Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamitylooks to act as an action-packed prequel to the widely acclaimedLegend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.Taking the notorious 1 vs 100 gameplay style that madeDynasty Warriorssuch a hit, the new game is canon to theZeldatimeline and sees players take on the role of the Champions as they attempt to protect Hyrule prior to the events ofBreath of the Wild.
It seems the idea for the newHyrule Warriorsto act as a precursor to the most recent mainlineZeldagame wasn’t made on the fly, however. According to an interview betweenZeldaseriesproducer Eiji Aonuma and IGN,Breath of the Wild’sdirector, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, personally pitched the project.
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“It was Fujibayashi-san, the director of [Breath of the Wild], who initially came up with the concept,” Aonuma tells IGN when asked who first envisionedAge of Calamity.According to the producer, Fujibayashi believed that “telling the untold story of the Great Calamity… would only be possible with a system like Warriors where players could come together to fight against vast armies.” He allegedly prepared a proposal for Anonuma who went on to discuss the concept withHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’sproducerYosuke Hayashi. Before long, the plans had been laid out, and the newest game in theHyrule Warriorsseries was put into production.
For those who playedBreath of the Wild,it’s clear why Fujibayashi felt there was a lot of potential in an action-packed narrative precursor. The apocalyptic events that lead to the deserted world presented in the RPG are hard to explore through flashbacks alone, with a lot of players wondering how and whythe Championswere defeated so decisively by Ganon and his minions.Age of Calamityinvestigates that part of the timeline while also offering the large-scale battles often referenced duringBreath of the Wild’scampaign, making it a fitting exploration of the game’s lore.
Of course,Age of Calamityis far from the only release set in theBreath of the Wildtimeline for fans to look forward to.Breath of the Wild 2is currently in the works, with the trailer hinting that it’ll likely be a much darker take on the series than its 2017 predecessor. Information about the game is currently pretty scarce, with Nintendo hinting it could be some time until fans know more about Link and Zelda’s newest adventure. Until then, however, players can get their hands onHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityright now, allowing them to uncover the events leading up toBreath of the Wild’sepic campaign.
