It turns out that Nintendo did not ask Koei Tecmo to make another Hyrule Warriors game – this time, it was the other way around.
In an interview with 4Gamer (translated by Nintendo Everything), Age of Imprisonment producers Yosuke Hayashi and Ryota Matsushita revealed the origins of the game’s premise.
Hayashi explained that inspiration struck him as he played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
“I personally played the weekend immediately following its release. I felt like the game was sending us a message of something like ‘Make a Warriors game set in the time of the Imprisoning War!’” he said.
“After the weekend I spoke to Matsushita saying, ‘Let’s make it!’ and we drew up a plan.”
Matsushita added: “In truth, I had also actually been putting a plan together before he spoke to me (laughs). I felt like the ‘seeds’ of a Warriors game were scattered all over the place.”
Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma recalled Nintendo having the same idea for a Warriors game, but held off on contacting Koei Tecmo first.
“On the Nintendo side, during Tears of the Kingdom’s development, [Director Hidemaro] Fujibayashi established in detail exactly what the Imprisoning War was,” he explained.
“And after it was finished, he said to me, ‘Maybe we could ask Koei Tecmo this time too?’, but I responded with ‘No, let’s wait to hear from Koei Tecmo first’ (laughs). It was almost immediately after that that they contacted us.”
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is available now on Nintendo Switch 2. A recent update for the Zelda spinoff added a new “Forbidden” difficulty mode, a “Phantom” mode that adds more enemies, more weapons, extra challenges, and more.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
