An In-Depth Look at the First Level of Hyrule Warriors
Posted on August 14 2014 by Legacy Staff
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Hyrule Warriors. Read at your own risk!
Here is a written summary of the first level of GameXplain’s six hour marathon stream of Hyrule Warriors!
In the intro [1:00], we see Queen Zelda playing the Goddess’s Harp when suddenly a dark cloud comes towards her. When she falls and is trapped in the cloud, she wakes up and realizes that it was all a terrible nightmare. The cut scenes so far are interesting as they have no voice acting, but the mouths do move in place of actual words being said. Impa is there when she wakes up, and they head off to the training grounds where Link spars with a fellow soldier while Zelda watches him. They briefly make eye contact, but suddenly a guard comes with troubling news. Impa, Zelda, and the guard run off to the frontlines of battle as Link soon joins them, and a loading screen appears. Loading screens [3:09] have the classic NES Link battling an Octorok in order to get the Triforce with the Great Fairy Fountain song playing.
Immediately after the loading screen [4:00], the player is thrown into battle as Impa, the fairy, and Queen Zelda speak to you while you fight. In addition, Link seems to be fighting his foes with fellow soldiers assisting him. There’s also dialogue from enemies, like Wizzro, while fighting. Instead of an actual tutorial level, the player is progressively fed information about the game and how to play it.
While fighting the first mini-boss of the level [6:25], which happens to be Valga, Link gets knocked down and Impa comes to his rescue, but when all seems lost, Link’s Triforce activates [7:50] and protects him from his foe’s flames. Valga flees, and you are back to battling the small enemies on the field as you progress to the next area. After defeating a certain amount of what appears to be Lizalfos, an entrance opens and Link’s first chest is found, which happens to hold bombs [10:03]. This transitions into learning how to use the bomb mechanic.
As mentioned in the video, after finding another chest [11:05], it appears that the player does auto collect the rupees which takes away from the initially thought out stress that the mass amount of rupees dished out during battle would be painstaking to retrieve.
At times, a dangerous foe will appear at a different part of the level and the soldiers will require you to head off into that direction. This is where the map comes in [14:06]. The player will have to use the map to go to the highlighted areas in order to help his teammates. In some instances [15:25], a Gold Skulltula will appear on the map, allowing players to get their secret.
Hyrule Warriors definitely retains the typical Skulltula scratching noise, but in this video it was in plain sight rather than in a more hidden location. Hopefully they will become progressively harder to find as the game goes on!
One of the special magic attacks [17:30] that drains the entire magic bar increases the power of Link’s basic attacks allowing him to slash through enemies at a quickened pace. Visually, he glows gold while gold letters, which can be assumed to be Hylian, circle him. It is also revealed that in addition to the wide ranged spinning attack that can be used with magic, there is also a wide ranged piercing attack [19:05].
At one point during battle, Queen Zelda will call you to a part of the map which happens to a Great Fairy Fountain [22:00]. Like in classic
Zelda games, the Great Fairy appears, but this time, it’s quite different. She sends the fairies out, and they all take bombs from everyone on the field and create one giant bomb that is sent down upon your enemies.
The next mini-boss is King Dodongo [23:25]. Depending on the location of Link, he could very well appear in an area that may be a distance to run, such as was shown in the video, which really shows off how open levels are and how players will have to be able to run to multiple locations within one level repeatedly to complete it. Just like in previous
Zelda games like Ocarina of Time, King Dodongo will prepare for a fire based attack on the player, and in this moment bombs must be thrown into his mouth so that way they stun him briefly. In this time, the player must run up and hit him as many times as possible before he repeats the process. After the weak point gauge is depleted [24:55], there is a short cutscene of Link throwing a finishing blow—but suddenly Dodongo goes into his second phase. He does a roll and he continues the process of beginning a fire attack and requiring bombs to be stunned and hit.
After the battle [26:30], the enemies disappear and Link is with Impa as she gives him the Hero’s tunic and the scarf. Then there is a cutscene as she explains the Triforce and the legacy behind it. Also, the cutscene explains dimension hopping and how pieces must be retrieved from different characters, which is why the dimensions are being combined.
It also appears that the Gold Skulltulas will reveal a puzzle piece as you continue to find each one [29:10]. As mentioned in the video, it’s somewhat like the StreetPass Puzzle Swap game.
After battles [30:08], the player can do things like go to the shop and upgrade equipment. It is noticed that levels are carried over between characters making each character owned the same level. There’s also what looks like an upgrading tree [30:19] which requires both rupees and materials gained during the level to use. There’s also a mechanic that allows the player to level up their characters without actually fighting [32:03] by using rupees.
Phew! That’s a lot to take in, and we’re only just getting started. Keep an eye on Zelda Informer for more
Hyrule Warriors coverage as we get it!
