Daily Debate: Will Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity be the Darkest Zelda?

This post may contain spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for those unfamiliar with the story of Breath of the Wild

After watching the trailer for the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity game, one thing in particular struck me: our heroes lose.

We know how this game ends: the Champions die, Link gives his life in defense of Zelda, and Zelda traps herself in Hyrule Castle to keep Calamity Ganon at bay until Link awakens. To beat this game, our heroes have to die, which means we’ll more than likely have to control the Champions as they fight their final fights, knowing all awhile that it ends in their defeat.

If you ask me, little is darker than assuming the role of a character knowing at the end, it was all for naught. Breath of the Wild told us about the Champions’ deaths, but it didn’t show us any aside from Link. Yet what we do know is that the Champions died alone in their Divine Beasts. I think it most likely that the final few missions will consist of the Champions’ final moments, but it’s the game’s final mission that really concerns me. I predict the final mission will see Zelda scaling a destroyed, malice-covered Hyrule Castle to meet Ganon. If facing evil incarnate in a hellish setting all alone isn’t dreary enough, imagine doing so after watching the person closest to you die in your arms – and feeling like his death, along with the fate of the land you were born to protect is your fault.

That’s how I think the game will end, with a gut wrenching defeat. We know everything works out in the end, but for that to happen, our heroes must first fall – and fall hard they will. As dark as the overbearing threat of the moon crashing down in three days’ time is, watching your characters’ every joy and triumph while knowing their death lurks just beyond the horizon carries a special sort of pain, for even in Majora’s Mask, we know Link will save the day.

As a side note, it intrigues me to see how the tone of this game will compare to that of Breath of the Wild‘s sequel, given series producer Eiji Aonuma has said that game may be darker than even Majora’s Mask, a game considered by many to be the darkest entry in the franchise.

What do you think? Does this game have the potential to be the darkest Zelda ever? Are you ready to send our heroes off to their doom and play through their final battles? Let us know in the comments below!

 

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