The hack-and-slash Warriors spin-offs on Nintendo Switch have been easy to skip. The arcade action can be fun and the character interactions rewarding for fans of the given franchise, but for the most part they’ve done little to break out of the fan service bubble. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment might be different. Early reviews suggest the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom spin-off isn’t just a must-play for hardcore fans but a decent action game that new Switch 2 owners should be paying attention to.
Out November 6 as an exclusive for Nintendo’s new hardware, the Koei Tecmo-developed musou game is the first major next-gen-only release the Switch 2 has seen since Donkey Kong Bananza in July. It’s currently sporting a not altogether impressive Metacritic score of 78, which is exactly in line with how the previous games in the subseries, Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, performed. Beneath some of the criticism of the repetitive combat and less-than-excellent mission design, however, early reviews are generally more positive than I was expecting.
“I might hesitate to call Age of Imprisonment an ‘essential’ Switch 2 game, but it’s a crucial piece of giving the system a strongly varied first-year lineup,” writes Hayes Madsen for Inverse, who praised some of its Star Fox-like missions and said the story “genuinely enhances Tears of the Kingdom.” Chris Scullion, reviewing for VGC, was even more upbeat, writing, “Age of Imprisonment may be the most serious of the Hyrule Warriors games to date, but it’s also the one with the most engaging and rewarding combat.”
Not everyone was equally impressed. “Repetition is baked into the genre, but its zen-like nature is stripped away in the latter parts of Age of Imprisonment‘s campaign as you’re forced to replay the same sorts of missions over and over again,” wrote Richard Wakeling for GameSpot. “Many missions only take place in small slithers of battlefields, and even the ones in bigger areas shuffle you quite cleanly from point to point,” wrote Oscar Taylor-Kent for Gamesradar. “There’s very little sense of scope to any of the environments, instead feeling just like corridors and rooms.”
One thing to note: some big sites haven’t even published their Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment reviews yet because Nintendo’s embargo restrictions were too onerous. “Restrictions Nintendo sent alongside a review code were particularly strict this time around, preventing reviews that publish ahead of launch from discussing any non-public story details whatsoever,” reported IGN. The Verge also opted to wait until launch to share its review. Polygon isn’t publishing its take yet either. In the meantime, here’s what everyone else is saying.
“Without any technical hiccups getting in the way, combat is still the star of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Unique Skills and Sync Strikes bring increased depth to its hack-and-slash histrionics, while elements of Tears of the Kingdom are smartly adapted to fit the musou genre. The story doesn’t feel essential enough to satisfy pure Zelda fans, but by ironing out its predecessor’s performance issues and introducing a varied roster of rewarding characters, Age of Imprisonment marks a high point for the spin-off series thus far.” — Richard Wakeling
“As a Zelda title, it effectively continues the worldbuilding from the Beath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom duology; it also provides a sense of real agency for the princess herself, who somehow hadn’t even starred in her own game until last year’s disappointing Echoes of Wisdom. As a musou, it also manages to elevate the well-worn trappings of the subgenre by incorporating a shocking amount of actual Zelda mechanics.” — Christopher Cruz
“The core structure of Age of Imprisonment is entirely focused on taking over bases and fighting bosses. You don’t need to control the battlefield like in the Fire Emblem games, and allies largely can’t do damage to enemies — they’re only there to help support you. A good way to think of it is that this is a character action game (like Devil May Cry) grafted onto the bones of the Warriors structure — but it works.” — Hayes Madsen
“Age of Calamity had a range of diverse and interestingly shaped maps, but Age of Imprisonment‘s feel bland in comparison – even when some maps are essentially the same as in the other game, the undemanding structure makes them worse in this outing. One specific wooded area is still a banger, though. Revisiting Age of Calamity alongside this new one, I had way more fun fighting back through even early encounters there, with sprawling battlefields and pockets of fighting.” — Oscar Taylor-Kent
For a certain type of player, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will be the single game you’ll end up sinking the most time into on your Switch 2. If it wasn’t for every other RPG I’ve yet to play this year, I might have ended up in those shoes. Age of Imprisonment isn’t just a great Zelda spinoff, but confidently stands among some of the singular best games in the entire Zelda series. I simply can’t recommend it enough for anyone who is a fan of the Warriors‘ genre. — James Galizio
Oh, and here’s a bonus: this is one of these games that runs well. I don’t associate Warriors with that, even on higher-end consoles. But this is great. I don’t know if it began life as a Switch 1 game and was then shifted to the successor machine or what, but whatever the reasoning I’m thrilled to note that this looks nice enough but also maintains a solid and high frame rate, even when hundreds of troops are bouncing around on screen. — Alex Donaldson
In terms of the actual gameplay itself, Age of Imprisonment is undoubtedly still a Warriors game – for the uninitiated, Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series has had numerous licensed spin-offs for the likes of One Piece, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, Persona and these Zelda-themed Hyrule Warriors titles – but it also feels a bit like a game trying even more than its predecessors to appeal to those not interested in its hack-and-slash principles. — Chris Scullion
I went into Age of Imprisonment thinking I knew what to expect, but I was surprised by what I found. The improved performance—especially in local multiplayer—as well as the tweaks to combat really made the game stand out among the many Warriors titles. Zelda fans looking for a traditional adventure should look elsewhere. But if you’re down for an action game that’ll easily steal dozens of hours of your life, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a terrific time. — Zackery Cuevas