In November’s issue of Official Nintendo Magazine, staffer Kate Gray gave Koei Temco‘s Zelda / Dynasty Warriors mashup Hyrule Warriors one of its first Western reviews, scoring it an impressive 87 / 100. In her opinion, Koei Temco has breathed new life into what has otherwise become a stale franchise:
“Kintsugi is the traditional Japanese art of reassembling broken pottery by using resin mixed with gold. The result is that the smashed piece looks the same as before, but with seams of gold running across its surface like scars. It is an art form that celebrates repair and rejoices in creating something new from something old. That is precisely what Koei Temco has done to The Legend of Zelda.”
Kate reassures fans of both Zelda and Dynasty Warriors that there is enough of Zelda to make those fans feel at home, while the game mechanics are purely in the Dynasty Warriors camp with “button-mashing, brilliant fight choreography, large-scale tactics and a light dusting of scantily clad women.”
She praises the ingenuity of the gameplay, with a fun 20+ hours of game that is an homage to the Zelda franchise, offering multiple game modes for replayability and a slew of unlockables, but comments that unfortunately there is a noticeable drop in the frame rate and visuals when playing co-op mode which is split between the TV and Wii U GamePad. She also opines that while the Zelda-themed story in the campaign is excellent and nostalgia-inducing, it is over far too soon.
She sums up by saying that while not the best Zelda game, it works well as a unique beast, and heralds the possibility for other exciting Zelda collaborations in the future:
“Hyrule Warriors certainly isn’t up there in the ranks of the best Zelda games – it doesn’t have the level of polish and and richness that you would find in a Skyward Sword or a Twilight Princess – but perhaps it is unfair to compare them, because Hyrule Warriors doesn’t set out to be a Zelda game. Instead, it’s this new and promising hybrid that could lead the way for more exciting collaborations.”
For a full picture, be sure to read the full review in Official Nintendo Magazine. Hyrule Warriors comes out exclusively on the Wii U on September 19th in the EU and September 26th in North America.
Kate Gray is on Twitter: @KateONM
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