Age of Calamity Devs Discuss The Look and Feel of The Game’s Ancient Tech, New Weapons and Moves

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the DLC story and characters of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

The world and games associated with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild are gifts that keep on giving. Creeping up on a five-year lifespan, Nintendo’s creation has given an entire cottage industry to players who explore, exploit, and invent new ways to play in Hyrule. And with Age of Calamity‘s newest DLC expansions, they now have more of the world, its lore, and new tools to do so.

In a Japanese-language interview with Nintendo Dream, game developers Yuu Oboshi, Ryota Matsushita, and Masaki Furusawa, illuminated a swath of details about the making of Age of Calamity‘s newest content. Perhaps the defining feature of the game’s setting is that it is situated 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild. This gave the developers license to think about how the technology and culture of Hyrule would have been different. Let’s take a peek at some of the highlights the interview contains regarding those features and the characters who influenced the direction.

An Ancient Feel

When asked about the new prototype weapon class, the director of the DLC had this to say:

Matsushita: For both waves of the Expansion Pass, the plots revolve around Purah and Robbie’s Ancient Tech Lab. The story involves hitherto unseen episodes and items debuting via the Ancient Tech Lab. So we also chose the exclusive bonuses in relation to that theme of ancient research. In Breath of the Wild, you can discover the full set of ancient armaments at Robbie’s Research Facility. From that, we based our designs on the speculation that those weapons and armor were the result of Robbie’s continued research after the war. . .

Marking the passage of time is a hallmark of many Zelda games. It’s exciting to see thought like this put into the design of a game that sits in a canonical gray area. And it definitely enriches the grand sweep that Breath of The Wild provides through story and tone. Visually, this illustration of the past is shown with a surprisingly simple look, as explained by Age of Calamity‘s art director:

Oboshi: [We approached the look] in a very analogue way, wrapping string round and round and tying it off. [laughs] So I referred to that aspect to express the prototypical status of this ancient equipment. . . We changed between various methods of conveying that [aesthetic] through trial and error like, “How can we bring out a prototype feel to armor? Well, how about wrapping up this part in bandages?”

And in truth, despite Warriors games mostly being power fantasies, the ramshackle look of Age of Calamity helps sell the foreshadowing that the future world of Breath of The Wild is grim.

New Moves and Weapons

Moving on from the aesthetic of the game, the developers were also asked about the new weapons and move set for specific characters. It seems the flail was a way to connect the revolving kit that players find in Breath of The Wild to the widescale destruction players are capable of in Warriors games:

Furusawa: It’s a mechanic derived from hearing the voices of all the Breath of the Wild fans who were saying, “Wasn’t it cool how you keep replacing your weapons with new ones in Breath of the Wild?” Though still understanding how the weapons serve a different function in this game.  we hope that incorporating that ability to steal and copy enemies’ weapons will make Age of Calamity even more fun for those who enjoyed Breath of the Wild.

To further bolster that feeling of empowerment, Matsushita-san described Link’s new one-handed combo as such:

Matsushita: We added a technique where you can batter enemies to send them flying with a shield rush if you move while that energy is charging up. We were able to better express the relentless part of Link’s ruthless strength, which has led to some Breath of the Wild fans dubbing him “Calamity Link.” [laughs] I liked how that came together.

“Calamity Link.” I like the sound of that! A “What if?” game in the making. If you’d like to learn more from this interview, check out our previous excerpts on the DLC’s new artwork and its use of the Yiga Clan.

How are you enjoying the depth and breadth of Age of Calamity as it has grown? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Nintendo Dream

Translation by Dark Isatari

Andrew Millard

Andrew is a writing teacher in the American Upper Midwest. He has been playing Zelda games since 1990.