The original Hyrule Warriors was a good game but it felt more like a hodgepodge of random elements from the Zelda series than a coherent addition. The next game in the series, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, is completely different.

A recent demo released by Nintendo gave those thinking about purchasing it a look a few weeks before its release on November 20th. If you're on the fence about it, here's what to know.

The most noteworthy aspect of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the time it is set in, and that is 100 years before Breath of the Wild.

I love this idea. I don’t think I’m speaking just for myself when I say that I wanted to see more of the characters that we kept seeing in flashbacks from that game, and I loved the small number of scenes I saw in the demo featuring Zelda, Link, Impa and the Champions. 

While the original Hyrule Warriors didn’t look outstanding, Age of Calamity seems to be using the Breath of the Wild engine, allowing the new entry to have a similar style. This helps me feel like I’m playing the prequel to BOTW, but also makes the cutscenes and story cohesive to the sequel.

I love the look of the game and it makes it more interesting to play knowing I might see a place from BOTW that hasn’t been destroyed (yet). 

The game also contains a time travel feature, meaning it's not exactly clear if the end of the game will be total destruction or something unexpected.

This is clearly a new branch of the zelda timeline and I’m here for it

— TAHK0 ☕️ (@TAHK0) October 28, 2020

The gameplay is like Dynasty Warriors in that the player is going up against a large army of enemies to hack and slash through them.

As a result, the fighting can get a little repetitive and you will be doing a lot of similar tasks during your time, so don't expect this game to be a replacement for BOTW 2 whenever it comes out.

But I love that about the gameplay. It's the kind of game you can play through while listening to a podcast or music.

Of course if you’re not into doing the same thing over and over, this might not be the game for you.