Hyrule Warriors Legends: Predictions per Pack

You can read my thoughts about the announced Season Pass plans for Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors Legends here. Now, the fun part starts again, where we think about potential characters and weapons!

 

Master Wind Waker Pack

This is pretty straight forward. This pack won't contain any new characters and weapons, so it won't be even available on Wii U. But at the same time Medli gets released, who probably gets all her weapon upgrades, Heart Pieces and Heart Containers on the new Master Wind Waker map on the Nintendo 3DS.

I'm curious to see, how this map will look like. I'm actually hoping that all the DLC will have the 8-Bit style of Link's Awakening including this map. The NES style is getting boring and since I'm a huge fan of Link's Awakening, which was my first Zelda game, I would be happy to get have as much representation as possible. In the very least it will get its own pack...

 

Link's Awakening Pack

This posed me a riddle at first. With the Twilight Princess and Majora's Mask packs on the Wii U nearly all the DLC content (with the exception of two Ocarina of Time costumes) was based on the respective games. But as much as I love Link's Awakening, it doesn't strike me as an immediate source for new characters and weapons. But it's unlikely that the new character or the new weapon won't have anything to do with Link's Awakening, because the pack on the Wii U, which only contains those, is still called "Link's Awakening Pack".

My best guess for the character is Marin, who uses the Eight Instruments of the Sirens as her weapon, directing those with her singing voice. Each move could correspond to a different instrument and she might even call the Windfish as one of her more powerful moves, similar to how you call Levias with the Great Fairy. And she would be able to turn into a seagull, probably while running. I think, overall this would be pretty amazing.

Richard might be an alternative, who played an important role in For the Frog the Bell Tolls, which was used as a basis for developing Link's Awakening. But overall he's not important enough and would just be another sword wielder. His moveset probably would have something to do with frogs though...

So, Marin is a safe bet and it will be amazing to see her in 3D for the first time. With all the characters coming from specific Zelda games, Koei Tecmo so far stayed very close to their original designs. Now they only have basic artworks for her and they might impress us here, since Marin has never appeared in 3D before (not counting trophies in Smash Bros.). Koei Tecmo's original designs for Link, Zelda, Impa and Ganondorf were pretty amazing, where I wish that they would do more of those. (Update: Marin confirmed!)

As for Linkle's weapon, I still hope that she will get the whip at some point, because it would fit her so nicely, but probably not in the Link's Awakening pack. And there isn't much left in Link's Awakening that could act as a weapon. Most of the items originally came from other games, so I think the weapon will have something to with Link's other companions on Koholinth. The Chain Chomp Bow-Wow could work as some crazy weapon. He's already a skin for the Ball & Chain in the game, but this wouldn't stop Koei Tecmo at this point.

However, Linkle is a Cucco girl, so the one and only perfect weapon for her from Link's Awakening would be the Flying Rooster, who is also one of Link's companions in the game and therefore basically the most special Cucco in the entire series. It would be a Cucco based moveset, since the Cucco itself won't be playable anymore on the 3DS. But I suppose, this would be the best choice for Linkle.

Another possibilities could be the Fishing Rod that I had in mind for Link for a while. Link's Awakening was the first game to feature fishing... However, so far Linkle didn't show any affinity for it and other games like Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess are more prominent when it comes to fishing.

 

Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks Pack

This pack is like the opposite of the Link's Awakening pack, because there are lots of possibilities here. I would even say that both games could have gotten their own, individual packs, because there are potential characters and weapons (for Toon Link) in both of these games including Linebeck, Oshus, Byrne, Cole, the Grappling Hook, the Whirlwind, the Whip and the Sand Wand. I guess, the character will be from one game and the weapon from the other. Or they use someone and something that appeared in both games...

I wonder, if the Adventure Map will combine the Rail Hyrule with the Realm of the Ocean King... You just would have to connect the Ocean Realm of the New Hyrule with the sea of Phantom Hourglass to the east. Still, both games could have gotten their own map and it's likely that we will probably just get a Rail Map, because another ocean map wouldn't add much at this point.

Well, let's start with the characters, where Oshus (with his cane as a weapon) is probably the least likely candidate. King Daphnos is already getting a Oshus color costume, which doesn't have to mean anything, but Oshus is more likely to appear in Hyrule Warriors 2. If there's any character from Phantom Hourglass, then it would be first and foremost Linebeck:

My issue with Linebeck is that he would really stretch the concept of turning Zelda characters into fighters of mass destruction, because in his nature he is a coward, who hides in a box, even if he had a change of heart during the end of the game. Marin at least had the courage to try and wake the Windfish herself, where I could imagine that she could become some magic force given the Eight Instruments of the Sirens.

Well, but Linebeck is certainly a fan favorite and a game like this would be the chance to finally redeem himself in the eyes of everyone. I could imagine him riding his boat over the battlefield, blasting all enemies into eternity, as some ridiculous over-the-top moveset. His weapon type might be the Telescope similar to how you fight with a telescope in Tri Force Heroes, if you use the Linebeck costume. One of the tiers could even be Aryll's telescope. Also, he's featured in both games, which makes him an excellent choice for the Phantom Hourglass AND Spirit Tracks pack.

Byrne and Cole I've always pictured as fighters in Hyrule Warriors, especially Byrne, even when the toon style wasn't yet a thing. Byrne could have easily matched the realistic style of the early Hyrule Warriors and his Clawshot weapon is a no-brainer. Cole's pseudo weapon type would be "hat", where his moveset revolves around dark blasts, ghost rats, Puppet Phantoms and maybe even a Malladus transformation.

As already mentioned, Toon Link has many options for new weapons. I wouldn't be surprised, if he ends up with the most weapons next to the main Link. The Four Sword for example would be great, but I don't expect to see this now in this pack.

I hope, it won't be the Whip, because I really, really want its Skyward Sword version to become Linkle's weapon in the future. And Toon Link could have a great alternative with the Grappling Hook - he used this in both The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass and it could become some real fun moveset, where he whirls it around and grabs enemies. I'd even say, it has more potential than the Whip, which just replaced the Grappling Hook in Spirit Tracks. Actually one of the tiers could even be based on the Whip from this game, where it uses the snake head as the grapple. (Thanks to Marandahir from the comments for this suggestion!)

It could also be something crazier, e.g. Phantom Zelda or the Spirit Train. But if Linebeck really makes it in, his boat will probably be an important part of the moveset, so having also the train would be too much of the same craziness. So, if I had to guess, I'd say Linebeck and a Grappling Hook / Whip weapon would probably be the most likely candidates, since they also would span both Nintendo DS games.

 

A Link Between Worlds Pack

I've been always sure that the trio Ravio, Hilda and Yuga will be part of Hyrule Warriors in the future - now the question is, which one of those three will have to wait for Hyrule Warriors 2 to make it in.

Hilda is probably the one, who has the least unique potential. There's already a Hilda color costume for Zelda and she would be just another dark element user, where we've already got too many of those. Cia even already got a "scepter" weapon type, which they might want to rename for Hyrule Warriors 2, though Hilda's type could be "Triforce Scepter" or "Triforce Staff".

Yuga will be in with utmost certainty, because his "Brush" weapon would offer a very unique addition, where he could turn enemies into paintings and summon monsters by painting them.

Ravio is in a way similar to Linebeck. He's a coward at heart, but he might redeem himself here in Hyrule Warriors, where he finally finds the courage to become the Hero of Lorule. In the past I already imagined him to have a "Bracelet" weapon type, where each move would have him use a different item from his shop in a humorous way. It all should look somewhat clumsy and Sheerow should also be part of the action.

It might also be that they add all three of them and offer one of them for free as the 30th character, similar to Medli.

Another candidates from this game would be Irene with a broomstick weapon and Osfala with the Sand Rod. But they will certainly go for the main trio first.

 

Update (April 21st):

• Linkle's weapon could also be the Fishing Rod, since this item first appeared in Link's Awakening. It was more iconic in other games though and I still think that a Cucco / Flying Rooster weapon will be her thing, while Link will get the Fishing Rod at some point.
• As for the Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks Pack I'm now convinced that it will be Linebeck and the Grappling Hook. The Whip from Spirit Tracks could simply be one of the Grappling Hook's tiers (thanks to Marandahir for the suggestion). That way both the weapon type and the character were actually featured in both games, which makes them the likeliest. Linebeck could even get a hat costume for his Spirit Tracks version. Of course Toon Link could also have some super crazy weapon, like the train.
• They could go for the full trio of Ravio, Hilda and Yuga by releasing one of them as a free character alongside the pack, similar to Medli. Probably Hilda. This would bring the roster to a nice number of 30 characters.