Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Review

When I first heard that Koei Tecmo and AAA Studios were teaming up again for another Hyrule Warriors title, I expected more of the usual musou chaos. I’d dabbled in the previous Hyrule Warrior entries but always dropped off after playing  a few missions, and mowing down endless Bokoblins. What pulled me in this time was one simple detail. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is the first in the series that actually sits inside the Zelda timeline. Once I learned this game takes place before the events of Tears of the Kingdom, I knew I had to see what it offered and approach it as more than just a side-project using the Zelda name.

This is the third Hyrule Warriors game, but it feels like a reset. The earlier entries treated the timeline as more of a playground. They mixed characters and eras for fan service, not continuity. Age of Imprisonment takes a different angle. It aims to build on the world that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom created. That shift alone changed the experience for me. I was no longer dipping into an offshoot. I was playing a missing chapter.

The premise is centered on Zelda. Not Link. The game follows her journey and her struggles in the period leading up to and spilling into the events that would later define Tears of the Kingdom. I liked this focus right away. Zelda has always been a powerful presence in the series, but she rarely gets the full spotlight. Here, she carries the story. The narrative spends real time exploring her doubts, her growing power, and the pressure placed on her as Hyrule leans on her more than ever. The game still includes plenty of familiar faces, but the framing belongs to her, and that gives the story a stronger emotional pull than I expected from a Warriors title.

As with any musou game, the storytelling is wrapped around large scale battles. If you have never touched this genre before and are only coming from the physics driven exploration of Tears of the Kingdom, the structure might catch you off guard. Age of Imprisonment is built around stages. Each stage is an arena sized battlefield with clear objectives. You might be capturing bases, protecting allies, racing toward a boss, or cutting through wave after wave of enemies to trigger new events. The core loop is simple. You push forward, carve a path through crowds, and complete each mission’s tasks.

The combat is where the game earns its weight. You face hundreds of enemies at a time, and the screen often fills with more monsters than I ever saw on the original Switch hardware. You chain light and heavy attacks into long combos, use your character specific abilities to break armor, and watch the enemy count melt away. Boss encounters give the battles shape. Each one has patterns to learn and shields to break. This rhythm of clearing mobs and knocking down bosses is what defines the musou identity, and Age of Imprisonment sticks to it with confidence.

Another big strength is the roster. The game features a wide mix of playable characters, and the variety makes a real difference. Zelda’s moveset feels thoughtful and measured, built around precise magical bursts. Other familiar heroes return from Tears of the Kingdom, bringing their personalities and styles along with them. You also meet new characters who deepen the lore of this era. Learning each moveset kept the game fresh, because every fighter plays differently. Some lean into fast attack strings, others control space with ranged abilities, and a few hit like trucks with slower, deliberate strikes.

What surprised me most was how well the team synergy works. During missions, you can command your other characters to move across the map, support you, or take key positions. Switching between them mid battle adds a tactical layer that kept me engaged. I might start with Zelda, push through the front line, then swap to another character near an outpost that needs capturing. The systems encourage juggling your fighters, not just sticking with a favorite. When everything clicks, you feel like you are orchestrating a whole squad, not just swinging a single sword.

The amount of content on offer is strong. The main story is lengthy, and each stage carries optional objectives and side missions that add replay value. There are challenge maps, bonus rewards, character upgrades, and plenty of collectibles that feed into the broader progression. For a full price release, it feels like a complete package. I never got the sense that I was being pushed toward extra purchases or future DLC to get the full experience, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there are additional content packs of levels and characters that release in future.

Visually, the game hits the right tone. It mirrors the look and atmosphere of Tears of the Kingdom with real care. The cel shaded style, the environmental textures, and the lighting all feel like a natural extension of that world. Hyrule is bright where it should be, somber where it needs to be, and full of small touches that remind you this is the same land you explored across two major Zelda titles. Character animations are sharp, and special attacks fill the screen with flair that feels true to the series.

Performance on the Switch 2 is one of the biggest improvements over past Warriors entries. The new hardware handles huge crowds of enemies and heavy particle effects without buckling. The previous Hyrule Warriors game on Switch 1 struggled during busy scenes, but here the action flows much smoother. There are still brief frame rate dips when the battles reach their most chaotic moments, yet they resolve fast enough that they never ruined the fun. The boost in power also means the game can spawn even more enemies at once, which increases the thrill of landing a massive attack and watching dozens of foes fly across the field.

That said, the performance gains come with a trade off in resolution. The game appears to run below the maximum output of the Switch 2, both docked and handheld. It is most obvious during cutscenes. Those sequences look fuzzy, almost as if they were rendered for the original Switch and never reworked. This does not hurt the gameplay, but it stands out in moments where the story is trying to shine.

Level design has its ups and downs. Some environments look great and match the tone of the narrative. Others feel too open and empty. A few maps lean so wide that they start to feel flat. You move through them quickly enough that it is not a deal breaker, but I found myself wanting a little more detail or variation in certain stages.

The sound design does a lot of work in grounding the experience in the Zelda universe. The music, the spell effects, the enemy cries, and the environmental ambience all fit right back into what I expect from a Zelda game. Stepping into each battle gave me that familiar sense of being back in Hyrule. The soundtrack lifts the action, and the audio cues make combat easy to read.

Final Thoughts

By the end, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment left me with a stronger impression than I expected. I went in because it was canon. I stayed because the game surprised me. The story adds meaningful context to Zelda’s journey. The combat is fast and satisfying. The Switch 2 boosts the series into a smoother, louder, more crowded version of itself. It is not perfect. The resolution quirks, the occasional empty map, and the rare frame drops remind you that this is still a musou game stretching its scope. Even so, it delivers value, energy, and heart.

If you already love Warriors style games, this is a solid entry. If you are a Zelda fan who wants more insight into the era leading into Tears of the Kingdom, this is worth your time. I had more fun with it than I expected, and it gave me a fresh angle on a world I thought I already knew.

A Nintendo Switch 2 Review code was provided by Nintendo for the purpose of this review.

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