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Hyrule Warriors was a bit of a weird concept to my initially. I thought of another Nintendo Franchise that better suited the Dynasty Warriors engine. Nevertheless, after watching numerous gameplay trailers and whatnot, I decided to pick it up. I was not disappointed.

Hyrule Warriors exists outside of the main Zelda Timeline and is more of a celebration of the franchise rather than a standalone game. The two main modes of the game, Adventure and Legend Mode, are the real meat of the game.

Legend Mode focuses on a semi-standard Zelda plot with the Kingdom of Hyrule being attacked by a dark force lead by the dark sorceress Cia. Cia was once the guardian of the Triforce, but after developing feelings to the Soul of the Hero and jealousy to the Embodiment of Hylia, darkness seeped into her heart, corrupting her soul. Now Cia wishes to collect the Triforce and make the Hero hers. It's a bit stupid, but I really didn't expect to enjoy a well written Zelda Story. If you are looking solely for a good Zelda story, this is not the game for you.

Adventure Mode is a series of challenges for you to do to unlock hearts, new weapons and characters. Legend Mode will also unlock a few weapons and characters as well. I've sunk in a considerable amount of time into Adventure Mode and I'm still doing my best to unlock everything. That and grind enough enemy drops to fully upgrade my characters. Adventure mode is filled with challenges which require you to deal and take devastating damage, kill a certain quota of enemies in a fixed amount of time, or clear a map as usual. The map itself is styled like the original Legend of Zelda map. In order to unlock most bonuses you will need to use various item rewards from clearing maps to bomb, burn, or hookshot your way across the map in a fashion similar to how these secrets were in the NES Zelda. Once the reward options are unlocked, you will need to mainly achieve A ranks on maps to unlock them, usually meaning that you will need to take no less than 4 hearts of damage, clear a map in less than 15 minutes, and kill 1200 enemies. It will take a considerable amount of time to clear this so don't expect to finish Adventure mode in a weekend.

The Dynasty Warriors franchise is known for two things: Wild Hack and Slash gameplay and a Huge Roster.

Hyrule Warriors certainly packs good Hack and Slash mechanics as you effortlessly slaughter hundreds, if not thousands of bokoblins with a single stroke of your sword. You can also use numerous Zelda items like the Hookshot, Bombs, and Arrows to further inflict damage upon your enemies. You'll have to change it up a bit to take out much more sturdier opponents like Darknuts and Stalfos though. There's a pretty equal amount of the enemy diversity so combat seldom gets stale unless you have been playing for an extended period of time. That being said, it can feel like it is getting repetitive at times so I express extreme caution if you're considering to buy this game if you cannot stand repetition. Keep in mind though, this is the style of the Dynasty Warriors series.

The roster itself is not as big as Dynasty Warriors 8, but there is a pretty respectable cast list. You'll play as 13 Heroes like Link, Zelda, and Impa to the incredibly odd Agitha from Twilight Princess. You'll also have 3 Villains Gannondorf, Ghirahim, and Zant. Strap on the 3 main story villains for free DLC and we have a nice cast of 19 characters. There will be more later, but those will be paid DLC. Also, some characters have multiple weapons so there are "different" characters to explore within the main cast. None of the characters feel the same when you battle with them so when you play as Ruto, she won't feel the same as playing as Shiek. Even between Link with his Sword/Shield combo compared to the Gauntlets, it almost feels like you're playing a completely different character.

I have yet to see how DLC will be like but I will have all DLC data later so look forward to the individual DLC reviews.

Overall, I was satisfied with the game. If you are looking to get into the Dynasty Warriors franchise, Hyrule Warriors provides a neat gateway into it. However, if you are looking to get into the Zelda Franchise, I would suggest starting elsewhere.

Nonny's Rating: 7.5/10. It's a ton of fun slicing through enemies like a hot knife to butter. It gets repetitive but that's how Dynasty Warriors is. If you like mindless, wild, and chaotic gameplay, Hyrule Warriors will not disappoint.