The A Link Between Worlds Pack for Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Legends gave us two character additions from the lands of Lorule, the cowardly salesman Ravio and the demonic art collector Yuga. Compared to some additions from the previous DLC offerings they don't seem to be particularly outstanding, but let's still take a short look at how they turned out...
Ravio
While his running animation is certainly hilarious, Ravio doesn't seem to offer everything that you would have expected, like a varied multi-element moveset based on all his shop items. It's just all Darkness and not all of it are weapons from his shop.
With DLC characters Koei usually likes to recycle some assets from the game to get them done and he really got the short end of the stick with that. Instead of the items from his shop, the Bow, Bombs and Boomerang he uses are simply the Hyrule Warriors variants, mostly in their upgraded forms. So, instead of using the Tornado Rod to create tornados, Ravio throws the Power-up Boomerang at things... And that seems a little bit like a low effort from Koei Tecmo's end.
Only the Hammer and Ice Rod are really from his shop, where these two tools essentially work in combination with each other, which is pretty nice, because freezing things and smashing them with a Hammer was one of the first true item combos in the Zelda series. The Ice Rod gets utilized in most of the combos and It really should have been the "Hammer + Ice Rod" weapon type, where the Ice Rod also has visible tiers.
But I do like the Rental Hammer tiers, especially the Nice Hammer variant with the Triforce symbolic on it. The handle even resembles Hilda's scepter as a reference, which makes me a little sad that she wasn't part of the last DLC wave as well. Other than that, Ravio didn't get all that many references. You can't take off his bunny mask in any way, you can only look under it to catch a glimpse of who's really under there (but they didn't create an actual face). His buddy Sheerow is also nowhere to be found...
They didn't go all-in with this character, but this at least leaves some potential for a sequel. There he could get a Tornado Rod weapon type with Sheerow in it, a maskless costume and more.
The moveset in itself also doesn't seem to be one of the better ones, while it isn't entirely terrible either. His charged C1 larges enemies inwards, which can be used for some follow-up combos, but he isn't really all that good at anything particular. Especially breaking Weak Point Gauges of Giant Bosses seems to be difficult in one turn. That he isn't the strongest, does fit his character, though... I also do like, how they captured his clumsiness within the moveset, e.g. the Focus Spirit Finisher, where he drops the big Bomb.
For his badges he needs mostly Impa and Gohma materials, so nothing special. It's quite weird that the drops Young Link's materials, though. Why not Link's? Link drops an actual SCARF like Ravio has, which would have fit much better. This is another devil detail that just annoys me.
Yuga
Marvel at the most glorious victory animation in the entire game! Koei Tecmo outdid themselves with that and Yuga overall leaves a good impression at first glance. At least on the Wii U. I really do like the visual and sound effects with his weapon on the home console, however, it seems quite butchered on the 3DS system. It just doesn't give the same strong feeling, when he whirls around the picture frame in a large area.
That's probably the best part of his moveset, the wide range of the attack string. In addition he has an interesting mechanic, where you can leave a magic circle after each combo by holding down the button. These circles freeze enemies in place and explode after a little while, which can also be used strategically to capture enemies in your combos. He also uses the Fire element for his C3 combo, which works good enough on Manhandla, while his C4 wrecks Argorok.
That's about it. The moveset also does leave little to desire when it comes to references. He hops into a painting with his C1, he shoots strong electric bolts with the C4, he even summons Ganon's trident with multiple moves and there are various sound effects from A Link Between Worlds, which is nice. The only thing that I'm missing would be summoning soldiers by painting them. It would have been amazing to see the classic A Link to the Past soldiers in 3D...
He drops Ganondorf's materials, but he doesn't need them himself. You would expect him to be the big Ganon fanatic that Toon Zelda turned out to be, but he likes Argorok and Lana instead. Well, whatever...
I also did get used to his new design pretty quickly and overall he seems like a solid addition to the game.
Ravio
While his running animation is certainly hilarious, Ravio doesn't seem to offer everything that you would have expected, like a varied multi-element moveset based on all his shop items. It's just all Darkness and not all of it are weapons from his shop.
With DLC characters Koei usually likes to recycle some assets from the game to get them done and he really got the short end of the stick with that. Instead of the items from his shop, the Bow, Bombs and Boomerang he uses are simply the Hyrule Warriors variants, mostly in their upgraded forms. So, instead of using the Tornado Rod to create tornados, Ravio throws the Power-up Boomerang at things... And that seems a little bit like a low effort from Koei Tecmo's end.
Only the Hammer and Ice Rod are really from his shop, where these two tools essentially work in combination with each other, which is pretty nice, because freezing things and smashing them with a Hammer was one of the first true item combos in the Zelda series. The Ice Rod gets utilized in most of the combos and It really should have been the "Hammer + Ice Rod" weapon type, where the Ice Rod also has visible tiers.
But I do like the Rental Hammer tiers, especially the Nice Hammer variant with the Triforce symbolic on it. The handle even resembles Hilda's scepter as a reference, which makes me a little sad that she wasn't part of the last DLC wave as well. Other than that, Ravio didn't get all that many references. You can't take off his bunny mask in any way, you can only look under it to catch a glimpse of who's really under there (but they didn't create an actual face). His buddy Sheerow is also nowhere to be found...
They didn't go all-in with this character, but this at least leaves some potential for a sequel. There he could get a Tornado Rod weapon type with Sheerow in it, a maskless costume and more.
The moveset in itself also doesn't seem to be one of the better ones, while it isn't entirely terrible either. His charged C1 larges enemies inwards, which can be used for some follow-up combos, but he isn't really all that good at anything particular. Especially breaking Weak Point Gauges of Giant Bosses seems to be difficult in one turn. That he isn't the strongest, does fit his character, though... I also do like, how they captured his clumsiness within the moveset, e.g. the Focus Spirit Finisher, where he drops the big Bomb.
For his badges he needs mostly Impa and Gohma materials, so nothing special. It's quite weird that the drops Young Link's materials, though. Why not Link's? Link drops an actual SCARF like Ravio has, which would have fit much better. This is another devil detail that just annoys me.
Yuga
Marvel at the most glorious victory animation in the entire game! Koei Tecmo outdid themselves with that and Yuga overall leaves a good impression at first glance. At least on the Wii U. I really do like the visual and sound effects with his weapon on the home console, however, it seems quite butchered on the 3DS system. It just doesn't give the same strong feeling, when he whirls around the picture frame in a large area.
That's probably the best part of his moveset, the wide range of the attack string. In addition he has an interesting mechanic, where you can leave a magic circle after each combo by holding down the button. These circles freeze enemies in place and explode after a little while, which can also be used strategically to capture enemies in your combos. He also uses the Fire element for his C3 combo, which works good enough on Manhandla, while his C4 wrecks Argorok.
That's about it. The moveset also does leave little to desire when it comes to references. He hops into a painting with his C1, he shoots strong electric bolts with the C4, he even summons Ganon's trident with multiple moves and there are various sound effects from A Link Between Worlds, which is nice. The only thing that I'm missing would be summoning soldiers by painting them. It would have been amazing to see the classic A Link to the Past soldiers in 3D...
He drops Ganondorf's materials, but he doesn't need them himself. You would expect him to be the big Ganon fanatic that Toon Zelda turned out to be, but he likes Argorok and Lana instead. Well, whatever...
I also did get used to his new design pretty quickly and overall he seems like a solid addition to the game.
Ravio has a belt and a mask.
ReplyDeleteYoung Link drops a belt and a mask.
Both are Link incarnations.