That's what happened when The Legend of Zelda met Dynasty Warriors in the Wii U exclusive (until the 3DS Version comes out) Hyrule Warriors.
Hyrule Warriors takes place in the mainstay location of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series, Hyrule. Once again, Hyrule is under siege from evil forces, and it's upto Zelda, Impa, and Hyrulean Army Trainee Link to team up to halt the invasion. They are successful, however Zelda goes into hiding as the Sheikah warrior, Sheik for a while to make sure her piece of the Triforce - the item of power in the Zelda universe - is not stolen by the new villain for this game, the sorceress Cia (who might be the most sexualized character ever in a Nintendo game). Cia then tries to obtain the Triforce by splitting Sheik, Link and another new character, Lana into three dimensions based off of locations from three of the previous Zelda games; Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. The rest of the plot involves Cia trying to keep Link for herself since she's madly infatuated with him and we find out that the series main villain, Ganondorf, was controlling Cia all along and it all follows the standard Zelda formula from there. What sucks about this is that the back of the box states that Hyrule Warriors takes elements from all over the Zelda franchise, when it really only borrows from 4 games and no more. There's barely ANY Wind Waker or Majora's Mask callbacks in the bare game itself (DLC excluded) and it's rather underwhelming as a huge fan of the series. Even then, the plot works I guess but there's no real surprises. It's just a standard Zelda game really.
The Gameplay is where the Dynasty Warriors aspect of the game comes into play, although there are some Zelda elements thrown into the mix. You're basically taking on a giant horde of enemies and capturing keeps to restrain the flow of those enemies while also protecting your allies and keeps. You have a long list of combos, multiple characters and various weapons for each character, keeping things refreshing and interesting. You can upgrade your characters and weapons at the Bazzar using your collected Rupee's and materials collected in battle.This all comes at a cost: Hyrule Warriors is extremely repetitive, as with all games in the Dynasty Warriors franchise. It's fun but after a while, you will get tired, so the game is only fun in short bursts. There are various modes to play through
- Legend Mode: The Main Story Mode
- Free Mode: The Main Story but you can play as any character on Any Stage
- Challenge Mode: Complete Set tasks by defeating enemies
- Adventure Mode: Play through the map of the original 1986 Legend of Zelda as you complete challenges as you try to find and destroy the Dark Ruler of Hyrule.
Adventure Mode is where you'll be spending most of your time. There's 148 individual challenges, each with secrets and rewards for beating them (if you know your Zelda 1 you'll find the secrets easily). It's quite a time sink, especially if you're aiming to get all the Skulltullas, which give you extra illustrations and upgrade the Bazzar.
The game certainly looks really pretty, although it does have its technical issues. When playing multiplayer, one person has to play on the Wii U's gamepad, which decreases the frame rate and resolution on the TV. The game runs at 30FPS all the way through, and the models and environments look really nice. It's great to finally see a new original Zelda game in High Definition!
Musically, the game is excellent. The remixes of classic Zelda themes such as the original's overworld theme, Skyloft and Hyrule Field from Twilight Princess all sound excellent and will make you cry tears of joy. The original tracks, such as Focal Line, Solidus Cave and Eclipse of the Sun are all really good too.
Overall, despite being repetitive and rather lacking in the story, Hyrule Warriors is a love letter to fans of The Legend of Zelda. It's graphics and music, while not perfect, make the game just a little better. While I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game, I might consider it after playing this game.
STORY: 7
GAMEPLAY: 8.5
GRAPHICS: 8.5
SOUND: 10
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT: 8
FINAL SCORE FOR HYRULE WARRIORS: 8.4/10
