History YMMV / HyruleWarriors

** Despite the presence of three Links in the game (''Warriors'' Link, Young Link from ''Majora's Mask'', and ''Wind Waker's'' Toon Link) and three Zeldas (''Warriors'' Zelda/Sheik, ''Wind Waker's'' Tetra and ''Spirit Tracks'' Toon Zelda. Arguably four if one considers Marin to be the Wind Fish's interpretation of Zelda), none of them ever encounter each other.

** Despite the presence of three Links in the game (''Warriors'' Link, Young Link from ''Majora's Mask'', and ''Wind Waker's'' Toon Link) and two Zeldas as of ''Legends'' (''Warriors'' Zelda/Sheik and ''Wind Waker's'' Tetra), none of them ever encounter each other.
** Toon Link has no involvement in what happens in the Wind Waker chapters.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A common complaint with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' was the game only focused on three games from the series. The same thing can be said about ''Hyrule Warriors'', which in the base game, mainly focused on three games. However, ''Hyrule'' gave all three games equal representation and had material from other games such as the [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaI classic NES design for Gohma]] and [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Bow Wow]]. Then a 3DS version of ''Hyrule Warriors'' came out that added in all DLC (including ''Majora's Mask'' characters) and added in new ''Wind Waker'' plot elements, expanding it to five games. Adding all these characters to the Wii U version (though without the stories and maps) only made the game look better with DLC, especially when DLC for ''Fire Emblem'' decided to keep focusing on the two games it was already using. Also not helping was that ''[=OoT=]'', ''TP'', and ''SS'' each had a close amount of characters while ''Fire Emblem'' ignored ''Shadow Dragon'' almost completely(the game didn't even have a stage to itself).

** Ganondorf; just look at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vfh3YpvxHQ his trailer]]. He has [[AwesomeEgo great lines]], [[EvilIsSexy an awesome design]], and [[spoiler: the levels where you play as him are regarded as some of the best in the game.]] Especially notable next to the more campy Ghirahim and Zant.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A common complaint with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' was the game only focused on three games from the series. The same thing can be said about ''Hyrule Warriors'', which in the base game, mainly focused on three games. However, ''Hyrule'' gave all three games equal representation and had material from other games such as the [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZelda1 classic NES design for Gohma]] and [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Bow Wow]]. Then a 3DS version of ''Hyrule Warriors'' came out that added in all DLC (including ''Majora's Mask'' characters) and added in new ''Wind Waker'' plot elements, expanding it to five games. Adding all these characters to the Wii U version (though without the stories and maps) only made the game look better with DLC, especially when DLC for ''Fire Emblem'' decided to keep focusing on the two games it was already using. Also not helping was that ''[=OoT=]'', ''TP'', and ''SS'' each had a close amount of characters while ''Fire Emblem'' ignored ''Shadow Dragon'' almost completely(the game didn't even have a stage to itself).

** While several of the Giant Bosses can easily qualify, many dread [[{{FinalBoss}} Phantom]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Ganon]] of ''Legends'' in particular. Yes, his first phase of TennisBoss is relatively tolerable, but to a point. The tennis mechanic in this game is much more difficult then in any other game, mostly because of the generally over-the-shoulder camera angle. His multi-shot attack is even worse, even though countering it will instantly stun him, because there's a high chance the game won't register you hitting every energy ball, causing you to take damage anyway. And then you have the second phase. ''Dear Lord'', the second phase. Phantom Ganon pulls a second sword out and ditches the TennisBoss stereotype. He's fast and hits very hard. If you get caught in his spin attack, say goodbye to half of your health bar. In order to do anything to him, you need to ''get behind him and strike his back until he falls'', something that is [[{{GuideDangIt}} not obvious in the slightest]]. Well, either that, or just spam Focus Spirit if you don't feel like using the Internet.

** Many fans were disappointed to see that, unlike the DLC characters from the original Wii U game (Young Link, Tingle and Twili Midna) the DLC characters from ''Legends'' (Medli, Marin, Toon Zelda, Ravio and Yuga) never received any costumes whatsoever in ''Definitive Edition'', despite getting new Level 4+ weapons. All of their unlockable heart containers and weapons still being restricted to the Adventure Mode map they originally came with (which was something that was changed for the Wii U DLC characters) hasn't been well-received either, with many people arguing it makes them feel sidelined from the other characters.

* EvilIsSexy:
** Cia certainly fits, thanks to having the most {{Stripperiffic}} outfit in the game. Notably, the "good" version of her from the opening is more conservatively dressed, as can be seen in her 'Guardian of Time' costume.
** Ganondorf is no slouch himself. Ever since his trailer came out, a ''lot'' of fans have commented on how sexy his new design is. [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Fans of both genders.]]

* MemeticMutation: Has its [[Memes/TheLegendOfZelda own page]].

* FanPreferredCutContent: Many fans wish Linkle was kept as Link's younger sister as initially planned instead of the final game's depiction of a HeroicWannabe who thinks she is Link, namely because they felt it would've given her a greater connection to Link (by being related to him) and [[VideOGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Aryll]] (who she is heavily inspired by). Because of this, it is not uncommon for fanfics to restore their original relationship.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: The ''Definitive Edition'' is commonly criticized for being a simple port of the other two, without adding any extra content besides ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath Of The Wild]]'' based costumes for Link and Zelda. Pretty much everyone agreed that the Definitive Edition isn't worth the money if one didn't play the other two first, they could've at least added new weapons and costumes based on [[EnsembleDarkhorse the Champíons]] for Darunia, Ruto, Medli and [[WholesomeCrossdresser Ganondorf]].

** Any level where a Cucco will appear and follow the player around, as it seems to exist solely to discourage the use of wide attacks. Or, for that matter, any attacks if you don't know exactly where the chicken last moved to, since they're programmed to dart around randomly when idle. The general consensus is that it's not a question of if you'll hit it enough to trigger its rage, but when. Some of the other Cucco events (guiding a baby Cucco to its mother and two Cuccos fighting in a keep) are also hated, but the one that follows the player is particularly disliked. Something that makes it both better ''and'' worse is when you're playing as a character like Fi, whose attacks are all-range even when combos aren't a factor. On one hand, it's pretty much impossible not to hit the Cucco, so you're bound to piss it off sooner or later. On the other hand, her combos are more than enough to take them out in the higher levels, so it becomes less of a matter of avoiding the Cucco so much as it is [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential getting your revenge on this mechanic in every way possible]], along with bolstering your KO count to make an A-Rank easier.

** In a case of not using mechanics within the game, story mode shows that the monster armies are perfectly capable of being the player's main army. Yet in Adventure mode, the player's army is only ever composed of Hylians or Gorons, even if it makes no sense such as Zant leading an Army of Hylians to face Zelda's army of Bokoblins. Alternative armies at most being rogue forces you can recruit. This was probably done just to reduce the need for [[DamnYouMuscleMemory the player to adjust to monsters not being the enemies or having to fight a good-guy army.]]

** [[spoiler: Skull Kid]] appearing in Linkle's Tale receives no explanation or follow up; [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment he shows up, gives her trouble, then gets beaten and runs away]].

** Anyone hoping to see multiple Links to interact with each other in the story will be disappointed to learn that only ''Warriors'' Link features in the plot. Most of the "Eras" are ambiguous in when their battles occur, enough so that their native Link being [=MIA=] is justifiable. The only case where this isn't excusable is the extra ''Wind Waker'' arc from ''Legends'', where Tetra and King Daphnes appear and you'd expect Toon Link to not be far behind them - he doesn't show up at all, and it's rubbed in by unlocking Toon Link ''immediately after'' the story has concluded.

** While many players are ambivalent to Tingle in this game, he does have some detractors for reasons other than AmericansHateTingle. His standard attacks and C2 have unimpressive range (even fans of his moveset won’t deny that), and while his C3, C4, and C5 are all capable of doing damage, they’re also slow, and his C3’s hitbox is rather wonky while his C4’s is narrow, leaving his C5 as his only attack with no disadvantages other than its speed. As for his C1 mechanic, while it can be used effectively, it is also difficult to use reliably and does nothing that couldn’t be accomplished more easily with his combos. He’s not exactly unusable, but it becomes a question of whether the disadvantages are too major to make him worth using.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A common complaint with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' was the game only focused on three games from the series. The same thing can be said about ''Hyrule Warriors'', which in the base game, mainly focused on three games. However, ''Hyrule'' gave all three games equal representation and had material from other games such as the [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZelda1 classic NES design for Gohma]] and [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Bow Wow]]. a 3DS version came out that added in all DLC (including ''Majora's Mask'' characters) and added in new ''Wind Waker'' plot elements, expanding it to five games. Adding all these characters to the Wii U version (though without the stories and maps) only made the game look better with DLC, especially when DLC for ''Fire Emblem'' decided to keep focusing on the two games it was already using. Also not helping was that ''[=OoT=]'', ''TP'', and ''SS'' each had a close amount of characters while ''Fire Emblem'' ignored ''Shadow Dragon'' almost completely to the point it didn't even have a stage.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A common complaint with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' was the game only focused on three games from the series. The same thing can be said about ''Hyrule Warriors'', which in the base game, only focused on three games. However, between releases, a 3DS version came out that added in all DLC (including ''Majora's Mask'' characters) and added in new ''Wind Waker'' plot elements, expanding it to five games. Adding all these characters to the Wii U version (though without the stories and maps) only made the game look better with DLC, especially when DLC for ''Fire Emblem'' decided to keep focusing on the trilogy it was already using. Also not helping was that ''[=OoT=]'', ''TP'', and ''SS'' each had a close amount of characters while ''Fire Emblem'' tended to vary due to having to create new models for ''Shadow Dragon'' characters.

** Three of the giant bosses in Adventure Mode (King Dodongo, Gohma, and Manhandla) work on a frustrating AIRoulette where only certain attacks out of a pool of six or seven possible attacks make them vulnerable (unless a Magic Jar transport guard shows up, then you can use the Focus Spirit special attack to do it instantly); it's not uncommon to see them repeat the same move constantly, which can mean the difference between being able to get a good rank or even completely running out of time. In a lot of the timed "Defeat all Giant Bosses" missions, they'll put you up against two of them at the same time, compounding the problem. Even more frustratingly, the creators gave the same roulette to Argorok, but managed to do it ''right'', because his chances of using attacks that render him vulnerable are much higher and he leaves his weak point accessible after most of his attacks.
*** King Dodongo's vulnerable attack is much more likely to happen if you're in front of him after he breathes fire, but the fact remains that he only has ''one'' attack that triggers it at all, making him an absolute ''hell'' on timed missions. He can get stuck roaring or rolling around for minutes at a time, all the while capturing a keep.

** The Imprisoned is annoying for a different reason: his foot stomps consistently generate shockwaves and you have to attack his toes to make him vulnerable. Also, you can only deplete half of his weakness gauge each time he falls: he will automatically counterattack when you reach half of the gauge, making him the only monster who has a weakness gauge which can't be depleted in one go. Once he's back to being invulnerable, he'll stay on the ground and slide around a bit, which, thanks to his size and deceptive speed (and being able to turn on a dime if you dodge him) lets him clock some cheap damage on you. Finally, when he gets up and regenerate his toes, he is invincible for another 5 to 10 seconds. Get him down to half health, and those same shockwaves suddenly do way more damage and go slightly further. All this, combined with usually fighting him in relatively small arenas, makes him rather frustrating. Unlike the other bosses, he doesn't take chip damage. ''Legends'' made him slightly easier by making it so that you ''can'' deplete his weakness gauge in one turn, but the rest still applies.
** Phantom Ganon, introduced in ''Legends'', can be an absolute nightmare. The first phase of TennisBoss is fairly tolerable, but it's his second phase that makes the difficulty skyrocket: he pulls out a second sword, and foregoes the TennisBoss pattern to ravaging your warriors with hard strikes that can break your block and send you flying. Plus, he doesn't appear to have any surefire way to expose his Weak Point Gauge, so all you can do is try everything until something works.[[note]]The secret is actually to wail on him from behind until he staggers, [[GuideDangIt but this is in no way obvious.]][[/note]] But it's almost certain to deplete a considerable portion of your character's HP before then.

** The Imprisoned wouldn't be a GoddamnedBoss if he didn't have one of these. In this case, it's a red electrical field that zaps anything in it after a certain time passes, taking a huge chunk of their health in the process. It's not such a big deal most of the time, but in levels where you're trapped in an enclosed space, it can get annoying when you suddenly have to avoid getting zapped; either find a spot that's not too far, or dodge at ''just'' the right moment so the lightning only barely misses. The frustration can be mitigated by attacking his toes, which does stop the attack or at least help you NoSell it. Whether you get the chance depends on any surrounding enemies.

** The Hylian Ghost event. A Hylian Captain will suddenly appear on the battlefield, [[TooDumbToLive often behind enemy lines]], and be [[RedShirt just as competent]] as you would expect. When he gets in trouble, he has to retreat to the allied base in order to escape. If he dies before then, he becomes a ghost that curses your army and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere causes a huge chunk of your allies to flee]], leaving you wide open for an attack. It's a minor inconvenience if the mission only has one playable warrior slot, but it's an ''absolute emergency'' otherwise, because ''[[NonstandardGameOver the ghost can make your other playable warriors flee]]''. So expect to have to take time out of your busy schedule to escort the Hylian Captain to the base before things go FromBadToWorse. It doesn't help much that the Hylian Captain, [[ArtificialStupidity being as bright as he is]], is highly likely to stop and fight ''every single enemy'' he encounters along the way, dragging things on for longer than they should and wasting your time in the process, potentially locking you out of an A-rank if you exceed the time limit required (15 minutes in original Wii U version and ''Definitive Edition'', 20 minutes in ''Legends''). If that wasn't enough, unlike other events that have you helping potential allies, this Hylian Captain gives the player absolutely ''no benefits'' for successfully helping him retreat. All of this causes the event to come off as huge time waster that not only has no benefits attached to it, but that severely punishes you if you dare to ignore it. Hope you weren't planning on A-ranking the mission...

** The Hylian Ghost event. A Hylian Captain will suddenly appear on the battlefield, [[TooDumbToLive often behind enemy lines]], and be [[RedShirt just as competent]] as you would expect. When he gets in trouble, he has to retreat to the allied base. If he dies before then, he becomes a ghost and causes a huge chunk of your allies to flee, leaving you wide open for an attack. It's a minor inconvenience if the mission only has one playable warrior slot, but it's an ''absolute emergency'' otherwise, because ''[[NonstandardGameOver the ghost can make your other playable warriors flee]]''. So expect to have to take time out of your busy schedule to escort the Hylian Captain to the base before things go FromBadToWorse. It doesn't help much that the Hylian Captain, [[ArtificialStupidity being as bright as he is]], is highly likely to stop and fight ''every single enemy'' he encounters along the way, dragging things on for longer than they should be and wasting your time in the process. Hope you weren't planning on A-ranking the mission...

** The [[EvilCounterpart Dark Warriors]] in Ganon's Fury. They're much, much stronger than regular characters, have very high HP, appear in every last mission, and are completely unavoidable. The worst part? Ganon's so huge that ''[[CameraScrew you can hardly see them most of the time]]''. [[spoiler:Still annoying but considerably less so when playing as Giant Cucco, since, despite his being [[JokeCharacter much weaker]] than Ganon, the CameraScrew is no longer a problem.]]

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Surprisingly, Ganondorf, as DifficultButAwesome as he is, used to have a fair amount of unsafe moves and often needed to plan ahead. The 1.5.0 patch has since added some safety measures to a few of them (including making him ''outright invulnerable'' while using a fully-charged Strong Attack), but many of his finishers still require a bit of prep time to go off, making him still a bit hard to use.
** Zant, for having a very unsafe moveset, a ScrappyMechanic in the [[{{Overheating}} Twilight meter]], and overall needing to work much harder than other characters to accomplish the same tasks. He had very few positives, making him a bottom-tier character for many people. However, the 1.5.0 update buffed him considerably: most of his moves are safer to use, do more damage, and deplete weak points quicker.
** Despite having been somewhat buffed in the 1.4.0 update, Agitha used to get a lot of flak for having a quite ineffectual moveset. She was slow, weak, and her combos had ''embarrassingly'' short range. Hell, she is the ''only character in the entire game'' who doesn't start out with a 5-part combo. That's right, folks. You have to ''buy'' her 5-part combo. 1.4.0 tried to fix some of these issues, but many people aren't convinced that the good outweighs the bad yet. What doesn't help is that you need to farm [[{{GoddamnedBoss}} The Imprisoned]] for her badge materials, and Adventure Mode loves to stick her in missions that are downright frustrating thanks to her gameplay.
** For weapon movesets, there's Lana's Deku Spear (due to lackluster specials and combo finishers with very little range outside of her basic combo- like Agitha above, however, it did receive a needed buff in the 1.4.0 update). The Wind Waker (Zelda) also counts for many players, since Zelda is ''completely'' immobile when she attacks with it, which is less than ideal in most cases, and the usefulness of her main gameplay mechanic that's meant to counter this relies largely on the RandomNumberGod being merciful when it comes to getting the gusts of wind to stick onto the enemies.
** The frame data on the regular attacks for Lana's Summoning Gate is so bad that you're literally fighting with one hand tied behind your back. Not only do you struggle with taking down hordes of regular mooks but duels with elite mooks, playable characters, and bosses take much longer than usual than if you were using a much faster weapon. On the other hand, the Summoning Gate is one of the few weapons that can execute the Max Rupee Glitch.
** The Great Fairy. While her combo finishers give her invulnerability, her moveset is generally unsafe, she walks (flies!) slower than most, and said combo finishers also either only hit directly in front of her or take a ridiculous amount of time to start, which means that you want to start her combo string well in advance so that enemies don't get a chance to escape. She also takes more damage than any other character/weapon if enemies do manage to hit her, a flaw that is exacerbated by using C1 to do more damage at the cost of halving her defense (meaning she now takes quadruple damage from enemies).
** Impa's Giant Blade. It's moveset hits mostly in front of Impa and it's sole [=AoE=] move is horrible, meaning it's terrible at killing hordes of enemies. It fares a bit better against officers, single or plural, which seem to be what it's designed for, but again suffers from being average in that area too and generally being outclassed in it's officer killing capabilities by many other weapons.
** Fi has the [[FragileSpeedster lowest overall attack strength AND lowest stamina]] among the cast, and because of her unique movement during attacks, has a very hard time hitting officers with her combos. Her only saving grace is that she can rack up kills fairly easily, but even then she is outclassed in that area by several characters, notably [[DownloadableContent Horse!Link]], who has a similar movement during attacks, but is much less awkward to control and has ridiculous attack power to go with it.
** Tetra is below average all around, but struggles with regular officers moreso than most characters as they are immune to her boiling water trap's effect (character officers take a small amount of damage and fall over on the ground, leaving Tetra with enough time to get off one of her combo finishers on them, but regular enemy officers only take the damage part, meaning the move is essentially useless on them), and her C2 does not help in this regard because it applies the water effect which completely ruins any potential that move had for starting combos. As enemy officers is the most reoccuring enemy, this gives Tetra a big problem as she needs to go much farther into her string to find moves that she can use against them. In addition, before a game update, she used to be extremely bad at taking down the WPGs of any boss other than King Dodongo. It was so bad that she was for a time indubitably considered the worst character in the game.
** While many players are ambivalent to Tingle in this game, he does have some detractors for reasons other than AmericansHateTingle. His standard attacks and C2 have unimpressive range (even fans of his moveset won’t deny that), and while his C3, C4, and C5 are all capable of doing damage, they’re also slow, and his C3’s hitbox is rather wonky while his C4’s is narrow, leaving his C5 as his only attack with no disadvantages other than its speed. As for his C1 mechanic, while it can be used effectively, it is also difficult to use reliably and does nothing that couldn’t be accomplished more easily with his combos. He’s not exactly unusable, but it becomes a question of whether the disadvantages are too major to make him worth using.
** The 1.5.0 update, on top of the Ganondorf and Zant buffs mentioned above, essentially undoes most of the above thanks to the newly introduced GameBreaker skill that is Hasty Attacks. The attack speed buff negates many of the openings and awkward pauses in all of the slower movesets, allowing for much safer and more reliable combos.

** Linkle's name. Some don't take issue with her name and find it to be a clever name that distinguishes her from Link, while others consider it to be a dumb name even by ''Zelda'' naming standards (which, mind you, has had its fair share of ridiculous names over the years), with detractors either wishing she was just called Link (especially given that Link was intended to be gender neutral anyway), or they went with a different name instead.