Hyrule Warriors was one of the first hack-and-slash games that Koei Tecmo and Nintendo collaborated on. It was originally released on the Wii U in 2014, and enhanced ports were eventually released on the 3DS and Switch in 2016 and 2018, respectively. A sequel, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, released in 2020. However, you may be surprised to learn that Nintendo of America wasn’t entirely confident about it.
You see, former Nintendo employees Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang had some insight to share about the matter in their latest episode of the Kit and Krysta Podcast. The pair revealed that some people within Nintendo of America was worried about the quality of the game and the possibility that it might hurt the reputation that the Zelda franchise has built over the years. In fact, some felt so strongly about this that they felt that the game shouldn’t be released in North America.
Fortunately, Hyrule Warriors was well received by critics. Not only did it sell well in western regions, better than Koei Tecmo expected, but it ended up becoming one of the Wii U’s best-selling games. It managed to be even more successful when its enhanced port was released on the Nintendo Switch, surprising Koei Tecmo once again.
Thanks to Greatsong1 for the tip!
Frankly, I was too. The end product was a fun short-term time waster for me, but I can’t really get into Warriors games. The hordes of enemies that barely try to attack you just doesn’t click for me.
The original LoZ and Zelda II, however…
https://youtu.be/87hUUTpGfgw
Yeah i was reflecting on this game the other, it’s still surprising that in 2014 ( well whenever it first started being developed) that Nintendo let Koei Tecmo play around with Zelda. Feels wacky it ever happened but its cool when they allow things like this to happen, hope more surprises like this happen in the future
The Wii U era was such a fever dream.
Zelda x Dynasty Warriors
Fire Emblem x SMT
Pokemon x Tekken
I love Hyrule Warriors on my Switch… the only fault is how much content it has. Its neverending.
I waited a performance patch to play it (I bought it day one but framerate was meh), now I’m waiting for a backward compatibility and performance patch on … Switch 2. I have faith !
I swear, Nintendo of America chooses some of the worst games to be concerned about. Mother 3 is an obvious one, but Xenoblade would’ve never been localized if Nintendo of Europe didn’t step up. Hyrule Warriors was made with passion and I don’t understand the concern.
I wouldn’t be surprised if these were some of the same fools that didn’t want Pandora’s Tower, The Last Story, & Xenoblade Chronicles released stateside. So glad the community came together to get them to change their minds.