Nintendo, purveyor of nostalgia and tugger of heartstrings, revealed a slew of playable heroes, heroines and lovable villains that will appear in the upcoming Hyrule Warriors game.
Characters from an Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword showed off what they'll bring to the hack'n'slash mash-up of Zelda games and Dynasty Warriors during the Hyrule Warriors Nintendo Direct stream.
In Hyrule Warriors, players will battle legions of enemies to the far reaches of Hyrule. As enemies swarm into an area and mini-bosses join in to support the sword-wielding fodder, players can rely on friends to make the large-scale battles a bit more manageable as the heroes tackle an array of objectives to turn back the enemy invasion -- the game will support co-op, but online multiplayers has been ruled out.
Unlike traditional Zelda titles, many characters will join Link in the battle in Hyrule Warriors, said Yosuke Hayashi, Hyrule Warriors producer from Koei Tecmo Games Co., before introducing some of the game's characters.
Link will be joined in battled by Princess Zelda, who will use her arrows of light to take down enemies. Impa, Zelda's adviser in the core series, will bring her a giant sword to the fight, along with the drive and personality of a samurai, said Yosuke.
From Ocarina of Time, Darunia, leader of the Goron, will bring his giant hammer into the battle. Princess Ruto will liquify the ground to attack enemies or to traverse the terrain.
From Twilight Princess, Midna, the twilight princess, will use her hair to grab or punch enemies. Agitha, princess of the insect kingdom, will call on her insects and use her parasol to attack enemies, Zant, the usurper king, will summon an array of oddities and can grow in size to ward off the Hyrule invaders.
From Skyward sword, Fi, the goddess that lives in Link's sword, will bring to the fight her dance-like attacks and ability to shape-shift into a sword. Demon Lorad Ghirahim will sort of put off his pursuit of Link to aid the Hyrule Warriors.
Along with the long-time favorites, Hyrule Warriors will include a host of new characters, according to Yosuke.
Hyrule Warriors has been slated for release on Aug. 14 in Japan, Sept. 19 in Europe, Sept. 20 in Australia, and Sept. 26 in North America. The re-purposed IP will have a lot of weight to bear in order to carry forward the Wii U's success with Mario Kart 8 as Nintendo continues to struggle.
