Both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are in the running for the best Switch games, but they don’t tell the full story of this version of Hyrule. The various Warriors games have done a fantastic job of translating other franchises into massive hack-and-slash action games, but the two Hyrule Warriors games took things a step further by integrating themselves into the lore. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is the third entry in this Zelda spinoff series and might be the last time we can visit all the characters and places we have come to know. Don’t let your excitement for Mario Kart World and The Duskbloods take all your attention. Just because it isn’t a mainline Zelda game doesn’t mean you should sleep on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, so let’s sharpen our blades and see what we can discover about this upcoming Switch 2 game.
Release window
At the time of this writing, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment doesn’t have a specific release date. That said, you won’t be waiting years for this game since it will come out sometime in Winter 2025.
Platforms
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment isn’t a Switch 2 launch title, but it will be an exclusive. That means it won’t be coming to your old Switch and will only be released for the Switch 2.
Trailers
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was announced during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct with a stunning trailer. It opens with a narration of the legend of the Zonai and Hylians joining forces that was upset by Ganon, thus beginning the Imprisoning War we only heard of during Tears of the Kingdom.
The trailer shows that this game will have Zelda travel back in time to this event to participate in this war and set in motion the events that will eventually lead to Tears of the Kingdom. Zelda will meet and fight alongside King Rauru and the other remaining Zonai to seal Ganondorf.
While we know how the story will end, there are enough mysteries and gaps in knowledge for plenty of drama and twists.
Gameplay
Anyone familiar with previous Hyrule Warriors games, or any Musou game, will already know the basics of how Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will play. You control a specific character on a large map with thousands of allied and enemy units. You will use various attacks, combos, and abilities to cleave through these hoards to eventually conquer the map for your side.
Each character has their own weapons, moves, and special attacks specific to their character to keep the combat from getting too repetitive. So far, we’ve seen King Rauru, Mineru, and Zelda as playable characters. Considering how vast the roster was in the previous games, we expect to see plenty more characters before the launch. The previous games also had light RPG elements, such as leveling characters and upgrading weapons, which we expect to see again.
The last game introduced new moves based on the Sheikah Slate for puzzle-solving, so we might see some of the new building abilities from Tears of the Kingdom here, though nothing like that was shown. However, we did see a massive construct that we might be able to control and Zelda using what looks like the Recall ability.
Preorder
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment isn’t too far away, but until we learn a more specific release date than the current Winter window, there won’t be any preorder options. Until then, keep checking back because we will be updating this page as new information drops.