Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment launched in autumn 2025 exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2, marking the third meeting between the world of Zelda and the combat system known from musou-style games. This time the story reaches deep into Hyrule's past, into a period that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom only hinted at, placing Princess Zelda at its center. The player thus goes through a war whose outcome they already know, watching how it actually came to be — which gives the whole campaign a surprisingly strong tragic undertone.

The gameplay is built around massive battles where hundreds of enemies face the player at once. Maps are divided into forts and points that need to be captured and defended, orders and crises keep arriving that demand a response, and in between, rapid combos, special abilities, and powerful finishing blows chain together. Each playable character has their own style and set of skills; between missions, abilities are upgraded, weapons are forged, and side quests are completed on the strategic map. The series thus keeps its main strength: the feeling of overwhelming power paired with a clear tactical layer that hovers over everything the whole time.

Because this is a title made exclusively for the new console, the game maintains smooth performance even when the screen is literally flooded with enemies, and it offers a cleaner image and a longer view distance than the series' older entries on the original hardware. Visually it follows the stylization of modern Zelda games, and the music reworks familiar themes into battle-ready orchestral arrangements. Reception was largely positive, with the story noted as more interesting for fans of the newer entries than in previous spin-offs. Today it's a good choice for players who want an action-focused companion to the big Zelda games and don't mind the repeating battle structure characteristic of the genre. It's also one of the few titles that launched only on Switch 2 without needing to accommodate older hardware.