Hyrule Warriors: Master Quest 100%

Well, this went down a lot faster than I expected. But having all characters above level 80 (except the three new ones) really helped. Most of the work with the first Adventure Map was getting stronger and better, leveling up and farming badges. This is where most of the time went. The Master Quest Adventure Map then was just one big rush, I also completely A ranked the entire thing yesterday:

It's still about 50 hours of additional game time. Which for the small price is superb, most full price games don't offer that much game time. Mario Kart 8 I only played for 43 hours...

Interestingly enough the three new characters, Cia, Volga and Wizzro, didn't require any high levels. They were around level 50, when I was finished. This is in big contrast to the first map, where I sometimes I even had trouble with level 99 characters to finish the job. And even on the Master Quest map there were some tough missions like the one for Zant's Heart Container in the southeast. This also had one of the toughest to get Skulltulas for me. But they made it easy for the three new guys.

But I love playing them. Cia became my absolute favorite character in the game. Her combos are so very versatile and fun to use. Her sexy C2 is a nice and quick crowd clearer... the "Defeat 1000 enemies in 10 minutes" mission was a real pain with Agitha and it was still hard to A rank with other strong characters. With Cia I did it easily on my first try and they even took the items away, so you couldn't destroy the Deku Babas! But Cia is simply that good. Her C3 is nice for duels and her C4 (where she summons four Dark Links) cuts through the weak point gauge of the giant bosses really, really quickly. So, you're almost guaranteed to make a big hit on each weak point stun. I already like her character and her looks, but the moveset is pretty much perfect.

Surprisingly I also think that Wizzro is a fun character. Especially in the new "Rack up your K.O. missions", which are really crazy and fun. They are basically what the "Defeat x enemies in 10 minutes" missions should have been in the first place. But those missions are really nice to quickly break weapon seals, level up and farm materials and good weapons, since you constantly use magic on tons of monsters and the occasional big guy. Anyway Wizzro has good crowd spamming, amazing juggle abilities and even a good duel move with the beam. And I enjoy his pure evil being.

Volga is very solid, but for me personally the most boring of the three newcomers. He has that dragon move, but it doesn't have the fireball and it takes a while to activate. But it's very useful in the "Defeat x enemies in 10 minutes" missions, because you can easily clear one crowd with a single strike, unlike most characters. The C2 and C3 are very useful for duels and the C4 offers some quick cloud clearing, though not as efficient as the C5 dragon, but a lot faster. He's definitely one of the better characters in the game, but I personally had more fun with Cia and Wizzro.

The Master Quest map was okay. I liked, how they stayed true to the original 2nd Quest and used the Flute for various secrets (even though the stairs were misplaced) and used all the 2nd Quest locations for dungeons. I didn't like that they recycled so many old missions, but for a 2nd Quest it's tolerable. I hope that the upcoming Adventure Maps will offer more new things, especially new stages like Snowpeak Ruins or Clocktown.

The Master Quest map also added five new Heart Containers for everyone. It added a new row of Heart Containers and it seems obvious that the other two upcoming DLC Adventure Maps will have five more Heart Containers for everyone each to complete this row. That's already a total of 80 Heart Containers per map and it completely destroys my idea of having the dungeons as Adventure Maps, because they are simply too small. Even Level 9 is only about half the size of the overworld. It's a shame, because I thought the dungeons would have made great Adventure Maps and added some variety to the items. (Update: Wait, actually the original dungeons were combined on two grids of the same size as the overworld. The shapes fit perfectly in each other. Maybe they use that. Or maybe they create new environments like on the Rewards Map, based on Twilight Princess Hyrule and Termina.)

And overall the announced DLC seems very final to me. Especially with the third row of Heart Containers, which got squeezed in. It's a nice thing, because it gives every character at least five new missions to do. There's also one alternate costume for everyone now, which is great, and they even try to add new joke weapons for everyone. I don't think that it all has to be 8-Bit weapons. For example Agitha could still have the Bug Catching Net as her Star Weapon and Darunia the Skull Hammer. But in any way with the end of the DLC the game will probably be finished.

And for me there's only little left to do. Leveling up some characters to 99, which now goes faster than ever thanks to the "Rack up K.O.s" missions. Getting some last bagdes, where the option to turn off cutscenes helps a lot. But I've already completed the badges of five characters (Link, Impa, Lana, Zelda and Agitha) and with most others I'm only missing a few golden ones. And getting some "near perfect" weapons, even though I probably won't have much use for them. But I did get a really nice weapon for Ganondorf, Lvl3 five stars and the following abilities:

• Strength V
• Darkness +
• Stars+
• Sockets+
• Materials+
• Bombs+
• Legendary

An eight slot with Strong Attack+ or One-Hit Kill would have made it fully perfect, but it's already more than good enough. I especially enjoy having the Bombs+ ability, so I will try to get this with everyone. It would be nice, if you could replace weapon skills like in other Warrior games, because then it would be considerably easier to create your best possible weapon.

And if they add some good challenges to the game with the Challenge Mode and the two new game types, all the leveling up, crafting badges and creating near perfect weapons won't be in vain, because you might need your characters at your best. This might be what the Ganon Pack aims at.

I don't think there will be any more DLC after the Ganon Pack. Yes, there's tons of potential with characters from Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and A Link Between Worlds. But they need to save something for the sequel.