Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a prequel to Breath of the Wild coming in November

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See the fall of Hyrule 100 years before Breath of the WIld

(Image credit: Nintendo/Koei Tecmo)

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the next game in the Zelda-inspired Dynasty Warriors spinoff series.

Nintendo revealed the new game in a surprise video announcement today. Series producer Eiji Aonuma kicks off the video by assuring fans that work is still underway on the The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, though fans will have to wait "a bit longer" to hear more about it. We won't need to wait much longer to play Age of Calamity, because it's coming to Switch on November 20.

The next Hyrule Warriors once again fuses the Zelda world and characters with the army-sized battles of the Dynasty Warriors series. Where the first game created its own story from a blend of established Zelda elements and original characters (who could forget Linkle), Age of Calamity tells the story of the fall of the Kingdom of Hyrule 100 years before Link's re-awakening in Breath of the Wild.

"Unlike the previous Hyrule Warriors games, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was developed by working closely with the Zelda team in every step of the process, including gameplay direction, graphics, world, and all dialogue," Hyrule Warriors producer Yosuke Hayashi explains in the video.

"And while we maintained the distinct gameplay style of the Warriors series, with exciting 1 versus 1,000 battles, and a wide variety of playable characters, this became the only game that will let you experience the world 100 years prior to the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild firsthand."

We already know how the story of the Great Calamity ends: with the armies of Hyrule routed, Link slain in defense of Zelda, and the princess herself locked into a century-long magical struggle against Ganon to delay his total victory. This is going to be a dark story, but it's one that I'm eager to play - especially since it means we'll get to spend more time with the Champions, the four heroes from across Hyrule who we only knew as ghosts and memories in the original game.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is now an easy pick for our most-anticipated upcoming Switch games. 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.