Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2

After decades of mostly being a figure for series hero Link to rescue, The Legend of Zelda's eponymous princess has been stepping into the limelight of late. After significantly more prominent roles in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, 2024's Echoes of Wisdom gave Zelda her first official outing as the playable protagonist, and now she gets her second shot at main character stardom in this surprisingly meaty spinoff to the core series.

This latest Hyrule Warriors – the third in the series, though distinct from the prior two – tells the other side of the story from Tears of the Kingdom, with Zelda trapped in the distant past of the Kingdom of Hyrule. While players of that game will know the lengths that Zelda goes to in order to return to her own time, seeing it all in greater depth, from her perspective, makes it all the more poignant. It's also a chance to explore the deeper lore of the series, with Zelda teaming with allies including Rauru and Sonia, the first King and Queen of Hyrule, while getting drawn into the terrible Imprisoning War, drawing her face to face with a familiar warlord named Ganondorf…

Age of Imprisonment stands out from Dynasty Warriors thanks to how well it works all of its Zelda lore into its mechanics.

It's a huge departure from the core Zelda games though, not least because of the absence of Link himself, but in how it plays. Mechanically, Hyrule Warriors is structured on the Dynasty Warriors franchise (with that series' Koei Tecmo handling development duties here, through its new in-house label AAA Games Studio), and borrows its "one versus one thousand" hack-and-slash gameplay, telling its story over the course of numerous crucial battles against entire armies. While Zelda is the focus, players can wade through legions of foes as one of dozens of pivotal figures from the series' history.

If you absolutely must, you can button bash your way through most of the game, for a cathartic but satisfying dose of turn-brain-off-now action. Go a bit deeper and you'll start to pick out enemy tells – when to counter incoming aerial or ground-based attacks, for instance – or how to take advantage of weaknesses on stronger foes with well-timed special attacks. However, Age of Imprisonment stands out from its inspiration thanks to how well it works all of its Zelda lore into its mechanics. Each hero's abilities factor into how they play, and can perform unique team-up attacks with other main characters on the field, adding a degree of tactics in who you choose to deploy into battle (some plot critical missions will lock selections, though).

What makes this work so well as a Zelda game is in how well it incorporates the world and the design elements of that parent series. The strange Zonai artifacts used in Tears of the Kingdom pay a key role, both narratively and in combat – there's no freeform creation of gadgets as Link did (although Rauru's inventor sister Mineru utilises Zonai constructs into her combat style), they're smartly incorporated as tools that can change the outcome of battle. Using an ice emitter near bodies of water is more effective, for instance, while a fire one can melt frosty foes. Elsewhere, all the food items and enemy materials that would have been used to cook up stat boosting dishes are here used to fill requests to complete side missions, and even aesthetic touches like menu and fonts make this far more than Dynasty Warriors in Zelda drag – it's a central entry in a greater saga, down to its bones.

It's also an absolute stunner on the visual front. Being exclusive to Switch 2, it doesn't have to temper ambitions to support the ageing original Switch hardware, and the results are clear on screen. Even in co-op mode, frame rates are silky smooth, while the gorgeously animated cutscenes, maintaining the same style as Breath and Tears but benefitting from higher resolution, really pop.

All that adherence to Zelda lore and detail comes at the cost of pacing, though. While there's plenty of action, including shorter side missions that are great for bursts of frantic play, the central plot is so often interrupted by those lovingly animated cinematics that progress can feel a bit of a slog. If you're drawn to Warriors games of any flavour for their frenzied battles and general lack of complexity, there may be a bit too much story here. For completionist players, it all becomes a grind, too – maxing out character levels and farming for resources to upgrade their weapons can feel like a chore after a while.

Still, this is easily the strongest entry in the Hyrule Warriors sub-series, and an absolute must for Tears of the Kingdom fans who want to dive deep into every facet of the story.