Hyrule Warriors: Age of Captivity – 7 Key Changes from the First Game
Blog Andrew Joseph 10 Oct , 2025 0
(Editor’s note: If you’d like to experience Age of Captivity more personally, check out our recent Preview.)
It's time to travel back in time with Zelda in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Captivity. This hack-and-slash action game is set during the founding of ancient Hyrule, pitting a princess and her allies against a massive army in the war against the demon king Ganondorf. After several trailers, multiple runs of their hands-on demo at Tokyo Game Show, and perhaps Since I spent so much time going through the footage frame by frame, I've rounded up seven key changes to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity that you should know about before starting Age of Imprisonment.
1) This is a true prequel
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has an interesting story: reliving the war between the Champions and Calamity Ganon. Set 100 years before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this is a chance to spend hours with fan-favorite characters like Urbosa and Daruk, and control mythical beasts in battle. The only problem? It was split into a separate side story, making it non-canon for BoTW. That's fine for those who like good filler episodes, but for those of us committed to the complex and often contradictory overarching story of The Legend of Zelda , it's a bit of a letdown. Luckily for us hounds, Age of Captivity proved to be a classic of the Tears of the Kingdom story. This means that our adventures with Zelda, Rauru, and Queen Sonya will tell us how this ancient war with Ganondorf was fought.
2) The battle is constantly evolving
Hack-and-slash combat is still alive and well in Hyrule Warriors, and it's evolving even further thanks to all the new unique abilities. These special moves are tailored to specific situations, allowing you to perform aerial attacks against flying enemies and direct thrust attacks against charging enemies. As the name suggests, these are unique to each character. For example, Zelda can fire a volley of light arrows from her Light Bow to knock down flying objects, or attack charging enemies with a piercing light, blasting them to death with a beam fired from the tip of her sword. These are powerful options that will reward you for making good decisions quickly in the heat of battle, and if used correctly will cause instant damage to the weakness indicators of tougher enemies, leaving you ready for devastating weak point attacks.
3) Synchronized strikes are your trump card
Zelda won't be fighting alone, and the way her allies join the fight is evolving thanks to new team-based attacks. This goes beyond the simple powered-up special attacks of old Musou games, as pairs of fighters now employ unique tactics when paired up to devastating effect. Two examples I saw in actual demos were Zelda paired with LaRue, firing a powerful, targetable beam of purity that shreds enemies, and Zelda with Mineru summoning Mineru's hulking construct, used as a battle mecha to crush enemies. With every pairing of the select compatible duo, it's clear that Zelda and company are going to have plenty of action to fight back against Ganondorf and his armies.
4) New hardware means new skills
Age of Captivity is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, which means it takes full advantage of the more powerful hardware. While I haven't done a full stress test yet to see how far I can push the action before the framerate crashes, I'm pretty impressed with my performance Hands-on demonstration How it looks and works. Plus, battling thousands of Bukoblins is more fun with friends, and Age of Captivity GameShare makes it even easier. The idea is pretty simple: If one player has a Switch 2 and a copy of Age of Imprisonment, another player can become their co-op subject by joining the session from their own Switch or Switch 2. Remember, the session belongs to the player who is sharing, so once they stop playing, both players' sessions end.
5) Regional equipment
What makes Kingdom Tears special is that you can find and use Zonai devices (parts of ancient machines) to aid your adventure. You can also do this here, as I demonstrated when I tried out the flame thrower. This allows me to burn my enemies with a targetable stream of fire while I'm holding it. It can also be activated and dropped to the ground to burn everything around it. I've thrown a time bomb into Frox's mouth, and seen in the trailer Zelda combine the wind from a side fan with a shock launcher to create a giant electric cyclone.
6) The world above and below
Our entire demo took place in the Abyss, an area just outside of Mineru's labs. I didn't see a map, but I do know that Age of Calamity covers the entire overworld, and Abyss covers an equally large area. This will likely double the levels, and that's not even including the Sky Islands, where we know we'll be fighting from previous trailers. All in all, there are a lot of potential variations in where the levels take place, and it's easy to wonder just how big the ancient Zelda combat would have been.
7) Zelda and Link
Although Zelda plays a starring role in the series, she's almost always relegated to a secondary role and, at worst, an off-screen motivation for Link's adventures. While she is the protagonist of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, her mostly non-combat role in the retro-style adventure is in stark contrast to her role in Age of Captivity, where she wielded a sword as the protagonist and spearhead in battle. Meanwhile, Link is in the “present” centuries after the Captivity War. While we've seen a construct with a stunning Link face in trailers and character art, we know it's going to be a rarity, and for Hyrule Warriors it's first time Zelda takes the lead and Link steps back from the spotlight.
Even these seven items only scratch the surface when it comes to new content for The Legend of Zelda: Age of Imprisonment, like Korok warriors joining the fray, or an all-new roster of champions to join Zelda in defending Hyrule. Luckily, you won't have to wait too long to uncover all the secrets of the great war in Hyrule's early days. The Legend of Zelda: Age of Captivity will launch on November 6, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.