Age of Calamity War Log, Entry 8

Current Progress

• Difficulty: Very Hard
• Chapter: 6
• Battles: 16
  
• Challenges: 80
  
• Quests: 204
• Contribution Rate: 54%

 

Forgotten Koroks

After the promising cutscene with Astor at the end of Chapter 5, it was time to seek revenge on him in Chapter 3, where Astor was one of the most difficult boss fights for me yet. And... it's almost pitiful by now how weak he is when you're not. He didn't even get to use his shield where he summons the "Hollows", because he was defeated too quickly. But this will certainly change the next time I face the guy for real and the one giant orb move was still quite difficult to evade...

The main reason why I went back to the Lost Woods were all the missing Koroks there, however, four in total. Three of those all resided in the same optional area, which I didn't get to visit the first time, mainly because I wasn't aware that defeating the last of the four Hollows would automatically send you to Astor with no chance of exploring the rest of the woods.

I also went back to the story scenario right afterwards at Crenel Peak, the one with the inexplicable time limit, now taking my sweet time to look for Koroks there with Mipha, who makes playing this mission quite effortless. And it's actually a really beautiful and nicely designed battlefield, if you take the time to look around...

And the time I took. There's three Koroks hidden here and I could find two of them very easily, but the last one escaped me for quite some time. I went through the entire battlefield multiple times, where the time limit was quite annoying, because I had to restart the entire scenario multiple times as well.

Simply going by the map it's kind of obvious where the Koroks are hidden, because there are only few dead ends, but the last missing Korok was so well camouflaged that I kept missing it, even though I went to the exact spot multiple times thinking that something must be hidden right there... At least later on I knew which type of puzzle it had to be, because it was the only one that made sense after sweeping the whole battlefield several times.

But I was blind and I had to get some help here, where we replayed this level in coop on the other savegame / Nintendo Switch for the exact same purpose and still couldn't find it at first. In the end we just kept using "Retry" at the Stone Talus bosses and went back through the emptied stage to do another search. And another. And another. Until we finally discovered the hiding spot... So, to me this Korok qualifies as the trickiest one in the game so far. Congratulations, little guy.

By the way, I already expected as much, but the order of the Korok Seeds in the battle info has nothing to do with the order on when you potentially find them during the scenario. In this case we were missing the third Korok Seed, but it was not at the end.

Time for Challenges

For the most part during the last days I was busy clearing some of the Challenges that I've left open. I started to put more and more of them off for a while now, mostly because of time limits or in some rare cases because the mission seemed overly difficult.

One of these cases were "Royal Escort", where you have to fight Sooga and multiple Yiga Blademasters to defend Zelda and I struggled with this, because I was taking too much damage too quickly from sword beams. And honestly, I was super sick of all those fights against Sooga... But postponing this for so long turned out to be a mistake.

First of all, it's not actually that hard, because it's all about using the Lightning Rod on the metal boxes that you find on the way for some easy stuns and weak point attacks. It's even quite the broad hint, since you'll find an Electric Wizzrobe earlier on the way, but for some reason this never occurred to me during this scenario and according to the gallery it was actually the first time I used a Lightning Rod this way... Well, learning by doing.

And beating this mission finally gives you access to Link's first Special Attack gauge expansion, which would have been very helpful in Chapter 5, while the "Royal Escort" mission gets unlocked at the end of Chapter 2. So, this was kind of a fail on my end, but at least this gave me the incentive to try a little harder with the Challenges from now on, because they might unlock something useful.

So, I set off with my newfound motivations, only to have them crushed by "In the Clutches of the Yiga". What a nice challenge... Well, I'd say it would be a really cool scenario if it weren't for the silly time limits. You only have a limited time to reach the entrance of the Yiga Clan Hideout from the other end, where you can take multiple paths. And at the end you'll have to face Master Kohga, but any of the Yiga Blademasters you haven't defeated on the way out will come to Kohga's rescue. And this includes Sooga, who was chasing you all over the hideout...

Now... for some reason you only get three minutes to defeat Kohga and this is ridiculous. Even without the time limit it already would be a super difficult battle, because you get sniped by sword beams from all ends. And even if it were only Kohga alone, beating him in three minutes would cut things super close, because he likes to keep his weak point phases very short, unless he tumbles over. And there are no metallic boxes around to help you this time.

There are a couple of explosive barrels all over the Yiga Clan Hideout, though, which can potentially be used to damage and maybe even defeat Sooga on your way out. But it's just a little problematic that he can target you through walls and will shoot his wind blades through the solid stone right at you, which is extremely cheap and crappy.

And overall it feels like this would be an amazing Challenge without the time limit. One strategy could be to defeat all or most of the Yiga Blademaster and Sooga, before you battle Kohga. So, the Challenge rewards you for not rushing mindlessly to the end... And theoretically it would even be possible to at least take down Sooga before the end, if this didn't take like over half a dozen of weak point attacks.

How fun Challenges can be without a time limit shows "Escorting the Injured" with Sidon. Here you have to help a Zora soldier to make his way back to Zora's Domain, but a Blue-Maned Lynel will get in your way. You're told to run away, but I've taken my time to defeat the Lynel on first sight, simply because I could and those Lynel Trophies are always useful. You still have to defeat it a second time, but I didn't mind, because I could take my time and play defensively.

In this mission it's a good idea to always leave some small foes around for the Zora soldier to battle. He won't take any damage from them, but that large Lynel blasts will hurt him quite badly. So, by leaving some cannon fodder around he will stop and pretend to fight them, instead of running into a raging Lynel like some maniac with a death wish.

There is a similar scenario called "Prince's Escort", where this time you have to escort Sidon himself through Crenel Peak, plagued by electric monsters, including an Electric Lynel at the end. I did this with Mipha of cource, because it made sense for her to protect her "little" brother and it was just very familiar to play as her on this stage after all the Korok hunting earlier.

So, whenever there are Challenges without a time limit, I'm having fun with them and I will also try to beat them as soon as possible. It's just too bad that those are getting rarer and rarer with every turn. If I see the new elemental "training" missions with a time limit and a Blight at the end, I just shake my head and move on. I won't even bother trying them now, because I know it's going to be stupid and effectively a waste of my time at the moment.

But even when there's no time limit, you have to be wary. A good example of this is "Like Grains of Sand" in the Gerudo Desert, which unlocks after the next story mission (see below). Here it shows no time limit and only some Moblins, Lizalfos and Bokoblins as main enemies. More like "Grains of Salt", as if the game would be so nice at this point...

Of course it also throws a bunch of Guardians and a Molduga at you afterwards. Which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't go into this thinking that I could use any character here for some practice. But the mission was obviously designed for Urbosa, who could easily defeat the Guardians with her reflecting shield bash. And in the end I can probably be happy that it also didn't throw Thunderblight Ganon on top...

And it's not like all time limited Challenges are bad. Some of them are very well balanced and designed, where a good example would be "Fire Hazards". Here a bunch of Fire Moblins, a Fire Lynel, and a Fire Hinox attack the entire Hyrule Outpost village near the Great Plateau and you have three minutes to take them down. This sounds impossible at first, but each time you slay one of the beasts, you get three more minutes added on top, where you can use this strategically.

Plus, the time limit here makes even sense from a story perspective. The village is in danger of being burnt down by these enemies, so naturally you have to hurry to put the fires out. So, this is a very well done Challenge with a time limit, but sadly those are the exception and usually the time limits are just unreasonable.

Defending Akkala

In between all these Challenges, it was finally the time to play the second main mission at Akkala Citadel, the one that you already could see in the announcement trailer for Age of Calamity, where Daruk fends off a Hinox. And this mission didn't disappoint.

It was the first time that the same battlefield has been used twice for a story scenario, but it was heavily altered for this purpose with a night theme and destroyed Guardians everywhere. The new music was also great and the whole atmosphere of this battle was pretty amazing.

Hyrule Warriors did re-use some battlefields as well, but only Ganon's Castle got this kind of treatment and all the others were left completely unchanged. With Hyrule Warriors: Legends they at least changed the visuals for some of them (e.g. the peaceful version of Lanayru Valley), but not all of them. So, it's actually quite amazing how much effort went into the battlefields for Age of Calamity, where every story scenario so far got something new.

Like with the first Akkala Citadel mission, I first took my time to explore the entire battlefield around the castle to look for Koroks, where some of them are now in spots where I've originally expected to find something the first time. And whenever I'm not facing some kind of time limit, I'll make good use of the fact.

Curiously, there is a section in the north that is closed at first and only opens up later during some assault of multiple boss enemies. And I went through all those enemies to explore this part before the battle is over only to find... nothing. Nothing at all. Seems like a missed opportunity for some sneaky Korok, if you ask me. And if I go completely out of my way like this, I kind of expect something for my troubles... (Well, maybe there was a chest and I forgot.)

Anyway, the whole scenario starts with another Divine Beast battle, this time using Vah Ruta to get to Akkala Citadel in time. You have two paths here, a short one with a ton of Guardians and a longer one with less resistance. I took the second path and it was funny to get a "Victory", despite having this giant army of Guardians right behind me on the other path... "Eh, what about all those? Are you sure it's fine to leave it like this?"

Vah Ruta is also in the background during the main battle, controlled by Sidon, so you can't choose him for this scenario. I did go with Mipha, though, which turned out to be a very good choice, because she is essential for this mission and it's probably easier to rescue all those allies if you can play as Mipha herself. Plus, she is one of my best characters, where by now she also already has three Special Attack gauges, making her invaluable with all those heals.

Vah Ruta / Sidon on the other end was mostly useless, other than stealing some easy Guardian kills at the beginning. During the assault at the end Vah Ruta could have easily taken out all the enemies, instead of letting you fight two Hinoxes in a row and then let Robbie finish the job with the cannons. But at least Sidon takes down two of the flying Guardians at the south, which was very helpful...

Seeing Robbie on the battlefield like this was also weird. I crossed both Purah and him off from the the playable fighters the way they got handled so far in the game, but having an ingame character like this, even if this character doesn't do any fighting yet, is a good first step. Well, there is always DLC...

And where is Purah anyway? Last time we saw both of them, they had knives put to their throats by the Yiga at the Royal Ancient Lab. Robbie went to Akkala, but where did Purah go? But maybe she'll play a role in the next mission, which will finally lead us to Fort Hateno. This used to be a decisive battle in the original timeline, where Link got beaten and Zelda awakened her powers... Let's see how this will turn out (next time).

Fire, Ice and Electric Everything

The Akkala Citadel battle introduces some new types of Guardians and they are... interesting. I like the "Malice Guardians", mostly because the normal Guardians don't feel like an actual threat, at least as long as you're playing as Master Sword Link. But what's a "Fire Guardian" supposed to be? Did they really have to make elemental variants of EVERYTHING? What's next? An Ice Goron Captain?

So far these new elemental variants of the Moblins, Hinoxes and Lynels were okay, if a little bit out of the ordinary. In Breath of the Wild only the Lizalfos, ChuChus, Keese and Wizzrobes came in the three elemental types and it fully made sense with these enemies. Everything else was achieved by elemental weapons, e.g. Lynels firing Shock Arrows or a Moblin using a Great Frostblade.

These elemental weapons aren't really a thing anymore in Age of Calamity or bound to certain attacks, so instead they are creating all these new elemental enemies to achieve a larger enemy variety on the paper. But simply slapping "Fire", "Ice", and "Electric" on everything isn't really that original and starts becoming a little silly with the Guardians. The Malice Guardians are cool, though, and a much more fitting upgrade.

Makes me wonder if we will also see some "Malice Moblins" or "Malice Lynels" later on. Also, silver enemies are slowly becoming the new norm with this Akkala Citadel mission, where I hope that the game will also include the golden enemies right away. Please don't do a "Master Mode" for this game, Koei Tecmo, I'm having enough as it is...

Better Weapons

At this point in the game you will unlock the ability to increase the maximum level of your weapons beyond 20. So far I only had one weapon at 20, an Ancient Power Boost for Zelda, so I've yet to test how far you can take this, but it's good to know and might even allow you to bring weaker weapons from the early game to a respectable level, in case you really want to enhance that Tree Branch you got in the first mission to the one and only "Master Branch".

One mission earlier, at the end of chapter 5, it also unlocked the ability to remove weapon seals, where both of this costs materials and trophies in addition to Rupees. So, the whole weapon building system is now going for its full potential and getting more and more interesting.

I'm also getting more and more higher tier weapons, where the Champions can finally find additional copies of their signature weapons. I was afraid that they might be a one-time deal, similar to the Training Sword and Lucky Ladle, but it's a good thing that this isn't the case and wouldn't have made any sense anyway, because you can craft more of these weapons in Breath of the Wild.

It also turns out that the versions that you got for free with the Champions have a significantly lower base level, but luckily I only kept leveling them without adding any seals, so they became a really good merging material now that I've gotten the improved versions.

Overall, I like the weapon fusion and seal system quite a lot, much more than in the first Hyrule Warriors. On the Nintendo 3DS I've spent so much time building "perfect weapons" that I didn't have anything else left to do in the game by the time I was finished... It also didn't help that you had so many different weapon skills, like strength boosts for each individual combo, and that you had to be lucky to find a weapon with all eight slots.

The system in Age of Calamity is a lot simpler. You level weapons by fusing other weapons into them, which increases their base strength and adds more slots for seals, which are the weapon skills. During a fusion the first seal will be transmitted, if there's an available slot.

Now, the seals come in four shapes that represent different categories:

• star: attack boosts
  
• hexagon: health and defense boosts
  
• circle: increased loot
  
• square: special skills

Adding multiple seals of the same category will strengthen these seals. So, it's a good thing to focus on creating weapons that focus on a certain category, e.g. an attack boost weapon or a looting weapon. The seals are also less cluttered, so instead of strength boosts for each single combo, you get a seal that boosts strong attacks in general. It's all much simpler and I like this a lot.

I'm not sure what to do with the Master Sword yet, but it might be a good idea to go with the health abilities to get yourself back to full hearts more easily and power-up those sword beams. But by now I also think that the "Damage at 30% Hearts or Less" seal is the best one in the game for playing on "Very Hard", because you often end up low anyway...