Saturday, September 27, 2014

Hyrule Warriors: Ideas for new Adventure Maps

So, they announced that there's going to be three more Adventure Maps with the upcoming DLC packs. They are most likely going to be used to provide missions, where you can get Heart Containers and Heart Pieces for the new character, as well as upgrades for the new weapons.

So, with that we need smaller maps. Of course they could just design their own environments like they already did in the small Rewards Map. I could imagine their own 8-Bit version of Termina in the Majora's Mask pack for example.

But another nice possibility, which also works with the current item card system, would be the dungeons from The Legend of Zelda:


This is actually the perfect size. For Cia, Volga, Wizzro and Epona we would need space for 24 Heart Containers, 24 Heart Pieces and eight weapon upgrades. Some of it might go into the new scenario, but overall this easily fits all of it, without being too large. The first dungeon has 17 squares in total.

The item cards would work differently here:

  • Compass: reveal secrets (as before)
  • Bombs: proceeding to the next area
  • Candle: light up rooms to reveal enemies
  • Power Bracelet: moving blocks to unlock rewards
  • Ladder: moving to the next area
  • Flute: making enemies vulnerable, so you can fight them
  • Ice Arrows: destroy flames
  • Hookshot: move over certain walls

The other item cards will probably not be used here, but it's actually a nice system, where items are utilized in a different way. For example you rarely ever need the Ladder, Flute or Hookshot on the overworld. In dungeons they could be a lot more useful.

The game offers 18 different dungeons, so they would have more than enough maps for all future DLC of Hyrule Warriors.

Update: Every character gets five new Heart Containers and at least one costume per Adventure Map, so we need about the same size as the original map. They could, however, use the combined grid:



But in a sequel they probably might go for another game and provide different items and visuals. Of course it would be cool, if they used Zelda II or A Link to the Past, but it makes more sense to use a game with an actual grid. Because how else would distribute the missions? With that in mind, not many games come into question:

  • BS The Legend of Zelda
  • Link's Awakening
  • Oracle of Ages
  • Oracle of Seasons
  • The Wind Waker

Those are the games, which use a grid for their overworld. And there's certainly some potential here.

The BS Zelda games would be more of a weird choice and they provide only half the size:


Probably not going for that.

Link's Awakening's Cocolinth on the other hand has twice the size of the current Adventure Map. But this might be a good candidate, if we get twice as many characters at some point...


In addition Link's Awakening offers a good item system (Roc's Feather, Pegasus Boots, Mirror Shield, ...), as well as nine very nice dungeons that could be used for expansions. So, Hyrule Warriors 2 might opt for Cocolinth! However, Cocolinth is not as iconic as Hyrule of course, it only was the land for one game. And with this it's not really fitting the magnitude of Hyrule Warriors and I'm saying this as a big fan of Link's Awakening.

I doubt that we will see anything from the Capcom Zelda games in Hyrule Warriors ever, because Capcom. Not after they sued Koei. And of course Holodrum and Labrynna are even less popular/know than Cocolinth. As much as I'm a fan of the Oracle games (study my blog, if you have any doubts), I already made my peace with those games never being a part of Hyrule Warriors. The same goes for The Minish Cap.


But what could be really nice is the ocean from the Wind Waker. Imagine small toon versions of all the characters going around on the Red King of Lions!


Of course this not even offers half the size of the current map, but they could easily expand the ocean with many new squares. But using the map from the Wind Waker probably would be the most charming way of creating an Adventure Map in Hyrule Warriors 2. This way you could also give the Wind Waker some love, since the art style otherwise would prevent bigger cameos in Hyrule Warriors.

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