Age of Calamity War Log, EX Entry 3

Expansion Pass Progress

• Difficulty: Very Hard
• EX Battles: 6
  
• EX Research Quests: 35 / 35
• EX Quests: 42
  
• EX Challenges: 17

This time getting back into the game felt almost natural, like riding a bike. And it's good to be back for more with the "Guardian of Remembrance" expansion. Yesterday I've played some of the new memory battles, but I haven't gotten very far. I don't even have any of the new characters yet, where I've also avoided social media like the plague to dodge spoilers about the last fighter. I'm really excited about this, but I want to find out at my own now that the DLC is already released.

New and Old Places

The highlight of the second DLC wave so far were certainly the new stages, because that's a first for a Hyrule Warriors game. The only time they've added new stages to Hyrule Warriors was with the battlefields from The Wind Waker in 3DS version, Hyrule Warriors Legends, but those didn't make it onto the Wii U. And it always felt like a missed opportunity that they didn't include something from Majora's Mask for example.

Of course this DLC comes with some missed opportunities of its own, where in this case it's mainly the fact that these new stages don't seem to be utilized much outside of the new story scenarios. And that's a shame, because they've put quite some work into them, where it would have been neat to get a hand full of Challenges for each of them. But there still might be and I just haven't unlocked them yet... In the very least there is a new "EX Alert" challenge that takes place at Kakariko Village, which is awesome.

Speaking of Kakariko Village, the music there is godlike and the scenario was overall pretty cool with the Gorons watching over the village, much like in old times. It's extremely narrow inside the village, however, which might fighting all the waves of dangerous enemies somewhat annoying. It was also interesting that you could visit a Divine Beast as an actual part of the stage, instead of just being a glorified boss chamber.

Again, one of the highlights is looking at places before they got destroyed by the Calamity, like the fishing village at Goponga Swamp.

The DLC is also reusing old stages for new scenarios for the first. The original Hyrule Warriors liked to do this a couple of times, especially in the DLC with Cia's Tale, but whenever Age of Calamity did this it heavily altered the look, atmosphere and sometimes also the layout of the stage to make things fresh. But not in this case... You're getting back to the same old stages without any alterations. Together with the fact that there are no new Koroks or even treasure chests to find in the reused stages, it makes it seem quite lackluster. In the very least it would have been nice to visit these places at a different time of day, e.g. the Breach of Demise during the night.

Memory Quests

While there are no Koroks in any of the DLC scenarios, you have to fulfill new tasks to truly complete these battles. Some of them might not be as easy with the initial characters, but you can replay the scenarios with any character to make things easier.

Best example is probably "EX Searching Hyrule Forest", where you have to keep the health of a Rito Captain above 50%. Not so easy with all the enemies around and when there are also other tasks at hand. In my case he lost most of his health to a giant Chuchu when I wasn't paying attention... But with Mipha this shouldn't be much of a problem.

The most annoying part are probably the "???" Memory Quests, where the game doesn't tell you what to do. In some cases it's easy enough to figure this out, but in others I have absolutely no clue. I feel like I have to look this up on the internet, unless I want to replay these scenarios over and over again in the hopes that I find the answer myself...

Poor Sooga

The biggest mystery right now for me is who the final playable character is going to be. I always thought that it would be Sooga, because he made the most sense to me. But after "EX The Yiga's Clan Retreat" I'm not so sure anymore...

However, it technically makes sense that he wasn't made playable at this point. It's supposed to be a memory and we already knew that he effectively sacrificed himself for Master Kohga, who arrives at Zelda's army alone. But we also know that he is alive and well in the Terrako credits... So, let's see. The memory of how he arrived at the Yiga Clan as a small boy was pretty awesome, however. They really managed to make you feel emotional about these crazy villains and this would have been the perfect opportunity to add Sooga as a playable character, which is why I'm bummed about this.

It was also strange how the only new Challenge in the beginning made you collect Monster Extracts... For a moment there I was worried that the final character was going to be Kilton. But let's leave it at that. The fact that Tulin also made it back in time also opens up the possibility for more time travelers, e.g. Kass.

Still, I'm not a fan of Teba, in any way or form. He's alright as a character personality-wise, but it's all so boring. I would much preferred to have a Rito lady as the descendant, one who doesn't have a high opinion of Revali, where their personalities clash a bit. A character like him shouldn't get a whole fan club...