First Reviews for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Are In
Hennadiy Chemеris
November 4, 2025, 07:00 PM
The first reviews for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment have landed on Metacritic. The action title, set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 on November 6, currently holds an average score of 78.
Scores:
- Voxel — 95/100;
- Gamereactor UK — 90/100;
- Nintendo Life — 90/100;
- Gfinity — 90/100;
- RPG Site — 90/100;
- Nintendo Insider — 90/100;
- Nintenduo — 87/100;
- CGMagazine — 85/100;
- The Games Machine — 85/100;
- SpazioGames — 85/100;
- Vandal — 85/100;
- Everyeye.it — 82/100;
- PCMag — 80/100;
- Screen Rant — 80/100;
- Shacknews — 80/100;
- Wccftech — 80/100;
- Meristation — 80/100;
- TheGamer — 80/100;
- TheSixthAxis — 80/100;
- COGconnected — 80/100;
- TechRadar Gaming — 80/100;
- Hobby Consolas — 80/100;
- Inverse — 80/100;
- Critical Hits — 75/100;
- GameSpot — 70/100;
- ComicBook — 70/100;
- GamesRadar+ — 60/100;
- Metro GameCentral — 40/100.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment not only stands as the pinnacle of the musou genre—bringing variety to a style often marked by repetition, from its combat to its structure—but also firmly earns its place among the best canonical Zelda titles. Koei Tecmo absorbs everything that makes the Zelda franchise so special and delivers a work worthy of making Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto proud.
This game is a perfect fusion of the Zelda games and the Musou genre that I can’t put down. But I also recognize that this is a one-trick pony. You’ve got excellent combat and no second thing. Maybe you want more out of a Zelda game than fighting with a light layer of story on top. That’s totally fine! But the vibes are immaculate and the gameplay is terribly compelling. If you want an intense action game that really highlights the Zelda of it all, then Age of Imprisonment is exactly what you’re looking for.
A few issues hold it back, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment marks a high point for the spin-off series, iterating on its riotous hack-and-slash combat with depth and variety.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment manages to find exciting stories to tell as a Tears of the Kingdom prequel, with Princess Zelda taking the lead to spend plenty of time with some all-timer characters old and new. But, while action and performance is an upgrade from the last Hyrule Warriors, strangled battlefield and mission designs become dull, holding this back from true magic.
Insanely repetitive, horribly shallow, and pointlessly easy – this is the absolute least interesting thing to do with Zelda on the Switch 2 and bad even by the low standards of the Dynasty Warrior franchise.
By the way, it was recently reported that Nintendo Switch 2 sales have already surpassed 10 million.
About the author
Hennadiy Chemеris
News Author
Gaming Journalist. I have been writing news for VGTimes since 2015 on a variety of topics including not only games but also movies, anime, cosplay, cutting-edge technology, artificial intelligence, memes, and social media. I am also the author of several reviews, top lists, compilations, and other articles related to video games. I collect various gamer memorabilia, including figurines, posters, old consoles, and more. I have a keen interest in retro gaming. I have been gaming since the early 2000s on both PC and consoles.
...Expand
