Hyrule Warriors: Incarceration age has evolved into better Zelda supplement legend
Blog Andrew Joseph 25 Sep , 2025 0
2020's Hyrule Warriors: The Times of Disaster have expanded our time in The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild History, only whispering in some flashback cutscenes. The New Hyrule Warrior: The era of incarceration seems to be following this trend, which has brought us to the creation of Hyrule and Ganondorf's imprisonment in time, in which only fragments are shown in the tears of the Kingdom. Just as tears must be provided in all breaths in the wild, the age of incarceration seems to be adding to the stakes, both of which take advantage of the Switch 2’s increased horsepower and showcase some new and welcome features from the Hack'N Slash Slash Spinoff series.
The demos I've played (which are now also available for attendees of Tokyo Game Shows), including a 10-minute early mission, also attempting to capitalize on the Kingdom's new discovery of Tears: Exploring Depth. Given that this creepy underground area effectively doubles the size of Hyrule, I'm glad to see where these types of missions can guide, as well as the horrors lurking in the darkness (I can't be the only one who wishes we'd like to recognize the creepy giant statue). This Hyrule Warrior iteration seems to be doing well on the Switch 2, and I can't find any depressions of frame speed while wading, but in early enclosed areas it's hard to say whether Nintendo's new console is actually going through the pace.
I embarked on Zelda's mission, still adapting to the timely regression of the Kingdom Tears incident, with the ancient Zonai Beings Rauru and Minera accompanying her towards the sacred power place hidden deep in the depths. After equiping some Zonai equipment for use in combat, I mowed grass in the style of the real dynasty warrior “Musou”. This time, Zelda dropped Sheikah Slate and instead supported the lightsaber, mixing more direct sword slashes together, able to shoot light arrows from a distance, or recall her sword as it dances on the stage to cut off the bondage of the enemy. It's a great way to make her no longer a technical fighter and it's easier to pick up the all-around backup player to link up (they can't do that due to the entire time travel).
Even though I can only play three different roles during the demo, I have to hand it over to Mineru to steal the show. I've never gotten tired of her ability to pull out a random complex Zonai death device. Whether it's driving a giant four-wheel destroyer through enemies or just jumping on huge tires to ride side pads instead of running, Mineru has so far proven herself the green light of this universe, and she's able to pull the craziest pieces out of everywhere. Her many crazy structures (such as summoning a spinning paddle to hit huge balls into bowling enemies) make me long to go back to the Kingdom tears and see if I could recreate these death traps myself.
Although only Mineru can summon complex machines, each character is able to collect exotic Zonai devices to use as easy items in combat and deploy in several ways. At first I whipped the flame launcher to the group that cut off the small enemies, but then I was able to put one enemy down to burn the building captain continuously, while I made a more direct attack from the side, which made it effectively a 1-2 fist combination. Unless you stock a battery charger, all devices drain the battery, making its deployment a tactical option. I can only mess around a little bit, but with different characters, using the device in various ways, there is plenty of room to find great time to deploy them, especially in boss battles.
In addition to deploying equipment, Holding R also allows you to activate special unique skills in combat covering a wide area and explode on the opponent with some bombardment attacks. Each character I have to play has two different abilities, and I can also draw them with the Zonai device for ease of use. While they can be used to cut hordes of grunts, they do shine when facing tougher bosses and captains standing between you and your targets. Even the most versatile constructors can employ strong and unstoppable attacks that can cover vast areas and cause huge damage, indicating a halo that will spread among them. Koei Tecmo seems to have taken a page from another page in its action series Nioh to introduce the best way to stop an unstoppable strike is to beat it with one of its own. It was very satisfying and meaningful to be able to expect, react and close a deadly enemy with my own tricks (at least early on, I got a pretty generous reaction time, and then their attacks would be released).
I also appreciate the steps taken by the imprisonment age to make your allies more practical, as they are now able to provide you with bigger attacks when they achieve larger attacks in your deployment skills. In one example, the boss is ready to attack while Zelda's two skills are still cooling down. Suddenly, I could choose to swap Rauru to wait on the other side of the arena, and I was able to deploy his unique skills to intercept the boss and save the Legend of Zelda in a moment that felt really cinematic.
A bigger upgrade to leverage your allies more is a new capability – a synchronous strike that can be triggered when you and your allies suffer enough damage to fill the meter. This paints their portraits on the side and performs the strike by highlighting the ground to the people in the range when I’m performing a strike within the range. Not only are these moves powerful dramatic, but they are unique to the two characters you sync, opening up the floor for many possibilities and tactics. Pairing Zelda and Rauru allowed me to shoot a double beam of light that I could focus on both bosses at once, independently of each control stick, while having Zelda go on strike synchronously with Mineru, leaving her riding behind Zonai's Mech to alternate powerful Slams and Magic blasts. Given the nature of some of these attacks, I really hope that the co-op game will allow each player to direct their own attacks during these sync strikes, although it has not been proven.
Even though I've been short on the demo, I've been looking forward to seeing more characters' simultaneous battles – especially the small Korok Musketeer and the mysterious-looking Zonai construct that looks very similar to a particularly lacking hero. Fortunately, I only have over a month to wait until Hyrule Warriors: The era of incarceration arrives on November 6.