This week the version 1.0.3 update for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was released, so it was time to briefly return to the game for the latest addition of Challenges, the new Phantom Ganon appearances, and some weapon building.
Difficulty: Very Hard
Scenarios: 24
Challenges: 167
Quests: 406
Map Completion: 100% (Again)
Maybe you feel the same way, maybe you don't, but I sometimes struggle to return to a game for more content, after I already had 100% completed it. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a fantastic example of this. As much as I had enjoyed its Booster Course Pass, each update shifted the milestone for getting three stars in every cup once more.
And in case of Age of Imprisonment it was the Vicious Battle at South Hyrule Field that has completely broken my spirit. I was not looking forward to any new Challenges after this one, and once you've started the game after the update, you will be greeted by two new Vicious Battles right away... And only those. Yay...?
But these were the basic battles for the Vicious Lizalfos and Chuchu, where those are generally quite fun. When they start throwing multiple different vicious monster at you, that's where things become unreactable and unfair, but there aren't any more Challenges like this, luckily...
Instead, they have saved such shenanigans for the new Phantom Ganon Appearances. Those are the evolution of the Blood Moon battles from Age of Calamity, which needed to happen, since you fight under a Blood Moon like 50% of the time. The basics are the same, however, so they will appear randomly on the main story scenarios and will raise their recommended level by a lot, so it's worthwhile to replay them later in the game under these conditions.
But there is now a stronger incentive than just the raised levels, because these missions will reward you with lots of pure Zonaite Steel. We're talking like eight pieces, instead of the usual single one that you can get from the DLC Challenges. However, you will have to fight for these.
The main idea of this "Phantom Mode" is that a Gloom Spawn will potentially appear and chase you down. This gets triggered by defeating powerful foes, where a bigger Bokoblin defending an outpost already qualifies as such. Whenever you can target it, then it's considered "powerful". Though, there is only a chance that the Gloom Spawn will appear, so it won't happen every time, but often enough. Maybe the probability even depends on the type of enemy. The stronger it is, the more likely its defeat will make Papa Phantomdorf come out his den.
And the idea is truly cool. One of the most memorable moments in Tears of the Kingdom is when you run into your first Gloom Spawn – just the sheer panic of it! And that Ganondorf hasn't used these in Age of Imprisonment to constantly hunt down his opposition almost felt like a plothole, but at least this mode is now making up for it. This is what should have happened during the battles!
As a result, things can get a bit chaotic, however. Unlike in Tears, you won't be able to ignore the Gloom Spawn or run away from it. Phantom Ganon even teleports right to you when you switch between characters, so you will be constantly harassed, always meddling when you're supposed to fight other enemies.
But there is a small strategic element to it. You may want to ignore any powerful foe, unless it's strictly necessary to defeat them for your current goal. And from my experience there will only be ever one extra Phantom Ganon at a time, so it's not getting completely maddening. So, once the Gloom Spawn has spawned, you may want to wait with defeating it until you have cleared some other powerful foes in the way, or else you might risk that it respawns right away. On the other hand, it seems like a lot of the pure Zonaite Steel is actually dropped from the Gloom Spawns, so you might want to fight them as often as possible.
In addition, most enemies will have turned into their gloom variants, while some even become vicious. This is where things can get really tricky, depending on the scenario, because you may have to face similar horrors as in the previous update.
One example I came across was "Terror of the Sands", where the two Moblins and the Boss Bokoblin at the end all got turned into vicious monsters. Since you can separate them, it's technically not so bad, but you also have to defend an outpost and some random Gerudo warrior in it, who will instantly die the second you disengage, resulting in a Game Over...
Luckily, you don't actually have to play any of these Phantom Ganon Appearances for the game's completion rate, unless you care about getting perfect Rupee scores on each difficulty, since these will be higher. But otherwise they are mainly for the better loot, so you can pick your poison. Other examples that I have played, like "Striking North" and "Crisis on Death Mountain", were perfectly manageable.
And if you want to have a good time, then this is where the rest of the new Challenges come in, much to my surprise. Clearing the two new Vicious Battles won't unlock even worse Vicious Battles this time, but instead you get a series of five Challenges focused on different pairs of the ten recruits. Since they get a lot of their remaining Quests in the post-game, this is even a good fit.
These Challenges all have "Warriors" in their title, like the game itself, making them appear like meaningful conclusions to their arcs: Wandering, Indignant, Steadfast, Rival and Headstrong Warriors. But these are completely carefree stories told between the characters.
Typhan and Quino, for example, are setting up camps at Damel Forest. That's actually quite unique, because you're normally unable to use camps during Challenges, only in the big battles. You can even use your tickets, though you won't be able to earn any. And completing this Challenge will unlock additional supplies to all shops.
Sholani and Ronza have a little rivalry going on, where Ardi has to teach them a lesson about teamwork at the end. By the way, out of the different sages, Ardi is the one you will fight the most often throughout the game...
And there is a race between Vence and Pastos to the "top" of Death Mountain, which is hilarious, because Pastos keeps using rockets to propel him forward. I was not at all prepared for that.
If you're looking for something more epic, then a "Fateful Clash with the Forbidden" is for you. This is similar to the battle against Rauru from the previous update, where this is how you can unlock the Forbidden Blade, a weapon that's equally powerful to the Longsword of Light.
It's the only Challenge on level 90 and there is a bit of a gap here. The new Vicious Battles are on 83 and the five Warriors Challenges on 85. So, there is nothing between 86 and 89, except maybe some of the Phantom Ganon Appearances, which can even go above 90.
Anyway, this is a tough 2on1 battle. I first thought that this is just an alternative for fighting the Forbidden Construct from the finale, where it quickly switches into the second phase after around 10% of damage, but it felt much deadlier and there were some new moves that I don't recall. Which would actually make this a fourth variant of the same boss... It was quite fierce and I can't wait to do it again on Forbidden. (I'm lying, I actually can and will wait for a bit.)
And this brings us to the last point: the new difficulty mode. I have still played the new Challenges and the Phantom Ganon intermissions on "Very Hard", because I had stayed on that level for the entirety of the game, but going forward you can also play everything again in the Forbidden difficulty.
Unlike the Apocalyptic difficulty from Age of Calamity, there are actually some incentives to do so. It now marks every battle (whether that's from a chapter or a Challenge) that you have completed in the Forbidden difficulty in a gloomy pink font color and with a crossed sword icon. In addition, completing a number of battles on Forbidden will grant you additional rewards, which even increases your total of rations and batteries beyond what's possible with the normal Quests. So, you really want to do this for true 100%.
Of course, there is an argument to be made that you don't truly have completed Age of Calamity either, unless you have beaten all battles on Apocalyptic as well. But since all it did was adding records for that difficulty in a submenu, where it's not even easy to identify what still needs to be cleared, I have yet to bother with this. Maybe I'll do it one day if they release a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, where they could implement the same change (I've added it to the list of things in my proposal), because the modified checkmark alone already makes a huge psychological difference to me.
Now, Age of Imprisonment could very well become the first Hyrule Warriors game where I go for "true completion", where I will have done absolutely everything. My characters are all around level 90, so bringing them to the max level isn't some faraway goal. And thanks to the increased number of pure Zonaite Steel that you are getting from the latest update, I also made good progress with enhancing weapons. It's a lot more feasible to do so now.
This will also go hand in hand with the Forbidden difficulty, because the enemies become such gigantic bullet sponges that you want to cause as much damage as possible. You won't easily reach any damage caps in this mode, so enhancing your weapons and leveling your fighters will actually make a difference, unlike before.
However, there is another change that I have yet to mention... The Forbidden difficulty takes away checkpoints, so when you use the "Retry" option, it will always restart the battle. That's not cool and just some artificial way of increasing the difficulty by punishing you harder. And I say that as someone who has fully completed Silksong, but there the game was always giving you other options. If you fail at the boss after a long scenario, however, it will be super frustrating having to repeat the entire scenario just to get a second chance.
Still, the Forbidden difficulty will be my next goal, so I'm not done with the game just yet, far from it. I want to play Mario Kart World over the holidays, so I won't start this endeavor right away, but it's looking good for the early next year.
Before I leave, there are some random remarks about the update. I was previously hoping for a battle, which uses the full extent of Damel Forest, similar to the "Struggle for Ash Swamp". And while there were two new Challenges set on this stage, neither of them explores it fully. It could be that they are keeping this for a story scenario in future DLC, but I'm not really expecting it at the moment...
Oh, and they have added a general annoyance to this game with the latest update. Whenever you have maxed out one of the trophies for defeating enemies, you will now get a warning at the end of each battle:
"You left behind any materials you couldn't carry."
And the only way to spend these trophies is in the Weapon Research Facility, where they are required for special services, like removing weapon seals. You can't sell them at shops, so you will potentially keep getting these warnings, because you will quickly max out the trophies for Bokoblins and alike, no matter how much you spend on weapons.
It's odd that Koei Tecmo felt the need to implement this, almost as if it was some weird legal requirement to tell you... But this is just a small complaint and I'm sure that I will enjoy the upcoming grind for the most part.
Overall, I think that these two update have done a good job of expanding the post-game, to make you play a while longer, which was the main goal here according to Koei Tecmo. Of course, the post-game of Age of Calamity added new playable characters and moved the story a little beyond the final battle, so it's still lackluster in comparison. And having Sonia playable somehow would have been amazing, where this is still leaving a big gap. But they have addresses many other omissions and added some nice new things. (Except for the Vicious Battle at South Hyrule Field, which made the game objectively worse. I hate that one so much.)
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