With how long the original Nintendo Switch managed to last on store shelves, it should come as no surprise that some of the earliest Switch 2 games were originally designed for the Switch 1. One such is the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, the third installment of Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors spinoff and a prequel, of sorts, to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In an interview with Famitsu published this past weekend, Hyrule Warriors producer Yosuke Hayashi confirmed that when discussing how Koei Tecmo has approached development for Nintendo’s latest console.
“When this project first started, we were developing it as a Nintendo Switch game for a while,” Hayashi stated. “We changed it to Nintendo Switch 2 midway through, and just by transferring what we had been creating up until then to Nintendo Switch 2, the number of enemies that appeared and the frame rate changed dramatically, and the game simply became a lot more fun.” That last part should be a relief for fans of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as that game had some dramatic performance issues (which are mostly cleared up on Switch 2, coincidentally enough).
Talking a little further, Hayashi commented about how the smoother frame rate allowed Koei Tecmo to push Age of Imprisonment further. “When we were originally developing the game on the Nintendo Switch, we were running it on the very limit of specs,” Hayashi explained, “so by having more specs, it became more comfortable and we could pack in the gameplay we wanted. The feeling when playing was completely different.”
The interview is rather exhaustive and goes over a ton of information regarding not only Age of Imprisonment, but Koei Tecmo’s new “AAA Games Studio” division. According to this article, the developer already has multiple titles in the works, many of which are likely to wind up on Switch 2.
More Switch 2
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment tackles Zelda’s role during Tears of the Kingdom
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment features higher frame rates thanks to the power of the Switch 2
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
