———WHY I LOVE IT

First, since this is on my perspective and experience with the game, let me lay down some things to keep in mind:

Got that? Okay, good! Now I can actually talk about the game!

I really love this game and how ridiculous it is. It's repetative, sure, but from my understanding of beat-em-ups and hack-and-slash games.... that's kinda what you're signing up for. And with how much content is in this game, namely in the Adventure Mode/Maps, for me it was definitely worth the cost.

For the most part, I do really well with repetative gameplay. I don't want to go too in depth about myself personally, but the repetative nature makes it really easy for me to get lost in and it's also really easy to jump back into. It's a comforting game for me to return to, no matter how much time has passed since I've played it.

I guess I should also clarify that I'm mostly talking about the Adventure Mode. I've done a complete run through Legend Mode, which is the campaign/story, and doing so unlocks a new difficulty for each story mission, Hero Mode, and another Golden Skulltula. I want to get stronger weapons from Adventure Mode and level up my warriors more before attempting that, though.

As for the story itself, I wouldn't call it great. It's honestly just fine? It's enough for the type of game Hyrule Warriors is. I can't speak on how other Dynasty Warriors games handle their stories, but honestly who is playing a hack-and-slash for the plot? I'm not, at least.

An element I cannot get enough about in this game is it's music. A lot of songs are from The Legend of Zelda series, with Zelda's Lullaby being heard in some menus and the Bazaar music from Skyward Sword being used in, well, the bazaar. But it has (I believe) it's own unique tracks too, like Eclipse of the Sun. This track goes so hard and isn't used too often that I'm tired of it (looking at you, Kumite). I'm a sucker for guitars so I'm incredibly biased to love this soundtrack. It's really good at amping you up and keeping you awake, say, if you're working through a college thesis :') But seriously, most of these tracks don't get old or annoying to listen to. I give Kumite a hard time because every time you get to the final mission of a stage (typically defeating the enemy commander) or when you open the gates to the enemy keep, it starts playing. It's so overused and they could've used a few different tracks to allievate the hate that Kumite gets.

Going back to the Bazaar, to give you a basic rundown, during stages enemies can drop materials, similar to Skyward Sword except there are so. many. materials. Each material also has a rating: bronze, silver, or gold. Characters with names, such as Link, only drop silver or gold materials (his silver is his boot and his gold is his scarf, if you were curious). All of these materials are used, then, to make badges for each character in the bazaar, along with some rupees.

For the most part? who uses what materials makes some sense? Like, I believe Ganondorf uses Link's material drops and vice versa. But it doesn't really make that much sense. Regardless, badges can unlock new combos, give more special attack gauges (up to 3), up defense, along with so many other things. I just love how many badges are in the game, and I love getting a material and finally being able to give someone another special attack gauge, or speed up their process of taking keeps (I always prioritize this badge, I need to control the battlefield ASAP).

To sum up my feelings on the Bazaar, it's pretty much the same design as the one in Skyward Sword and I loved searching for materials and upgrading my gear in that game, so it's really nice to get to experience that same joy in Hyrule Warriors.

I also wanna give the team props for how unique each character/weapon feels to play with. Link's Knight Sword/Master Sword is not the same as Zelda's Rapier or Impa's Giants Blade. They all feel so unique to fight with and makes learning each characters combos more fun. And while I don't particuarly like playing as every character (which, not only is that a tall order, but who would?), everyone in this game is unique and has their moment to shine.

In my humble opinion, the weapon I have the most fun with is Link's Spinner. It is a devestating weapon and super good at crowd control; it's also so much fun! I love zipping around and doing flips and essentially turning the game into Tony Hawk Pro Skater. The design for the Level 3+ Spinner (Triforce Spinner) is kinda meh, though. The Level 2 (Enhanced Spinner) is also kinda ugly to me; I feel like both of them have too bright of color schemes and also the regular brown of the first spinner is already just so good.

While on the topic of weapons, I adore the inclusion of the 8bit weapons and the ability to turn their designs on/off is wise on the devs part as they are... insanely goofy (here's a video of one in action). When you get the highest level weapon, it can look like one of the items from the original Legend of Zelda game and I think this just adds to my feelings of how much love the developers of this game have for the Zelda series and how sweet that is. (If you didn't read the previous page, this game wasn't developed by Nintendo, it was developed by Koei Techmo and Omega Force.)

The adventure maps also have their own challenges and gimmicks that, for the most part I enjoy. I really like KO competitions and stages where all attacks are devestating, meaning you can get hit once and it immediately knocks your health to a quarter of a heart. The Lorule Maps elemental buffs are also super fun; I was riding some kind of high when I had a Rupee bonus active and was constantly having silver and gold rupees falling all around me.

The only challenge I really don't like and will actively avoid doing are the ones labeled as: "Learn the key to a balanced attack!" Which means you have to kill 2-3 tanky enemies at the same time. It's incredibly tricky if whatever warrior the game limits you to isn't high enough level or doesn't have a good weapon doing damage. The Twilight Map in particular seems to love these challenges, which is a real pain.

The outfits you can unlock in this game are really fun, too. Currently, I've had Link dressed in the postmans uniform from Twilight Princess. I really love the bunnies on it, and my god is it just ridiculous. I also have a soft spot for the Ocarina of Time outfits for Link, Zelda, Impa, and Ganondorf; the dedication to emulate the 3DS versions style of the models is super sweet.

I really struggle to understand the hate this game gets when, in all honesty, it feels like such a huge love letter to the Legend of Zelda series. From what I've read, people are either upset that it's too repetative (which, again, what did you expect from a hack-and-slash??) or, from reading between the lines, it seems like people are upset that it's not a Zelda game. And it's not! It's a Dynasty Warriors game with Zelda elements. There are no dungeons or puzzles, it's a hack and slash. Period. But my god is it fun as hell.