The Legend of Zelda series is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic out there… but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to play with the experience you’d normally expect to make something better, or at least different. Having only been introduced to the musuo subgenre in the last generation, previously I hadn’t put that much stock in its general style of play, feeling like games would fall into predictable patterns similar to what you’d see in classic beat em ups. Now, having spent more time with them though, I’ve seen how they’re continuing to evolve and improve. While Hyrule Warriors absolutely will scratch an itch for intense action, a great deal of variety in combat styles, and over-the-top visuals, I do think that recent efforts in the subgenre have left it behind to at least some degree.

Starting with what works, there’s no doubt that this game is gorgeous on the Switch 2, and demonstrates the amount of chaos the system is able to handle visually. While initially you may feel a little more constrained by your selections (though right off the bat the technology-based attacks of Mineru are a lot of fun), as you progress in the campaign you’ll get a little bit of everything. While there are missions where you’ll be locked into using specific characters, most of the time you’ll at least have one other to switch to, so in general there’s fun to be had. If you happen to be a big fan of splashy flourishes the game has you covered, with plenty of core combos, context-based attacks, supers, and even team-ups to take advantage of. There’s no doubt that you’re spoiled with options, and the further you get into your journey the more you’ll have to consider who you’re using and what you’ve equipped them with, but for quite a while you’ll just be able to brutalize everything in sight and have fun with it.

While the various smaller missions and skirmishes are great for grinding for experience and a plentitude of “stuff” that you’ll be able to use to unlock all sorts of things, I do think the emphasis is too often on smaller-scale battles rather than epic missions that will challenge you. There absolutely are critical story missions that do crank up the stakes and the scope of the overall battlefield, but having played Dynasty Warriors: Origins recently in particular, it feels like Age of Imprisonment never really gets to a comparably epic scale. There, you really had to actively manage the battlefield, and make hard decisions on the fly. Here, you will need to move to respond to specific threats and assist, but the overall battlefield also feels comparatively smaller by a few degrees. This feels like a solid answer to the previous generation of musou titles, but even with all of its characters and crazy visuals it doesn’t really compete if you’re looking for massive battles full of craziness. I’ll at least give the developers here extra credit though for featuring missions that play out more like a shooter, at least providing some variety that has elements of the classic Star Fox.

I think my biggest disappointment is that my wife and I were hoping the co-op play would make this another great game to enjoy together, but more often than not it feels like a bolted-on afterthought. The fact that even once two-player mode opens up there are still certain missions where you’ll need to return to single-player quickly sapped her interest. That leads into another observation she specifically had, and that’s the fact that the game feels needlessly complicated with all sorts of items you’ll collect that you’ll honestly pay little attention to, that will then allow you to unlock or open spots up on the map. Why is it critical that I have toenails or some specific fish to accomplish some task or unlock an upgrade? Why not just streamline and have different things unlock or reveal themselves as you simply complete missions or gain experience? Who knows, but for her it all felt like noise and a distraction, when she just wanted to jump in and enjoy herself, not mess with all of that. I think I understand how it all helps tie into the world of Hyrule, giving something familiar for people to latch onto, but I’ll admit that those systems feel needlessly complicated and silly in a way in their excess. While I’ve heard many complaints about the story, it honestly wasn’t what drove me to the title, and I understood that since this is an offshoot you weren’t going to get high stakes lore anyway. In the end, there’s no question that Age of Imprisonment is a lot of fun if you don’t mind the inherent repetition of it all, but I’d argue this is a space where Nintendo hasn’t earned being the best in class.