In its recent earnings report, developer AAA Games Studio and publisher Koei Tecmo has announced that the Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive Musou game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has sold more than one million copies. The sales milestone is an impressive one since it was released back in November, and has only been out for a few months so far.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a hack-and-slash action game in the vein of Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors franchise. The title serves as a sort of follow up to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with its story primarily revolving around the invasion of Demon King Ganondorf.
It features a number of playable characters, including Princess Zelda, Mineru, the Sages, along with a host of new characters. Each character features their own distinct style of gameplay, which can then be further augmented by making use of Zonai Devices.
Along with a single-player campaign, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment also features co-op, both split-screen as well as local wireless multiplayer.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi had spoken about how the open-world adventure game’s story was affected by the development of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. In an interview from earlier this month, he discussed how the Sages got a lot of screen time in Age of Imprisonment, while their faces were hidden in Tears of the Kingdom.
“In Tears of the Kingdom there was a central theme running through the main story, and the Sages are depicted with their faces hidden by masks and without names. If we had shown their personalities and faces, the story would have naturally grown too much, so there were many things we intentionally held back,” said Fujibayashi. “That’s why I’m truly happy that the Sages have been more carefully picked up upon here in the Imprisoning War.”
The main plot of Age of Imprisonment involves Zelda getting sent back to the past, right as Gandondorf is on the verge of launching his invasion of Hyrule. Zelda gets to meet Hyrule’s king and queen Raaru and Sonia respectively, and befriends them and a host of other heroes to take on Ganondorf’s forces.
The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has also spoken about the partnership between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, and how the next mainline entry in the franchise will benefit from it. He also joked about Koei Tecmo being able to beat Nintendo to the punch when it came to releasing the first new The Legend of Zelda title on the Nintendo Switch 2.
“The inspiration we received from this collaboration with Koei Tecmo may be reflected in the (next) Zelda we create,” said Aonuma. “Please picture this while playing Age of Imprisonment, and look forward to our Zelda.”
Fujibayashi also noted that “it was incredibly fun. They always had ideas we never would have come up with on our own, it was truly stimulating,” referring to Koei Tecmo’s expertise in making Musou games and bringing in that gameplay style to The Legend of Zelda.
For more details on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, check out our review.
