Ancient Hyrule is no longer a myth; it’s a battlefield. In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, we plunge headfirst into the Imprisoning War, a cataclysmic era only whispered about in Tears of the Kingdom. This in-depth exploration of Zelda’s time-displaced crusade delivers a kinetic blend of Musou chaos and narrative gravitas. With Sync Strikes lighting up the battlefield and Zonai Devices turning the tide, every skirmish feels like a legend in motion. Whether soaring as the Mysterious Construct or cleaving through Depths-born monstrosities, this is a war worth remembering.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Review Pros

• Beautiful graphics are the same as those in Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zelda: The Lost Kingdom. 
• 43.3GB download size.
• Amibo support. 
• Motion control support, and you can invert the axis and set it to aiming or not. 
• Display settings – lock mini map to north, enemy health gauges, action prompts, combo guidance, and controls guides. 
• Volume sliders for – BGM, SFX, and voice sliders. 
• General settings – auto use rations, rumble, and rumble intensity slider. 
• Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, camera speed, auto lock on, auto follow when moving, and auto follow when attacking. 
• Four game difficulties – Easy, normal, hard, and very hard. 
• Set the voice and text language. 
• Full 3D game world, with 360-degree camera control. 
• Third-person view. 
• Strategy battle Gameplay. 
• Opening tutorial section, then ongoing pop-ups and a help menu for reference. 
• In-game cutscenes that seamlessly integrate with gameplay, you can also skip them if you so wish. 
• Very impressive in the screen enemy count. 
• Handy re-centre camera button, which helps way more than you think. 
• Any text-based interactions or cutscenes can be clicked through, skipped, or set to auto scroll. 
• Combat is mashy but ultimately satisfying as you combo attacks and heavy attacks at will, causing combos. 
• The game has a classic-sounding soundtrack and SFX. 
• You get a lot of visual feedback and help, abilities will show when ready, weak spot prompts, arrows on screen, and whilst at first it looks daunting, it’s surprisingly innovative. 
• Counter enemy heavy attacks by casting an ability, plus the bonus of it looking cool. 
• Many Breakable boxes and crates that can house loot. 
• Treasure chests can be rewarded for clearing out outposts. 
• Sync strikes are when you and other characters sync gauge is full, and you press the sync attack button, having all of you attacking at the same time and more frequently, as cool downs are faster! Oh, and it looks Aces. 
• Assign items to a shortcut menu, which can be things like healing. 
• The game moves at lightning speed and performs really well, even with the high enemy count. 
• Dodging at the last moment lets you get a set of attacks in quickly, unguarded. 
• Swap between playable characters within the location, and you can swap instantly and as often as you like. 
• Lock on for the bigger, stronger enemies that also have a life bar. This makes combat a lot more manageable. 
• When out of combat, you can run around the world, cut grass, break boxes or whatever. 
• The minimap will show icons, enemies, allies, and markers. You can have it show the whole current region or zoom in on your location.
• Can cut down the grass, shrubs, and trees with random drops happening.
• End of a battle breakdown showing kills, clear time, and rupees earned, along with any rewards. 
• Sheikah Slate-used to choose destinations on the Hyrule map.
• Main missions, Sidequests, challenges, and activities will show on the map and fill in as you play. 
• Play how you want within the locations; you have time-based parts, but overall, you have a lot of openness. 
• Activities will show the reward for completion.
• Contributions-do side quests and help people to fill the contribution bar.
• Materials are tied to areas, and these are used to do activities and crafting most of the time.
• Can replay levels.
• Feels like an extension to Breath of the Wild.
• Two-player mode support.
• Manual and automatic saves.
• Weapons found and earned in missions, and each will have a damage number and maybe a random ability/buff. An easy comparison pop-up happens when selecting a weapon.
• Main stats screens that update 
• Battle preparation-you can edit each party member’s loadout from armour to weapons. Cooking can be done from the recipe and materials list, with each meal giving a timed buff.
• Aerial attacks are a big deal, and you can counter enemy attacks with special abilities. 
• Fully voiced cast amd it’s the same as the main games. 
• Rupees are the currency of the game, which is also the same in every Zelda game ever. 
• Real fun to play amd scratches a very specific itch. 
• The Game plays a lot like those Dynasty Warriors games. 
• Can just button-mash your way through, plus you do get button icons to show for attacks and healing.
• Fast loading times.
• Gallery-unlock art/concept art, rewatch cutscenes, and listen to music that you unlock as you play through the game. 
• The animations and, more specifically, the animations of attacks are biblical.
• Complete quests in Hyrule to get rewards, and there is a bar at the top showing progress. 
• I like that the map fills in with loads of events, fights, etc, so I get more control and choice of my playthrough. 
• The Weapons research base is where you can spend Zonaite Steel to upgrade weapons and sell off materials for rupees. 
• I really like how hovering over a place in the map, it will do a cool split screen showing the land you will be fighting in. 
• The Hyrulian training Plaza is where you go to practice and try out attacks and abilities. 
• A lot of dopamine-filled pop-ups, fulfilling quests give you the completed noise, you get cool rewards, and pop-ups of loot and the bar fills in. 
• An amazing new addition is that you don’t just select a place in the map, then fight like before; a lot of the time, you will do a whole story-like sequence, walking around and then naturally going into a battle. It feels way more connected and immersive. 
• Zonai devices, like in the main games, are special attacks or abilities and have batteries that can be auto-recharged with batteries or they regenerate slowly over time. 
• Mineru is a character that uses auto build to have these crazy abilities, like riding a vehicle and riding around, summoning constructs, and Zonai devices. 
• Every character is so unique and different that it really mixes up the gameplay. 
• Overall kill count shows in the corner at all times, along with an easy-to-read exp bar and what level you are. 
• Earn exp and level up to get stat upgrades. 
• Get upgrades and more health by doing the many side quests in the game world. 
• Many areas unlock, and each requires additional missions and materials to level them up. 
• Build a camp within a level to regain all your health and batteries. 
• The game is a huge upgrade from the previous games; it has a lot more in line with the mainline Zelda games, it breaks up the fighting with more traditional gameplay, and it honestly makes it a lot more fun. It even has loot lists, which is a first for me. 
• A device dispenser is where you put any number of Zonai materials to obtain a specific device. New devices give new attacks. 
• Elements play a part; you can freeze and slow down enemies or burn them with fire that spreads around. 
• Unlock challenges to do special set events for rupees and rewards. 
• You have some control over your player as it’s up to you how and when you upgrade. 
• Before deploying into a level, you can choose who to take out with you. 

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Review Cons

• A lot to take in for new players, it is more of how many systems you have to learn than anything.
• The learning curve with the more complex controls as they are combinations of button presses.
• Activities are just a set of materials you need to collect.
• No touchscreen support.
• It takes a bit of getting used to, and at times the flow can be a bit up and down. 
• No achievements system in place.
• The camera can go a bit erratic, and it’s very easy to lose it in battle. 
• The combat can get very hectic, and it can be detrimental to doing it well, and it can also be hard to keep an eye on yourself. 

Related Post: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Official Website:

Developer: Koei Tecmo

Publisher: Nintendo

Store Link:

Nintendo