Expansion Pass Progress
- Difficulty: Very Hard
- EX Battles: 8 (4 Completed)
- EX Research Quests: 35 / 35
- EX Quests: 60
- EX Challenges: 24
For a moment there I was almost having fun with the game, but thank Din that Koei Tecmo knows how to keep you frustrated on the hardest difficulties. And you also should be careful what you wish for. Yesterday I was complaining that the new stages don't really seem to get used outside of the new scenarios, but there is a small selection of new Challenges, where some of them even use the new stages.
And more Challenges is really the last thing this game needed, at least not more of the same old time-limited multi-boss-battle nonsense that was already plaguing the main game to no end... This DLC really wasn't aimed at people who are just looking for some carefree content additions, it's all endgame stuff.
Anyway, I'm finished with the playing through all the new memory scenarios, which unlocks Robbie & Purah, and I'm also done with the all the new Challenges, which all get unlocked at that point as well.
I haven't unlocked the second new character, however, where my best guess is that this is tied to doing all the "Memory Quests". And here I'm at a loss, because I simply didn't get what some of the "???" conditions want me to do. Now, I could look this up on the internet, but this would risk me of learning about the final character prematurely – and I don't want that. So, I'll have to keep playing the new scenarios and figure it out eventually...
But it's kind of like the hard Gold Skulltula conditions in Legend Mode of the first Hyrule Warriors, only worse, because you don't get any clue at all. You have to do something special and that's all you get to know. Well, in some missions it seems pretty obvious what you have to do with what's going on on the battlefields, but in others it's really not...
Roads
"The Princess and the King" was a very unique and beautiful scenario, which takes place at Lanayru Road. The environment is absolutely gorgeous and it's amazing to see how the whole place looked before it all grumbled down.
It's also interesting to have a battlefield that's essentially split in two, where you have to switch between characters to do things in the respective areas. This was already done on a smaller scale in the Kakariko Village scenario, but here it's on a whole other level and also gets used in an interesting way for the story.
It appears like these two fights are not actually happening at the same time, because Urbosa shows up at the end to save King Rhoam, while for Link and Zelda she should be still trapped inside her Divine Beast. It's either that or it took King Rhoam's group a very long time to get from the Cliffs of Quince to the Great Plateau for some reason. During the scenario there is only really one point that suggests that the fights are happening simultaneously, however, so both explanations are possible.
After this battle there is one last, named after the second DLC, which loops back to the first EX scenario and also reuses the Mount Daphnes / Coliseum stage for this. I personally think that this one wasn't really necessary, where the first scenario would have been enough to tell about Terrako's heroics. It's also hard to pinpoint when this event actually takes place.
And while the fact that they actually came up with a new boss for this is pretty awesome, it felt equally unnecessary and uninspired. The boss is way over-the-top and also doesn't make much sense within the storyline of the game. But I suppose they needed a somewhat meaningful finale for their DLC missions.
Even More Challenges
Once you're done with the new scenario, it actually gives you some new Challenges. Not many, but enough to want you to be done with them forever. Well, yes, it's called "Challenges" for a reason and the "Very Hard" difficulty is supposed to be very hard, so I shouldn't be whining here, but it feels like it would physically hurt every employee at Koei Tecmo to implement something fun for a change, instead of the usual stuff that we already had to endure a hundred times in this game.
Well, to be fair, it's not all bad. There is an interesting challenge at Lanayru Road, called "EX A Moblin Feast", where you go against all the different types of Moblins one after another, now that there are actually like ten of them... And the training mission for Purah and Robbie is a lot of fun, but this is thanks to them.
It's also nice that Coliseum finally gets actually used for two more Challenges at the Coliseum, instead of the Sheikah Shrine, "EX Coliseum: Master" and "EX Utmost Strength". This place really should have been in the main game since the beginning, but it's nice that it's finally here. The new Challenges couldn't exist without some "fight two bosses at once" shenanigans, however, where the former has two Malice Lynels and the latter partially makes you fight Windblight and Fireblight Ganon at the same time. But I'm surprised it wasn't all the Blights at once in these closed quarters...
If you want something different for a change, then "EX Evacuating Hyrule" has a you covered, where you have to protect fleeing forces as Link, Zelda and Impa. This can be equally infuriating, however, because the way this game works is that NPCs don't take any damage (or only very little) when the player is in their proximity. But here you have three NPCs in three different places, which constantly get swarmed by dangerous foes, and when you're not next to them they lose all their health very quickly. And you can't protect them all at the same time, of course. At the end they were all almost dead for me, but I was lucky enough to make it anyway...
"The Final Battle" was a lie and the game actually added one more Challenge going even further with the recommend level. It takes place on the Hyrule Field part of the Hyrule Castle Town stage and wants you to defeat all types of Malice enemies within a time limit, before facing the new boss at the Lon Lon Ranch (which looked totally awesome). And I really had to make a plan for this one, because even with my four Level 100 fighters and Lv. 30+ weapons the time limit was rather strict... Well, I could have used the last months to grind for Lv. 50 weapons if it wasn't so boring.
But my plan was very simple. At the beginning you go over Hyrule Field with everyone of your characters and plow through the many Silver Bokoblins to fill your Special Meters. When you're done with one of the characters you send them to the targets at the outer areas and then switch to the next. The last character then can take care of the Malice Guardian at the center and then you simply have to switch from character to character to quickly kill al the major enemies and bosses. The Special Attacks will help a lot with the interfering enemies, but you can also utilize rods quite nicely in this mission.
The Purah & Robbie Show
Well, you have to say it, Purah and Robbie are really the stars of the entire Expanion Pass. They run the Royal Ancient Lab in the "Pulse of the Ancients" pack and come up with new weapons for the heroes while doing so. And now they narrate the "Guardian of Remembrance" story, while also finally becoming playable at the end...
But they are simply another bonus character, where they get two Challenges (including their training) and that's really it. It feels like yet another missed opportunity that they didn't get a story scenario of their own, where they can't rely on the heroes and have to find their own way of battling foes, or something like that. They just decide to enter the fight at what's basically the end of the game, where everything is already said and done. And this doesn't feel all that satisfying...
Their moveset is pretty entertaining, though. The weapon type is called "Sheikah Arms" and Robbie even has installed his Ancient Blade Saws for the third tier, which looks so cool. The ZR ability, which summons different devices based on the Divine Beasts, is also quite powerful. You can easily bombard a Stone Talus with the Vah Medoh power for example. It adds a random component to their moveset, but you always see what you get next, so it's not too bad.
The dynamic of these two characters working together like that is also quite hilarious. For the finishing move Purah teleports Robbie up like two meters, just so he can jump slash the enemy afterwards... You would think that there is an easier way to do this, but it certainly looks cool.
Overall I'm very happy with this character addition, despite the fact that I might not be playing them as much at this point. But they are fun and quirky. Well, let's see who the final character is going to be... I hope it's not a disappointment. (Please be Sooga.)
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