The First Review For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Is Now In

It seems like Famitsu gives almost every Japanese game they play 36/40.

It is good that it got a high score and people will enjoy it but for me I am going to wait for a patch to be release if they can get the game to be a stable 30 fps.

@SilentHunter382 I'm still waiting for the Super Mario Bros 120fps update. I'm looking forward to it. Will buy as soon as it's available.

I feel like with Famitsu, that if they gave the game a bad result, I would be more inclined to take a closer look, because it seems like a lot of their games get anywhere between 35-40. I would be curious to see what it would take for them to give a score of say 15-25.

Gamepro Japan

Not interested at all in this game. Played the demo when I had a spare 30 mins. Loved it.

Will buy.

Started the demo yesterday expecting to not like it, but I was having a great time. Sure, the fighting is kinda repetitive and most of the enemies are only cannon fodder, but it was very fluid, looked great and was not too demanding.
I... I guess I want to buy this now? 😅

@Abeedo 36/40 translates to 6/10
38 and up is great haha

I hope it scores well and sells well. The amazing world of BotW should be experienced by more people. Can’t wait to play!

I am not in for the gameplay. however, i am in for the Storyline. Any other things are just a bonus to the game in general.

I put a good three hours into the demo, namely because I played it on very hard mode from the off. I made this choice so that when the inevitable ending rolls around my struggles will be that much more painful :')

What I wasn't expecting was just how hard it actually is, I was a fan of the first hyrule warriors so had some experience with some of the moves that have been brought over into this game, still got my ass kicked over and over again. Honestly I loved it and can't wait to play as the gal Mipha.

Swear there's more story in this demo than there is in all of breath of the wild too? At least many more questions to be answered lol

I gotta try the demo. But if I don't get round to it I'm going to wait for word of mouth on the performance side.

I have played the demo and by no means get into frame rate reading. I never noticed any drops in gameplay experience or visuals irregardless of how many bad dudes were coming at me. My review in one statement: if you love BOTW then you owe it to yourself to play this game as it is the missing puzzle piece.

I predict it's a solid 8. Biggest marks off for that awful framerate

@status-204 To be fair, this game is the only game that Nintendo have released this year that I actually want to buy and play. Even then, it kinda makes me sad that the game seemingly can't even hold a stable framerate based on what I played of the demo so far.

@status-204 That's not how it works. As an example, Tri Force Heroes did not review well at all. And if we're talking about scarcity, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was released when the Wii U was on its last legs and it was roasted by critics.
It's okay to not like a game, and other people liking the game doesn't make your opinion any less valid. So please, don't try to invalidate their opinion arguing that they just like it because it's Zelda or because scarcity or whatever other extraneous reason you come up with.

Was not into It since the announce as I don't like the pretty repetitive musou genre, but I tried the demo and all my fears were true: the game is repetitive, the dub is bad, graphics not so good and the frame rate is horrible, It falls below 30 too often and there were times It reach BELOW 15FPS, definitly not buying It, $60(or R$300 in my country) It's just too much for what It offers.

I was strong enough to play the demo only for 5 minutes before I uninstalled it. Awful...awful game...

I never tried a Warriors game before and the demo left me puzzled. It's is probably part of the game design to have countless of brain dead enemies in a semi-constant idle animation, often not even facing you while you slap their sorry backsides...it just doesn't click for me.

The framerate was not an issue. It might not meet the modern standards but old gamers experienced much worse than this.

@koekiemonster now thats bad maths!

@muscpt Exactly this. I never noticed anything either. Only 9 days to go. Bring it on.

@Crockin awful frame rate and low resolution...

Have heard a lot about issues with the frame rate. Can't remember having issues with Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U so maybe I'll be ok as might not notice. My main problem would be when the frame rate gets so bad the game lags a lot. Guess I should check out the demo but was hoping the final game doesn't have that issue or it gets patched pretty quick.

Sixty dollar games should run at 30fps at a threadbare minimum, especially this one, when considering it was designed to run on one specific system; it's not a port. They should have considered the capability of the hardware when designing the game. I might buy it for 10 dollars, in like 5 years time.

Had lots of fun with the demo
Eagerly awaiting for the full game

The game is nice for what it is... But at the end of the day, it’s still a musou game. And the other Hyrule Warriors game tired me out. I got Hyrule Warriors Definitive as one of my first Switch games, and then proceeded to try to get all the maps done after the story - there’s a bunch of gameplay among the maps - which I didn’t just because I was exhausted of the genre before I could finish them. I’ll wait to get this. Besides, I think I should get Warriors Orochi 4 when I’m ready to buy in this genre. I haven’t played an actual Warriors game with original skin since the one on 3DS.

This sounds a real marmite game. Only way for people to know if the game is for them is to play demo and read reviews. So the game will probably be a 9 for those who love it until it's patched. It probably won't be the cup of tea of everyone else. And that's ok. Not every game has to be a 10 that's recommended to everyone. Diversity in gaming is good because we're all individuals and all part of sub-group tastes.

Famitsu scores it all 9s.

Nintendolife comment section: They're wrong!

Never change.

Normally @scully1888 gets tasked with these tough crowd reviews...we shall wait and see.

@wazlon I could definitely tell a difference between Wii U and this in multiplayer. Single player however isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be but the fps definitely dips at times. For me not enough to ruin the experience... Multiplayer is unplayable unfortunately.

I played the demo and apart from the aesthethic, cutscenes and soundtrack this is no 36/40 game, not that I would take any real notice of a Famitsu review anyway.

I was going to buy the game but I just cannot find the enjoyment in the Warriors style gameplay so will probably just wait for someone to upload the story on Youtube and watch it like a film.

Reading that It's just as good as Paper Mario and Xenoblade, but not as good as ACNH is massively unhelpful to me because ACNH is garbage to me, Paper Mario is better but still sub-par, and Xenoblade despite being a Wii game is still better imo than ACNH and Paper Mario, and honestly shouldn't even be considered among Switch games (but when Nintendo refuse to make new games what else can you do).

So Calamity is equally as good as a game I kinda like and a remake I'm in love with, but not quite as good as a game I deeply hate.
It's times like these that make me genuinely love the concept of opinions.

I’m so excited to play this. I will be watching the reviews closely. I played the demo and was devastated where it left off lol. I spent so much time preparing for those fights.

Played the demo and loved it. I probably won't get the full game until next month. I'm nearly done with my first playthrough of BotW. So it's gives me time to finish BotW first.

I wonder how long this game has been in the making and if it was redesigned half way through to market it as a Breath of the Wild prequel.

I obviously want another botw game but maybe not another Hyrule Warriors that looks like botw.

I hope reviewers can differentiate between the to games and not get carried away with the story.

Does the review address the atrocious lack of performance optimization?

@Dethmunk DF was pretty negative on Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition and from what I've seen that runs better than this in every way (at least as of the demo.) I wouldn't hold my breath on Age of Calamity getting much of a performance boost in the final version, but it'll still be a fun game and a must have for BotW lore.

@BlackenedHalo
You really managed to pack a lot of irony into such a small statement. Well done, my friend.

The frame drops are there no matter how many people say they didn't notice them. If you don't notice them that's cool but many of us do. My only hope is that it was an old build and the final product was smoothed out.

@muscpt
I really like the demo and I never experienced any frame rate issues. I liked enough to preorder it.

I just know, if I can’t play this in 16k with a super stable 240FPS my eyeballs will literally implode.

@Dethmunk I can't think of a single time when. Demo released and the product was radically different. With a few weeks before release, I guarantee the release is going to be exactly like the demo. Can it be fixed later with a patch? Who knows, but Link's Awakening still has its framerate issues, so I guess you should assume what you see in the demo is the best you're going to get.

@rallydefault Do you know what irony is because his statement didn't contain any?

i was torn between getting age of calamity and miles morales, so far some of my most-awaited games this year. if age of calamity is as good as the demo was, i just may give in and buy age of calamity. either way, i'll buy it in a couple months anyways, just avoiding spoilers on twitter until then will be pretty difficult

Reads article headline

I bet it's Famitsu.

Clicks into article

DINGDINGDING!

Not interested.

I didn't really enjoy the demo too much, I might try it again but meh, the game didn't appeal to me.

The last first party Nintendo game I purchased was in 2019 and I doubt that'll change with this.

@WiltonRoots Famitsu reviews are bunk, and have been for years. It’s not just the readership of this website that thinks so: https://www.dcgameblog.com/2019/11/cognition-dissemination-famitsus-corruption-goes-beyond-the-bounds/

It’s pretty commonly know that they have lots of conflict of interest issues, and at this point I don’t think they are taken to be very credible anymore. There’s more to read, but I’ll leave the searching up to you if you want.

This Zelda spin-off is proof that Nintendo doesn’t care about whether or not you finish the game. They just want you to buy it, because it’s Zelda. Not really interested in a game with 300 enemies standing around, waiting to get hit. Whoever made the musou genre needs to stahp.

@TG16_IS_BAE Nah I'm alright. These types of games tend to be quite divisive, some people love them, some people hate them, so I don't know whether anyone will agree with a Warriors review that anyone does. The plus is it has tons of BOTW storyline tucked away in it, that and the fact I had a good mindless laugh playing the demo means it's on my radar. I like shootemups so despatching hundreds of enemies is a no brainer for me.

I haven't even played the demo yet, so I might have to give that a go before I make any decisions, though no matter what happens, I won't be purchasing it for full price. These type of games typically don't warrant a full price purchase from me, even when fused with The Legend of Zelda.

The Demo killed it for me.

Would love to know the story, but gameplay is just painfully repetitive.

@WiltonRoots But....shmups the enemies actually try to do something to you. : /

I played the Demo, and although I love the breath of the wild aesthetics and very interest in the story, I found it very annoying not being able to climb walls etc.

I know this not breath of the wild, but I found myself wanting it to play like breath of the wild

What I would like is DLC for breath of the wild that has this story and World (from 100 years earlier)

Well, we all know how trustworthy Famitsu is these days unfortunately.
Giving 9 to a musou is certainly amusing though; yeah, this and P5S look more like prequels/sequels with musou combat instead of being just a Dynasty Warrior reskin, but a musou game is still a musou game, and for as much fun I had in 50 hours with the first HW, I'd never give it anything above a 6,5.

@Ambassador_Kong
Irony - a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character

Don't explode your brain, man. Not worth it.

I keep forgetting that the release is so close. I need to play the demo. I'm probably going to get it no matter what because I am a sheep.

@aSmilingMan Hey thank you for replying buddy! I do understand what the other commenters mean about this genre haha, and even on very hard mode you'll get the odd doofus group of lizalfos just waiting about to be battered, but when you do get around to them they take a lot of punishment before getting KO'd, they're also attacking you relentlessly at this stage too so can be really tricky. If I learned anything from the first HW is that ordering your other characters to defend different areas is crucial on very hard. Though i'd imagine on easy you can just tap X until the credits roll haha!

Cheers again for the reply, have a good day!

Wow, a musou game getting a 9/10 by 4 reviewers. Even if they’re die hard Zelda fans it’s a game design with limited appeal. I absolutely love musou games and will snatch up as many as I can get. But I totally understand that for most people playing a few battles will probably be enough to satisfy em. I’ll easily drop 100+ hours into each game just to unlock all the characters and what not but still have soooo much to do. Hyrule warriors really hooked me with the Zelda theme and even then I could on do so many repetitive missions in the adventure maps. Interested to see how a more story focused game works.

@LilMuku that's the thing with reviews, unless you know the people, personally and what their tastes are, their opinion is mostly moot.

@status-204 I Hear me out, ok? I know it's crazy, but I have this theory that many reviewers give a good score when they actually enjoy a game. I know, I know, it's incredible to believe.

Jokes aside. Ok, the gameplay doesn't appeal to you. It doesn't mean that it's a bad game, it simply means that it isn't your cup of tea. That's it.

@Cheez Thanks for the information, won't be getting it at launch for sure.

36/40 is a great score, but it's still dependent on you liking the genre... which sadly I don't. I need to see more of the game and find out if the story and world building is significant enough to warrant a purchase, as I already know that I will not enjoy the gameplay!

Im excited for this.

@koekiemonster
"36/40 translates to 6/10"
36/40 = 9/10.
6/10 = 24/40.

@koekiemonster lmao congratz you failed basic math

It’s more like 36/40 should translate to 9, but they give this to a lot of Japanese games. So it’s not relatable anymore and could easily translate to 6/10. Famitsu numbers don’t say anything anymore

I thought I wanted the story and it was a shame that I didn't like the gameplay but now that I think about it... do I want to know the story?

What was interesting about the BotW is the implied backstory. The world had depth to it without overloading you with information. It was filled with mystery and your own imagination. It's why so many franchises seem interesting and then are ruined by prequels.

@koekiemonster Except no. 36 is 90% of 40. As in 36 out of 40 is equivalent to a score of 90 out of 100, aka 9 out of 10. Since each of the reviewers gave the game a 9/10, this percentage would be the same regardless of the number of reviewers. And 6 is obviously 60% of 10. There is a massive difference between these two sets of numbers.

@Agramonte Well it's a Warriors game and it plays exactly as such.

I normally enjoy warrior games for some mindless button mashy fun. Also nice to have more cooperative games.

Demo made me cancel my preorder. Runs and looks so awful even for a warriors game... We were hitting down to 10 fps.

I'll just watch cutscenes online if I want the story.

Isn't famitsu pretty well known for bias reviews though?

@Sensible yes

I loved Hyrule Warriors, and when I downloaded the demo for age of calamity I was quite skeptical, but after playing through I actually really enjoyed it. 100% buying at launch!

Until the reviews tell me if there's more than just the bare bones game we've seen so far, I'm not interested.
Full price for a "warriors" game that only has story mode and a handful of characters? Hard pass.

Now if the reviews come in and there's the extra map modes, more characters, etc.. then sure I'll throw down.

@Sensible You say that as a joke, but I'm gonna gonna get an XSX if 120FPS is common on it, and I'm dropping over $1,400 on a GPU, CPU, mobo and faster RAM/SSD this year for a 4K 120FPS gaming PC to go along with my new 4K 120FPS TV. The PC's gonna be twice as powerful as the new consoles, should be able to do upscaled 4K 120FPS in most games next gen.

My Switch will still get a bunch of my playtime, though. Switch/PC master race!

Demanding 120FPS or even 60FPS in all Switch games is unreasonable, but wanting a stable 30FPS is perfectly fine. I thought the demo ran alright, but the prior Hyrule Warriors on Switch ran better and looked a lot cleaner. Hope that Super Switch releases soon and has nice upscaling.

I played the demo and found the story great but the gameplay a little boring. It just felt a bit repetitive. I absolutely loved BOTW so I will probably end up getting this just to find out more about the world/ characters of it.

@GASEOUS Sei bem sua dor.

Wow, i expected a 40/40 from them. They often score higher than a game deserves, IMHO.

@Sensible big difference. One is chugging 1/3 of the time. The other is perfectly fine

@Razer this is 2nd party, developed by koei-tecmo, published by nintendo, if that makes a difference.

@Facelord 1400$ total for mobo, cpu, gpu gpu, ram & ssd capable of 4k 120fps? You better not get your hopes up, lol.

@BAN but they are notoriously corrupt & give way inflated scores. That was his point.

@twztid13 I know it is but no it makes no difference lol.

@muscpt I don't know if my switch is slow, but Whenever I cleared an outpost and the chests spawned after I killed the big boss I definitely felt the frame drop. In one-player mode it kinda struggles but gives good frame rate but 2 player throws good framerate out of the window me and my brother had fun but it was quite annoying with all the frame drops.

@twztid13 No it wasn’t. There’s no mystery or nuance in his comment. His claim was literally “36/40 translates to 6/10.” Please, explain to me how that means anything other than what it explicitly says.

@SilentHunter382 all the previews i saw about the game mentioned, that Hyrule Warriors:Age of Calamity framerate problem is only found on the demo, not the actual game itself.

@panthro Your rhetoric is very confusing to me but I think I know what you mean. 🙏🤣

@Giancarlothomaz if that is true, this demo build has got to be Oooold. 👍😊
I mean it's weird why they would put out a demo that is supposed to build hype and not make it run "as smooth as the full game". I think this demo reflects what we are getting on launch.

@BAN Famitsu numbers don’t say anything. You can literally just buy them. The magazine is to promote games, not to judge.

Yes, the game is set in Zelda univerve, but if you don't enjoy musou games, you probably won't enjoy Age of Calamity. Because it is a musou game at its core! Geez! And that was never concealed from anyone

I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have bought Yakuza and Spiderman:MM day 1. Realistically, I will be playing Sakuna and HW till January at the very minimum.

The demo is making me strongly consider it. I will say though, handheld mode is terrible, this is a dock game 100%. Anyone with a lite should stay far away from this game.

Having played the demo I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than a few 10s about come embargo day

I don't understand how Musou games still can sell so well at full price. They're alright games, and kind of fun in their own way, but despite being Koei, they still feel kind of budget bin to me. Not just this one, the whole franchise. It seems like a series that would be fantastic as a $40 budget release, but always seems hard to justify at full prices. They have some fun moments, but so much of the design is just "mash button, make it to end." with brief surges of adrenaline now and then. I don't dislike the genre, but I can't get myself excited for entries, either....and there's just so much of it.

Standard Famistu score.

@Ambassador_Kong It's similar to goldey and bronzey but made of iron.

@twztid13 Ryzen 5900X and a 6800 XT should do the trick, already got a nice B550 mobo, a 1TB 5GB/s PCIE 4.0 SSD and 32GB of 4000MHz DDR4. I expect to run many next-gen titles at 1440p 120FPS, but upscaling these days is pretty spectacular. My Ryzen 2700 paired with a Vega 64 and a 1080 Ti already do a pretty good job at 1440p 120FPS on my TV, but I need HDMI 2.1 and the extra VRAM and performance would allow me to dunk on the PS5/XSX.

5900X is actually overkill for 120FPS, I'm getting it for smoother 240FPS on my monitor; occasionally my 2700 is more of a bottleneck for 240FPS than my 1080 Ti. 6800 XT outperforms an RTX 3080 in most games, even outperforms the 3090 in a handful.

This game not having online coop is a huge disappointment and would make it a pass for me.

@SilentHunter382 you’ll be waiting a long time. BOTW (a wii u game) still cannot achieve a stable 30fps on switch after nearly 4 years.

@panthro

I had the exact same experience

I give this game a respectable 7 out of 10. Not bad, not great, but enjoyable for what it is.

I'm so thankful for the demo. It was horrible imo!!

@BlackenedHalo
could you tell me why? You didn't really say a valid reason. I just want to know if its the right game for me.

They should've given Link a voice for this game. He is not mute, after all. Or is he? The game has the player choosing his main character, so making only one of them mute makes no sense in this game. The silent protagonist would be understandable only if Link were the only character you're able to play, like in the mainline Zelda games.

In truth, i'll probably watch all the cutscenes once they become available. I have zero interest in the mindless hack-and-slash gameplay of the warriors series, and no amount of dressing it up as Zelda is going to change that. I'm just being honest with myself.

@JDubElijah uh yes.

So did Famitsu have anything to say about the frame rate?? Is the final product the same as the demo??

@koekiemonster your math just doesn’t add up dude. I get that it’s the famitsu thing but seriously

@JDubElijah Famitsu score is just nothing. It can be bought if you want. It’s just PR. There is no relation to the scale 0-10 most people here seem to use.

Not many review sites I trust but Famitsu is definitely one of them (and Yes, NL you’re in that list too!)

The demo was super fun. Can't wait for the full game

@Hylian_Greaves Weird. I defeated the Guardian my first time and most of the fight only had one hart left then the last 3/4ths of it I only had a quarter heart and hid behind the rock between laser blasts. I did win though at the skin of my teeth but only because I didn't understand some things earlier but the rest of the game I completely blew thru with no more then losing a heart if I sat their being dumb long enough.

A lot of times a few enemies would sit their with me being dumb!!! Could that be my difficulty setting at easy or does that just give them more health to chink at?

@ss213 I think it has to do with when you bought your Switch. I have my Switch from when BOTW first came out and it has no FPS drops nor blurryness on mine. I've heard a lot of bad things about 1st gen Switch machines.

@Lugazz Actually the online press did a good job trying to make it seem like the sequel using a lot of tricky double speak but if you are into PSYOP stuff it's pretty easy to spot.

@Gerald But we are not allowed nice things.

@JWF I'm playing Link's Awakening before I sell it which I got thru trading old stuff and paid very little for. It's like a dumb BOTW and to further the case I have Stigmatism issues with my eyes and I don't see tiny objects from the perspective they want though it's mostly an issue in dungeons not the overworld. Also unlike OOT if you don't have a crucial item you have to look it up to find out where and what the hell it is! One case I had to have a toadstool and had it this whole time not knowing what it was for and only found out after looking up how to light torches.

I'm going to play the hell out of this. That said:

What is with these comments?

Let people enjoy their games, even if you don't like them yourself. Is that so hard?

@Olddantrucker not sure if you dissing or not. Don’t get me wrong. I am ok with this game, and will still buy it, it just left me wanting more breath of the wild

Come on wolf link dlc or something..

@wazlon their review confirms this.

@Rpg-lover why not save your dough and watch it on YouTube?

@matdub i could've opted for that, however, I won't feel the whole aspect of the game by that means. You know little things that matters. After playing i will sell it off.

@Cheez Thank you, will buy it eventually so I hope they patch the game by the time I buy it. Definitely won't be bothering with co-op mode, that frame rate looks awful.