The next entry in the Hyrule Warriors series is just around the corner, and Koei Tecmo has brought the goods. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment for the Nintendo Switch 2 was at Tokyo Game Show 2025 and we got a chance to try it out. Let’s get into it.
Background on Demo
This snippet of gameplay from the demo puts players initially in the role of Zelda. Teaming up with Rauru and Mineru, the three go delve deeper into The Depths searching for secrets and, of course, fight waves and waves of enemies. Players were given 15 minutes to get as far as they could. All of the demo units on the show floor were all running on Nintendo Switch 2 units.
Gameplay
Staying true to the Musō/Warriors style of control, things here are very simple. I mainly played as Zelda, as she was the most enjoyable for me to control, but the characters each felt a little bit different. Simple melee attacks can be performed with Y, while ranged attacks can be initiated with X. Combos of these are also available and vary slightly depending on who you are controlling. Again, the kinds of attacks depend on who you were controlling. Characters could be changed with the d-pad.
Zonai devices were available to try out in the demo. By pressing R and then a corresponding face button, you can unleash a timed barrage on the onslaught of enemies. This aspect of the gameplay felt really good and adds a bit more depth than what you will traditionally find in Warriors titles. In addition to this, Sync Strikes felt really awesome. Shown off in the trailers, these can deal out quite a bit of damage or have a variety of other effects. In the demo, I would usually find myself teaming up with Rauru as Zelda to shoot off two massive beams of light at enemies. This was controlled with both joysticks, giving you some options on the enemies you wanted to target.
While most of the demo put players up against weaker enemies, there was a mini-boss encounter with a Frox, a giant frog-like enemy. This required a bit more strategy and also offered the ability to climb on top of it to weaken it with continued strikes. Overall, I felt that the combat felt pretty good. It’s been awhile since I played a Warriors game, but I enjoyed the fast action, the Zonai devices and Sync Strikes.
Visuals & Performance
Age of Imprisonment looks impressive on the Nintendo Switch 2. The character models look pretty crisp, the lighting is great, and the UI really makes it feel like an extension of Tears of the Kingdom. To top this off, the game ran at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. Like many of you, I’m sure, this facelift is awesome. I felt that Koei Tecmo was already pushing their Warriors engine to the limits with their games on the Nintendo Switch, so it’s great that they have some more power to work with this time around. Again, this is just a small snippet of the game crafted specifically for Tokyo Game Show, but the game looked great and performed admirably.
Conclusion
Age of Imprisonment is shaping up pretty nicely. In stark contrast to the titles using this engine on the Nintendo Switch 1, this game looks better and runs way more smoothly than what was possible on Nintendo’s aging platform. While the gameplay in Musō/Warriors games is definitely not for everyone, this deeper dive into the back story of the events before Tears of the Kingdom is shaping up to be something special.
But, let’s turn things over to you guys. Are you planing on picking up Age of Imprisonment? Did you pick up Age of Calamity? Sound off with your comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
by Danny Bivens
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