If I could add one feature to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, it would be a freeplay mode where I could explore Hyrule as the balance tips from peace to war. I’d like to explore these environs at my own pace, rather than under battle conditions, but I understand that this game is not Breath of the Wild and that I can’t have it all.
If you haven’t played much of Age of Calamity, then you might not realize how constrained you are in a battle area. Objects, walls, and fences stop you from fully exploring off the path, and you’re funnelled through stages fairly quickly. So I’ve taken to replaying missions much later on in order to look beyond the main path and over the fence.
I wanted to have another look around Hyrule Castle, so I replayed a mid-stage level titled ‘Calamity Strikes’. I wanted another look at the interiors of the Castle, the drapes and carpets, the furniture and paintings, but something else captured my attention instead.
Through the main gates of the Castle and away from Castle Town, there are smaller gatehouses that you may be familiar with from Breath of the Wild. The long Castle drive winds up the hill between these gatehouses, sometimes with sheer cliffs beyond the walls, and sometimes with small parkland areas.
What caught my attention this time was how, well, normal it looked. The Castle’s waterfalls fill pools with clear blue water surrounded by grass and trees. The result is that there are pockets of serene parkland dotted alongside the winding drive. The cobbles are worn away in places, dirt showing through and grass growing right up alongside the road. Past another gatehouse is a larger park area, complete with wooden benches underneath the trees.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there would have been little space at the summit of the hill for gardens, like we’ve seen in previous Zelda games. There couldn’t be the large walled gardens of games gone by, but there was enough space for these little pockets of nature, dotted along the road to the front gate.
And why shouldn’t the royal family be able to enjoy this space? Why did it need to be directly adjacent to the main structure of the Castle? They’re already behind multiple layers of fortification and prior to the Calamity they lived at peace.
These little park areas are full of trees, large and old, and bushes that look a little wild. This isn’t topiary, there’s nothing manicured about these little areas. However, some have little stone pagodas, which suggests that these areas were intended for royal use. Though I highly doubt Princess Zelda paid any attention to etiquette.
I imagine that Zelda spent many hours reading by the water during long summer months. That this was far enough from the Castle to feel like an adventure until she was old enough to look beyond the walls for even more.
In the hazy sunset as the Calamity strikes, I feel like I’ve seen a snippet of Castle life that I’d missed before. The greatest thing to me about Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity is how they’ve captured my Princess Zelda, and through these small environments, I can see her life in snippets. Maybe you see something different when you look at these places, but that’s the beauty of it.
