I'm going to put the TL;DR warning here because this thread will be made of walls. Basically what I want in terms of discussion is; what do you want out of this game if you're excited for it? ARE you excited for Hyrule Warriors? Have you played any Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors or, Anime Warriors games? What do you think could be next for the Warrior's series now that Legend of Zelda is going to be a thing? Another anime? Another game franchise?
I checked a few pages to make sure the subject wasn't covered already...and I also realize that I'm a week or two late anyway...but anyway...Some time ago, Jim Sterling said that the Citizen Kane of gaming was Dynasty Warriors and since there is no such thing as an "only one" than I know I'm not the only person who said, "I have never watched that movie but I agree that Dynasty Warriors is freaking AWESOME!" While it's true that the games in the main series seem to be better versions of previous entries, TK have made other games in that style with Samurai Warriors (same premise only based on Japanese history) and, Warriors Orochi (Japanese and Chinese historical figures fighting a greater evil together in an alternate reality). Then TK did the unthinkable...they started using Anime. In Japan, TK released games like Gundam Musou, Hokuto Musou and, Kaizoku Musou. The US did see the Gundam Musou trilogy (Dynasty Warriors Gundam) and both Hokuto Musou (Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage) titles but for whatever reason, we didn't get Kaizoku Warriors (One Piece). Now we're living in a world that will soon be graced with a Legend of Zelda based Dynasty Warriors title!
What we know so far: The art style looks like it takes inspiration from Skyward Sword for the most part. The Dodongo looked like the Ocarina of Time boss if it had diamonds instead of shoulders but everything else screamed Skyward Sword. This is fine for me though since I'm in the camp that believes a good looking game needs to be vibrant and colorful. We know that the life bar has been replaced with heart points, we know that landing attacks builds the special (otherwise known as Musou or Spirit) gauge which allows for the use of special attacks (which we've seen used). We know that Link is allowed to use special weapons such as bombs, the flame staff and, potions. We also know that Link is rockin' a stylish blue cape. It may have slipped by unnoticed but during the course of the trailer, Link goes from using a generic Sword/Shield early on to the Master Sword and Hylian Shield later on in the teaser. To go back to Dodongo, we also know that they and, Lizalfos will be featured as enemies (though it's unclear if they are bosses outright or if they're going to act as generals). All in all, we don't have a lot of info to go off of...luckily though, pattern recognition based off of past Warriors entries should help us make some accurate predictions!
Hopefully-Accurate general predictions: Let's start with Link's fashionable new cape: It's blue and fabulous but more importantly, it points to the likelihood of the game featuring multiple factions. In Zelda lore, there are three Goddesses; Din (Red), Farore (green) and, Nayru (blue). In the core Dynasty Warriors games, those same colors were used for the main three factions (with yellow and grey also being used for minor factions). In the main Zelda narratives there's almost never factions, just Link and Ganon...Ganon who commands a hoard of monsters...Well, there have almost never been three factions. Then there are the items; Items have been a thing in the Warriors games but they were mainly just used to either buff characters or, upgrade weapons. In fact, during the teaser we get to watch Link open up a treasure chest! Based on what I've played of the series's, my best guess would be that things like Hearts, Fairies and, Magic Bottles will be found by breaking pots in homage to the core Zelda games. Chests will likely have been added for plot important items, upgrade items (like new sub-weapons, core weapons, etc) and possibly even permanent buffs like armored tunics and full-hearts (as opposed to Heart Pieces). After that not-so-wild speculation, let's move on to far MORE wild speculation about...
...The potential plot! Here's where things get really interesting since Dynasty Warriors and the Anime Warrior games I've played have always had some sort of "what if" scenario attached to the main narrative. I can't begin to speculate on what the main narrative would be...the main narrative for the first of the Gundam trilogy (from what I remember) had a bunch of characters and settings mixed together and made into something completely new and different. This could be what Hyrule Warriors might turn into, a jumbled up mess of recognizable characters and locations. What I'd really like to see (and something that's possible) are a series of "Timeline" skirmishes; levels that take place in the Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, etc universes. I know that those games really didn't have a focus on huge militarily focused battles but these fights could take place before The Hero of Time does his thing and save the day or indeed, in a completely parallel universe. Going back to what we know, Nintendo and (or) TK have said that Hyrule Warriors isn't meant to be canonical to the other Zelda Timeline titles so re-imagining those older games as having grand battles could be a great concept. Like I said before though, I have no idea what the overarching story would, or could be...but I do have a good idea when it comes to...
...Potential Characters! The Legend of Zelda has a number of well-recognized characters who could potentially make an appearance in Hyrule Warriors. The trailer only shows off Link as a playable character but if that's the case, it would be the only Warrior's game with that kind of limitation. In the Dynasty and Samurai games, you can't really call anybody a 'bad guy' since history doesn't have many truly bad guys (citation needed) but when it came to the anime warrior games, not only were heroes and side-characters playable but so were their various enemies, from Raoh to Master Asia and, Souzer to Char, you could play as just about anybody in those games...and I don't see any reason why Hyrule Warriors would limit players to Link or, Good Guy characters. The list of potential characters, as I mentioned, is fairly lengthy: not counting the main three you have Ghirahim, Impa (Skyward Sword & OoT), Tingle, Groose, Orca, Tetra's Pirate Crew, Zant, Darbus, Darmani, Hero's Shade, King Bulbin, Skull Kid, Eagus, Gaepora, Karane, Yuga, Osfala, Majora, Mikau....The problem comes from all of these characters coming from different games...of course, if there is a Timeline mode or, a plot that sees Link's fighting during those various points in the timeline than having these characters included shouldn't be a problem. Speaking of other points in the timeline...
...A CRAZY-ASS BIT OF SPECULATION! If there is a Timeline mode or, emphasis on traveling to different points of the time line then that could suggest that the characters you play as/fight against reflect those points in the timeline not only by virtue of being at the Great Sea or, Kakariko Forest but also the art style changing to reflect those points in time. If Rocksteady was able to put in Batmen such as Frank Miller's aged one or, Batman Beyond I don't think it would be too far fethced to see a completely different developer add in a cell-shaded looking Toon Link for darker shaded Twilight Princess levels. It probably won't come to that but it's the kind of thing that we've seen before...like in Smash Bros where Toon Link has been known to fight the much more realistic looking Solid Snake.
As I'm sure you've extrapolated, I'm really excited about Hyrule Warriors...if you made it this far in my little thread, you must also be interested in either the game itself or my obviously intensifying madness. Before I end here though, Hyrule Warriors is a working title so I'm going to end this with potential Official Titles in no particular order:
Legend of Zelda: Warriors of Time
Legend of Zelda: Warriors of the Triforce
Legend of Zelda: Conquest
Happy New Year everybody!
I checked a few pages to make sure the subject wasn't covered already...and I also realize that I'm a week or two late anyway...but anyway...Some time ago, Jim Sterling said that the Citizen Kane of gaming was Dynasty Warriors and since there is no such thing as an "only one" than I know I'm not the only person who said, "I have never watched that movie but I agree that Dynasty Warriors is freaking AWESOME!" While it's true that the games in the main series seem to be better versions of previous entries, TK have made other games in that style with Samurai Warriors (same premise only based on Japanese history) and, Warriors Orochi (Japanese and Chinese historical figures fighting a greater evil together in an alternate reality). Then TK did the unthinkable...they started using Anime. In Japan, TK released games like Gundam Musou, Hokuto Musou and, Kaizoku Musou. The US did see the Gundam Musou trilogy (Dynasty Warriors Gundam) and both Hokuto Musou (Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage) titles but for whatever reason, we didn't get Kaizoku Warriors (One Piece). Now we're living in a world that will soon be graced with a Legend of Zelda based Dynasty Warriors title!
What we know so far: The art style looks like it takes inspiration from Skyward Sword for the most part. The Dodongo looked like the Ocarina of Time boss if it had diamonds instead of shoulders but everything else screamed Skyward Sword. This is fine for me though since I'm in the camp that believes a good looking game needs to be vibrant and colorful. We know that the life bar has been replaced with heart points, we know that landing attacks builds the special (otherwise known as Musou or Spirit) gauge which allows for the use of special attacks (which we've seen used). We know that Link is allowed to use special weapons such as bombs, the flame staff and, potions. We also know that Link is rockin' a stylish blue cape. It may have slipped by unnoticed but during the course of the trailer, Link goes from using a generic Sword/Shield early on to the Master Sword and Hylian Shield later on in the teaser. To go back to Dodongo, we also know that they and, Lizalfos will be featured as enemies (though it's unclear if they are bosses outright or if they're going to act as generals). All in all, we don't have a lot of info to go off of...luckily though, pattern recognition based off of past Warriors entries should help us make some accurate predictions!
Hopefully-Accurate general predictions: Let's start with Link's fashionable new cape: It's blue and fabulous but more importantly, it points to the likelihood of the game featuring multiple factions. In Zelda lore, there are three Goddesses; Din (Red), Farore (green) and, Nayru (blue). In the core Dynasty Warriors games, those same colors were used for the main three factions (with yellow and grey also being used for minor factions). In the main Zelda narratives there's almost never factions, just Link and Ganon...Ganon who commands a hoard of monsters...Well, there have almost never been three factions. Then there are the items; Items have been a thing in the Warriors games but they were mainly just used to either buff characters or, upgrade weapons. In fact, during the teaser we get to watch Link open up a treasure chest! Based on what I've played of the series's, my best guess would be that things like Hearts, Fairies and, Magic Bottles will be found by breaking pots in homage to the core Zelda games. Chests will likely have been added for plot important items, upgrade items (like new sub-weapons, core weapons, etc) and possibly even permanent buffs like armored tunics and full-hearts (as opposed to Heart Pieces). After that not-so-wild speculation, let's move on to far MORE wild speculation about...
...The potential plot! Here's where things get really interesting since Dynasty Warriors and the Anime Warrior games I've played have always had some sort of "what if" scenario attached to the main narrative. I can't begin to speculate on what the main narrative would be...the main narrative for the first of the Gundam trilogy (from what I remember) had a bunch of characters and settings mixed together and made into something completely new and different. This could be what Hyrule Warriors might turn into, a jumbled up mess of recognizable characters and locations. What I'd really like to see (and something that's possible) are a series of "Timeline" skirmishes; levels that take place in the Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, etc universes. I know that those games really didn't have a focus on huge militarily focused battles but these fights could take place before The Hero of Time does his thing and save the day or indeed, in a completely parallel universe. Going back to what we know, Nintendo and (or) TK have said that Hyrule Warriors isn't meant to be canonical to the other Zelda Timeline titles so re-imagining those older games as having grand battles could be a great concept. Like I said before though, I have no idea what the overarching story would, or could be...but I do have a good idea when it comes to...
...Potential Characters! The Legend of Zelda has a number of well-recognized characters who could potentially make an appearance in Hyrule Warriors. The trailer only shows off Link as a playable character but if that's the case, it would be the only Warrior's game with that kind of limitation. In the Dynasty and Samurai games, you can't really call anybody a 'bad guy' since history doesn't have many truly bad guys (citation needed) but when it came to the anime warrior games, not only were heroes and side-characters playable but so were their various enemies, from Raoh to Master Asia and, Souzer to Char, you could play as just about anybody in those games...and I don't see any reason why Hyrule Warriors would limit players to Link or, Good Guy characters. The list of potential characters, as I mentioned, is fairly lengthy: not counting the main three you have Ghirahim, Impa (Skyward Sword & OoT), Tingle, Groose, Orca, Tetra's Pirate Crew, Zant, Darbus, Darmani, Hero's Shade, King Bulbin, Skull Kid, Eagus, Gaepora, Karane, Yuga, Osfala, Majora, Mikau....The problem comes from all of these characters coming from different games...of course, if there is a Timeline mode or, a plot that sees Link's fighting during those various points in the timeline than having these characters included shouldn't be a problem. Speaking of other points in the timeline...
...A CRAZY-ASS BIT OF SPECULATION! If there is a Timeline mode or, emphasis on traveling to different points of the time line then that could suggest that the characters you play as/fight against reflect those points in the timeline not only by virtue of being at the Great Sea or, Kakariko Forest but also the art style changing to reflect those points in time. If Rocksteady was able to put in Batmen such as Frank Miller's aged one or, Batman Beyond I don't think it would be too far fethced to see a completely different developer add in a cell-shaded looking Toon Link for darker shaded Twilight Princess levels. It probably won't come to that but it's the kind of thing that we've seen before...like in Smash Bros where Toon Link has been known to fight the much more realistic looking Solid Snake.
As I'm sure you've extrapolated, I'm really excited about Hyrule Warriors...if you made it this far in my little thread, you must also be interested in either the game itself or my obviously intensifying madness. Before I end here though, Hyrule Warriors is a working title so I'm going to end this with potential Official Titles in no particular order:
Legend of Zelda: Warriors of Time
Legend of Zelda: Warriors of the Triforce
Legend of Zelda: Conquest
Happy New Year everybody!
