Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Has One Tall Order it…

Late in 2025, The Legend of Zelda franchise is scheduled to get its next release, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. This will be a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, and will mark the Zelda series’, and Hyrule Warriors in particular, debut on the Nintendo Switch 2. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will explore the time right after the founding of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's Hyrule, and should make the Imprisoning War that was relegated to a few of TotK’s flashback scenes into something much more impressive.

Past that initial premise, there are still many questions about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment that have yet to be answered. The validity of Nintendo's casual claim that Age of Imprisonment will be canon is a concern after the controversial alternate timeline story that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity went with. Link’s status in this game is also unclear, as he was never portrayed as traveling back to Tears 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 in Age of Calamity.

A mural of a Zonai and a Hylian in the trailer for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Could Turn a BotW, TotK Trope On Its Head

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment already looks exciting, and it could also reverse a notable detail from the games it's based on.

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By Devin Friend

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment’s Playable Cast Can’t Be Too Familiar

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment must ensure it is a distinct game from Age 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 whether Age of Imprisonment should import Age of Calamity’s roster regardless of their appearance in a campaign, story and gameplay necessitates that Age of Imprisonment gives players a meaningfully different experience.

Making An Age of Imprisonment Version Of Zelda Will Be Vital

Princess Zelda, possibly being the only directly returning AoC character in Age of Imprisonment, will need to set a strong example as the presumed protagonist. She technically has access to both her AoC Sheikah Slate and Bow of Light movesets in Age 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 in TotK. Even if Zelda needs to be kept unplayable until she can feasibly use them, Age of Imprisonment needs to make sure it doesn't give the impression of being a simple Age of Calamity expansion like Tears of the Kingdom was initially accused of being for Breath 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 the Sages will be handled in Age of Imprisonment are already high thanks to their thin characterization in TotK, and the high likelihood of getting to control them adds further complications. Age of Imprisonment needs to make sure that these archetypal figures, whether their narrative predecessors are present or not, feel like new additions to Hyrule Warriors.

The fact that Age of Calamity already 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 if TotK’s new Sages are unlockable characters, so Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will really need to make its original cast stand out.

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