Thursday, October 29, 2020

The Ghost of Calamity Future

 

Let's get this also right out of the way, before we talk about the demo of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity... Time travel?! Well, of course it is! You can't make a Hyrule Warriors game without it, because being canon isn't fun. It's Koei Tecmo's primary tool for creative freedom and to do whatever they want with this crazy game.

Naturally, this does explain all the inconsistencies we've experienced so far. Why haven't we seen the little Guardian buddy in any of Link's memories in Breath of the Wild? How can the Central Hyrule Tower already be there? Why is the Sheikah Slate on steroids and everybody can use its Runes in the most over-the-top way possible? Well, time travel, that's why!

The little Guardian buddy came from a box in Zelda's study and was saved by a portal that appeared right after Zelda has awakened her powers and everything went haywire at Hyrule Castle. And it allows the Sheikah Slate to do what it does in Age of Calamity. We don't know yet where the little Guardian came from in the first place and he might even create some sort of bootstrap paradox, where it basically exists in a time loop and only The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is dealing with the "origin world" without the Eggbot.

In addition, the modified tapestry about the fight against Calamity Ganon, which now depicts the one from 100 years ago and features the small Guardian, also shows each of the Divine Beasts with two riders instead of just one. I haven't looked at the full roster yet, but this might lead to the inclusion of Sidon, Riju, Teba and Yunobo for even more time travel shenanigans... But it was somewhat disappointing that the Champion descendants never really took control of the Divine Beasts, where Age of Calamity can make up for it.

This could even lead to a happy ending scenario, where this is both exciting and disappointing at the same time. On the one hand it seemed like a bold move of Nintendo to let us explore the inevitable demise of the Champions. To let us play an episode of the vast Zelda universe that will end tragically on a bittersweet note. But on the other hand this creates a level of uncertainty, where we don't know what's going to happen and our heroes could still potentially win this, which doesn't make everything feel dire and pointless. It creates hope.

It also creates a different timeline, where it's like they haven't learned anything from Ocarina of Time at all. But in this case the game will most likely be excluded from "canon" whatever it does. It was interesting to maybe have a spin-off title as part of the official timeline for the first time, but then again it's a Hyrule Warriors game...

Apropos, when I first saw the portal, I was immediately reminded of Lana and Cia. Well, it is implied that the portal was somehow created by Zelda's powers, but I wouldn't be utterly surprised if the two Guardians of Time had something to do with it as well. This could even lead to a potential third Hyrule Warriors game in the future, where everything from the first two games gets thrown together.

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