So, ever since I beat Age of Calamity in early 2021, I've been eyeing this game for grabbing and hunting for it to go on sale. Unfortunately, Nintendo games rarely ever get discounts, so I was waiting a long time for this, but it did eventually happen. Was playing it a lot but then I took a long break from playing the game honestly since, as per usual for my standards, I juggled around with a lot of games and lost track of which ones I'm playing. Kind of boring to detail this in the review, I know, but I like to give context of my playthroughs on these reviews. So, despite taking an extended break, I will say I really enjoyed playing this game. As far as I know, its one of the first (popular) Musou games made with another IP and that's awesome, I love that they've had so many opportunities to make these games with other IPs. As far as I'm concerned, the more Musou, the better. I remember my mind being blown when I first found out Koei Tecmo was able to make a Musou game with a Nintendo IP of all things and the fact that I'm so late to playing this one is almost a shame to me, though to be fair I didn't get a Wii U until after it died and I was not about to get the 3DS version of this game so I do have some kind of excuse.

I'll start with that gameplay. Yea, its pretty much the same as any other Musou, but man this game was just a lot of fun. I've said in a few of my other reviews how the Musou formula is seemingly infinitely fun to me and I rarely ever tire of it, so its unsurprising that I found this so enjoyable. I didn't even get to unlock all characters since I only went through Legend Mode (basically this game's story mode) and I haven't even touched the Adventure Mode, yet I still had a lot of fun experimenting with the characters and seeing which ones I liked the best. Something about the move sets feels pretty unique; every character shares a similar design philosophy but they still manage to make everyone feel pretty unique. I found my favorite characters to play were Tetra, Ganondorf, and Wizzro, but there's also characters I think I would love that I haven't played yet. Rest assured that I'm definitely going to at least give that Adventure Mode thing a try, I think that's where the rest of the characters are unlocked. This game's roster is crazy, I haven't even played more than five minutes of most of the games referenced in Hyrule Warriors and I can still tell the developers had a lot of love for each corner of the TLoZ series represented. An absolute barrel of fun overall.

There's a surprising amount of focus on the story in Legend Mode. I expected it to just be an afterthought but, while it won't blow your mind or anything, it was pretty alright. This game seems to take place in its own unique version of Hyrule, with the same characters we know and love but different. Impa's got a big ass sword, Zelda has a rapier and can actually fight, Link is...well, he's a Link alright, but he does get a fairy that speaks for him in combat which I thought was pretty amusing. As far as the plot goes, the unproven hero Link starts his hero's journey when he has to save Hyrule Castle from an attack by the main OC villains of this game: Cia, Wizzro, and Volga. Cia is part of a magician sister duo with Lana, and they are supposed to be like guardians of the Triforce, but they split apart when Cia goes rogue because she went a little too crazy for Link. Add in a little coercion from none other than Ganondorf and Cia becomes the main villain of the game, though she does get some redemption later when Lana talks some sense to her and Ganondorf inevitably betrays her. You don't know any of that in the first few levels of Legend Mode, though, since in those you're just traveling through this original interpretation of Hyrule to find new allies. Eventually, Cia succeeds in her plans to take over Hyrule, but the heroes have one last trick up their sleeves. Lana opens up portals to different universes based on other TLoZ games, including Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Wind Waker. A Link Between Worlds, Link's Awakening, and Spirit Tracks do get one character each in Adventure Mode, but, again, I didn't play that mode, so I don't know how they're integrated. This part of the story involving going to each universe to get more allies and help out the heroes with their problems is the part where fan service is really on display. I imagine people that really love the games those plots were based on were huge fans of this inclusion, but I don't have much experience with any of those games so this was kinda new stuff to me aside from some of the plot twists I've already had spoiled to me god knows how long ago. Oh, this game also has different story paths, as well. We have Linkle's path, where you play as a new heroine that dresses like Link and says she's the legendary hero when she isn't actually a Link (she is a very silly character and I love her). Then there's Cia's path, where you see how she amassed her dark army. Finally, there's Ganondorf's path, where you get to play as him and destroy everyone in your way. In the last two missions that give you the original ending of the story, all these different paths actually intersect and give context to the whole story. Like, in Ganondorf's path's ending, he gets all three pieces of the Triforce and shrouds Hyrule in darkness, which is then followed up by the regular story path where Zelda organizes one last attempt to save the world from Ganon and liberate the Triforce from him. Cia's path shows how she got the big army she did in the regular story missions. Linkle's path is the only one that's just fun fluff, but hey there's nothing wrong with some fun fluff every now and then. One thing the story surprised me with is that Cia did feel like more of an involved character than what I initially thought she'd be. She's not super deep or anything, but, when she gets wrecked by Ganondorf and realizes what Lana has been trying to tell her the whole time, she straightens up and acts more like her real self again and not the aggressive bloodthirsty villainess she was before. The way I structured this whole paragraph is pretty messy, but I'm also typing a review of a video game at 7:00 AM so I guess that's only natural. Nonetheless, I thought this story wasn't all that great but was more than I thought it'd be for sure. It was actually much longer than I expected, as well, with a lot of missions to play through and extra goodies to find in each mission. From what I hear, Adventure Mode is massive, so I'm looking forward to trying that one out and getting the characters I haven't got yet. For now I'm just considering this finished since the game gave me a credits roll and Legends Mode seemed like the main meat of the game.

Overall, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition gets a solid 4 stars from me. Not a masterpiece or anything - there are some things I actually like better in the sequel, Age of Calamity - but I think this was by far the best result we could have ever gotten out of a Zelda Musou game. There is something to be appreciated with how much this game celebrates the history of this huge series and includes all these awesome characters that have never been and will likely never be playable in any other game. I kinda wish I played it earlier, but, at the same time, this Switch version is so much better than the original from what I've heard since its comes with all DLC included and the extra content from the 3DS version. I probably shouldn't even have to say how playing a Musou game on a 3DS sounds like an awful experience.