Sunday, February 25, 2018

Breath of the Wild: Hyrule Warriors Collaboration Concept

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition will be released for Nintendo Switch soon and what better way to promote this title than with another free Collaboration Side Quest in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Nintendo did this already for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but in this case the collaboration would stay within the same franchise.

The reward for a "Hyrule Warriors Collaboration" should be obvious enough, it would be Link's outfit from the game:


  • Cap of the Warrior
  • Tunic of the Warrior
  • Trousers of the Warrior

The Cap of the Warrior would come with the signature blue scarf, while the Tunic of the Warriors would have the shoulder plates.


A Test of Endurance


Now, the reward in itself probably won't feel that special, since there are many similar outfits in the game already thanks to all the amiibo. But the way of acquiring this "new" set of armor could take a note from Hyrule Warriors and at the same time aim at some shortcomings of Breath of the Wild itself.

In Hyrule Warriors you fight entire hordes of monsters all the time and while that's also possible in Breath of the Wild, it rarely ever happens. For the most part you have camps of Bokoblins, Moblins and Lizalfos, but there won't be any Lynels there. Guardians are also rarely ever fought in the presence of other enemies.

But the game never features a scenario like in Memory #8, "A Premonition", where Link supposedly fought an entire horde of monsters, including various Lynels, all at once:


Now, this new Side Quest will allow for that, without the need of creating any major new assets (Nintendo sure doesn't like to create new things for this game's DLC, except for more armor). It would introduce a new type of Sheikah Shrine, which houses a "Test of Endurance". Similar to the Tests of Strength, they would come in three difficulties: Minor, Modest and Major.

The trials themselves put you in a room, where more and more enemies will enter the combat after a while. Think of the Secret Cave on Shark Island in the Wind Waker. THAT's how this would work, just with a wild mix of the enemies from Breath of the Wild, where it starts with some Keese and Bokoblins, but at the end puts you in a situation with multiple Lynels and Guardians. It should be fights, where you will become desperate enough to use some Ancient Arrows to prevail.

And that's something the game doesn't currently offer. The most difficult combat challenges either remove your gear or cripple you in some other way, like reducing you to a quarter heart. But there's no challenge in the game, where you'd want to bring a collection of the best gear, lots of boosting food and maybe even many Ancient Arrows as safety net.


Dual Lynel Duels


That just leaves the question of how you would make those new combat shrines appear... Similar to The Champions' Ballad, there could be monument somewhere (in a location pointed out by the Side Quest description), which shows pictures of three different spots on the overworld. There are many empty places left in the game, so it should be easy enough to find something appropriate.

In those spots you will now find a pair of Lynels, where you have to fight them both at once to prove yourself worthy. That's something that never really happens during the game, because the Lynels stay to their own territories (unless you lure one to the next and prevent him from teleporting). Depending on the actual trials difficulty, the Lynels will have different tiers:

  • Minor Test of Endurance: Red Lynels
  • Modest Test of Endurance: Blue Lynels
  • Major Test of Endurance: Silver Lynels


They all should be equipped with the different tiers of Lynel Spears and Crushers. This would solve another issue, where a part of the lower tier Lynel equipment isn't available anymore during the endgame. You can still get a Lynel Sword, Shield and Bow from the Red Lynel on top of Mount Ploymus. And there's a Blue Lynel in Hyrule Castle, who has a Mighty Lynel Sword, Shield and Bow. The latter normally doesn't drop his equipment, but you can prevent this issue by saving and reloading in the same spot. And Nintendo also could fix / change this behavior in an update.

The Spears and Crushers, however, will go extinct during the course of the game, much like Blue Lynels in Master Mode. And adding these pairs of Lynels will bring all this content back and even prevent some further Hyrule Compendium omissions, so you can still get some nice pictures of all things Lynel at the end of the game, if you want.

Well, for each of the Test of Endurance you would earn a part of the Warrior's armor set. They could probably also add a fourth test and give you Spirit Orbs as rewards for another Heart Container or Stamina Vessel. But the armor and the crazy fights themselves should be reward enough already.


PS: With adding another set of armor there would be 110 armor pieces in the game, while there's only room for 100 pieces. And it can't be said often enough that Nintendo should increase the limit of armor inventory in any future update. So, if Nintendo really were to do another collaboration like the one for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it would be nice to receive more armor space to store all the new things without selling any other existing pieces.

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