Hyrule Warriors

[The Shoemaker]

The more I play this game the more I like it. In the beginning the fan service came off a little strong, it was really in your face and expositional. After the second level or so and you get past the Zelda conventions the story becomes a little more interesting. Seeing all the characters interact is pretty cool.

But the meat of the game is obviously the gameplay, which is actually really fun and addicting. Every level you have a new character/skill/weapon to try out which continuously keeps it feeling fresh. I haven't tried anything beyond the story mode yet though. And I heard people say this game has the "Zelda covers no one wanted" but I find the music to be pretty good!

But yeah the game is more about reacting rather than slashing through hoards of enemies. Seeing one of your bases is in trouble and rushing over to protect it, searching for the generals in each mob to take down the whole group entirely, slowly taking over the entire map, ect. The game exceeds my expectations! Though this is coming from someone who has played very little Dynasty Warriors.

[Kong Wen]

Just had a marathon Warriors session with my brother this evening, and was reminded of two things that bug me about this game:

1. The game really, strongly encourages you to use the enemy generals' weak points to beat them down, instead of just being able to break their blocks and hammer them. You barely do any damage when you hit them the normal way. It shouldn't really be so heavy-handed because it means you can really only fight most bosses one way.

2. In a departure from some of the classic Dynasty Warriors games, when the second player is playing as a character, they often double that character for storyline purposes. So for example, Impa was the leader/general for one fight, and she had to go somewhere to fulfil a mission requirement. My brother was playing as Impa, but he couldn't trigger the thing, it had to be the extra NPC Impa. In the older DW games, even if you were playing as the leader/ruler/general, you'd become that character for the purposes of the mission. I don't like seeing a player playing as a character and an impostor NPC running around as the same character.

Other than those minor complaints, had a lot of fun. We'll hopefully beat the game on Wednesday after spaghetti.

[The Shoemaker]

Weak points can get annoying when you're justing waiting around for the enemy to do their move you can counter. It can kill the momentum, but I just try to focus on other things while waiting. It makes some minor generals a nuisance.

I thought doubling the characters in 2-playerer was a little silly, not sure what the reason for that was. Maybe they didn't want Player 1 to have to rely on Player 2. Playing on the GamePad and TV rather than split screen is cool though, but does the game ever take a hit in graphics and number of enemies.

[Kong Wen]

Weak points can get annoying when you're justing waiting around for the enemy to do their move you can counter. It can kill the momentum, but I just try to focus on other things while waiting. It makes some minor generals a nuisance.

I thought doubling the characters in 2-playerer was a little silly, not sure what the reason for that was. Maybe they didn't want Player 1 to have to rely on Player 2. Playing on the GamePad and TV rather than split screen is cool though, but does the game ever take a hit in graphics and number of enemies.

Weak points would be fine if they were something you could take advantage of as an option to speed up a battle, but making them almost mandatory is pretty annoying, and poor design. They kind of take the place of well-timed Musou attacks, where in the other Warriors games, you wait for an opening (either breaking the enemy's guard or waiting for him/her to just start launching an attack) and then you counter with your O-/A-button move.

Part of it might be that they didn't want you to rely on player 2 (which is kind of silly in itself), and part of it might be because they didn't want you to be able to play as the commander in a battle, because it takes the pressure off a little bit (you don't have to protect someone). But the latter point isn't exactly true... on harder difficulties, it can become pretty crazy when every enemy on the map is coming after you.

The processing hit surprised me, given they used the second screen instead of split-screen, but I suppose churning out all that processing for the wiiPad is probably more system-intensive than split-screen would have been. I mean, that kind of has to be the reason. I wish they had included an option to choose between split-screen or off-screen multiplayer.

[The Shoemaker]

Weak points can get annoying when you're justing waiting around for the enemy to do their move you can counter. It can kill the momentum, but I just try to focus on other things while waiting. It makes some minor generals a nuisance.

I thought doubling the characters in 2-playerer was a little silly, not sure what the reason for that was. Maybe they didn't want Player 1 to have to rely on Player 2. Playing on the GamePad and TV rather than split screen is cool though, but does the game ever take a hit in graphics and number of enemies.

Weak points would be fine if they were something you could take advantage of as an option to speed up a battle, but making them almost mandatory is pretty annoying, and poor design. They kind of take the place of well-timed Musou attacks, where in the other Warriors games, you wait for an opening (either breaking the enemy's guard or waiting for him/her to just start launching an attack) and then you counter with your O-/A-button move.

Part of it might be that they didn't want you to rely on player 2 (which is kind of silly in itself), and part of it might be because they didn't want you to be able to play as the commander in a battle, because it takes the pressure off a little bit (you don't have to protect someone). But the latter point isn't exactly true... on harder difficulties, it can become pretty crazy when every enemy on the map is coming after you.

The processing hit surprised me, given they used the second screen instead of split-screen, but I suppose churning out all that processing for the wiiPad is probably more system-intensive than split-screen would have been. I mean, that kind of has to be the reason. I wish they had included an option to choose between split-screen or off-screen multiplayer.

That's what I think as well. Though as you progress through the game it becomes easier to take advantage of weak points using your items - Flying enemies you can take down immediately using your hookshot.

A few more options all around for the game would have been nice, but it doesn't hinder the game too much.

[Kong Wen]

A few more options all around for the game would have been nice, but it doesn't hinder the game too much.

Yeah, the game is what it is.

Who's your favourite character to play as? So far I'm really liking Link and Ganondorf. I was surprised by how fast the big G's moveset is. Actually, it seems like everyone is really fast in this game, even Darunia. It's kind of jarring. And everyone sprints really fast, too! Maybe it's because there are no horses/mounts in the game (at least none that I've run into yet).

[The Shoemaker]

Haven't unlocked Gannon yet, but everyone does seem to be pretty swift, which I appreciate. I don't really like Lana, her moves just seem weak and stale. Fi is more fun but sort of suffers from being weaker as well - might just need a better weapon.

Link and Impa are really good, Shiek too. I like Midna but she has a bit too much lag between her moves to feel really fluid. I haven't had a chance to see who I like best because there has been a new character to use in basically every map so far!

Another reason I thought of as to why the second player replicates a character rather than taking their position in a map is that the second player gets to choose to be any character they want to be. The first player is limited to who's available on the map, but the second player gets the whole roster that's unlocked so far. I guess they thought doing that would be a better idea so that second player could be whoever they wanted and it wouldn't effect the story at all.

[Kong Wen]

Haven't unlocked Gannon yet, but everyone does seem to be pretty swift, which I appreciate. I don't really like Lana, her moves just seem weak and stale. Fi is more fun but sort of suffers from being weaker as well - might just need a better weapon.

Link and Impa are really good, Shiek too. I like Midna but she has a bit too much lag between her moves to feel really fluid. I haven't had a chance to see who I like best because there has been a new character to use in basically every map so far!

Another reason I thought of as to why the second player replicates a character rather than taking their position in a map is that the second player gets to choose to be any character they want to be. The first player is limited to who's available on the map, but the second player gets the whole roster that's unlocked so far. I guess they thought doing that would be a better idea so that second player could be whoever they wanted and it wouldn't effect the story at all.

Right, but if they pick someone who's not normally on that map, it shouldn't make a difference, because they'll just go about their business as a player. If they pick someone else that is normally on that map, then it should affect the story!—i.e. they should have to go trigger the events that the NPC triggers, they should be hunted down by enemies that go after the NPC version of that character, etc.

I agree about Midna. Even her basic attacks are pretty "lungy" and hard to control, but her higher combos have lots of crowd clearing and big damage. Everyone has huge crowd-clearing, actually. I would have been happier if there was a bigger difference between big slow heavy-hitters and smaller, faster attackers, close & long range, juggling, etc. It just kind of feels like they didn't use the full range of character types that the other games use, but this is really just me being nitpicky as someone who's used to these mechanics—it's not like Warriors games are known for their subtlety.

[Kong Wen]

We beat this tonight as predicted. Afterwards, my brother made me watch this video:

[The Shoemaker]

Haven't unlocked Gannon yet, but everyone does seem to be pretty swift, which I appreciate. I don't really like Lana, her moves just seem weak and stale. Fi is more fun but sort of suffers from being weaker as well - might just need a better weapon.

Link and Impa are really good, Shiek too. I like Midna but she has a bit too much lag between her moves to feel really fluid. I haven't had a chance to see who I like best because there has been a new character to use in basically every map so far!

Another reason I thought of as to why the second player replicates a character rather than taking their position in a map is that the second player gets to choose to be any character they want to be. The first player is limited to who's available on the map, but the second player gets the whole roster that's unlocked so far. I guess they thought doing that would be a better idea so that second player could be whoever they wanted and it wouldn't effect the story at all.

Right, but if they pick someone who's not normally on that map, it shouldn't make a difference, because they'll just go about their business as a player. If they pick someone else that is normally on that map, then it should affect the story!—i.e. they should have to go trigger the events that the NPC triggers, they should be hunted down by enemies that go after the NPC version of that character, etc.

I agree about Midna. Even her basic attacks are pretty "lungy" and hard to control, but her higher combos have lots of crowd clearing and big damage. Everyone has huge crowd-clearing, actually. I would have been happier if there was a bigger difference between big slow heavy-hitters and smaller, faster attackers, close & long range, juggling, etc. It just kind of feels like they didn't use the full range of character types that the other games use, but this is really just me being nitpicky as someone who's used to these mechanics—it's not like Warriors games are known for their subtlety.

It would totally make more sense to have the second player a part of the story, I agree, just trying to think of a reason why this is :p I would think it would promote more teamwork if both players were involved in the story, not just one. And as someone who's not a fan of slow characters, I really don't mind it, but diversity can't hurt.

That video was pretty cool, I think the blue should be a little darker, but the design is spot on.