With more characters, weapons, and secrets to uncover, Age of Calamity is a high-quality action game that sets a new bar for Nintendo spinoffs. While the game presents itself as a Zelda version of Rogue One, where you know that Hyrule is doomed, the story takes some unexpected twists that make for an exciting Zelda side story. It acts as a pseudo-prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and tells the story of the Great Calamity.

Unlike the first game, Age of Calamity is part of the actual Zelda cannon. Nintendo capitalized on that promise with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a more fully realized entry that opens the doors wide open for the series’ future. It wasn’t a replacement for mainline Zelda adventures, but it showed that the franchise had some untapped potential when it came to side games. The hack-and-slash game turned Zelda into Dynasty Warriors with larger-than-life battles. When the first Hyrule Warriors game was originally released on the Wii U, it didn’t seem like much more than a niche spinoff.

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