Nintendo's Legend of Zelda franchise is no stranger to time travel. Ocarina of Time is still considered to be a "masterpiece" by many players and industry veterans, having broken ground in the realm of 3D game design while presenting a compelling time-hopping narrative. Many entries in the series have played with time since, and Koei Tecmo's Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is going to follow that framework. WARNING: Spoilers for the Age of Calamity demo ahead.
A Divine Beast-focused trailer for Age of Calamity debuted during the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase this week, and at the end Nintendo announced a demo was available. That demo leads players through the game's first chapter, which includes two story missions and some early side content capping off before the introduction of Hyrule's Champions: Urbosa, Mipha, Daruk, and Revali. Save data can be carried over to the full release, and the demo includes all the establishing information fans might need to get hooked. One element, the Mini Guardian, brings up a particularly interesting question.
Prior to this demo, it was unclear how exactly Age of Calamity would slot into Breath of the Wild's timeline; whether it be the canonical story or a recalled tale to justify its new hack-and-slash style. Its first cutscene shows Hyrule being demolished by Guardians when Link is defeated and Zelda gains her divine abilities - previously an unlockable cutscene in Breath of the Wild. Zelda's powers also awaken the Mini Guardian, a tiny egg-shaped piece of tech hidden in her study, which proceeds to time travel back to the beginning of the conflict so it can warn everyone about the Calamity. Needless to say, this could complicate things.
Narrative Finality in Age of Calamity
It has been assumed that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity would be constrained by its position in the narrative timeline. Because the war this new game chronicles takes place 100 years before Link awakens in the Shrine of Resurrection, there are "inevitable" events it had to stick to. For example, Link must be mortally wounded, whereas the four Champions have to die while combatting vestiges of Calamity Ganon.
Those constraints did not mean Age of Calamity wasn't free to experiment and add detail. Despite the praise it received, Breath of the Wild was routinely criticized for its lack of an expansive narrative compared to older games, which affected how much screen time characters beyond Link received. A prequel allows characters to become more fleshed out through backstory, and the developers can introduce new people for them to play off of - so long as their presence ends before it hinders future events.
One seemingly immutable event in Breath of the Wild's past that Age of Calamity explores is the unexpected return of Calamity Ganon. In the lore, this ancient evil is prophesized to return around the time Age of Calamity takes place, which led to the Hylians unearthing Guardians and the Divine Beasts. King Rhoam expects the revival may happen soon given the proliferation of monsters across the land, but there is believed to still be enough time to unlock Zelda's powers so she can seal Ganon away.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity picks up when those monsters are invading Hyrule Castle, and Link is just another soldier among the forces sent to stop them. As he is taking down encampments, he comes across the Mini Guardian deactivated after jumping through time. Once it awakens thanks to the presence of Impa's Sheikah Slate, everything get tricky.
Mini Guardian and the Bootstrap Paradox
Without the full game, it's hard to tell which direction its story will take. However, the Mini Guardian's time travel suggests one of primarily two possibilities: Either Age of Calamity is an example of the bootstrap paradox, or it is an entirely new offshoot of the absurdly complicated Zelda timeline.
The bootstrap paradox describes a self-created causal loop, in which one event causes another that, in turn, creates the conditions for the original event to happen. In Age of Calamity's demo, the Mini Guardian has memories of Hyrule's destruction, which lets the characters know they have to gather the Champions and the Master Sword. It stands to reason this contact is how the Mini Guardian winds up in Zelda's study so it can eventually start the cycle again. In other words, this time travel may have always been what kicked off the overall story.
However, even with Breath of the Wild's sparse narrative presentation, it's hard to imagine this Mini Guardian was hiding in the background that whole time. The visuals leading up to Age of Calamity's title card suggest it has inserted itself into history where it wasn't before, and that appearance potentially threw events out of order insofar as players may be able to judge by Breath of the Wild's memories.
One inconsistency seems to be Link's rise in the ranks happening early because he is with Impa when Mini Guardian reactivates. King Rhoam appoints Link to be Zelda's personal protector at the end of the second story mission after he, Impa, and Zelda fend off a Guardian infected by spores of the Calamity that also travelled back in time. Together they travel to the homes of the Gerudo, Zora, Goron, and Rito to recruit "candidates" for Hyrule's Champions. In Breath of the Wild, it's implied the Champions have been together longer and formed a rapport by the time Link joins, as Daruk suggests they hold a ceremony to induct the Hero of Hyrule.
To be fair, Link does have the Master Sword in the memory of this ceremony found at the Sacred Ground Ruins, so it's possible this event still follows the time travel established by the opening for Age of Calamity. Yet in combination with Mini Guardian's ubiquitous presence, it's also entirely possible that this narrative is more of a "what if" story.
What if the team had advanced knowledge of when Calamity Ganon was coming, and early access to technology like the Sheikah Slate's runes so Zelda could be more confident and fight? Zelda's sudden combat prowess can be explained away for gameplay reasons, as the Dynasty Warriors series is known for bombastic, over-the-top action. But it's currently unclear whether Koei Tecmo has secretly been given the reigns to create a retelling rather than a flashback - one with a potentially happier ending for everyone involved. Fans won't know for sure until the full game comes out.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity releases on November 20, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
