Daily Debate: Which Characters Did You Actively Avoid Using in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity?

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Since Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity‘s release a little over a month ago, many Zelda fans have had the opportunity to play through the game’s campaign and really dig into all its extra content. When all is said and done, 18 warrior characters are at a player’s disposal, with the diverse roster catering to a variety of tastes and play-styles. I, like most players, have spent enough time with each playable character to assess their strengths and weaknesses, and to comfortably decide upon “my main.” But in searching for my favorite warriors, I also identified the ones that I wanted to actively avoid.

Age of Calamity‘s roster boasts enough diversity to meet most fans’ power fantasies, but that diversity also guarantees that certain characters won’t land with certain types of players. For me, a few particular deficiencies with a handful of warriors essentially guaranteed their exile to the bottom of my priorities list.

Most notably, I quickly wrote off characters with slow and nondiverse combos. I found Age of Calamity most enjoyable when I didn’t have to rely on a few specific combos and when I had enough combo variety to effectively answer enemy attacks in every situation. So, characters like Princess Zelda (pre-bow), Riju (who I wanted to like), and Master Kohga — who, in my opinion, all featured only a handful of effective combos — were just not for me. We are all very lucky that Zelda eventually awakens her powers and gains an admirable moveset, because she, the story’s main lead, would have remained a poor warrior if she had held on to that Sheikah Slate.

I also disliked characters with poor damage output; chipping slowly away at a boss enemy’s health bar is just not much fun to me. So, in addition to Zelda’s aforementioned Sheikah Slate build, I also regularly avoided Teba, who, besides constantly confusing the in-game camera with his flying attacks, is a lightweight against boss enemies. And speaking of the camera, I also avoided using the Great Fairies due to their massive size which obstructs most of the battlefield. Sure, these mystical ladies hit like a truck; but for a duck-and-dodge player like me, not being able to see the enemies’ attacks was more than irritating.

So, in summation, I didn’t care for characters with limited movesets, with low damage output, and with poor consideration of the in-game camera. Well, there just so happens to be another character that fails in all three regards: Hestu, the Korok. While forever lovable from a design perspective, Hestu is, for me, the character I stopped using completely during my Age of Calamity playthrough. He’s slow, he does little damage, he has a gimmicky and limited moveset, and his fat head constantly comes between the camera and incoming enemy attacks. In this game, Hestu is just not bestu.

But these are merely the experiences I’ve had with these characters. I fully recognize that I may not have yet unlocked their true potential; maybe I didn’t invest in the abstruse Weapon Fusing system correctly. In any case, which Age of Calamity characters did you actively avoid and why? Did you share my frustrations? Or did you encounter entirely different issues that soured a character for you? Join the debate in the comments below!

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