I went into Hyrule Warriors with zero expectations and came out satisfied - this is a cool game with treats for Zelda fans, strategy fans, and hack-and-slash fans alike. Consider this a nice bonus rather than a primary way to play the game. The split screen cuts down the number of grunts from single-player mode, and it sometimes limits your view, impeding battles with flying dragons. to help you out.Īnd it’s actually quite fun. If a second controller is connected, you can opt to start a battle with a second person handling another character, which is actually a lot better than expecting the game’s weak A.I. Nintendo doesn’t go out of its way to advertise the two-player feature in Hyrule Warriors - it actually took some hunting through menus and the digital manual before I could even find the game’s split-screen mode. If you miss them because you’re too busy chopping up dozens of monsters, it seems like no big deal.Ībove: Hyrule Warriors has a two-player mode, but the game is really optimized for a single-player experience.Ī mostly single-player focus (but with a two-player mode) They recognized that first-time players won’t immediately grasp all the strategic or control nuances, so the strategy and RPG elements are background noise in the early levels. I both respect and hate what Nintendo and Koei Tecmo did with Hyrule Warriors’ difficulty curve. What you won’t likeĪ weird difficulty curve for levels and controls

Even on easy difficulty, expect to revisit midpoints multiple times per stage, and then to move up to at least normal difficulty before completing the game. But realistically, you won’t, and after suffering a mid-stage defeat, you’ll be given the choice to fall back to either your last save point or an automatic checkpoint. If you win every battle across the Legend and Adventure modes on the first try, you might finish the game after a week of several-hour sessions. This mode’s amazing to look at and a ton of fun - perhaps moreso for kids than the more strategic Legend stages. But there are other modes, too. Adventure mode uses classic Zelda overworld maps to facilitate hundreds of additional battles with basic objectives (“beat 300 enemies”), but minus cinematics.Īnother mode places you in control of a gigantic Ganon as he roams the game’s maps from a nearly overhead perspective, fighting grunts and multiple full bosses from the game in a King of the Monsters style experience. Hyrule Warriors is primarily focused on a story mode called Legend, consisting of nearly 20 chapter-like stages that become challenging after level 5 - at that point, you can’t play the game as a raw brawler, even on “Easy” difficulty. Tons of stages without the need to buy additional DLC Above: Legend stages include semi-linear progression through a chapter-based adventure, and side stories.

Hyrule warriors adventure mode map