Age of Calamity + Definitive Edition = Game Key Card

Nintendo has opened their pre-orders today for the Definitive Edition of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. And it's indeed going to be a Game Key Card, the first in connection to Zelda, making this as unattractive as it could possibly be.

This whole Definitive Edition thing feels like a pure scam. It is technically just one of those Nintendo Switch 2 Editions you keep seeing, like it was done for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Normally, you can either upgrade your existing game for a small fee, or buy it all anew as a physical release (with all of it on the card).

For some reason they didn't want to offer this for Age of Calamity. Instead, you will have to buy the whole game again. Sure, there is a 50% discount for those who already own the Nintendo Switch version, where even your physical copy can be registered for it. But this discount doesn't take into consideration whether you have already purchased the DLC or not. You will have to pay 30 bucks either way, which is unfair. And that's three times as much as you normally have to pay for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade.

Plus, with how little this upgrade is offering, it really should be just five bucks. All it has – in addition to the performance and resolution boost – is more monsters on screen (which were there before, but couldn't get rendered at the same time), and a new difficulty mode absolutely nobody asked for.

Well, the pricing of the upgrade wouldn't really have mattered for me personally, because I was going for the physical edition anyway. I like to have as much on cartridge as I possibly can. But now it turns out that I can't have any of it on card. In fact, when upgrading to the Definitive Edition, I will have to get the whole game digitally now, whether I like it or not.

Game Key Cards are a Nintendo Switch 2-specific topic that I have yet to discuss, mainly because it didn't affect me so far. In general, I think they can be a good compromise for games that are simply too large to put them on a card. If you want the option to easily lend your games to friends, or to resell them, or if you still want something haptical for your collection, then the Game Key Cards will be better than nothing at all.

However, otherwise they are basically the worst of both worlds. The games will take up space on your Nintendo Switch 2 system, forcing you to eventually buy a large Express MicroSD card, but you still lack the convenience of going digital-only, because you will have to change cartridges whenever you swap between games.

So, in the end it won't make much sense for me to buy the physical release, but I'd love to have it all on card. It wasn't an issue for Age of Imprisonment, so what has changed here? It can't possibly be larger than its much prettier sequel. It's really just to reduce production costs and increase margins.

Of course, Koei Tecmo is known to be one of the greediest and scummiest publishers in the history of video game publishers. Their collection of DLC for Dead or Alive 6 costs more than the entire Zelda series combined. And it's not even close. I love the Hyrule Warriors games, but Koei Tecmo can be awful and very anti-consumer.

Up until now this got contained by Nintendo, who has done the publishing of Hyrule Warriors in the west. But it looks like they had to strike a shitty deal to make this upgrade happen, which is the only explanation for this "Definitive Edition" nonsense and them using Game Key Cards, even though the game shouldn't be as big in size. As much as I love Hyrule Warriors and want the series to be a success, I very much hope that this release will get a ton of backlash and sale like stale onions. They need to learn.

It's a real shame, because this upgrade for Age of Calamity is something I really, really wanted and where I was looking forward to returning to the game. And now this has completely killed my excitement from yesterday.

Age of Calamity – Definitive Edition Announced

After the launch of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, there was the question of what Koei Tecmo will work on next. And one of my suggestions was a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for the predecessor, Age of Calamity. If there's one game that absolutely needs the upgrade, then it's this one, because it heavily suffered from bad performance on the Nintendo Switch. Getting it to run in smooth 60FPS will be a selling point alone.

Well, and here we are. It's going to happen, on February 25th 2027. But it's not a "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition", where you can just upgrade your existing game. You'll have to buy the whole game again and transfer your save data.

At least the Definitive Edition will include the two DLC packs, Pulse of the Ancients and Guardian of Remembrance. All of this on one card is going to be a sweat deal. In fact, it's the one gripe I have with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Breath of the Wild, because that one doesn't come with the DLC for whatever reason. It lacks the complete package and in times of "digital only" as the future it's nice to still get some complete packages on the card.

Sadly, it doesn't look like there are going to be any meaningful additions. Why are they adding a "Calamity Mode" when the "Apocalyptic Mode" was already part of the DLC and atrocious enough? Well, I suppose it behaves similarly to the Forbidden Mode in Age of Imprisonment, where you have additional checkmarks and rewards for it. And this will give the hardcore players an incentive to blast through the entire game again, even when they have completed everything already.

But why not change the enemy tiers in this mode and add the golden monsters from The Master Trials? This would have been much more interesting than just more bullet sponges. And this would be the chance to do some cool stuff, like offering Astor as a playable character, or give Zelda her blue dress.

Well, maybe they will announce some more things later on, but I doubt it. I do wonder, though, if we're finally getting that Lucky Ladle after all those years? It won't be the Definitive Edition without it.

Update: there are some reports that this is going to be a Game Key Card in Europe and Japan. That makes no sense to me, because Age of Imprisonment didn't need one and Age of Calamity is currently about a fourth of the size. The update can't be that big. But if this is true, then this will be a total bummer.