I am so excited to finally write this article, one regarding a lengthy but rewarding journey as a Zelda fan. My parents bought my brother and me a Wii U for Christmas in 2014 and Hyrule Warriors was one of the couple of games they bought with it. For those who don’t know, Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda spinoff game created by the collaboration of Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, the creators of Dynasty Warriors. It features Zelda characters and a story involving them, but incorporates the hack-and-slash game style of the Dynasty Warriors series. It wasn’t until around a month or two into playing this game that I realized I wanted to 100% complete it and, as of November 4th of this year, I have completed and earned:
- All heart pieces/containers and weapons in all sections of the Story Mode
- All difficulties of the Story Mode, including Cia’s Tale
- All heart pieces/containers, skulltulas, and weapons in all Adventure Mode maps (DLC includes the Master Quest Map, the Twilight Map, and the Termina Map)
- A ranks in all Adventure Mode games, including DLC
- A ranks in all three Battle Challenge games
- A ranks in all Boss Challenge games
- A ranks in all Ganon’s Fury games
- A ranks in all Cucco’s Fury games
- All warriors at max level (255), including DLC
- All badges and weapon types for each warrior, including DLC
- All illustrations
- All medals
I had originally thought that earning all medals would be considered 100% completing this game; but after successfully performing the rupee glitch, I managed to level up Zant to 255 in less than nine hours back in May, and through the Training Dojo, I leveled up every other warrior with the glitch. Considering that roughly three rupee glitches (with 999,999,999 rupees in each successful run) made a warrior reach max level, not including Zant, that would mean 84 successful glitches were used to solely level up my warriors. This does not include the glitches I did recreationally for mixtures at the apothecary. That itself was an exhausting process and leveling up each warrior to max level (not including Marin, Toon Zelda, Ravio, and Yuga) took roughly two weeks to do.
Of course, completing such a large game had its difficulties, some that made me consider dropping it entirely. I can recall three parts of this game in particular that took me far too long to conquer, the first one being Giant Battle 3 in Cucco’s Fury. As creative and silly as Cucco’s Fury initially seemed, it soon grew frustrating due to a horridly slow leveling-up process and what little damage the Cucco did to enemies. It took me around two months to get through the Cucco’s games as a whole, managing to level it up to 127 by the last game. Even then, I played the 3rd Giant Battle roughly 20 times, including defeats, and when those games take around 45 minutes to finish, it was beyond frustrating. It was the last game I needed to earn the “Challenge Master” medal, which would then make me earn the “True Hero” medal. (Which, if you didn’t know already, is the medal earned for acquiring all medals…) I was so happy to finish that game and, when the minimum damage you can take is 20,000, I finished with a little more than 17,000 damage taken. With how many bosses show up after the three Ganons join the game, it’s extremely hard not to take damage with all of them crowding around the Lord of the Horde. I am so, so happy to be done with it.
The Cucco in the third Giant Battle of Cucco’s Fury.
The other two instances of irritatingly difficult games include the Boss Rush game in the Rewards Map, and both the Twilight and Termina maps as a whole. Not only do enemies have immensely higher defense (or more health), they hit a lot harder compared to the Adventure and Master Quest maps. If your warriors are lower than level 200, then it’s unlikely you will do any significant damage to anything in ANY game in the Twilight or Termina Map. Conquering all modes of the Adventure Mode took by far the longest time. There are roughly 442, assuming I did the math correctly, games in all parts of the Adventure Mode. These parts consist of the Adventure Map (the one that comes with the game), Rewards Map (which you unlock by finishing illustrations, from finding gold skulltulas), Master Quest Map (DLC), Twilight Map (DLC), and Termina Map (DLC). It took me a little less than a year and a half to complete all Adventure Mode games with an A and earn all heart pieces/containers, skulltulas, and weapons along with it. There were plenty of times I would come across a seemingly impossible mission. Unfortunately there were points in this game where, if you do not grind for hours, it would be extremely hard to pass a game with an A or even complete it without dying. That is probably the biggest complaint I have about this game.
Aside from its frustrating moments, as stated before, I have truly enjoyed this game. I was recently asked who my top favorite playable characters in the game are and, without a doubt, those characters are Zant, Ruto, and Ganondorf with his trident weapon. I can’t help but adore Zant’s wacky playstyle consisting of his deranged laughter, entertaining combos, and the incorporation of his “dizzy meter.” I unfortunately never got the chance to attempt a “dizzy meter” glitch before it was patched, but regardless, I played him more than any other character. I have always been attracted to “non compos mentis” villains (which is Latin for “not having mastery of one’s mind”), and he was easily one of my favorite parts of the game.
Zant, the Usurper King, displaying his unhealthy flexibility in the Twilight Field map of Hyrule Warriors.
Ruto, on the other hand, is one of my favorites not necessarily to play, but because of her design. She’s a nostalgic character and her Hyrule Warriors rendition is, in my opinion, perfect. All of her skins (aside from the Zora mask) are great, especially the one inspired by Queen Rutela, and when I was first playing the game, I considered her my main.
Princess Ruto, in her Queen Rutela-inspired skin, at the Lake Hylia map of Hyrule Warriors.
Lastly, Ganondorf was immediately one of my favorites to play when he entered the story mode, but I grew bored of him until the “Legends Character Pack” released back in the summer. Aside from Yuga, I haven’t been a fan of any of the lightning element characters or weapons until the trident came long. It is so entertaining to see Ganondorf with his iconic weapon in realistic form and his brutal combos make it even better. His “Trident of Demise,” the third and final trident, is one of my favorite weapons in the game.
Ganondorf, showing off his Trident of Demise, in the Faron Woods map of Hyrule Warriors.
Overall, as a whole, Hyrule Warriors definitely has its flaws. According to people who have played Dynasty Warriors-like games on the Wii such as Sengoku Basara 3 and Samurai Warriors 3, this Wii U game has graphics that aren’t much better, although I personally don’t see anything wrong with them. One thing I adore about this game is the cutscenes. Despite that, I can’t imagine everyone would be as stubborn and determined as I was to fully complete it, because many players were bothered by the repetitive playstyle. I definitely don’t blame them. I suppose my frustration with the repetition fueled the fire, because I personally saw it as more of a challenge. I never grew bored of it.
However, despite my frustration, my sentimental a** can’t help but love how all of these iconic characters come together in one game into one, single story. Earning the final weapon in the game (the 8-Bit Great Fairy), achieving the rupee glitch for the first time, and beating the “Legend Mode” for the first time are all great memories I have involving Hyrule Warriors. I even made some awesome friends in the Hyrule Warriors community. (I’m looking at you, Hilary…) It has easily been the most satisfying 100% I’ve ever done and I don’t at all regret doing it.
A screenshot from my Daily Log, showing how many hours I’ve invested into Hyrule Warriors and how many times I’ve opened it.
As stated in a couple of articles, the Dynasty Warriors series is not one I would particularly enjoy playing, but in my opinion, there are a lot of great aspects to Hyrule Warriors that have made it one of my favorite series up-to-date. I’m hoping there will be a new game for the Nintendo Switch console, because I’d love to see characters like Vaati, Linebeck, the Goddesses, Saria, Nabooru, the Happy Mask Salesman, Malon, or Groose (especially Groose) come to life through Hyrule Warriors.
What is your favorite part about Hyrule Warriors? Would you like to see the game on the Nintendo Switch? If so, what characters would you like to see in it? Let us know in the comments below!
