Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment review: Ultrahanding out beatdowns

Smart adaptation of Tears of the Kingdom mechanics, an enjoyable cast of characters, and a great campaign make Age of Imprisonment a worthwhile spinoff.

Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have made a fairly loyal fan of me over the course of several Warriors collaborations and spinoffs this last decade and then some. I’ve been particularly enamored with the fact that KT isn’t just strapping fan favorite characters to the Musou formula. Instead, it is augmenting that formula with adaptations of the mechanics from the franchises it is handling. Such was the case with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and now it’s happened again with Age of Imprisonment. Only this time, Koei Tecmo has utilized the power of the Switch 2 to make an altogether better performing game and a worthy spinoff to the excellence that was Tears of the Kingdom.

Crisis in Ancient Hyrule

Springboarding from the events of Tears of the Kingdom, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, like Age of Calamity, touches upon events that were teased, but never explored in-depth. This time, the focus is on the war between the original King of Hyrule, Rauru, and the Gerudo chieftan turned Demon King, Ganondorf. If you played Tears of the Kingdom through, you probably know how this turns out, but Age of Imprisonment still tells us the in-depth story that saw Zelda strive to reunite with Link in the future.

We get a lot of time with characters that were only in the periphery of Tears of the Kingdom. Zelda and Rauru are pretty well-known by this point, but Age of Imprisonment puts the spotlight on a lot of faces we only briefly got to know in the fragmented Memories of TotK, such as all of the original Sages, the Zora Queen, Qia; Rito Elder, Raphica; Gerudo Chief, Ardi; the Goron Chief, Agraston; and Rauru’s sister, the Sage of Spirit, Mineru. We even got some new faces in the likes of the Korok, Calemo, and the Mysterious Construct, and although the latter is kind of a gameplay stand-in for Link, it features unique aspects and story elements that make it a more-than-worthwhile substitute.

As with Age of Calamity, Age of Imprisonment takes some liberties with the story of Tears of the Kingdom. It’s still true to the main story. The main beats of what happened are what you should expect if you played TotK, but the Mysterious Construct, Calemo, and other factors introduce wrinkles that take this story in fun and interesting directions.

It’s all presented magnificently, too, at least in gameplay. The action in Age of Imprisonment is crisp, the battlefields are vast and beautiful, and the characters and enemies are as vibrant and lush as they’ve always been in the Breath of the Wild era of Zelda. The battles and in-mission action are even more clean here, and run smoothly whether you’re playing in Docked or Handheld Mode. The only part where the visuals sag a bit is, strangely, in cutscenes. They are often noticeably at a lower frame rate than the rest of the game and sometimes stutter.

Music is another place where I was shockingly underwhelmed by Age of Imprisonment. I consider Age of Calamity to be one of the best game soundtracks ever, and the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes OST was no slouch either. I was hoping to find the same electricity in Age of Imprisonment’s music, but it’s just not there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad and it thematically copies Tears of the Kingdom’s aesthetic for a few interesting battle tracks, but there was a lot of battle music that felt like droning background noise, and at particularly key points. The stage where Ganon becomes Demon King and forces Rauru, Zelda, and the remnants of the Hyrule Kingdom to make a desparate escape deserves an equally intense battle track, not background noise. We’ve definitely had better from Hyrule Warriors and I guess I just wanted more fiery music to match the glow-up in visuals and story.

Hone your sacred power

The Hyrule Warriors games are probably my favorite version of the Musou games for how much they take from the parallel main games and incorporate into gameplay. The developers could easily have just duct taped the Musou gameplay style on the universe and launch it (and have before), but that’s just not the case here. And like Age of Calamity, Age of Imprisonment specifically incorporates very unique Tears of the Kingdom things to make for engaging twists in combat.

At its foundation, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment plays like other Musou games in that you take control of your favorite characters and bring them to battle on massive maps full of outposts, enemy commanders, and ultimately, bosses and main objectives. Many of the improvements Koei Tecmo has already been employing in its style are here, including the ability to select and direct uncontrolled characters towards various objectives or assignments like escorting another character. You battle enemies down to a weak point and then let loose with a special attack that generally levels your foe and the crowd of small fry around you in explosive style. Calemo, the Korok, might have been my favorite here because he’s a funny little rascal who uses different elemental seeds in combat depending on which part of the string you end your combo on, which is great when fighting enemies with a weakness to any element. He also just throws a full hornet hive at his enemies when he gets serious.

Where Age of Imprisonment starts to set itself apart is in the use of Zonai Devices and Skill Attacks. Throughout the game, leader enemies will use attacks that can be answered with specific attacks of your own to interrupt and stun your enemies. For instance, if an enemy uses a jumping attack, then using an anti-air skill or Zonai Device like the Cannon will knock them right out of it. If enemies use a defensive attack, then using a shield-breaking skill or the Zonai Bomb will shatter their defenses. Each character can equip a combo of five skills and Zonai Devices, but don’t worry if one character doesn’t have the answer to a certain attack type, because that’s where another important system comes into play.

If an enemy uses an attack and you have a nearby, uncontrolled character that has the counter to that attack, you will sometimes be prompted to switch to them and they will automatically launch that countering skill. It not only does the damage, but also builds your Sync Meter, which is probably my favorite thing in Age of Imprisonment. When two characters' Sync Meters are full, they can combine to launch a unique Sync Attack depending on the characters used. For instance, Zelda and Rauru use their powers of Light to launch two beams that you can control individually until they fire off a final combined beam. Meanwhile, with Zelda and Mineru, Mineru will call in her Zonai Mech Construct and Zelda will pilot it, unleashing a barrage of strikes and lasers. Some Sync Attacks are slightly reused depending on the characters, but they are generally all tide-turning and an exciting addition to offense in Age of Imprisonment.

Age of Imprisonment is broken up into chapters, each with story missions that move the narrative along, but one of my least favorite things about Warriors games once again reared its ugly head in Age of Imprisonment: Sidequest padding. As you go through Age of Imprisonment, most of the main missions are engaging and fun, and the story is worth exploring it all, but between main missions, you’ll be hit with a storm of little side tasks. Some of them are well worth doing as they do things like open shops or power up your heroes’ health, basic attacks, and skill attacks.

However, there are also a lot of side battles that barely do more than simply take you to battlefields you’ve been to and have you fight some variation of the enemies you’ve already fought. There’s also an aspect of the game where you have to liberate regions of the Hyrule map from Ganondorf, and then a side battle will pop up for you to defend that territory or risk losing it if you neglect the battle for too long. It’s meant to better rep the war between Ganondorf and Rauru, but it’s unfortunately repetitive. Some of it is skippable, but there’s also a lot that isn’t because you need to level up your characters for upcoming main battles, so it sometimes feels like a stretch of video game chores between the big moments.

To arms, for the future of Hyrule

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is both an excellent companion to Tears of the Kingdom and another fantastic evolution of the Musou style. Trying out Switch Skills and Sync Attacks between practically every pair of characters were some of my favorite things in this game and I hope Koei Tecmo tries something like them in future games. Even then, I just love that we get to see things like Ultrahand and the Zonai Devices incorporated so deeply into this roster’s moves. Mineru is a queen and I love throwing her Zonai mastery around the field, Rauru is just as awesome with his Ultrahand and Spear of Light, and the rest of the cast is a treat in their own unique ways. Calemo and the Mysterious Construct also throw just enough of a wrench into things to keep it fresh, even though we should all know how this goes. I wish the soundtrack had cooked a little hotter, but it’s hard to ask for much more than that out of a sequel that is otherwise improved this much. I don’t know if Nintendo will treat this Age of Imprisonment as canon, but if it’s the final ribbon on the Breath of Wild era, it’s a dang good one.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 digital copy of the game supplied by the publisher. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment comes out on November 6, 2025 on Switch 2.

Review for
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
8
Pros

• Excellent adaptation of TotK mechanics into Musou gameplay
• A solid spinoff of a story only gleaned in TotK
• Excellent variety of characters with interesting playstyles
• Calemo and Mysterious Construct add unique twists to the story
• Switch Skill and Sync Attack systems are fun to explore
• Gameplay/visuals are crisp and clean in Docked and Handheld

Cons

• Padded with too many boring sidequests
• Music is underwhelming compared to Age of Calamity
• Cutscenes felt lower quality than the gameplay