Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the spin-off to the beloved Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, gave players a new take on Calamity Ganon and the land of Hyrule, but BOTW 2 should be careful what it takes from it.
Not only are the two games wildly different genres, but their storylines also diverge quite a bit. Fans have been asking how much of each will be in BOTW 2, and hopefully it’ll be a little more BOTW than Age of Calamity.
In Age of Calamity, a small Guardian-like robot named Terrako goes back in time to try and save Zelda from Calamity Ganon, which creates an alternate timeline. In this timeline, the Great Calamity never happened and all four Champions were saved with the aid of the modern allies that Link makes in BOTW. Age of Calamity also uses BOTW‘s Divine Beasts, and allows players to pilot them to use in order to defeat Links’s enemies. It changes pace from an open-world exploration game to a beat ’em up focused more on combat than environment, and although it is a good game, it’s also a very different gameplay experience.
There are a few things from Age of Calamity that BOTW 2 needs to avoid in order to stay true to its roots. BOTW 2 might be better off leaving out any more of Age of Calamity‘s timeline alterations, to start. The main villain, Astor, should also stay as such and not receive a redemption arc if he ends up being in BOTW 2. The biggest thing it needs, however, is to avoid overcomplicating the plot. Age of Calamity‘s storyline was much more convoluted than BOTW‘s, so the sequel needs to learn from it and keep things simple. BOTW 2 should focus on fixing BOTW‘s problems instead of copying Age of Calamity.
BOTW 2 Doesn’t Need Age Of Calamity’s Time Travel
Time travel is something that’s tricky to get right. It’s been a trope in cartoons, movies, TV shows, and video games for a long, long time, but it sometimes results in twisting and hard-to-follow plots that leave viewers wondering what on earth just happened. When it’s taken seriously, like it was in Age of Calamity, then time travel needs to be treated delicately in order to avoid descending into ridiculousness. Legend of Zelda‘s timeline has always been messy and confusing, but it’s always at least been static, and BOTW 2 needs to be careful not to jeopardize that.
Age of Calamity doesn’t do time travel bad, but it doesn’t do it well, either. Simply put, it was unnecessary. Some theorize that BOTW 2 will feature time travel, but it doesn’t really need it, either. The entire premise of Age of Calamity is that it’s essentially a “what-if” to BOTW, and Terrako didn’t need to travel through time in order to kick that off. Using it to provide new information and characters didn’t do much to improve the game, and BOTW 2 should stay within its own timeline instead of crossing over to Age of Calamity‘s. Bringing in the alternate Astor or Champions would likely detract from the story, so time travel should be left out of the game so that BOTW 2 can stand on its own.
BOTW 2 Shouldn’t Give Astor A Redemption Arc
A good redemption arc can elevate a show or video game to new heights. Antagonists finding common ground with the protagonists and eventually becoming allies, friends, or even romantic partners is something that many fans love to see, and it can add new depth to their characters. After what happened to Astor in Age of Calamity, however, BOTW 2 shouldn’t try to bring him to the side of truth and justice. Some villains are just meant to be villains; they’re too selfish, too lacking in empathy, and too evil to ever be redeemed, and Astor is one of them.
Astor does everything in his power to ensure that the Great Calamity of BOTW comes about, and there seems to be no lows to which he won’t stoop in order to accomplish this goal. Even the Yiga Clan, his biggest allies and a major antagonist in both games, turn on him after he ruthlessly slaughters them in order to resurrect the four Blights that Link and the other Champions had defeated. Seeing him get his just desserts at the end of Age of Calamity was satisfying, so redeeming him in BOTW 2 would be a mistake. Age of Calamity could make BOTW 2‘s story better in some ways, but not by making an ally out of Astor. He’s done too much and gone too far, and has never shown a thread of remorse for it. If BOTW 2 does include him, then he would be better off as an antagonist once more.
BOTW 2 Needs To Keep Its Story Simple
Age of Calamity‘s story was more complicated than BOTW‘s. Time travel aside, there were a few twists and turns that kept players on their feet. King Rhoam was thought to be dead, but turned out to have survived. Astor kept Calamity Ganon sealed in the original timeline’s Terrako and was the antagonist for almost the entire game, only for Ganon to eat him at the first opportunity. The Yiga Clan were once enemies, but defected to the Champions’ side after Astor started killing them off, and Kohga apparently had a second-in-command at one point. Age of Calamity‘s timeline means that BOTW 2 could be more complicated, but hopefully not by too much.
Part of the reason BOTW is so beloved by fans is that it’s relatively simple. It doesn’t have the plot twists that Age of Calamity does, and it gives players freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and at whatever pace they want. Age of Calamity‘s combat was also more complicated, integrating hordes of enemies along with allowing players to pilot the Divine Beasts. BOTW 2 would do well to be a little more complicated than the first game, but its story still shouldn’t have as many twists and turns as Age of Calamity, and it should be careful not to lose the simplicity that made its predecessor special. A happy medium would be best, so that players can get the best experience possible in terms of story. BOTW 2 can improve exploration, gameplay, and story by mixing new elements along with ones from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
