Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for Switch gets a release date

Nintendo announced today that Hyrule Warriors is getting a sequel, more than six years after it initially launched for Wii U and three years after it was ported to Switch. Dubbed Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, this new game takes place 100 years before the events of Breath of the Wild. While this probably isn't what fans were expecting out of a Breath of the Wild prequel given the vast differences in gameplay between the two, it will give us a look into the Great Calamity that turned Hyrule Castle and the surrounding area into a wasteland.

Since this new Hyrule Warriors game takes place during the Great Calamity, that means you'll be able to play as Link, Zelda, and the Champions of Hyrule that accompanied them on their quest to stop Ganon. Nintendo has confirmed that Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa will be playable characters in Hyrule Warrior: Age of Calamity, though of course, there will probably be many more playable characters beyond just those six.

Hyrule Warriors, for those who are unfamiliar, is a Zelda-themed version of Tecmo Koei's long-running Dynasty Warriors series. The game tasks players with capturing and holding bases, completing objectives, and battling hordes of enemies with a combo-based combat system. At this point, Nintendo has teamed up with Tecmo to make both Fire Emblem and Zelda-themed Dynasty Warriors spin-offs.

So, the gameplay in Hyrule Warriors is quite a bit different from the traditional Zelda game (even post-Breath of the Wild) but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If nothing else, it's a nice change of pace for Zelda fans who might be looking for a little more action.

In any case, Nintendo's announcement today was also accompanied by a release date reveal, with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity slated to release on November 20th, 2020. More information on the game is coming on September 26th, but for now, you can check out the announcement trailer and take a longer look at the game hosted by Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma in the videos embedded above.