I love Hyrule Warriors! First of all, in case you don't already know, this is not a main series game. I think they specifically left "Legend" and "Zelda" out of the title to try to make that more clear, but apparently lots of people still buy it expecting dungeon crawling. THIS IS A HACK AND SLASH. Moving on.
That being said, this is a great game for Zelda fans because you get to play as so many Zelda characters in so many different ways. The game, to me, is basically a cross between Stars Wars: Battlefront, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and Dynasty Warriors, but, it's all Zelda. As far as the story goes, a sorceress named Cia opens portals to different parts of the timeline, so heroes from all of Hyrule's history end up fighting together. This is how they get Midna, Darunia, and Fi all onto the same battlefield, just to name a few.
The combat is very much hack-and-slash, with certain special moves taking out up to 100 foes at a time. It's pretty easy to get the hang of, and it's incredibly satisfying. They make it a little more complicated and strategic with the addition of weapons from Link's usual arsenal, which every hero is capable of utilizing. For example, when King Dodongo enters the battlefield, you're still throwing bombs in his mouth, just like in Ocarina of Time. These weapons also have uses outside of combat as well, like hookshotting to high ledges and cutting down plants with your boomerang. I thought they integrated these weapons very well.
The enemies come in varying degrees of strength. The lowest level are like pawns; these are the ones you take out by the dozens, and they pose very little threat. A step above are the enemies that have health bars but only take one or two hits to kill; these are usually gatekeepers or Keep Bosses--more on that in a minute. Then you've got your captains, which require actual strategy, as they have shields and special moves, and then the bosses.
The captains and bosses both have weak points, which are moments when they are susceptible to attack. The bosses in particular have huge health meters, so regular attacks do little to take them out. You have to wait for their weak points to be revealed, at which point you hack away at them until a gauge hits zero and a chunk of their health dissipates. I actually thought the weak point gauge was a cool way of forcing you to strategize; however, it was also one of my few gripes with the game. I felt it made most of the boss fights too similar, but more importantly, it also made it so there was a lot of unnecessary waiting around. A lot of the time, you just have to run around a boss until the weak point gauge appears, which sometimes takes a while. Any time you're waiting around for something to happen, especially in a fast-paced game like Hyrule Warriors, you're not having fun.
The other important aspect of the game is the Keep system. On every map, there are several Keeps that will either be controlled by you or the enemy. In order to take them from the enemy, you have to defeat a certain number of bad guys and kill the Keep Boss. Doing so allows your soldiers to spawn there rather than the enemy's. It works a lot like the old Battlefront games, and I loved it. This was where a lot of the strategy came in, because, especially on hard mode, you definitely can't do everything yourself. Your soldiers can actually do a lot to help you, but only if you have enough of them. That means taking over keeps between objectives, but only when you have enough time. If you leave your commanders on their own while you're off taking keeps, they might flee the battle. It's a delicate balancing act, and in several of the scenarios, it took me several tries to get the balance just right. It was a ton of fun.
Finally, you get to play as pretty much anyone you want. In Legendary Mode, you can only play as the heroes that are actually in the scenario plotwise. However, after you beat a scenario, you can tackle it in Free Mode with anyone you want. In total, including DLC, there are 31 playable characters, each with their own weapons and playstyle. They all level up individually, which you can do by playing the scenarios, by spending gold, or by playing Adventure Mode, which contains a bunch of specific challenges. Personally, I haven't tackled Adventure Mode yet, and I've only levelled up the characters I needed to get through Legendary Mode, but I might just have to buy a DLC pack and level up Toon Link, because how do you not.
There is so much to do in this game, it's crazy. If you get the Switch version, I understand that all the DLC comes built in, so you've got characters, costumes, weapons, and scenarios galore. If you like the Zelda characters and universe and want a game where you can just beat the crap out of a bunch of Bokoblins, I highly recommend this game. I've only put in 20 hours so far, but someone could get incredibly lost inside of this massive game, and I'm sure players have put in upwards of 100. Play it!
