TGS 2015: Charging Into Battle With Hyrule Warrior Legends - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 23 September 2015 / 4,640 Views
Due to Nintendo’s longstanding, and quite baffling, tradition of not attending the Tokyo Game Show, seeing Nintendo games or systems at the event is actually something of a rarity. The exceptions, of course, are games exhibited by third party publishers or those developed in collaboration with third parties.
Which brings us to Hyrule Warriors Legends (known as Zelda Musou Hyrule All Stars in Japan) for the Nintendo 3DS, which was shown off at Koei Tecmo’s booth this year. The game promises more features than its well-received predecessor but is also encumbered by the hardware limitations of its new portable home.
On the character selection screen I chose Link and Toon Link to team up together (Tetra was the third option). The map I played on was inspired by the world of Wind Waker, so it featured bright cel-shaded visuals and primarily enemies from that game. Unfortunately, the more traditional art design of the game's characters clashes somewhat uncomfortably in these particular surroundings.
The bottom screen features a handy display of the entire map, including the position of your allies, enemies, and objectives. You can also switch between your characters by tapping their faces on the touch screen.
As is expected of a Warriors game hundreds of enemies are featured on-screen at once but they don't really do much. Mowing them down feels as inconsequential as slashing blades of grass to collect the copious amount of rupees they drop. You can also use the hammer during combat to stun a large group of nearby foes. Usually at the center of that throng of enemies is a more formidable foe that must be quashed in order to expel the opposing army from that part of the map. Both Link and Toon Link have special attacks that allow them to cut down large numbers of foes at once by spinning in a large circle.
From your item inventory you can pull out the Ocarina and use it to teleport to different points on the map in front of an owl statue. The game features constant prompts and reminders of where you should go and what you should do, so you won’t feel overwhelmed by the vast openness and the crowds of enemies surrounding you.
I was required to use Link’s hammer to smash a peg which then caused a boat on the water to fire a bomb at a large rock formation that was obstructing progress further into the map. I repeated this task twice more in order to open up all the blocked paths on the map. Afterwards, I simply roamed around defeating bands of foes until all the important areas of the map were under the control of my allies.
Playing on a New Nintendo 3DS LL I found the 3D effect quite bothersome and ugly on the eyes, so I turned it off almost immediately. Reportedly stereoscopic 3D will not be available on original 3DS models for this particular title due to CPU limitations, but if the demo I played is anything to go by such users won't be missing out on much.
There's more bad news too - the framerate is sporadic, pop-in is frequent, and large hordes of enemies will appear completely immobile at a distance. The culminating effect is a game that feels far stiffer and more artificial than its gorgeous HD counterpart on the Wii U.
In any case the transition to the 3DS should open up the game to more potential fans for this spirited mash-up of Dynasty Warriors gameplay and the world of Zelda. Whether the new content promised - plus the ability to transfer it over to the console version - is enough to entice Wii U owners to double-dip remains to be seen, but that's probably its most notable selling point right now.
After playing, however, I felt inspired enough to ride into battle with Link and company, as the picture below can attest.
Hyrule Warriors Legends will release during Q1 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS.
