Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the Breath of the Wild prequel we need

Nintendo revealed it’s working on a new Legend of Zelda game — of a sort. Specifically, it’s making another Hyrule Warriors spin-off, this time a prequel to Breath of the Wild set in the titular Age of Calamity. And while it’s not the much-anticipated sequel, at least it’s something. Any Zelda is better than no Zelda.

The gameplay looks about typical for Dynasty Warriors — or its predecessor, Hyrule Warriors. We’ll have multiple playable characters, including Link, Zelda, Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali. Multiple enemy types show up, including the Guardians and Lynels. There’s not much gameplay footage to be had, but what there is is pretty great. I didn’t know I needed to see Mipha shishkebab a Guardian with her trident, but I’m so glad I have now.

Hyrule Warriors producer Yosuke Hayashi says Nintendo believed the Warriors gameplay suited the game’s big battle scenes — and going by the trailer, I have to agree. Hayashi says the team worked closely with Nintendo to make sure they got the BotW feel and art style correct.

The game is set 100 years before the present time period of Breath of the Wild. In that game, we only get scattered stories about an event known as the Great Calamity, but the amnesiac Link doesn’t remember it in full and very few NPCs can tell him about it. As is usual for prequels, we already know how this will end, as BotW is all about the tragic aftermath of this conflict. Still, it’ll be interesting to see the rise of Calamity Ganon through more than just Link’s fractured recollections. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll set up who the heck the Ganon-ish mummified corpse is we saw in the sequel’s teaser trailer.

Speaking of which, the trailer does make reference to the Breath of the Wild sequel — according to Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, it’s still in development and won’t be ready to show for a while. I’m hoping it shows up at roughly the same time as Bayonetta 3… no, I will not stop hounding Nintendo about that in every article I mention them, thank you very much.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will launch on November 20 on the Switch.