The Legend of Zelda franchise is one of the most popular Nintendo franchises worldwide. There’s something about going on an adventure in a new world, desperately trying to save the princess that captivated tons of gamers from the very start of the franchise. There are a lot of popular main games but when Hyrule Warriors first released on Wii U and 3DS, the franchise suddenly got even more fans due to the gameplay change. The Definitive Edition finally lands on Nintendo Switch and comes with every DLC that released in the past. Hopefully, this will be enough to welcome even more fans to the green fields of Hyrule.
Start your new adventure
Before we start, it’s important to know that this isn’t a new entry in the main ‘The Legend of Zelda’ franchise, instead, it’s a special crossover with the Musou or Warriors franchise (Dynasty Warriors being the most popular one). This also means that the game’s story is a bit different from what you’re used to. It all starts with a giant attack on Hyrule, lead by an evil Wizard who’s controlling an ungodly amount of Goblins. It’s your task as Hyrule soldier, to stop this from happing. Of course, you’re not just a regular soldier, you’re the chosen hero, you’re Link! As Link, you’ll fight your way through hordes of enemies while Princess Zelda and Impa will eventually join your ranks. Together, you manage to reach the Great Fairy (who’s still creepy as ever) to stop the enemies from advancing. When The Wizard sees he won’t stand a chance against this new hero, he sends is the first big boss of the game, King Dodongo.
After you’re able to defeat the giant monster, The Wizard takes over Hyrule and Zelda goes missing. Link and Impa set out on their own quest to find the princess but while they’re at it, they meet up with Cia, a corrupted Goddess that tries to get her hands on the three Triforce pieces in order to awaken an ancient evil. This conflict opened up some portals, all to other famous Zelda worlds such as the one of Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. That’s the main portion of the story and although it’s never that deep or good than other Zelda games, it does a decent job to keep you motivated.
Fight off those enemies
Since we discussed the main game in depth in our original review of Hyrule Warriors, we won’t repeat ourselves, instead, we’ll focus on how the Nintendo Switch tackles the technical aspects of the game. As you know, Hyrule Warriors is best known for its massive battles against tons of enemies. I played the game both in handheld mode as television mode and I must say I was impressed by its performance. Never did I notice any lag or huge framerate drops while I was able to continue fighting off enemies at a high pace. The game is incredible in handheld mode since the colors really pop. The action is fast, the controls are fluent and the game runs extremely smoothly. It’s great to see that the Nintendo Switch is able to run games like this, since it makes us hopeful for even bigger and more complex games than the ones we’ve seen until now.
Talking about impressive technical achievements, the game is also playable in co-op. This works best if you stay together and fight off enemies as a team, the game has some difficulties to follow both players when they wander off too far away from each other. This is nothing to worry about, however, since playing together as a team really is thrilling, especially when you both activate your special attacks, bringing death to everyone who’s standing in your proximity. It was already great on Wii U but on Nintendo Switch, it even got a little bit better.
All your favorite characters
The other main selling point of the Nintendo Switch version is the addition of all the DLC packs that released for the original Hyrule Warriors after its initial release. This means you can play as roughly 30 characters all from the Zelda universe or some even created only for this game. Most of the characters are amazing although Lana still feels like the odd one out. After spending some time with most characters, Linkle remained my favorite. This girl looks a lot like Link but is not a relative, instead she thinks she’s the chosen hero and tries to save Zelda on her own. It’s a fun character with an amazing backstory and the dual crossbows feel like a refreshing weapon.
Besides Linkle, you can control a wide variety of characters ranging from popular ones like Link, Zelda, Midna, Young Link to more obscure ones like Tingle, Yuga, and Marin. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses and learning how to master them all is part of the charm. It’s amazing to have this variety and this Definitive Edition really delivers on this. Although it’s fun to have so many characters, it’s important to know you can’t master them all. In order to truly become good, you’ll need to spend money on new weapons and skills so be sure to pick the right character for the right job! All in all, I’m sure a lot of Zelda fans will simply enjoy playing as their favorite character on the go.
Conclusion:
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition is the best version of the game out there. It offers everything the original had to offer but combines all DLC packs to the deal. It’s amazing to have this game on the go thanks to the Nintendo Switch hardware. Compared to the other portable version (3DS), this is a huge leap forward and as a console game it still stands strong. If you’ve never played it before, this is the perfect time to give it a shot. If you’re a fan of the game, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with the Switch version too!
