Sunday, September 11, 2016

Lorule Warriors Legends: A Link Between Worlds Pack Expectations


Hyrule Warriors Legends keeps us Zelda fans entertained during the 30th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with new DLC packs every two months. The final DLC is scheduled for late October / early November and will finally dive into one of the younger games of the franchise: A Link Between Worlds. Certainly a charming game, which offers lots of potential content for Hyrule Warriors! But what can we really expect from the last DLC? What will await us in detail? Let's speculate on Hyrule Blog!


Characters and their Weapons

The A Link Between Worlds Pack will feature two new characters and it already has been leaked here, who these two characters are. The same leak told us about Toon Zelda, so it's most likely accurate. But even without any leaks it should be clear that in the end it comes down to these three:


The Lorule trio of Ravio, Hilda and Yuga. It shouldn't surprise anyone that it's going to be two out of these three main characters of the game. And since both the roster menus on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U have space for three additional characters to make it an even 30, there is also the slight possibility that we're getting the complete Lorule trio at this point, where one character will be free DLC similar to Medli. That would be utterly amazing and we shouldn't expect this to happen, but in any case let us look at the potential movesets and weapons of all three Lorule superstars.

Hilda would continue the streak of playable princesses in this game and her weapon would be her Staff / Triforce Scepter. In A Link Between Worlds she summoned dark vines and Koei Tecmo would probably make good use of this for her fighting abilities. She might also take a page from Cia's book and summon Dark Ravios around her.

Yuga is probably the most interesting candidate here thanks to his Brush Wand. That should allow for some interesting moveset ideas, however, turning himself or others into paintings as a fully developed gameplay mechanic would probably be out of the question. But in the very least he could paint things that come to life, like the soldier enemies from A Link Between Worlds. He also could summon walls that come out of ground to turn himself into a painting for a move. And following his boss fights he probably will shoot energy attacks and create copies of himself, maybe even incorporate elements from Yuganon.

While Hilda and Yuga already hold their potential weapon types in their hands on the above artwork, it's not as obvious with Ravio. He does have lots of possibilities with his shop items, though, where an interesting approach would be that he uses the "Bracelet" as his weapon type and utilizes all the different items for different moves and combos in a more clumsy style. Alternatively Koei Tecmo could focus on one item, where the Tornado Rod would be the one that's unique and fit Ravio's clumsiness very well. And other items from the shop still could be part of the moveset, similar to how Toon Link uses the train with the Sand Wand. It's also very likely that both Sheerow and Ravio's big bag of Rupees will play a part in the moveset. So, expect a very colorful character.

Additionally for Ravio it would interesting, if he had a similar mechanic to Linkle or even Zanto, where he's taking the mask off. Or alternatively he could get a costume without the bunny mask similar to Cia.


The Adventure Map

The Grand Travels Map showed a new approach, where Koei Tecmo combined two worlds into one. And it's likely that the final Adventure Map will follow a similar dynamic, where we get both the classic Hyrule from A Link to the Past / A Link Between Worlds and Lorule in 8-Bit as one big 16 x 8 map. Let's call this the "Two Worlds Map".


You would start in Hyrule and then unlock portals via Bracelet item cards to enter the individual separate areas of Lorule, where you find the various "Final Battle!" missions. And all would be accompanied with a nice 8-Bit rendition of the classic Dark World theme.

As the item cards on this map they could use all nine items from Ravio's Shop for various purposes, e.g. using the Ice Rod to eliminate flame rings, which unlocks rewards. Collecting Maiamais as item cards would also be nice, which you then can use on Mother Maiamai for bonuses.

This might even tie in with this map's big bonus. The Twilight Map gives double material drops, the Termina Map gives double weapon drops, the Grand Travels gives more food drops and on the Koholint Map you can chose the perk that you want. Maybe on the "Two Worlds Map" the perk will be getting more Rupees, since A Link Between Worlds set a big focus on Hyrule's infamous currency with Ravio's Shop. Maybe the map in general gives you more Rupees, maybe you receive the boost with Mother Maiamai or maybe Mother Maiama even gives you an Experience boost in addition. There are many possibilities here.

It could also be that this Adventure Map will utilize "Hero Mode" for a final push of difficulty. Unlike the DLC Maps on the Wii U, the new Adventure Maps on the 3DS have been really nice so far, maybe even a little bit too nice. So, as a final challenge the map could become a lot harder, but potentially also use a mechanic, where you're able to make it easier with the use of Item Cards. Maybe even Mother Maiama could turn "Hero Mode" into "Nice Mode" for you, so you're collecting all the Maiamais for a good reason.


Costumes and other extras

What we've never gotten with any DLCs is new stages and it's very unlikely that this will change here. But it could be that we're getting a simple "Lorule Field" version of the typical Hyrule Field stage in the game. It would be the third alteration of this stage already, but it could turn out really nice with Lorule Castle in the background and a giant chasm instead of the river, maybe even a mirrored version of the original stage.

Anyhow, there are eleven 4+ weapons left and as usual there probably will 16 recolor costumes in total. Zelda already has a Hilda recolor from the Master Quest Map, but in case of Link I could see him getting a full Ravio recolor. It would be similar to the purple tunic from the Master Quest Map but with black hair and the striped scarf. Ganondorf could also get a Yuga recolor just to complete this trio in color costumes as well.

The sages also give additional material for recolor costumes, e.g. Darunia could get a Rosso recolor and Ruto an Oren recolor for obvious reasons. Naturally Impa would see the colors of her A Link Between Worlds counterpart and so might Zelda. Young Link could have a Gulley costume and Toon Link might get a Osfala recolor for the sole fact that he uses the Sand Rod now. A Sahasrahla recolor would be a nice fit for Daphnes. Lana and Cia could be Seres and Irene, because Seres has a book and Irene is a witch, who gets to fly Link around. And of course Tetra should have a thief girl recolor. The possibilities with A Link Between Worlds are amazing!

Fairy clothing could be equally fruitful. We already have a Hilda costume, but outfits based on Ravio, Irene or Seres are likely as well. Seres looks very close to one of the water fairies that we already have, the one on the Termina Map:


So, you could essentially recreate that character in My Fairy, which wouldn't be the first time.


Conclusion: Ravio, Hilda, Yuga, a Hyrule + Lorule Adventure Map, many interesting costumes... There's tons of potential with the A Link Between Worlds Pack and we can all look forward to it!

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