The Zelda series values its narrative, but its importance in defining the series relies on elements such as exploration and puzzle solving. Zelda’s story is significant to me though, and it’s especially significant personally to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Without giving away any spoilers, the previous Hyrule Warriors installment, Age of Calamity, didn’t take the Breath of the Wild canon seriously. This led to an extremely disappointing experience, despite the entertaining musou action. Age of Imprisonment offers countless improvements mechanically and visually, but my favorite part is how respectful it is to the history of Tears of the Kingdom.
Age of Imprisonment isn’t a Tears of the Kingdom prequel per se, but if you’ve played the 2023 game, you’ll know what to expect from the story. It plays it protected, offering very few revelations, but it provides an opportunity to learn more about Zelda’s situation and introduces a lot of novel characters, all of whom have great designs and are fun to play. The dialogue and voice acting aren’t particularly impressive (meeting the standards set by Tears of the Kingdom), but I enjoyed spending more time with Zelda and Rauru and gaining deeper insight into the tribulations they experienced.
However, like a typical Zelda game, the main experience is not the story. Imprisonment is a Musou game that follows in the mechanical and structural footsteps of Dynasty Warriors. Zelda must go on a series of missions with a wide range of supporting characters, fighting thousands of enemies simultaneously on battlefields gigantic and diminutive. The gameplay is familiar from other games in the genre and is undeniably repetitive, but a number of wrinkles keep the action fresher than in comparable games.
In addition to bouncing between multiple characters and using various special moves on cooldown, boss characters now perform certain special moves that require a moment of pause to dial in the correct counter to get substantial rewards. Throwing bosses into the air or breaking their shields adds some valuable contemplation to combat, but like repeatedly mashing the attack button against the same type of enemies, it started to get ancient after about 20 hours. That said, this is the most enjoyable Musou combat I’ve experienced to date, and everything looks and feels fantastic on the Switch 2, which is a welcome improvement over the first two Hyrule Warriors games.
Outside of combat, you browse the familiar Tears of the Realm map and allocate collected items where they are needed to upgrade your warriors. I liked this break between missions because it gave me the feeling of looking through the Kingdom’s Tears map, and it also created a valuable loop of collecting items and distributing them. An added bonus was that I actually wanted to tackle the side quests even though they all played similarly. Items can also be used before each mission to upgrade weapons, raise attack power, experience, speed, and other stats, making all the items you collect feel truly valuable and worth the pursuit.
Perhaps Age of Imprisonment’s best trick, though, is that it makes me feel like I’m back in the world of Tears of the Kingdom. The art direction, menu elements, music, sound effects, and more make me feel like I’m back in 2023 and lost in one of my favorite games of the last decade. Imprisonment’s gameplay is completely different and not as engaging or consistently groundbreaking, but I eagerly wrapped myself in a sultry blanket as I performed Zelda’s final attack for the hundredth time.
