Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity: The Guardian of Memories Review

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hyrule warriors age of calamity the guardian of memories review
hyrule warriors age of calamity the guardian of memories review

The second DLC of Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity introduces new scenarios, tons of upgrades to the roster and even two new fighters.

A year has now passed since the arrival in the stores of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, yet the Omega Force guys managed to make us return one last time to the distant past of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to discover some stories still shrouded in mystery. After keeping us busy with the multiple challenges and EX Missions proposed by the DLC titled “The central beat“(for all the details you can find our review of Hyrule Warriors The Age of Calamity The Ancestral Beat), the Japanese association composed of Koei Tecmo Games and Nintendo seems ready to say goodbye to the luckiest (and most sold) musou ever, who almost twelve months after its debut on the market, it has finally received the second and last downloadable paid content provided by the Expansion Pass. Having gutted the content of “The Guardian of Memories“, the time has finally come to deliver our final verdict on excessively late and far from commendable post-launch support.

Hidden memories

Where the first DLC of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity introduced extra powerful enemies, new weapons and many fetch quests that once completed give various bonuses, such as the possibility of increasing the maximum level reachable by weapons, the second content downloadable, on the other hand, guarantees access to a not too large selection of additional missions. There are eighteen in all, of which only eight are linked to the main campaign.

Using the gimmick of memories stored in the memory of little Terrako – the Guardian from the future, as well as Zelda and Link’s comrade in arms – the developers have crafted eight new missions that fit together during the long and bloody war that saw everyone. the peoples of Hyrule join forces against the reborn Calamity Ganon, sharing delightful backstories to further explore the characterization of the various main characters and the bonds they have established. The aforementioned quests are in fact not connected to each other and do not give rise to a “secondary campaign” as we had hypothesized in the past months, but together they form a sort of anthology through which the Japanese association tried to shed light on some points of the story that remained obscure even after its total conclusion. If, for example, the first mission tells with absolute precision the circumstances in which Terrako arrived in the past, reconnecting to the moment in which the little Guardian was found by Link and Impa in chapter 1 of Hyrule Warriors: The Age of Calamity, the seventh sheds light on the fate of a recurring opponent of musou, but which in its final lines has inexplicably disappeared from the radar never to return.

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Interesting background, we said, that if on the one hand they fill some holes in the plot, for example by staging an important conversation that took place between Urbosa and King Rhoam, on the other hand they are sometimes confusing, as their exact temporal location is not always clear.

The eighth mission in particular, that is the one that should (and could) have represented a just and unforgettable farewell for Hyrule Warriors: The Age of Calamity, is actually the most messy of all, since despite being set more or less in the jokes power plants of the war introduces an even more ferocious and relentless opponent than the final boss of the campaign, without, however, explaining the reasons why he did not take part. As if that were not enough, the pretext of the memories stored in Terrako works only in part, as among its reminiscences there are moments in which the Guardian was not present at all and therefore could never have stored in his own memory.

The narrative component, which at least on paper should have been the backbone of “The Guardian of Memories”, in short, it is its most fluctuating, distracted and even a little bit renouncing element, as well as the same secret ending that can only be unlocked after completing all the so-called “Memory Missions”. In fact, each of the eight story quests presents almost always secret objectives (such as defeating a precise number of enemies, preventing allies from being forced to retreat from the battlefield, etc.) and which, once completed, allow access to the unsatisfactory video. of leave mentioned above.

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Extra powers and fighters

Taking into consideration only the eight main story missions, The Keeper of Memories would take four hours to complete, however, the introduction of ten sidequests and at least forty upgrades for roster members means that its overall longevity is around 8 to 10 hours, depending on the selected difficulty level and the number of items accumulated through the EX Missions of the previous DLC. By completing the proposed tasks and delivering large quantities of even rare materials (both old and new) it is in fact possible to unlock exclusive weapons for the Champions and their descendants, but which unfortunately only alter their appearance, and a new EX Personal Action for each fighter on the roster, in order to further strengthen our army and make it capable of facing the terrifying challenges posed by the most prohibitive sidequests of the pack.

For example, a Zelda in luminescent mode can unleash a deadly laser that overwhelms all surrounding monsters, Revali can throw explosive bombs that wreak havoc and destruction throughout the battlefield, while the good Link charges and overwhelms anyone who dares to run along. its path. It’s just a shame that these were introduced too late and that once unlocked there aren’t enough new sidequests in which to unleash their devastating destructive power.

While the first DLC of the Expansion Pass had limited itself to bringing only one new playable character to the forefront, “The Guardian of Memories” has fielded two highly anticipated new-entries. As expected the first is Supa, or the muscular warrior of Clan Hyga that in the course of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has crossed his swords several times with that of Link.

With its trusty double blades, Supa is not exactly the fastest of musou fighters, nor the easiest to use, but once mastered it is capable of chaining powerful and visually brutal combos that, in addition to leaving no way out for the boss, facilitate the elimination of immense hordes of enemies. Called “Mind’s Eyes”, his signature move consists of a timely parry that, if and when he hits, blocks the opponent’s blow and exposes his weak point.

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In our opinion most interesting, the second playable character it is actually made up of the pair of scientists Rovely and Pruna, who played a very marginal role in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and always kept out of trouble.

After the eighth story mission of the DLC, the two unlikely court inventors can finally test their inventions and back up Princess Zelda with some pretty bizarre moves. First of all it is necessary to specify that only Rovely can be controlled directly by the player, while Pruna is limited to following him among the monsters and activating the powers of the Sheikah Tablet on his own. On the other hand, the crooked Rovely is instead equipped with two enormous mechanical prostheses at the ends of which axes or even chainsaws can be mounted, and that once in the midst of the enemies they tend to knock them down like skittles and accumulate lots of kills in just a few seconds. However, it is the EX special move that has left us speechless: when Pruna activates a device of his own invention, the colleague’s backpack takes a shape based on one of the four Sacred Colossi and unleashes an attack of unprecedented power.

 

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

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as “The Ancestral Beat” added very little to the overall experience, “The Guardian of Memories” turned out to be a mere tool to close some of the narrative holes of the main title, which in the haste to jump from one battle to another had left several unsolved questions. If on the whole the DLC offers interesting activities after all and above all adds to the roster two extra fighters equipped with effective and very fun movesets, its debut on the Nintendo store appears exaggeratedly late and the proposed contents do not constitute a valid incentive to return to the Kingdom of Hyrule. . We must therefore recognize that “The Guardian of Memories” (and more generally the Expansion Pass) was not exactly the explosive dismissal that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity would have deserved, but rather a superfluous appendix.