Are people looking at Hyrule Warriors the wrong way?

First of all, my personal thoughts, along with some other relevant things, are already written here:

http://plebegaming.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/hyrule-warriors-does-the-musou-genre-really-hurt-zelda/

After reading about the Hyrule Warriors post by Tom McShea, I have to ask myself, are people just looking at Hyrule Warriors wrong, and are they blinded with Zelda Nostalgia goggles? It's clearly a Warriors game through and through, but from watching streams of gameplay and such you can tell it has basic Zelda elements.

A lot of my fellow Zelda fans don't want to admit it, but Zelda isn't exactly revolutionary any more. Every single console Zelda game to come out in recent memory seems to follow the exact formula. Go from point A to point B, slaughter a handful of weak enemies, fight the occasional tough enemy, get a treasure, use the treasure to overcome a "puzzle", and then defeat a boss with your new found treasure. Repeat until done. This rote formula is exactly why Zelda U is trying to get rid of these established tropes.

Not counting the recent ALBW, most of the puzzles in Zelda games have been pretty lackluster and usually involve using the item you just got. Exploration is there, but it's usually hampered by a preset order you follow. The only other big functional difference is the seeming lack of side stories.

Look at Hyrule Warriors. Is it really all that different from the bare skeleton of a typical Zelda game? You go from point A to point B (battlefield messages tell you where to claim/support), slaughter hundreds of weak enemies (bokoblins), fight the occasional tougher enemy in the form of an officer (Redead Knight), get a treasure (Hookshot), use the treasure to overcome an obstacle (Hookshot across broken bridges), then defeat the boss with your new found treasure (Argorok).

That looks similar to me.

You press combo's mindlessly for most enemies in Hyrule Warriors, but most early enemies in Zelda games are weaklings where you run up in their face and slash them to death. What's the difference between HW Link wiping out twenty out of hundreds of extremely weak enemies with his spinning attack, or WW Link killing three out of a few dozen slightly less weak enemies with a spin attack? Not much beyond cosmetics.

More interesting to me is the lack of Musou experience. Most players in the West have never encountered this type of game and are likely to focus on peons instead of using them as meter/combo building fillers between officers and bosses. Maybe the game would seem more appealing if players were running about fighting more of those Redead and Dodongo encounters that require real effort instead of mowing down every filler enemy on their path. Usually when you play Warriors games you learn to ignore the weaklings and focus your efforts on the vastly more fulfilling boss encounters instead.

This isn't an attack on the article or its writer. I simply think people are approaching the game as a Zelda title instead of a love letter to Zelda from the guys who make Warriors games, and they feel disappointed because of their misaligned expectations.

I've always looked at this game as Dynasty Warriors with a Zelda skin. Fun in short bursts, but ultimately nothing substantial or of great value. It's fan service, pure and simple, but it should be fun for Zelda fans. If you're looking at it as a real Zelda game you're doing it wrong.

I don't understand how a video-game journalist could review a Dynasty Warriors title that has a Zelda skin and expect Zelda-like game-play. Could they not have done some light research? What are they getting paid for? Seriously...

The mind boggles.

I always thought of Hyrule Warriors as a DW game with a Zelda skin. Didn't understand the point of the Gamespot article. Seemed like it was stating the obvious.

Something I never understood are the people who bitch about spin offs. Spin offs are not supposed to be like other games in the series. The entire point of a spinoff is to use a known IP and change it up into a different type of game. To say that a spinoff isn't like other games in a series is like saying that the Earth isn't the center of the universe.

Anyone who's actually watched video or read details on the game knows it's not supposed to fill that core Zelda void. That article is stupid and I said as much in the comments. I'm personally looking forward to using the Zelda characters to destroy large masses of enemies DW style :)

Common sense, right? Why are the newer generation of gamers such whiners? :/

It's not even the new generation. Ever since I've started going on forums years ago I remember people complaining that a spinoff is too unlike the series it's a spinoff of.

Hyrule Warriors is Dynasty Warriors with Zelda textures slapped on. Its insulting to Zelda and I want nothing to do with the game. The AI just freaking stands there. There is a reason Dynasty Warriors basically died off. Boring and repetitive. Zelda is my favorite franchise but I want nothing to do with Hyrule Warriors.

It's Dynasty Warriors with Zelda skins, eh.

I think the problem is.... there is no "real" Zelda game out yet on the WIi U. I think if the fans had something to already sink their teeth into, this title wouldn't receive as much flack. I don't believe Zelda even has a release date, and probably won't be released for another year or so.

^ there already was a Zelda game out to tie people over on Wii U..its Zelda WindWaker HD remaster. :P Obviously it didn't take off as Nintendo wanted. Hyrule Warriors is pretty much a Zelda skin on Warriors games...so not sure why people were expecting its to be LoZ game.

@superbuuman: Yeah, I can't wait to play Windwaker HD! After seeing how amazing Mario Kart 8 looks I'm really excited to check out Windwaker HD let alone Zelda U. It's a good time to be a gamer xD

There are some aspects of the traditional Zelda formula that they've added to Hyrule Warriors like collecting rupees, finding hidden treasure, the types of moves the characters use etc. It's a bit harsh to say they just added a Zelda skin. There wasn't that much they could have done...because Zelda isn't all that unique and please understand, the mechanics have to fit the style of Dynasty Warriors.

I'm sure it will be popular in Japan anyway. If it intrigues the Asian market to check out regular Zelda games [a market that historically isn't fond of Zelda] then it's a win for Nintendo. We might not even see it again in the West.