, meaning this game does indeed take place in an alternate timeline to the first game.
  • As soon as the second Untold Chronicles trailer featured a mysterious figure meeting up the Yiga Clan, indicating that greater forces are at play than just the Champion's ill-fated fight against Calamity Ganon's forces, fans immediately got to theorizing about the person's identity. Many fans agree that the figure will likely be the fortune-teller mentioned in King Rhoam's and Princess Zelda's diaries in the previous game, but their apparent connection to Ganondorf via the Gerudo Crest on their cloak has spurred even more theorizing. Characters this person has been theorized to include Yuga, Vaati, Ghirahim, an avatar of Ganon, or some version of Aganhim.
  • The game ultimately being an alternate timeline in which Hyrule wins the war causes speculation as to its relation with Breath of the Wild's sequel, including the idea of jumping between a ruined and more prosperous future, or even changing Hyrule's Bad Future into a Good Future as the result of the past already being changed.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: The game's camera has a habit of getting hung up on walls and corners when you're locked onto an enemy, particularly in narrow corridors.
• Evil Is Cool: Sooga is Master Kohga's Hypercompetent Sidekick who proves to be a surprisingly adept tactician and an honorable foe. His deep voice and distinct character design definitely help.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Since only the basics of Astor's backstory were explained, it leaves quite a lot of room for interpretation of who he was before becoming Ganon's self-proclaimed prophet.
  • Since this game is an Alternate Timeline, as plainly shown in its ending, it gives many so much ideas for what could happen in this timeline after the game's events.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Due to the nature of the game being a prequel and many of the leading characters in this game being Doomed by Canon as a result, some have referred to this game as Zelda: Reach, Zelda: Crisis Core, Rogue One: A Legend of Zelda Story and Zelda: The Golden Country.
  • Other fans have taken to affectionately shortening its name to "Age of Clams."
  • The little Guardian on the cover has gotten nicknames like "Potty" (as in "pottery", not Toilet Humor) and "Egg Guardian", due to its white color and oval shape. Fittingly, "Potty" ended up being the closest to its official name Terrako, as in "terracotta".
  • The reveal of a second, seemingly corrupted version has the white one dubbed Good Egg and the black one as Bad Egg. Some have also called the white one the Good Egg and the black one the Deviled Egg.
  • With the reveal that the story takes place in an alternate timeline, some fans have taken to calling this game Zelda: Endgame.
  • Mipha has gained the nickname "Thirsty Fish" due to her "thirsting" after Link in this game.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: While Purah was already an Ensemble Dark Horse from Breath of the Wild, her popularity would increase exponentially thanks to her redesign in the game, which depicts her as a far older looking and more attractive individual than her childlike design in Breath of the Wild. Likely as a result of the design's popularity, Tears of the Kingdom would likewise redesign her to have the appearance of a young adult instead of her original design from Breath of the Wild (handwaving the change as her having improved her anti-aging technology during the gap between games), which has caused her popularity to grow even more.
• Game-Breaker: Like the previous game, this game has its own page
• Game-Breaking Bug: The "matching seals glitch" is the result of programming oversight and an insufficiently tested mechanic which may result in one type of seal being cancelled out after another seal is transferred or removed from a weapon.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Octoroks. They hide underneath rocks and unless you're spamming the dash attack, they will attack you, and you will stop in your tracks every time you get hit by one, which is particularly annoying if you're rushing towards a specific location. At higher difficulties, they upgrade to Demonic Spiders due to how they can snipe you.
  • Keese, as fitting the trope name, is also this whenever you're trying to collect the Keese Wings you need for side-quests, as they are annoying to kill due to their small size.
  • Mobs with ranged abilities like water-spitting Lizalfos and weapon-throwing Bokoblins can be a nuisance. They can attack you without getting near you, catching you off-guard while you're busy wailing other groups of foes.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Before the DLC "Guardian of Remembrance" was released, Teba's farewell to Revali came across as him hiding disappointment after seeing that his hero turned out to be a petty jerk. But after the DLC was released, it now comes across as Teba finally seeing that Revali is a much kinder person than he lets on.
  • Revali's scene with Teba's son Tulin, with the latter expressing optimism in becoming a great Rito champion and mastering the Great Eagle Bow like Revali, with Revali expressing optimism in Tulin becoming master of the wind like him, becomes even more heartwarming in hindsight when it's revealed in Tears Of The Kingdom that Tulin is the descendant of the Rito Sage who fought alongside the first King of Hyrule 10,000 years ago, and Tulin ends up wielding the Great Eagle Bow after becoming the new Sage of the Wind. Not only that, but he is one of the most useful sages in the game in terms of combat due to his constant headshots coming in handy against enemies like Lynels.
• He Really Can Act: A lot of people stated that the voice acting in the English dub has improved from the previous game, particularly Mipha and Zelda, whose performance was seen as lackluster in the original.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A popular meme◊ in which a time traveler from the future refers to Breath of the Wild as being a trilogy becomes surprisingly prescient given that BOTW has both a prequel and a sequel. And Age of Calamity even involves actual time travel.
  • According to Masahiro Sakurai, he didn't include the Breath of the Wild version of Zelda as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate because he felt she was a researcher, not a fighter. Fast-forward to this game's announcement, and this version of Zelda found some time between her archaeological studies to learn how to effectively use the Sheikah Slate on the battlefield as a weapon in-and-of itself. Sure, it isn't your traditional magic-user Zelda, but she's a combatant nonetheless. Unless you're using her Light Bow moveset, in which case she is your traditional magic-user Zelda that could fit perfectly in Smash.
  • Two months before the game's announcement, the European Spanish voice actors for Zelda and Revali, Nerea Alfonso and Marcel Navarro, had an interview in a Spanish podcast where they joked about Nintendo's NDA practices with voice actors. Navarro openly wonders if they were allowed to say anything about their work on the next game, before being hushed on the spot by Alfonso. The anecdote got the attention of the English speaking video game press, wondering if this was a hint that (then still unnamed) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was closer than most people thought. After this game's reveal, which also confirmed the return of the original voice cast in all languages, it's easy to assume Alfonso and Navarro had Age of Calamity in mind instead.
  • One of the most common comparisons made between the game and another work prior to its release was Crisis Core, due to both games being billed under the same premise of being a prequel focused on a cast of Doomed by Canon characters. After its release, people continued to compare it to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII even harder, but this time for a different entry in the series: Final Fantasy VII Remake, whose initial premise also turned out to be a mask for a Stealth Sequel Set Right What Once Went Wrong plot, and whose finales manage to undo the Doomed by Canon status of the prequels' protagonists.
  • In the first Hyrule Warriors, Link wore a blue scarf with his iconic green tunic. By pure coincidence, the Champions in Breath of the Wild and this game also all wear blue scarves somewhere on their person as identification of their station. While this Link has a blue tunic, the green tunic and blue scarf are unlocked in this game as a reward for 100% completion and so he can now match the rest of the Champions.
  • On GameFAQs, a character battle poll was conducted in 2013, which saw Draven from League of Legends beat out Link in popularity, who's normally one of the most popular characters on the site. Draven is voiced by Erik Braa, who also voices Master Kohga in this game, meaning Link can duke it out with a Erik Braa character once more.
  • Back when Breath of the Wild was being shown, the first time they showed a Rito was the then-unnamed Revali. Memes and jokes of him being compared to Falco Lombardi were aplenty. Come this game where you have portions with piloting the Divine Beasts, the segment for Vah Medoh (the one Revali pilots) is heavily reminiscent of Star Fox. It feels like you're controlling the Great Fox!
  • While encountering Riju and Urbosa, Master Kohga claims that even if it takes him 100 years, he will claim the former's Lightning Helm for himself. Come The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and the Yiga Clan have ended up making a near-perfect replica of the Thunder Helm using Zonai technology.
• I Knew It!:
  • In the initial reveal of the game, fans spotted what looked like a younger version of Impa, leading to the natural expectation of a playable role for her. The Tokyo Game Show gameplay showcase on September 26, 2020 confirmed this, with her as the first character you recruit, just like the last time.
  • The Nintendo Treehouse livestream on October 7 revealed that Link comes from Hateno Village, which was a popular fan theory after Breath of the Wild said that the empty house you can buy there used to belong to someone who moved to Castle Town 100 years ago. This had previously been "confirmed" in the supplementary book The Legend of Zelda: Creating a Champion, but it was a little ambiguous if this was still official or had been cut.
  • There was a lot of fan speculation that there'd possibly be some sort of time-travel element to the game's story... and the game's intro shows that the mini Guardian sent itself back in time after the events of the Calamity to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Many people guessed that since the demo involved time travel, the future champions would make an appearance. The full game confirms this to be the case as the future champions travel to the past to save their predecessors.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • The final battle against Calamity Ganon also seems to be in response to the lukewarm reception of the Calamity Ganon/Dark Beast Ganon boss fight from Breath of the Wild. Rather than transforming into a half-dead, deformed spider monstrosity or an oversized boar, Calamity Ganon now assumes the form of a giant male Gerudo made of Malice and Guardian pieces, and because Zelda isn't holding him back like in Breath of the Wild, he starts off as nigh-invulnerable despite the combined strength of the Champions and their allies.
  • The Blight Ganons all possess new looks that are more colorful and visually distinct from one another, likely addressing complaints that the Blights as Breath of the Wild's dungeon bosses all felt too similar with the justification that they are recently created and at their prime.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Every character has enough good qualities that there's no outright terrible fighter in the roster, but to a casual player, The Great Fairies may be seen as the worst character in the game due to being slow and large characters that hog the screen real estate. This means that they not only have ridiculously huge hitboxes, but also that it's hard to tell if you're even hitting most enemies since your character is blocking the view (and probably causing Event-Obscuring Camera issues in the process), much see if foes are about to attack and if you should respond with a dodge or use a rune. Many claim to even have trouble beating their dedicated training mission. That being said, if you can adapt to all of this, and your button press timing is on-point, they are an interesting high risk, high reward character with incredibly high damage output and can decimate bosses in seconds. Their guard, while incapable of deflecting a laser shot, is very hefty and can resist all front attacks. Their YYYYX hits enemies in a massive radius while sucking them in a vacuum, destroying the weakness gauge so quickly. Their YYYYYX can deal heavy Weak Point Gauge damage on its own to an enemy that doesn't even have it exposed, and is even better when used in Stasis setups. And then there's their unique action, where Cotera can inflict a stacking, everlasting defense debuff on groups of enemies in front of her - the core use of this character. You can practically melt a boss by repeating this attack.
  • While he is by no means bad, general consensus among veterans of this game is that Daruk is one of the worst characters in the game, mainly because of his inability to cancel out of his Stasis rune's attack animation, with his Stasis attack not being nearly good enough to make up for it. This makes depleting weak-point gauges much more of a hassle with Daruk, making dealing tons of damage more difficult. This is made up with by his impenetrable guard meaning that he can simply wait for an opponent's weak point to appear, then quickly transition into his strong attack, but this isn't as quick as the other character's options that come with a cancelable Stasis rune and the slower pace of this strategy runs into the problem that most of the missions are timed. He at least has two weak point force attacks in his fifth and sixth strong attacks, both of which summon lava that can be denoated, but both of these methods are still very slow, both to come out and in terms of time efficiency.
  • The hits keep coming for Daruk, because while the Divine Beasts in general were considered kind of unwieldy, his Vah Rudania probably fares the worst of the four. While it has more directional mobility than the others, its ZR move has a completely separate targeting system from its regular shots that always starts off directly in front of it and has to be (slowly) moved to the intended target manually, so if you're aiming for something on your sides, it's basically useless. Worse, it's the only one of the four with no force field (ironic considering having one is Daruk's main ability) and can only block certain incoming attacks by catching them and throwing them back with one of its legs. This means it has absolutely no way of blocking certain other types of attacks like Lynel arrows and Wizzrobe magic beyond just killing the attacker.
  • Despite the hype that the game's story gives to it, Zelda's Bow of Light moveset suffers from similar problems to Daruk. She similarly has a Stasis attack that cannot be cancelled, but her moveset only has one weak point force move in her sixth strong attack, which itself is extremely slow and requires massive spacing. Even if you do land her sixth strong attack on an enemy officer, Zelda will most likely be too far away to follow up with a Stasis attack. The intention of Zelda's Bow moveset is seemingly to be less reliant on Weak Point Smash attacks and more on simply dealing heavy damage through her "rings of light" mechanic, arrow-based strong attacks, and Luminescent form, but this method tends to be rather slow unless her Bow is upgraded to max level.
• Magnificent Bastard: Sooga is the brave, loyal second-in-command of the Yiga Clan, and Master Kohga's personal bodyguard. Rescued by Kohga as a starving youth, Sooga repays his gratitude by becoming the greatest Yiga Blademaster of all time, serving as the field commander while Master Kohga naps in his hideout. On the battlefields, Sooga is a formidable and cunning foe, dividing the Hyrulean forces with feint attacks and sabotaging their equipment to hinder their advances. When the tide of battle turns against him, Sooga honorably withdraws his forces and takes full responsibility for their losses. When Astor betrays the Yiga Clan and sends his minions to harvest Kohga's soul, Sooga defends his master to the very end, making his Last Stand against four Blight Ganons while mortally wounded. His sacrifice moves the Yiga Clan to join Zelda's growing army against Calamity Ganon, with Master Kohga swearing to avenge his dearest comrade and bodyguard.
• Memetic Badass: Teba is found to be such a ridiculously overpowered fighter that fans have claimed he could defeat Calamity Ganon and his dark forces all by himself. This is also helped by the fact he's a just a skilled Rito archer rather than someone gifted. Many joked that the reason why Teba is replaced by Tulin as Link's main Rito companion in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is because Teba would make the game too much of a cakewalk.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • TFW this comes out before Scramble. ^ExplanationPersona fans had been waiting for any news on the localization of Persona 5 Strikers (at the time known by its Japanese name, Persona 5 Scramble) since its February 2020 release in Japan, with Atlus saying nothing about if the game would even be coming out at all until a random stock report confirmed it. The game wouldn't even get an actual release window until a week after this game came out. A game created by the same developers being announced and released in the West before Strikers was seen as perfectly dark comedy.
  • "Current Objective: SURVIVE"^ExplanationThis beings being the final mission of the game, as Halo Reach also has a cast Doomed by Canon due to it being a prequel.
  • The Legend of Zelda: [Fake Prequel Name] ^ExplanationIt's popular to edit the game's title from Hyrule Warriors to the more standard Zelda title followed by a fake tagline referring to prequels from other video game franchises. While it's not always the case, the prequels in question usually tend to be games also known for being about a cast of Doomed by Canon heroes, such as Halo: Reach, Crisis Core, and The Golden Country.
    • EVERYONE FUCKING DIES: Age of Calamity ^ExplanationRelated to the above, a far more blunt summary of the Doomed by Canon The Bad Guy Wins nature of the story summed up by a more appropriate title.
    • EVERYONE FUCKING LIVES: Age of Calamity ^{Explanation (Spoilers!)} Due to the game's Surprisingly Happy Ending where all the champions survive and Calamity Ganon is successfully defeated before the events of Breath of the Wild has led to this being summed up by fans who had expected the above to happen.
  • Urbosa Warriors: Age of Urbosa ^ExplanationFans have been especially excited for the chance to play as Urbosa.
  • "We've got some Zelda to tide us over until Zelda." ^ExplanationAge of Calamity got its first announcement more than a year after the Breath of the Wild sequel was announced, but is getting released first, which inspired many jokes about the odd release schedule and Sequel Gap. Eiji Aonuma even said himself it was a tide-over treat until the sequel main course.
  • Purah's appearance prior to her aging down has led to some Ninjala jokes and comparisons, due to the latter game's backstory also involving scientists turning back into children.
  • "He's gonna kill you all! To DEATH!" ^ExplanationThe second "Untold Chronicles From 100 Years Past" trailer has Master Kohga say this ridiculously redundant line. Fans instantly took a shine to it since it fits how Laughably Evil Kohga is, with many comparing it to "People die if they are killed," or "I'll kill you! I'll kill you to death!"
  • Paraglider Daruk ^ExplanationThe third "Untold Chronicles From 100 Years Past" trailer has a shot of Daruk using a paraglider. Fans originally latched onto the sight both for how hilarious and unlikely it is, and for how potentially terrifying a flying Goron could be.
  • R.I.P. Breath of the Wild and its sequel ^{Explanation (Spoilers!)} Because of the game's ending and the lack of development updates surrounding BotW's sequel, it's been joked that Nintendo is allowing you to cancel the sequel due to this game's ending preventing the events of Breath of The Wild, which means that game's story never happening meaning that the sequel to it will never be made thus giving a reason why no news of the sequel has popped up since its announcement. Subverted after E3 2021, where the sequel got a gameplay reveal and a 2022 release date. However, the sequel got delayed again and as of the September Nintendo 2022 Direct, It was revealed with a release date and the title "Tears of the Kingdom".
  • Teba meeting Revali and his reaction towards the latter's real attitude (among other things) made fans joke about various scenarios, like Teba tearing down Revali's Landing, or commenting on Revali's shortness.
  • "STEEL YOURSELF!" "I AM READY!"^ExplanationThat's Impa's special attack quote. She's the first playable character in the game who doesn't just speak in grunts, and her being one of the most powerful and easy-to-use fighters in your arsenal means many players will regularly use the royal advisor, and thus hear her Narmy voice acting for a large chunk of their adventure.
  • The scene where Link eagerly devours a Rock Roast given to him by Daruk is often treated as one of the game's most hilariously surreal moments by fans. To clarify, Link successfully and greedily eats a hunk of molten rock that is bigger than his torso as Zelda and Impa watch on in amazement and disbelief at sight.
• Moe:
  • Young Impa instantly endeared herself to the fanbase due to her cute mannerisms and ninja fighting style. Considering she's basically a playable Paya (herself an Ensemble Dark Horse), that was more than enough. The phrase "I simpa for Impa" has made an appearance more than once within the fanbase.
  • Terrako also endeared itself to the fanbase, due to its R2D2-like mannerisms, its communicative whistles, and being a Badass Adorable.
  • Older Purah still has every bit of energy and eccentricity as her child self from the original game, and thus has gotten this reception too, leading to some fan miffed that she wasn't a playable character. They got their wish with the Guardian of Remembrance DLC, where she's part of the dual Robbie & Purah character combo.
  • Just like in the previous game, Zelda is just as cute as she was before. And her younger version in her flashbacks is even more, and the only thing we get of this younger version is her voice, which is absolutely adorable, especially her little giggle when she finishes building Terrako.
• Moral Event Horizon: Astor crosses this when he turns against the Yiga Clan when they were the only ones to pledge their loyalty to him and uses their souls to power the Blight Ganons. Not even Master Kohga could stand by him after that.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • A sound inherited from the original Breath of the Wild game. It's the soft ringing noise of Zelda's sealing power.
  • Any time the little Guardian buddy plays Zelda's Lullaby to make the princess feel better when she's sad.
• Narm:
  • Using Hestu in any story chapter past his introduction chapter results in added humor, due to a combination of him being the only non-secret character that doesn't appear in cutscenes (aside from a brief background cameo when Hyrule's combined forces march on Calamity Ganon) after their introduction and having a really silly moveset.
  • You can have Link wear his underwear in cutscenes, or have him wear helmets that obstruct his face, or both. So it's possible to watch Zelda panic for Link's life as he fights off four Blight Ganons using a soup ladle and pot lid while in his underwear and wearing a really silly fish hat.
  • For some people, the game stretches Link's status as a Heroic Mime to its absolute limit, to the point that it can come off as unintentionally hilarious that he never speaks, ever. The base Breath of the Wild game could get away with it more, since there weren't that many cutscenes, the writing leans in to him being The Quiet One but even then implies that he does talk offscreen sometimes, and the game does have plenty of situations where he has dialogue options when talking to another character, making it pretty clear he is talking, even if the lines aren't voiced. Here, Link won't even say the names of the other characters when switching control to them like all the other characters do, and instead just sort of grunts awkwardly, making him come off less like The Quiet One and more like he literally can't speak, as if he were physically mute or something.
• Narm Charm: Master Kohga has a really silly moveset similar to Hestu's, but the whole prospect of him and the rest of the Yiga clan joining Zelda's side is glorious enough for it to not matter and it just ends up making people love him all the more. It also helps that unlike most examples of a Fighting Clown in games Kohga has several moments and attacks in his combo chains where he shows that he can be a badass when he applies himself.
• Older Than They Think:
  • This was not the first Zelda game to be touted by Nintendo as a prequel to a previous installment despite the game having a much different ending than what was previously established. In a 1998 interview, Satoru Takizawa and Toru Osawa stated that Ocarina of Time was a prequel to A Link to the Past, dealing with the origins of Ganon and the Imprisoning War mentioned in the backstory. Of course, said-backstory stated that no hero took up the Master Sword and Ganon got the whole Triforce when he was sealed away, both of which were contradicted by Ocarina of Time with Link pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal and Ganondorf being sealed away with only the Triforce of Power at the end of the game. ^note The incompatible nature of Ocarina of Time grew worse when future games like The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess ended up taking two possible timeline spots and neither leading up to A Link to the Past. Eventually, to reconnect the game back to A Link to the Past, Nintendo created a What If? timeline scenario where Ganondorf defeated Link and thus obtained the full Triforce.
  • This is not the first time that a Musou game in general has incorporated Alternate History into their games.
• One-Scene Wonder: Even players who didn't like the alternative timeline story, loved the Queen's very brief appearance in Zelda's flashback, due to how impactful her death was to Zelda and King Rhoam.
• One True Threesome: In stark contrast to the Ship-to-Ship Combat of its predecessor, Age of Calamity has a sizable section of fanbase that simply ships Link, Impa, and Zelda all together rather than pick between them. Sometimes Mipha is also included.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: The gameplay is praised as being a worthy successor to the previous Hyrule Warriors and a more than solid entry in the Musou franchise, having improved and built upon many elements in other entries. However, quite a few fans were disappointed by the story, as many assumed it was a true prequel to Breath of the Wild rather than an Alternate Timeline, with Nintendo hiding that information via Exact Words. And even those who didn't mind or actually enjoyed this still felt that at least some elements of the plot, such as the villain Astor, were surprisingly weak.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The Royal Guard weapons were powerful weapons in Breath of the Wild but they suffered from having infamously low durability, making them flagrant examples of Too Awesome to Use. They're back in this game, and with the durability system absent, they're a lot more powerful in this game, with the Royal Guard Sword potentially being more powerful than the Master Sword.
  • In terms of characters, Yunobo was the least popular of the Champion successors in Breath of the Wild due to his status as a Cowardly Lion turning his respective Divine Beast boss fight into a glorified Escort Mission. In this game however, not only is Yunobo a competent warrior in gameplay, he's become significantly braver and more willing to fight in-story despite retaining some of his lack of self-confidence, even thinking of ways to weaponize Daruk's Protection beyond just being used as a Goron cannonball. While he's still a Cowardly Lion, it does nothing to sour gameplay, putting more emphasis on the "lion" part of the trope. This character development also carries over into Tears of the Kingdom.
  • Teba was one of the more ignored new Champions in Breath of the Wild because of how most of the Rito-related stuff ended up being done by Kass. In this game he's one of the best characters to play as, and his interaction with his predecessor gave him a nice bit of follow-up characterization.
  • With the release of the second DLC "Guardian of Remembrance", Revali became seen in a more positive light by the fans, due to him revealing a soft spot for kids in his interactions with Teba's son Tulin after he helped Teba rescue him. Fans were often commenting on how heartwarming his cutscene with Tulin was in the secret ending for the DLC.
  • This game's King Rhoam is also seen in a more favorable light than how he was in Breath of the Wild. While he still is strict with his daughter, it's made more apparent that he did feel bad about treating Zelda that way and he's only treating her that way because he truly believes that's how Hyrule would be saved, something you'd only ever know in Breath of the Wild if you read his diary hidden within Hyrule Castle. But what really improves his perception among fans was the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save his daughter, and when it turns out that he hadn't died, he apologizes to her in a very touching scene where he reconciles with her. A lot people saw this game as the King's Redemption Arc.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic:
  • One irritating mechanic of the first Hyrule Warriors was that timers would still count down even during seconds-long special attack or weakpoint smash animations, which sometimes results in kills not counting if the timer hits zero during the attack or time necessary to getting a high rank being wasted. Age of Calamity remedies this by freezing the timer during those attack animations and doing away with the ABC/SBA mission ranking altogether.
  • You have to wait for the boss to do a certain attack in order to make the weakpoint gauge visible in the first Hyrule Warriors. In this game, you don't have to wait for it. Many things like environmental damage, rods, bomb rune, certain combos, and hitting the enemy's head can trigger the weakpoint gauge to appear, allowing for a faster engagement.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Many fans were disappointed that Ganon in Breath of the Wild was depicted as a mindless Generic Doomsday Villain and has no active presence in the game save for the Blood Moon events and the Blight Ganons. This game rectifies this problem by having Ganon actively communicate to his minions Astor and Kohga in preparation for his return, showing the cunning he was known for as the Gerudo King Ganondorf.
  • The "Guardian of Remembrance" DLC gives additional story missions that gives greater insights to characters fans felt were underutilized, especially Sooga. It also resolves potential continuity errors with "Creating A Champion" by revealing that Terrako had actually traveled much earlier in the timeline but was knocked offline by Harbinger Ganon for an unspecific amount of time, allowing Ganon to alter timeline events before the first Chapter begins. Fans also get to see more of Revali's softer side, especially in his scenes with Teba's son Tulin.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The Divine Beast sections can come across as annoying. While controlling gigantic beasts in a Dynasty Warriors game is fun in theory and can serve as a good way to break-up the usual gameplay, in practice the Divine Beasts are very slow and can feel unwieldy to control even after you get through the learning curve. They are especially cumbersome to handle if you're using motion controls, as the gyro aiming leaves much to be desired (and playing with split Joy-Con is near impossible, as aiming is based on the positioning of both controllers rather than just the right one, as has become customary in most Switch games). They often come after a long story mission and are lengthy in their own right. Another problem is that you don't get any EXP, weapon or material drops after the battle. With that said, Vah Naboris is generally liked because it's less restrained and easier to play, having an easier maneuverability on the ground complete with a trampling attack. Vah Medoh does have an all-range flight mode, but also requires a lot of switching between two different perspectives which some find annoying.
  • Unlike in the first Hyrule Warriors where performing a Weak Point Smash or Special Attack caused the enemies to freeze in place during the animation, here they will continue to attack which makes using those moves much riskier. It can get very frustrating, especially when a single mook lands a cheap shot because the player was unable to respond during the attack's end lag animation.
  • The forging system does not let you increase the weapon level cap unless the weapon itself has reached the current maximum level. In other words, if the weapon's max capacity was raised to 25 and you want to fuse it to a level 1 weapon, it will only reach level 20, which means you will lose 5 levels. You always have to get the weapon to level 20 first, then raise it to 25. The opposite can be just as bad, such as if you want to get a level 25-30 weapon, you are going to lose weapon economy for all that time wasted grinding for a high level weapon.
  • Sealed weapon skills cannot be removed unless you have the DLC patch, which allows it to reach level 50. Although some of the sealed skills are very helpful, some become obsolete or are useless from the start and if you want to remove a sealed skill it remains lost forever. This becomes more of a problem for exclusive weapons that you cannot sell, such as the Master Sword and Bow of Light.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: This game is much harder than the first Hyrule Warriors. You start off with a much lower heart count, Weak Point Gauges and Special Meters take longer to fill up, requiring greater reliance on runes, and experience no longer carries over if you lose and restart. Also, Very Hard mode is available from the start, allowing an even greater challenge. Doubly so if you used the "Zelda" control scheme in Hyrule Warriors, as the "Warriors" control scheme is the only one available in this game and you'll likely end up wasting more than one special attack trying to dodge.
• Shocking Moments: The game's reveal, as no one was expecting a new Zelda game to be announced out of the blue, let alone a new Hyrule Warriors game, which many assumed to be a one-and-done affair. Fans who had been waiting anxiously for updates on the Breath of the Wild sequel that had already been announced a year prior were absolutely blindsided by reveal that not only was a new Zelda releasing in two months, but that it would be a canonical prequel to Breath of the Wild. No prior Zelda Spin-Off had ever been canon to the mainline series, with Warriors crossovers generally tending to be non-canon, standalone (often Continuity Porn-filled) stories as well — the aforementioned Persona 5 Strikers being the only other exception.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: It’s really easy to spend hours doing side missions and grinding materials for requests, to the point of neglecting the main story missions. It helps that this time they’re a part of the main campaign rather than in their own side mode like in the last game.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is one to Torna-The Golden Country. Both of them are prequels taken hundreds of years in the past in the main game, showing a tragic event that causes a lot of the main characters to die.
  • It has also drawn comparisons to Persona 5 Strikers, as a Warriors-gameplay spin-off that is canon.
• Tainted by the Preview: The game had a very good reception when it was first revealed, but after the demo revealed the time-traveling Guardian and implied was an alternate timeline rather than heading to a Foregone Conclusion Downer Ending, a small but vocal part of the fanbase took offense to it. When the game came out and those suspicions were confirmed, those people got quite angry, going as far as accusing Nintendo of false advertising, and even warning people who wanted to play this game expecting it to be a standard prequel to avoid it.
• That One Attack: Thunderblight Ganon's decently tough, but a lot more managable than he was in Breath of the Wild. But once you get him down to half health, he'll summon two clones to help him out in battle that are just as aggressive and powerful as him. If you don't have a special attack charged up, you're in trouble.
• That One Boss: The Blight Ganons are a lot tougher than they were in Breath of the Wild, with Windblight and Fireblight Ganon being the big standouts. They're way more aggressive than before, with hard-hitting attacks that cover a wide area and are slow enough to trip up players trying to force them to show their Weakpoint Gauges. More specifically, Windblight has far better aim than before, and Fireblight's powerful hair-swinging attack is faster than his other attacks and can trip you up once you're used to dodging the others.
• That One Level:
  • The Divine Beast side-missions. On top of the general flaws with controlling the Divine Beasts, the stages themselves seem to almost intentionally abuse those flaws by filling the levels with myriad mini-boss enemies that can unceasingly barrage your Divine Beast and whittle its health away with surprising speed. What makes them even worse is that, in a game which emphasizes grinding to build up stockpiles of required materials, they're the only levels where the player receives nothing in exchange for all the killing and scenery destruction they do: they give no more rupees than the base amount normal missions do, and the player receives no materials whatsoever for completing the mission. At least this means you never have to touch each mission more than once.
  • The post-game mission "A Royal Investigation", which is necessary to gather some of Terrako's parts has you play Zelda on the Great Plateau, specifically in the temple area. This wouldn't be so bad if you weren't fighting a series of five Lynels, including two Malice Lynels at once, in small interior areas; meaning you'll be prone to camera issues and find yourself taking flight instead of dodging thanks to being too close to a wall. Don't bother trying to lure them out of the rooms either, since fighting them on the narrow bridges between forts is just as much of a headache. Add to this that this is a Timed Mission, and if you aren't used to playing Zelda and if her character level and weapon aren't properly leveled, you are going to struggle.
  • "Invading Terrors", a Mipha challenge that's also required for Terrako parts, gives you ten minutes to defeat eighteen Guardian units (Guardian Scouts, elemental Guardians, flying Guardians, and a Malice Guardian). To make matters worse, all of the Guardians are spread out wide across the map, so expect to lose a good chunk of time if you don't come up with a strategic path.
  • A lot of the post-Ganon missions qualify. "Defending Akkala Citadel" starts out fine, you just have to capture three outposts. First two outposts are just Moblins, couple Wizzrobes, and a Hinox. Then you head to the last one, only to find out that six Malice Guardians are SWARMING the citadel, which is between you and the last outpost.
  • "In the Clutches of the Yiga!" requires you to make your way through the Yiga Clan headquarters in reverse as it's crawling with enemies who are more than happy to close the doors on you just to be a nuisance, with Sooga appearing and chasing you down once you reach the half way mark, and you're unlikely to actually have the time to deal with him proper. Then after all that, you need to deal with Master Kohga. Not difficult...until he summons two blademasters at 2/3rd AND 1/3rd of his health, effectively turning the battle into one massive bullet hell. Oh, and Sooga will inevitably make his way to you and join the fight too if you didn't beat him on the way there. Did we mention the fight against Kohga itself needs to be done in 3 minutes? If you're not willing to come in after turning down the difficulty or grinding way past the recommended level, you're in for a very bad time.
  • "The Guardians Counterattack" is sadistic. You must fight over 20 Guardians in as many minutes. The problem is, after each character is done with their respective two, (one elemental and one scout), they have to fight THREE Guardians at once. Your first character gets one Malice Guardian and two FLYING Guardians, your second gets one Malice Guardian and two Guardian Turrets, and your third gets one Malice Guardian and two normal Guardians. Taking it on at the recommended level is near unbeatable.
  • “Taming the Savage Lynel” is frustrating. Taking on three Lynels? Tough, but doable. Taking on three Lynels, two at a time, with no rods or healing items? Good luck, you’ll need it.
  • "Hair-Width Trial: Expert+" requires you to defeat an Ice Moblin, a Fire Guardian, an Ice Hinox, and a Fire Lynel, all without getting hit once. Doesn't sound hard enough? The map is also strategically dotted with Octoroks. Oh, and did we mention that there's a time limit and a Korok to find?
  • The Fiercest of Foes is a timed mission that has you face off against 6 Lynels. If you think that is bad enough, well then the Lynels are the not the main reason why the missions is so difficult. Instead, it is several Lizalfos that love to spam projectiles and chances are that most of the damage taken comes from them. Even worse, there is a good chance of experiencing severe frame delay.
  • "The Siege of Fort Hateno" gives you a 10-minute timer to take down Astor, Harbinger Ganon, and Calamity Ganon on opposite ends of the map, but in practice, it needs to be done in nine steps: two encounters with each boss, and a midboss locking the door to each of those four encounters, and then finally Calamity Ganon in the middle of the map. Worse, one of them (the Malice Frost Talus blocking the way to the first fight with Ganon) is swarmed with Electric Lizalfos who will spread out and electrify the entire field around it if you let them, and another (the Malice Igneo Talus blocking the way to the second fight with Astor) is swarmed with Fire Lizalfos raining a barrage of fireballs and stunlocking fire breath at you and backed up by an Electric Guardian. On top of that, you'll automatically lose if Fort Hateno falls, thankfully this only happens when the timer expires. What makes it woese is that players might not realize the timer is only counting down while there's a boss enemy^note usually a guardian within Fort Hateno, so they'll instead rush the objectives while neglecting the fort's defense, giving them only a little over 1 minute to take care of each of them.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: One of the complaints from fans of Hyrule Warriors (the first one) is how radically different the game is, being based on one game instead of taking elements and setpieces from the entire series. Doing so removed much of the appeal of the first game in some fans eyes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Astor as a concept is interesting, being able to see into the future and working under Calamity Ganon. Unfortunately, his character and powers end up not being explained thoroughly, ending up with a rather flat character. Likewise, promo material for the Guardian of Remembrance DLC teased the introduction of an entire cult of Calamity Ganon loyalists alongside Astor. They're all killed by Ganon's Malice in their introductory cutscene, and Astor simply walks away musing over Ganon's power and the Great Calamity. While Guardian of Remembrance shed some more light on the rest of the game's characters, Astor ultimately received no new characterization whatsoever.
  • Impa. With Link being Zelda's official bodyguard, Urbosa being her Parental Substitute, and her official job being royal advisor, there was a chance to do something different with Impa's character. Instead, Impa largely just serves as a Voice for the Voiceless for Link, and outside of her petty squabbles with Terrako, has little to no interaction with other characters, including her own older sister, Purah.
  • Relating to the above point, Link himself is basically there for the sake of having him, and he gets dangerously close to being Demoted to Extra in a story where he's supposed to be a main character. Zelda's honestly got Impa as a best friend figure, and Link has next to no interaction with anyone due to Nintendo's refusal to give him any dialogue. Not to mention that even Terrako gets to make more heroic deeds in the narrative towards the end. All that development in the backstory of the original Breath of the Wild might have made an interesting development, but outside of the Master Sword cutscene Link's mostly just there to smash things Zelda needs him to. His status as an Audience Surrogate also doesn't work in a cast this expansive since Zelda's more or less the protagonist of the plot- you could cut him out of every cutscene and change nothing.
  • Unlike the rest of the Champions who were reasonably fleshed out in Age of Calamity since their characterization in Breath of the Wild was relatively sparse to begin with, Revali seemed to actually regress as a character. The Champions' Ballad DLC strongly implied Revali's arrogance and haughty attitude came from a place of deep insecurity, and this was a large reason he became a fan-favorite. Instead of taking the time to flesh this aspect out, Age of Calamity instead opts to turn Revali into even more of a jerk to Link for seemingly no reason. While he did have a few moments indicating that he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, this was still a massively missed opportunity.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some players wished they could have seen what would’ve happened in the original timeline rather than a retelling in an alternate timeline, given what was shown and said in trailers and interviews before the game's launch.
  • There's also the new Champions interacting with the old ones. Many felt that there wasn't a whole lot of interaction between them. Having them discuss the events of Breath of the Wild at least would have made for an interesting conversation.
  • In Breath of the Wild, Zelda was not only jealous in the backstory, but outright hostile to Link. Here, even though it explores Zelda's insecurities in length, Zelda's jealousy towards Link seems to be mild at worst, and she never speaks rudely or condescendingly to him, let alone lashing at him like in Breath of the Wild. Because of this, for a lot of people their relationship doesn't feel as developed or as earned as in the original.
  • After being betrayed by Astor, the Yiga Clan decide to unite with the heroes to stop the revival of Calamity Ganon. The team up is only shown in a brief cutscene where Kohga submits to Zelda with no discussion between the two taking place and no one on the heroes' side has any problems or suspicions about joining forces with the doomsday cult that has spent most of the game trying to kill them.
• Too Cool to Live: Sooga, Master Kohga's badass right-hand man who stoically retorted Astor, sacrifices himself in order to save Kohga. Except he doesn't actually die, as the true ending reveals, and even becomes playable in the DLC add-ons.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Guardian of Remembrance wave of DLC introduces Memory Quests, which are essentially side missions that you can complete in addition to the main missions for rewards. However, these sidequests are exclusive to the DLC story missions, and nothing of the sort is added to the base game's story missions. This is especially egregious considering Hyrule Warriors Legends and Definitive Edition had several side missions you could complete to give your side more of an advantage.
• Unexpected Character: Several characters:
  • Almost no one expected Hestu to be a playable character, much less one unlocked through the main story, since he didn't display any combat abilities in Breath of The Wild.
  • The future champions time traveling 100 years ago to save the champions of this era was pretty unexpected, though some people figured that being the case after seeing the tapestry in the game's intro altered to have two figures on each divine beast.
  • While people expected him to be playable after the story was over, no one expected Master Kohga (and the rest of the Yiga Clan) to join the Hyrulean Forces during the conflict, considering they were almost always depicted as villains.
  • In the "Guardian of Remembrance" DLC, fans were caught surprised that one of the side-story missions involved rescuing Teba's son, Tulin. When the mission info mentioned a lost Rito child bearing resemblance to Teba, many thought it was Teba's ancestor and didn't expect it to be his overlooked NPC son from Breath of the Wild. The impact of Tulin's sudden spotlight in Age of Calamity was so great that when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom revealed that Tulin would be the main Rito ally for Link instead of Teba, many fans weren't so surprised thanks to this DLC.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: This entire game faithfully recreates the environments of Breath of the Wild, but showing what they looked like in ages past before the Calamity happened. Thus, players get to witness Hyrule Castle in its true splendor and fight in well-crafted original towns and areas wiped from existence by the time of Breath of the Wild.

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