Completely flying in the face of fan expectations, was not an actual prequel to . Rather, the story serves as a companion piece that uses time travel as a means to comment & expand ’s lore, cha💝racterization, and narrative themes. While the end result is a surprisingly nuanced meditation on one of ’s best games in years, it’s nonetheless difficult to reconcile all of 's inconsistency with established backstory.
More im𒐪portantly, Age of Calamity doesn’t actually address everything relevant to Breath of the Wild’s history – leaving a few questions hanging by the time credits roll. It’s a marvel Age of Cal🥃amity’s plot is as good as it is (especially for a game,) but that doesn’t mean delivered a perfect script.
10 Was Any Of This Even Canon?
The first thing worth addressing is Age of Calamity’s canonicity. Heading into the game’s release, Nintendo seemingly assured fans that the game would be a narrative prequel to Breath of th💧e Wild; and while ไthe story does infer BotW’s world & lore, AoC doesn’t abide by every beat established in its predecessor or Creating a Champion.
Nintendo confirming that Hyrule Warriors won’t become a series does suggest Age of Calamity likely won’t be canon, but the story itself also came from a pitch by Hidemaro Fujibayashi – the Zelda franchise’s current director. With series producer Eiji Aonuma also influencing aspects of AoC’s plot, it’s hard to tell whether any⛄ of this will actually matter.
9 Where Was Kass’ Master?
One of the main concerns regarding Age of Calamity pre-release was its roster size. The♉ original Hyrule Warriors l🦄ikewise launched with a small playable cast, Koei Tecmo picked characters all across the franchise’s history. AoC, on the other hand, is locked exclusively to Breath of the Wild’s lore.
While most fans expected the modern Champions to be included in some capacity (if only to round out the cast,) the fact they’re included over Kass’ maste🀅r🀅 – who isn’t so much as mentioned despite how significant he is in Kass’ questline in BotW – is as disappointing as it is jarring.
8 How Is Zelda So Strong?
The Champions exist to be Zelda’s strength, which makes her prowess on t💙he battlefield all the more perplexi⛦ng in Age of Calamity. Breath of the Wild establishes that this Zelda is a researcher to her core (to the point Masahiro Sakurai chose not to include her in Smash Ultimate since she isn’t naturally a fighter.)
Koei Tecmo downplays this aspect of Zelda’s per🅺sonality quite a bit, giving her a Sheikah Slate as a starter weapon before pairing her off with a Bow of Light at the end of the game. There’s no in-game justification to why Zelda is so powerful, flying in the face of why she needs retainers and a personal knight to begin with.
7 Zelda’s Time Travel Powers
Age of Calamity is able to tell a fairly powerful story that comments on Breath of the Wild’s story, characters, and themes in a meaningful way, but it’s in spite of its own poor plotting. Time travel෴ is nothing new for The Legend of Zelda, but AoC might feature the single worst depiction of the concept across the entire franchise.
Zelda’s tears – which are seemingly imbued with her own inherent power – can directly trigger Terrako (her egg robot,) forcing time travel. Not just that, Terrako can apparently react to Zelda’s powers even when she’s not directly aro♊und him. There’s no logical explanation as to where these powers came from or why tꦿhey work.
6 How Did The Modern Champions Come Back In Time?
On that note, Zelda’s time travel powers are especially egregious when considering the state of the modern Champions – how did they even travel back in time? Why did Terrako summon them? How did it♐ know to do so? Terrako only saw the very start of the Calamity and should have no knowledge of the modern Champions. There’s simply no way to rationalize this plot point, even with Age of Calamity’s own internal logic, throwing a massive wrench into the narrative’s biggest twist.
5 Everything About The Egg
To its credit, Age of Calamity does try to justify Terrako’s existence. Zelda built Terrako when she was a small child, only for Rhoam to take them away when it came time for Zelda to begin her training. Since Zelda was so young, both her and Rhoam forgot, but the fact Terrako appears in Zelda’s room at the start of AoC suggests the King intended to give it back to her. This doesn’t answer how Rhoam and Zelda could have forgotten about Terrako, though, or why it’s not so much as mentioned in Breath of the Wild. Terrako is a welcome presence, but a glaring ret🐼con.
4 Is Astor The Fortune Teller?
Breath of the Wild’s companion book, Creating a Champion, details a fortune teller who prophesied Calamity Ganon’s return to the Hyrule Royal Family. It’s even suggested in the book itself that the fortune teller was not doing this in Hyrule’s best interests, instead potentially serving as an arbite🦂r of Ganon.
It’s not confirmed outright in the game, but all signs point to Astor having been this fortune teller. Not only do the Y෴iga refer to him as seer in the game, Astor sees actual visions of the future (detailing the Calamity) which he uses in order to manipulate the events of the game.
3 Does Astor Exist In The Main Timeline?
On the flipside, there’s nothing in Breath of the Wild itself to suggest that the fortune teller was evil or working against Hyrule. Where Creating a Champion paints a more nefarious picture, BotW’s references to the fortune teller are fairly to the point. Had CaC never been published, there’♛d be nothing implying the fortune teller was trying to hurt Hyrule.
More importantly, there’s no reference to anyone resembling Astor in Breath of 🥂the Wild – lore or otherwise. He’s an entirely new character for Ag♍e of Calamity, who might be the fortune teller just as likely as he is to simply n📖ot exist in-canon. It wouldn’t be the fওirst time Hyrule Warriors focused on non-canon antagonists.
2 Why Doesn’t Link Already Have The Master Sword?
Creating a Champion establishes that this Link has had his Master Sword for years now. In fact, Link suddenly appears with the Master Sword one day at the age of 12, solidifying his status as a hero and ultra powerful knight. Age of Calamity sidesteps this completely, with Link only obtainin꧃g the Master Sword roughly halfway through.
It’s possible Terrako travelled further back in time than was implied𓄧, creating a butterfly effect that resulted in Link never entering Korok Forest as a boy and claiming the Master Sword, but the story makes no attempts at reconciling this timeline anomaly.
1 What Happens When Ganon Returns?
Link and Zelda are actually kind of lucky in Breath of the Wild. Calamity Ganon may have kept Hyrule in check for a grueling 100 years, but they’re both alive and in their prime for the event🍌s of Breath of the Wild 2 – a game which seems to be hinting at Ganondorf’s return. Taking a single moment to consider this plot point sours Age of Calamity’s otherwise happy ending.
Link and Zelda may have stopped the Calamity thanks to Terrako’s help, but what’s going to happen when Ganon eventually returns? Zelda didn’t kill Ganon, but simply sealed him away. While 📖fate dictates there will always be a Link to combat evil, The Wind Waker’s backstory makes it clear time travel shenanigans can alter destiny significantly.