Yes, slick combo moves are cool, and destroying hundreds of bokoblins in one turn is disgusting, but the best part Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment none of this. The point is that Zelda is finally taking center stage. I'm not just talking about letting Zelda star in her own game. Echo of Wisdom does it (and throws her under the bus at the end) and she plays a central role in Era of Disasteralbeit stereotypical and predictable. What I'm saying is that Nintendo finally allowed Zelda to be something other than a magical princess.
Wind Waker And Heavenly Sword are the closest Zelda ever comes to resembling a real person, but in the end she still gets the Princess. Once her identity is revealed in both games, she has little to no contact with anyone other than Link and only exists to help and be rescued. Even in Ocarina of Timeit's not really Zelda who travels the kingdom in her own capacity. This is her alter ego. Yes, there is a plot reason for this, but there is no reason why that confidence and ability disappears when she becomes just Zelda again.
IN Age of imprisonmentRauru and Sonya become the family Zelda never had. They are kind to her. They believe in her abilities and want to help her realize them in a caring way – all the basic, emotionally satisfying things most people experience in life, and all the things that Nintendo has categorically denied the poor woman in every other Zelda game. She either watches her family die or absorbs a ton of shame because she can't live up to the extreme expectations everyone has for her. Instead, in Age of imprisonmentshe communicates with Mineru and studies the past, or jokes and communicates with the maid Lenallia. Finally she will become a normal person. (Or Hylian, or whatever.)
Either way, she has more reason to worry about the past than the present, which says a lot about how Nintendo has failed her. Breath of the Wild And Tears of the Kingdom. But more importantly, it allows her to provide a welcome emotional investment to the proceedings that is often lacking in other Koei Tecmo films. Warriors games and admittedly a lot of other Zelda games. She's not just fighting for some abstract idea of ​​a kingdom or for nameless, faceless people who only see her as a symbol. She fights to save the people she cares about and to avenge the death of the man who one could reasonably argue was like a surrogate mother to her.
And this time she is more than capable of doing it herself. Even from her fighting style, it's clear that Nintendo took Zelda more seriously this time around. IN Era of Disastershe's kind of a nerdy joke who uses iPad magic to throw bombs or perform some other tricks. IN Age of imprisonmentshe's a badass whose fighting prowess rivals Rauru's, and she's not limited to just fancy archery and esoteric light powers like in some mainline Zelda games. She can manipulate time to crush enemies, turn light into a sword and cut through waves of enemies, and, my personal favorite, cause a massive explosion when her special meter is full, and all that. by itself. She doesn't need to rely on anyone.
It's cool and nice, which is something you don't always get from Link. To him? He's just a bot hero programmed to win. Success means nothing. He can't, not when he always wins. Now Zelda, a princess who has self-confidence issues and has a lot to prove to herself? This is a different, much better story. It turns out that having a main character with personality opens up a lot more storytelling possibilities and gives me more to worry about, and I hope Nintendo continues this way in the future.
