Late in 2025,The Legend of Zeldafranchise is scheduled to get its next release,Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. This will be a prequel toTears of the Kingdom, and will mark theZeldaseries’, andHyrule Warriorsin particular, debut on the Nintendo Switch 2.Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmentwill explore the time right after the founding ofBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom’s Hyrule, and should make the Imprisoning War that was relegated to a few ofTotK’s flashback scenes into something much more impressive.
Past that initial premise, there are still many questions aboutHyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmentthat have yet to be answered. The validity of Nintendo’s casual claim thatAge of Imprisonmentwill be canonis a concern after the controversial alternate timeline story thatHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamitywent with. Link’s status in this game is also unclear, as he was never portrayed as traveling back toTears of the Kingdom’s past. Even the characters that will be present also have many unknowns surrounding them, especially the ones present for or related to characters that were already inAge of Calamity.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s Playable Cast Can’t Be Too Familiar
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmentmust ensure it is a distinct game fromAge of Calamity, and the best way to do that is to make the returning characters look and feel different from those in the older title. This may prove to be an uphill battle, even though the number of directly shared characters between the two will likely be low. Setting aside the debate of whetherAge of Imprisonmentshould importAge of Calamity’s rosterregardless of their appearance in a campaign, story and gameplay necessitates thatAge of Imprisonmentgives players a meaningfully different experience.
Making An Age of Imprisonment Version Of Zelda Will Be Vital
Princess Zelda, possibly being the only directly returningAoCcharacter inAge of Imprisonment, will need to set a strong example as the presumed protagonist. She technically has access to both herAoCSheikah Slate and Bow of Light movesetsinAge of Imprisonment, but it would be best if the game focused on her Sage powers, since that’s the crux of her personal journey through Hyrule’s ancient past inTotK. Even if Zelda needs to be kept unplayable until she can feasibly use them,Age of Imprisonmentneeds to make sure it doesn’t give the impression of being a simpleAge of Calamityexpansion likeTears of the Kingdomwas initially accused of being forBreath of the Wild.
Age of Imprisonment Can’t Let Its Sages Repeat Age of Calamity
The Four Ancient Sages Are Most At Risk Of Being Encored
Managing Princess Zelda is one thing, and it should be relatively easy to demonstrate her gameplay differences in marketing. Doing the same for the four Sages of Hyrule’s past, along with any other potentially inherited characters like Link, will be a whole other debacle. Expectations of how theSages will be handled inAge of Imprisonmentare already high thanks to their thin characterization inTotK, and the high likelihood of getting to control them adds further complications.Age of Imprisonmentneeds to make sure that these archetypal figures, whether their narrative predecessors are present or not, feel like new additions toHyrule Warriors.
The fact thatAge of Calamityalready has two sets of Champions – the past group of Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali, and their successors Sidon, Yunobo, Riju, and Teba – means the ancient Sages will need to walk a very thin line. Not only do they need to literally make names for themselves, they will also need to build a gameplay identity separate from multiple takes on their templates. The only way things can get harder for them is ifTotK’s new Sages are unlockable characters, soHyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonmentwill really need to make its original cast stand out.
