In less than five days Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will launch and we know very little so far. It's a very different situation from Age of Calamity, where we knew the full roster weeks in advance, due to data-mines from the playable demo. It's probably the reason why we didn't get a demo this time, at least not one in advance...
I also haven't seen any leaks yet from early copies, so the only thing that might give us more information are reviews, which probably are under an embargo until Tuesday. At that point you might as well just wait and see for yourself. And I personally prefer to go into games with as little knowledge as possible to not ruin potential surprises, like what characters might be playable in addition to the ones we know of.
Anyway, I wanted to use this situation of knowing little to sort my thoughts about what I'd like to see from the game, one last time before we find everything out. Major spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom ahead!
First of all, there were three main issues that people had with the predecessor, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, where I hope that this game will address all of them:- The frame rate
- Time travel cheating you out of the actual events
- No playable villain campaign
The first goes without saying. Age of Imprisonment started development on the Switch, but I still had to buy a Switch 2 for it. If this isn't giving me smooth 60FPS, then I will riot...
As for the second point, they have emphasized several times that this will be a "canonical tale" and I'm taking their word for it. I don't even believe anymore that we'll see anyone from the future in some epilogue or whatever. This game will really just focus on the Imprisoning War with no further shenanigans.
What makes this clear to me is the Mysterious Construct, who is seemingly meant to be this game's version of Link, where it might house the spirit of a hero from long ago. Since they used Fi's theme to introduce him, I suppose it might be the Hero of the Sky. It's also a good fit with the whole Zonai coming from the sky and stuff. In any case, I think this Construct Hero is very exciting and thanks to it I wouldn't be missing the Link from the future.
Sidon, Riju and Yunobo also were all playable in Age of Calamity, so there is no huge need to bring them back for this game. This will suck for Tulin, though, but at least he's making it into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. And because they are now using the same old Champion weapons, I think the future sages would create too much overlap with the masked sages from the Imprisoning war – Raphica, Agraston, Qia, and Ardi.
About those, I fully expect to see each of them without their masks in the early game, not just Ardi. And once you've beaten the game, there should be the option to freely choose their appearance, like you could in Age of Calamity with the Champions.
It's still odd that we have yet to see the other three. Maybe Nintendo wanted to keep their faces as something for the players to discover and used Ardi as proof that you will be able to see them without their masks...? It's also possible that they will do more marketing after the game's launch. With Age of Calamity, they hadn't revealed Master Kohga as a playable character until much later, so maybe they will show the other sages without masks once the early players had the chance to discover them for themselves.
As for other playable characters, it's hard to say... There seem to be units that can be played temporarily, like only during certain missions. Sonia might even be one of them. And I expect there to be some optional characters, which you can unlock on the sidelines, like the Great Fairies in Age of Calamity. Maybe they will even return as much younger (and more attractive) versions.
I'd also love for this game to have an ancestor of Beedle. He became one of the most recognizable recurring characters in the Zelda franchise, but has yet to be playable in a Hyrule Warriors game. They'd have a lot more freedom here, since we haven't actually seen a version of him during the Imprisoning War and he could be very different, but this might be what Koei Tecmo needs to make it happen.
It would also be interesting to see the three dragons, Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh. Well, it could be that these are some of the other sages, who are also swallowing their Secret Stones in order to protect Zelda at the end. Or maybe these dragons have already existed at the time and we might learn more about them. Maybe these will even be playable, in a similar fashion to the Divine Beasts. That could be a lot of fun and dragons have always been an important motif for Tears of the Kingdom. They are in the logo, after all...
Ideally, the game will also explain the Ancient Hero's Aspect. I don't expect that particular hero to be playable or even to be shown in the game, because that's the one from the first battle against Calamity Ganon, which takes place long after the Imprisoning War. But maybe this game can give an explanation as for how that hero is a Zonai. Rauru and Sonia must have left a child and in the very least this should be mentioned. Or maybe Mineru had a lover as well...
Zelda, Rauru, Mineru, Raphica, Agraston, Qia, Ardi, Calamo and the Mysterious Construct – we have nine confirmed playable characters so far. Maybe Sonia will join the permanent roster somehow (I doubt it), and maybe there will be some optional characters. But no matter what they will do here, this guy needs to be playable:
Ganondorf. And not just as some weird bonus character at the end of the game – there has to be a full villain campaign, like there was in the first Hyrule Warriors. This NEEDS to happen. It was already disappointing how there wasn't anything like it in Age of Calamity, save for one or two side missions, but that game had the excuse that the main evil was literally a calamity and not an interesting person. (Though, they had introduced Astor for that reason, I suppose.)
But that's not the case here. It's one of the coolest iterations of Ganondorf so far and as a fan you want to experience his side of the Imprisoning War as well. And that could add a number of additional playable characters, like Koume and Kotake, the Scourges (who have a much smaller size here), and of course Phantom Ganon, where you can turn into a Gloom Spawn. It's also THE best chance for a playable Lynel, with some unique Lynel commander...
If that's not already in the main game, then I'll keep asking for this to become DLC. But they should have more than enough room left in the main game and maybe it's part of the surprises that they really, really want the players to find out themselves.
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