Age of Calamity War Log, Entry 1

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity got released to the world just yesterday and I'm in the middle of Chapter 2, after unlocking Urbosa and Mipha, where I now want to share some of my thoughts so far and what's taking me so long. If you haven't already, check out my demo impressions from last month, where I've already talked about some general things, which I'm probably not going to repeat in this journal.

Generally, it was a good idea to get a Nintendo Switch one week in advance, so I could prepare a little bit for this game. I've played through the demo once more, so I could get a little head start, and I've started a new save game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so I would qualify for the Training Sword bonus. But I also did this to check out the game again, where in addition I've played the first four scenarios in Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. Just to get a feel for these two games again and how they compare to Age of Calamity.

But maybe I shouldn't have, because the first Hyrule Warriors runs smoothly in 60FPS on the Nintendo Switch and makes it really tough to go back to its successor. It doesn't look as great as Age of Calamity, for sure, but I personally would have sacrificed some of the details in the environments for a more stable frame rate.

However, what Age of Calamity already does better is not spamming you with tutorials that interrupt your game. I completely forgot how awful the first missions in Hyrule Warriors can be, if you play them for the first time, because it constantly takes you out of the action. "Hey, listen! Did you know that you can blow up rocks with bombs? Hey! Did you know that you can cut grass! Listen! Listen! Hey!"

I also went back to Breath of the Wild on the Wii U, to my 100% save games, mainly because I wanted to check out Hyrule Field and Breach of the Demise to see how they compare. And again, I probably shouldn't have done this, because the differences are larger than you'd expect. The battlefields get the general idea right and look just as you might remember these places, but the scale and the distances are quite off. Take the Sacred Grounds for example, where this place looks quite small in Age of Calamity for some reason. And the Central Hyrule Tower should be further away.

And that's not even counting all the artificial borders that aren't there 100 years later, where this is quite obvious around the Breach of Demise, which will be quite the open area. No detours to the Royal Ancient Tech Lab required. (By the way, that's not Hateno, Nintendo Treehouse.) Of course the changes in the environments could technically all be explained by the devastation and the one hundred years that have passed, but it's still off.

It almost makes me wish that there was a proper prequel to Breath of the Wild, using the same engine and world, but with the buildings and everything in tact. Age of Calamity will only give you a rough idea, but it's altering all these areas heavily just to wall you off. But since Dynasty Warriors 9 showed how "good" Koei Tecmo is in making open worlds, it's probably for the best that they just stuck to their trade and did what they are good at... So, I'm not really complaining, but still.

Anyway, after playing the beginning of Breath of the Wild again, where both the Stone Talus and a Blue Bokoblin showed me that it's been a while since I've played this game, I was inspired to dare something with Age of Calamity. When I started the demo I've selected "Very Hard" and went with it so far. I really want to try to complete and beat the entire game on this difficulty level, where at the end I don't want a single record on "Hard", "Normal" and certainly not "Easy" in any of the battle details.

It's actually the complete opposite of what I've been doing with the first Hyrule Warriors. Because Legend Mode tracks completing every scenario on every difficulty with little, green checkmarks, treating it like an accomplishment, I've always started on "Easy" and then played the higher difficulties for grinding, the Hard Mode Skulltulas and the Medals.

But in the first Hyrule Warriors I also didn't mind breezing through the levels. The lack of difficulty didn't really concern me, where I've always enjoyed plowing through the enemies like some unstoppable force. It is what simply made a "Musou" for me. In fact I hated to play the harder difficulties too early, because everything just seemed needlessly tanky and hit you like a truck. It wasn't much fun to play until you were leveled up properly.

However, the "Very Hard" difficulty in Age of Calamity seems to be scaled quite nicely. It makes the game feel more like it should feel. Blue Bokoblins can be a threat early on and don't die so easily, while larger enemies can potentially kill you in a single hit, exactly like they could in Breath of the Wild. Well, here it's two hits, actually, because like in the first Hyrule Warriors you will always fall back to a quarter heart and only then die.

Unlike the first Hyrule Warriors, however, you won't find hearts in the grass everywhere and the apples (and rods) aren't replenished before every battle, which annoys me quite a bit, because I often have to play the first mission the Remote Bomb Challenge over again just to get my health back. Hopefully there will be a store or something similar later in the game where you can refill all this stuff, because right now you can't and it's a very bad idea to start any scenario or challenge with nothing at your disposal.

But this is also what makes playing on "Very Hard" so much more interesting. Every single apple counts, because you need to heal. Using the elemental rods can help tremendously with stronger foes, while I've completely ignored these weapons at the "Normal" difficulty. Also, every level up means something and every new Heart Container counts. And I actually pay attention to how I fuse weapons for matching seals, though abilities like "5% damage increase" are laughable at best. 5% of very little is really nothing.

Well, but it makes the grinding between the main scenarios worthwhile and the "Challenges" really now can be called as such. Completing them actually feels like an accomplishment and not like a chore, where you just beat of bunch of enemies with little to no resistance.

Now, for my course of recruiting the Champions, I'm going with the exact same order as when I first played Breath of the Wild:

1. Urbosa
2. Mipha
3. Revali
4. Daruk

So, I obviously didn't learn from my mistakes in the past and I went to the desert first... But it was certainly worth it for Urbosa, who's a real queen in this game and a lot of fun to play. I really enjoy covering everything with lightnings on combos.

The mission was a tough nut to crack on "Very Hard", however, so it took me quite a while after some back and forth. Well, I haven't leveled Link and the others back to 20 yet and Urbosa starts at 5 (or was it 6?), but I don't think it would have made a major difference. And it did make me learn the enemy patterns quickly, because the best way to deal with major enemies is with care and patience.

However, the mission presented two difficulties... One was the aforementioned scaling of the maps, where Gerudo Town got somewhat more narrow than it used to be, especially the northern alley, where you can go up the stairs to some bar. And Koei Tecmo thought it was a good idea to let you fight a Yiga Blademaster in these close quarters... Well, it was not.

The camera can really get in the way, where you might not see what your enemy is doing, because there is a wall blocking your view. It's even more unfortunate when the Yiga Blademaster can shoot his sword beams right through said wall. That's not fun, I can tell you.

And then there was the boss at the end of the mission... You all know who. Well, no, not Thunderblight Ganon, thank goodness. I'm talking about the top banana!

Overall the fights against tougher foes on "Very Hard" aren't as bad. Well, you have to be careful not to get hit, because every hit costs you multiple hearts. And this usually has you react to the enemy, instead of attacking by your own, where Koei Tecmo now made a big deal out of the item weakness system from the first Hyrule Warriors. Except that now it's, "Use the right Rune!"

Reacting to enemy attacks with the Runes feels more like quick time events, really, and I'm not a big fan. It's better and way more flashy than in the first game, but there also seems to be a stronger reliance on this. Mindlessly slashing at the enemies will always get punished hard, so in the end it plays out more like the big bosses in Hyrule Warriors, where you run around them and wait for them to do the one attack, which lets you expose their weak point gauge.

Of course it's not as bad here, since there are other options as well, where you can always dodge most of their attacks and strike afterwards. Maybe even land the occasional Flurry Rush, though to me this is a lot harder to do here than it was in Breath of the Wild. There are foods and weapon abilities to increase the timing window, but still...

But it's doable. You can beat those Yiga Blademasters on Very Hard with Urbosa right away. The real problem is when you have to face two aggressive foes at once, may that be two Moblins or two Gerudo Captains... Or the boss of Urbosa's scenario, who is easy enough first, but then plays some duplication trickery on you. In addition, he then starts using completely new attacks, which can easily multi-hit you for some very cheap deaths. If you focus on one of the two enemies, the other will always take the chance and attack you from behind or from the side or really from anywhere where you don't see it. And then it's quickly "Game Over".

I was so annoyed by this that I thought about giving up and changing the difficulty down to "Hard". However, when I did this, everything felt so mindlessly easy again that it wasn't much fun. Thing is that so far the enemies had just right amount of health. They don't always die on your first weakpoint attack and they stand a fight. You have to be careful not to get hit and you have to be mindful about your resources. And this made the game so much more interesting that I wasn't going change the difficulty. Very hard it is. Well, at least for now...

It's kind of ironic how the easiest boss in Breath of the Wild became one of the toughest challenges so far in the game. Of course it's still early and it's even implied that he is the good-for-nothing we all knew. And of course it's also still a learning process for myself here...

Well, what I've learned is that fighting multiple stronger enemies at once is really where the elemental rods come in. Fire Rod, Ice Rod and Lightning Rod can target a larger area, which lets you hurt and stun multiple enemies all at the same time, so that one can't stab you in the back, while you deal with the other. Also, Stasis can be very helpful with this as well. And after figuring this out, I finally stood in triumph, welcoming the magnificent Urbosa to my team...

(Oh, did you know this game is copyrighted by Nintendo and Koei Tecmo and licensed by Nintendo? I sure didn't, thanks for the insightful info, Nintendo Switch screenshot...! Okay, I probably won't be sharing many screenshots about this game due to this. Complain to Koei Tecmo about it.)

The scenario overall was great, though. It looks great, it had some fun twists and the music was absolutely awesome. Like the quest for Vah Naboris in Breath of the Wild, this really set the bar high.

After the Gerudo Queen, the Zora Princess followed. And she literally followed, because during the mission it seemed like she was stalking Link, whenever you weren't playing as her yourself. "I'm here, Link! Notice me, Link! What are doing, Link? Looking for Koroks? That's so like you right now, you truly haven't changed!"

Doing some of Urbosa's side quests actually helped with the scenario here, because it unlocked a recipe that reduces lightning damage by 50%. And that was quite the life saver, since all the Electric Lizalfos really enjoyed acting like a power generator all around you.

The mission also had a first Lynel as a boss at the end, where I ran out of apples and all my rods to beat the thing. But it was super satisfying, similar to slaying your first Lynel in Breath of the Wild. Of course I hope that things will get easier later on, where it would be annoying if the difficulty kept increasing in a way where it negates all your progress. But it's good that the tougher enemies aren't complete pushovers in this game. They might even be more dangerous than what they used to be in Breath of the Wild, especially the Moblins.

Vah Ruta was even at danger at being destroyed by some explosive barrels and Lynels, which feels like a joke. Nothing in the world of Breath of the Wild should be able to put a dent into the Divine Beasts, but here you have to use a shield to keep it from being destroyed. Well, it was fun to blast the enemies away and despite the "Very Hard" difficulty it was still easy enough, where I'm looking forward to more of this action. It's certainly no "Ganon's Fury", that's for sure. And that's great.

Anyway, Mipha has joined my party and her ability to heal herself and others around her with her Special Attack will certainly be very useful going forward... She's also fun to play, but so are Urbosa and the others, where I haven't really decided on my favorite yet.

Curiously, the one character I liked playing the least in the demo, Princess Zelda, has grown on me quite a bit. The nice thing about her is that lets you use the power of the runes at any time with her normal and strong attacks, which works well with Cryonis and bombs. Especially the big bomb is super useful and you can detonate it with ZR when it rolls into enemy groups. I find that combo also quite good against weak point gauges and I'm eager to try her full moveset, once unlocked.

But overall, playing as Zelda feels remarkably safe, which is a good thing when playing on the hardest difficulty. The best thing here is the Bomb Rune, where nothing can hit here while you control the thing. And it also depletes weak points quickly.

So, go try some Zelda, if you haven't already...!

Got Age of Calamity

It is time! I just got Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for my brandnew Nintendo Switch and as you can see, I got it twice... That's actually two different copies, the one on the left is the German version and the one to the right the UK version.

Other than the disgustingly huge USK age rating logo, there is another interesting difference between the two. The German title is actually in German, where the game is called "Zeit der Verheerung". And this quite weird, because Nintendo Deutschland rarely ever translates the game titles into German. They usually go with the English one, probably because it sounds much cooler and puns like "A Link Between Worlds" simply don't work when you translate them.

But after 34 years they've finally decided to translate a Zelda-related game title into German, or at least half of it, and this didn't feel right to me. I think they did this because most casual fans in Germany might not be familiar with the word "Calamity", because it's a word that you rarely ever hear, and they wanted to make sure that there is no confusion what this game is all about.

Anyway, because I wanted the English version for my collection, I've got the game from an import retailer of my trust. But for a moment there it looked like I wouldn't be getting the game in time today, where according to the tracking it wasn't even shipped yet. And since I have more money than patience when it comes to new Zelda games and I took the day off for this, I put on my Yiga facemask, drove into the city and got a copy from a store... However, when I came back I had the UK version in my post box, where it turned it was just a tracking error.

Well, it doesn't matter, since the other copy will be a nice early Christmas gift for someone else – someone who doesn't mind the German title nor the USK logo. The squeezed title actually looks quite nice, though, and there have been worse covers, like the one for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where they had removed Yoshi (see here).

And it's certainly not as bad as the versions in other European countries with multiple languages (like Switzerland), because there they actually put the logo on the cover multiple times, one for each language..

Wow, just wow... One more reason to simply go with the English title.

Now, I will be focused mainly on the game for the next days, where I'm actually on vacation for the entire next week as well. I will certainly blog about my progress and thoughts during this, so either stay tuned or stay away if you don't want to know anything about the game yet.

Got a Nintendo Switch

Okay, Nintendo, you won. I gave up. After patiently waiting over three years for a shiny Zelda Special Edition, I finally had to give in and got one of these things:

An ordinary Nintendo Switch. Nothing golden, just grey. No Triforce emblems. Just a plain Switch.... It's not what I wanted, but it'll have to do for now.

I hope you're happy, Nintendo, because I'm not really. In fact I've never been so reluctant with buying a video game system ever in my life. And I've never waited as long with getting any Nintendo system, unless you count the original GameBoy, but that wasn't really up to me. Even the Nintendo GameCube, which I initially didn't want to have at all, had the honor of entering my home in late August 2005, which was one year before release of the Nintendo Wii. And that one I got in Spring 2008, a couple weeks before I've started this blog.

I got both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U in their first year, where it turned out that buying a normal Nintendo 3DS so early was a mistake, because they've announced a Zelda Special Edition shortly after I had gotten the thing. And this had created a regret, where I swore not to repeat the same mistake again – a vow that I now had to break, because Nintendo kept making games for Zelda fans, but no system.

In contrast, Nintendo kept making Zelda Editions for the Nintendo 3DS on every turn to a point where it became a normality. Even though I'm a collector when it comes to Zelda, I didn't even get all of them, just the ones that were an upgrade. They completely overdid it there... With the Nintendo Switch, however, they are walking on the other extreme. There were Special Editions for all sorts of games, including Fortnite, but nothing for Zelda.

Only the Wii U got it right, where they've made a Zelda Edition right for the launch of the first Zelda title, The Wind Waker HD, and then they were done. It was perfect and owning a Wii U made waiting for that Zelda Switch quite easy at first, since half of Nintendo's Switch titles were just Wii U ports.

But the years have passed and if I didn't have access to someone else's Nintendo Switch, I probably would have gotten one for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Link's Awakening. And I certainly would have gotten the Special Edition for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, if that didn't look totally cheap...

Now, buying a Nintendo Switch for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, after waiting all this time, just didn't feel right. It creates the regrets of "all the waiting was for nothing" and "I could have gotten this years ago", where this is really my loss. But it's also Nintendo's loss, because this is quite some time and money that I didn't spend on Nintendo games. I do already have quite the sizable collection, though:

That's eleven games, where Age of Calamity will be the twelfth. I got most of these for their Limited Edition releases, while some others were freebies, where I've won Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in a raffle and I took one of these "buy 3, pay 2" deals. So, that's why I already have so many Nintendo Switch games.

But I will be very busy going through this backlog in the future, where after Age of Calamity I want to play Breath of the Wild again and also Hyrule Warriors in its Definitive Edition. I also want to play Link's Awakening again and at some point I want to finally play Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Plus, I'll have to unlock everything in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 again (ugh), as well as grind for the Arms in Arms. I will be doing things on my Nintendo Switch that I should have done over the course of the last three years and it's kind of overwhelming to catch up with all of this. Meanwhile, there are games that I probably will never be playing, like Super Mario Odyssey.

So, getting a Switch was long overdue, but at the same time I will certainly regret this purchase for the feared reasons, because there will be a Zelda Special Edition coming eventually, probably sooner than later with the 35th Anniversary being a thing next year. Maybe even in the form of one of these rumored 4K upgrade models...

The reason why this hasn't happened yet lies seemingly in the Zelda titles. They could have done a "Sheikah Slate Edition" Nintendo Switch for Breath of the Wild, but this game was a launch title and they probably weren't able to provide a Special Edition right away. And if they had done this any later, like for Christmas 2017, it would have screwed the early adopters (again).

It doesn't seem like Nintendo wants to do such Special Editions for the Zelda spin-offs, like Age of Calamity right now. Maybe such games are not worthy enough, who knows? And Link's Awakening came out the same day as the Nintendo Switch Lite, where a Special Edition of that thing would have been a collectible at best, since I'm primarily playing on the TV.

So, I've kept saying we will be getting that "golden Switch" with Skyward Sword HD and this will probably turn out right, maybe even as early as next March. Still, I couldn't possibly wait any longer, because with such an extensive game like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, I simply need my own Nintendo Switch.

This will inevitably lead me to a double-dip, where I will sell the grey Switch or give it to someone in my family or so. Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch in the least has a System Transfer, so I can move all my progress over to a Zelda themed Switch later...

And all of this wouldn't be so bad, if this weren't yet another Nintendo system with a screen. I hate installing screen protectors, but it's necessary to avoid scratches. Curiously, the official ones from Nintendo are only sold in combination with a Nintendo Switch carrying case. It's this one:

What were they thinking? Attaching a screen protector can be easily messed up. In fact I messed up myself, because I got two pieces of dust under it. Trying to remove the dust from under the screen will create an even bigger mess, so the only way to fix it would be buying a new screen protector, but in this case I would also need to buy another carrying case... Come on, Nintendo!

And yes, there are 3rd party screen protectors sold on their own everywhere, but they usually have problems of their own. I prefer the official Nintendo screen protectors, because you can effortlessly install them without any air bubbles. It just works magically. But even the best magic can't protect you from some sneaky dust, unless you're doing things in a hermetically sealed room, which sadly I don't have at my home.

This is something I really dread when buying a new Nintendo system right now, because it turns what is supposed to be a fun "plug and play" experience into a preparation nightmare. That the Nintendo Switch dock might also scratch your system doesn't really help either...

Again, the Wii U did things right, where the official screen protectors were sold on their own. And I was happy to buy more than one there. I was happy, Nintendo... So, why are you making things so hard for me now?

Yes, yes... I'm aware that this is a lot of whining and first world problems for something that's supposed to be fun, but I've rarely ever felt so unhappy about a hardware purchase and I needed to express my thoughts about this. I'm sure I'll feel better in a week, when I'm having a blast with Age of Calamity. Because that's what this Nintendo Switch is for.

Hyrule Blog: New Game Buttons

Finally, I took some time to beautify this blog a little bit, where I've updated the buttons for the various Zelda games that you can see on the right side, if you're viewing this page on a larger screen. The buttons provide a shortcut to a search for all posts concerning the respective title or set of games.

The new versions have improved in quality quite a lot, where their resolution has doubled, they now use the pretty Triforce font and there are nice pop-out effects on most of them. I'm very happy with the result and I hope you like them as well.

I've also combined the Oracle games back into one button and added a new button for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which will certainly see some use in the near future. Some other buttons are gone for now, where there used to be buttons for Link's Crossbow Training, the Tingle games and Unreal, which all were – frankly put – not that important any longer and probably never were. Metroid will be back, I promise, but right now it would have created an orphan line at the end.

The order also isn't strictly chronological, as you might have noticed, because I've swapped The Minish Cap and The Wind Waker. I did this because I wanted the Capcom Zelda games to be all on one line, as well as all the GameCube Zelda games. It also puts The Wind Waker right above Phantom Hourglass, which feels good.

Anyway, enjoy!

Cadence of Hyrule: Foreboding Impressions

 

My coop journey through Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the Necrodancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda continued, where we've finished the game for the first time. So, we've completed the fourth dungeon, the Temple of Storms, as well as the final dungeon at Hyrule Castle, where the difficulty increased a bit, but not by too much.

The awesome weapons that you get around the final dungeon certainly helped, but overall we became so good at the game that things are usually easy enough. Not so easy that I would dare to play as the Deku or Aria, but certainly not as hard as they were in the beginning, where we've struggled quite a lot...

But you also get pretty packed the more you explore and do, where all we were missing was an entire Heart Container and one bottle. And if all fails, you can always use bombs. Unless you don't have any.

Well, without spoiling anything worthwhile, let me say first that the ending of the game was a complete joke. Suddenly Cadence gets put back at the center of the story, where she's rivaling the importance of Link and Zelda. Thing is, ever since we've unlocked Zelda, we've put Cadence aside and pretended like she didn't exist. So, to suddenly see her in the spotlight again, where the ending sequence revolved around her alone, felt completely wrong and out of place.

Seriously, this game would have probably been better without any Crypt of the Necrodancer crossover stuff. Just Link and Zelda against that Octavo dude, whose campaign we've started right after. His story might be even more like it, though so far his story mode seems almost identical to that of Link and Zelda's, just that he has a different starting point. But he has to do the same dungeons and bosses and so on, where you play the exact same world.

Well... not the exact same world, since this game has quite some random generation behind it. And while it makes replaying the game a lot more interesting, it's not really that impressive. There are certain areas that are always exactly the same, like Kakariko Village, Zora's Domain and the exterior of Hyrule Castle, and simply located in different spots. Curiously, this might even put the Kakariko Windmill (it's actually called that in German) far away from Kakariko...

The screens all around these fixed places are what's random, but from what it seems the screens and caves are based on a pool of presets, where you might have seen certain screens and puzzles already in your previous playthrough. A little bit like the different floors in Four Swords.

And that's okay, but the biggest problem about the world generation is that it's always the same areas and dungeons. You get Hyrule Field, the beach, the Lost Woods, the Gerudo Desert, Death Mountain and that's it. There is nothing else and for a truly randomly generated Zelda game you would need a larger variety of different terrains and areas, where a number of them then gets chosen. Swamps, snowy mountains, canyons, graveyards, ruins and so on...

The variety in music is equally slim, sadly. And I was super disappointed to try the "Melody Pack" DLC only to find out that the 39 "new" songs are apparently all just remixes of the 13 existing songs in different styles, like techno or rock. Eh... while they aren't bad, I was hoping more for something like Dragon Roost Island or Deku Palace. The music in this game is really good, it has to be, but it gets repetitive eventually.

Anyway, back to Octavo's Ode, where you play as the game's antagonist, who seemingly just wants to be a hero himself. He's using the Golden Lute from the game's logo as his weapon, which is quite powerful, but I can't really tell, because I haven't played as him myself. As player 2 I've opted for Impa, from the "Character Pack" DLC. I've really liked using the spear on our first playthrough, so she seemed like a good choice. Holding the spear in front of you is also quite fun.

But Impa has this unnerving ability, where she leaves behind a decoy doll when she gets hit by anything on full stamina. While this sounds like a cool feature at first, it teleports you to a field nearby and usually takes me by surprise, where I lose track of where I am. This is usually so confusing that I just might get hit by an enemy anyway, and to make things worse, it costs a full stamina bar. So, instead of losing half a heart or so, I might get damaged even worse and constantly lack the ability to use most items. It's absolutely terrible and I wish I could turn this "help" off somehow.

Apropos not using items, I'm not a big fan of all the depletable stuff in this game. It's interesting that you can have different shovels, torches, rings and boots for different effects, but not being able to dig through certain walls just because you're out of shovel isn't fun. It's like the shovels came from the Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, where everything is 100 years old. But unlike in that game you don't get an overabundance of decayed shovels thrown at you. Well, sometimes the game does, but there are also the times where you don't get a new shovel and you can't complete a dungeon floor because of it.

Anyway, we've completed our first dungeon, which was the Frozen Grotto, as well as the Kakariko Crypt, which was completely pointless, because Link and Zelda are sitting this one out. But at least we didn't die in the Crypt this time. In fact we didn't get a single Game Over so far, so we've gotten much better at the game already. And with a game like this, that is what I call progress.

Age of Calamity: Twitter Countdown

Nintendo of America is currently doing a countdown for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on their Twitter, where each day they'll highlight a different character from the game. They've started things with Urbosa on Monday, continued with Daruk yesterday and today it's Mipha, where Revali will probably follow tomorrow.

Including the launch day, this would be twelve days in total, which lines up with the total number of character artworks we have for this game already. So, other than the seven confirmed playable characters they will probably also show us Robbie, Purah, King Rhoam, Master Kohga and Hestu again.

It's possible that they might reveal some of them as playable characters, but it's doubtful. It would certainly generate some more hype very close to the release, but if there are any more playable characters, then Nintendo seemingly wants players to find out on their own. Or be spoiled three days before the release by people who got an early copy from their retailer and are putting it all on Youtube...

Age of Calamity: amiibo Support

Thanks to the previews we now also know how the amiibo will work in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Well, it's exactly the same as in Hyrule Warriors... Who would have thought? You can scan five per day for random materials and weapons and if you scan an amiibo of a character who's playable in the game, then you will get a weapon for this character... 

The latter will most likely only work for Link, Zelda and the four Champions. Too bad that there hasn't been a single amiibo for Impa yet, so you're out of luck if you want to easily get some weapons for her. And if there are any more playable characters, then they won't most likely be covered by this either.

Well, it's nothing special, but still useful. I personally enjoy scanning amiibo for some daily rewards, where this used to be quite the ritual during every day of playing Breath of the Wild. And in the least they aren't locking an entire moveset behind the figurines, like they first did with the Spinner in Hyrule Warriors on Wii U.

Overall amiibo seem to be something that Nintendo slowly, but surely likes to forget about. There haven't been any amiibo for Animal Crossing: New Horizons for example, even though the franchise was previously littered with that stuff. Only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seems to be getting new ones, but here there are also only doing the bare minimum (no female variant of Byleth) and they will take forever to come out.

This most likely has to do with current production shortages, but it might also simply be that the age of amiibo will be coming to an end. When it began I used to be heavily against the practice, but I became a small collector over the years, at least when it comes to the Zelda and Metroid figurines. And when they still offer some small rewards like in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, then it's certainly nice to have them, without taking away anything for the people who don't.

Apropos, Breath of the Wild had many exclusive amiibo weapons and armor items, mostly things based on other 3D Zelda games like Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. Seeing how most of Link's armor collection got ported over, it will be interesting to know whether these items are actually also available in Age of Calamity or not.