Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "HYRULE WARRIORS: AGE OF IMPRISONMENT - SALES & REVIEW ROUND-UP"

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠Analytic Dreamz delivers the ultimate breakdown of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment in this packed Notorious Mass Effect segment. The Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive from Koei Tecmo dropped November 6, 2025 as the first fully canonical Zelda Musou prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, starring Zelda allying with Rauru, Sonia, and Sages against Ganondorf in the Imprisoning War. Analytic Dreamz covers hack-and-slash gameplay with TotK fusions, Zonai devices, Sync Strikes, ~20-character roster (Zelda leads, no Link protagonist), 18-hour story/40+ hours full, and local co-op at 60fps solo. Week 1 Japan physical: 73,183 units (#1 Famitsu). Metacritic 78-79 "generally favorable," OpenCritic "Strong" 79-80: IGN and GameSpot praise top Musou combat while noting story and repetition critiques. Free update adds challenges and weapons; post-credits ties directly into Light Dragon lore. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Now before we get into one of the many Zelda games, but currently it's the latest as far as high rule warriors, the age of imprisonment. Before we get into that, ladies and gentlemen, let me take you down memory lane. As of course, I'll talk about Mario all the time to the point where he has the utmost respect from me. And if you haven't heard me glazed Mario to no other extent than to let y'all know that he's the savior of gaming. right that's why he's on my banner as far as the major gaming IPs that's notoriously affecting the masses but safe to say Zelda quiet is kept is still up there as far as some of the most influential video game characters known the man as when you look at Mario unequivocally he's just the breadwinner over at nintendo where over nine well eight almost 900 million because it's 899 million

as far as ip right Pokemon 489 million We series 221 million okay shout out the we you know what I'm saying shout to the iconic we series and then of course you got the one and only Zelda at number four as far as Nintendo IP lifetime sales and Zelda is has accumulated 172 million dollars so with other with over 20 plus installments in the Zelda franchise safe to say this I don't think there's too many where you don't play as link And that's specifically what this game is. The story, for those who's wondering, is Zelda during her encounter with Gannendorf and using a secret stone to be transported to the past.

So with this specific story, Link is nowhere to be found. Actually, because I don't want to spoil anything, but I don't know anything about the story. So I'm just saying, I don't know if he's going to be in the story. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. But specifically with the legend of the Zelda. the legend of Zelda franchise with the most successful game being breathed a while back in 2017 to the point where some people will call it the best installment of the franchise now safe to say

me as a person who's never played Zelda like once again as far as over here we do review and sales roundups as far as the masses and what their opinions are and the sales objectively speaking of this specific game that we usually talk about as far as the gaming industry this one specifically High Rule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment, but talking about the totality of the franchise, Breath of the Wild back in 2017, is objectively speaking, the best-selling Zelda game of all time.

And some would say a redefined the open world type of genre, but then, of course, you had the Tiers of Kingdom in 2023 that was the fastest selling. It wasn't the best selling, but it was the fastest selling with 10 million and three days. So fastest Zelda launch ever. Safe to see.

say Zelda is as high as it's ever been and they've been around since what the 80s so longevity is not a question for the Zelda franchise so them taking a distinct pivot to focusing on Zelda when we usually play as link I think it's an interesting change that a lot of people are going to enjoy and of course as we're getting to later the reviews reflect that as far as people enjoying the change of pace for this particular storyline so getting more into the story you have Zelda aligning with with people like king raru i think they're saying queen sonya and ancient sages i think it's sages so anyways the main thing i was going to get at is people who don't know about this game entirely i wanted to break it down to them so simply speaking this is more of a hack and slash

game developed by coi tecmo which is a triple a game's uh studio published under of course the one and only nintendo and then the platform is interesting because if you have a Switch, guess what? I have bad news for you. This is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. So if you just have the original Switch, guess what? It's not playable. Saddened history? I know.

You guys. See, that's the problem. But as far as Nintendo Switch 2, keeping up with his exclusives, whether it's Mario Kart World, whether it's Donkey Kong Bonanza. I think even Kirby Airwriters is on Nintendo exclusively, I believe, but don't quote me on that.

But anyways, Zelda is now a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive with high ruled warriors of age of imprisonment and quite as kept a lot of people aren't even talking about this game and I understand why as it's not the biggest launch for a specific game like it just released I think around November 6th of this year which is this month right but the main thing I want to let you know is that it doesn't debut with the type of numbers that a Mario Donkey Kong or even a Pokemon did right even though it's in the Nintendo all-time life IP sales, right? Zelda Warriors High Rule is currently the Six Most Play game on the Switch 2 platform.

And the total copies is 90,000, but right now is garnering 17,000 every single week, which is interesting because you look at Pokemon, you look at a lot of other games. Usually the debut is around 80 to 90,000. So now to already be dropping to 17,000 as far as week after week is very interesting. and I don't know how well, objectively speaking, how well this is going to perform from an engagement factor,

because I haven't seen anybody talking about this game. So anyways, I came back into the specific game. So it's a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. This is fully canon and is a prequel to Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. So if you're wanting to explore the happenings before the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, well, now you know where it's going to,

be an immense lore of Zelda so looking at the combat you're switching up to three units mid-battle emphasis on combos perfect dodgers weak points things of that nature usually what you find in the RPG but the main thing with this specific kingdom inspired system is that you have elemental fusions such as fire-ice lightning combos and you have zone a zonai i think it's zonai devices with battery-style energy which is cannons fans and stabilizers etc but the new uh mechanic implemented into this game is a sink gauge which fills simultaneously with allies and triggers sink strikes such as Zelda plus raru light beam combo attack so raru i ain't gonna lie that's a hard name to say for me you know as a little kid growing up trying to say rs hey it's funny because my name you know i'm saying

but I don't know. But anyways, as far as trying to pronounce the RAS, let's just say, this is a tongue twister for me to say Raru. So anyways, as far as the additional features, you have the Scott Islands and Death Battle included local co-op. So a lot of people will be pleased to know that you can't play this with somebody else. You either do split screen or switch to gameshare up to two players with one copy. So the Amoebo is one of the main things that Zelda, I think, benefits from as far as the toy sales and things of that nature.

because of course a lot of people love the overall collectathon that comes with Nintendo IPs. So with that being said, the time to beat, which a lot of people out there are probably wondering, because they're probably thinking of this game or not because it's not really talked about at all. I think I'm the first one I've even seen talk about this game in depth. So, and obviously as far as other publications, they talk about every game specifically, but you already know the new wave of media. It's more personality driven than corporations, which, you know, I'm not mad at. So anyways, for this specific game, the main story will run you about 18 hours.

But hold up now. If you want to play side content, it would take you 40 plus hours. And then of course, the game has postgame challenges. So you can get as much as you want for the dollar amount. Because I don't know if I have the actual dollar amount on here. I should have the, yeah, as far as how much it costs, we have to do some, make your research right quick. because I would assume the price point,

especially what Switch 2 has been going through, hopefully it's not through the roof. So let me check it right quick. Got to do some Mickey Research right quick. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so we finally have the price. So as far as the game, it's essentially... Let me see.

So they're telling me tears of the kingdom, but I don't know how much the high rule game is. I would assume it's $70. Let me see. I think when it comes to high rule, rules this game's not talked about at the slightest so it's kind of hard to find a price point because is anybody paying for this game like they probably won it for free right but um obviously nintendo's like who don't care if you want it for free so uh they're saying 70 dollars for the

base game so uh let me see okay high rule legend uh oh though because we're gonna do fake news over here i don't want to tell you all price point and y'all be like hold up now why did you tell me is this amount when it's not so let me see high rule edition we see game stop yeah game stop i know they got all they're showing me the nintendo switch man they do not want this game to sell ain't no there's no way i type in the whole game price point and the game doesn't just pop up for me to buy usually that's the site to get to oh you want to purchase some here it is right here so yeah they don't want you to buy this game they're not even showing me the actual price this is actually crazy this the this is actually um um imprisoned

man I may take this out honestly because it's taking me way too long to find this I think when it comes to actual games and the price point usually I always have it up and I usually have it at the top so to not have it is actually interesting ah it is $70 okay yeah $70 so safe to say high ruled warriors age of imprisonment is $70 for the digital version and the physical version is also $70 which you know you already know the physical version so anyways thank you for for sitting with me and sticking with me with that whole Mickey research so the game $70 back to all saying um I think when it comes to overall gameplay loop a lot of people will say that

$70 for 40 plus hours of content if it's done right is enough to justify the price now when it comes to the actual performance a lot of people and this will be going to get to the review roundup of the section of the review i mean section of the review and sales round up we're going to get to the review portion as IGM gave this game an 8 out of 10 saying quote best high ruled warriors action yet but the story is disappointing and the RPG site gave this a 10 at a 10 hold up now okay RPG site said quote best high rulers best high ruled warriors yet among best Zelda games oh that's a high praise Nintendo life gave nine at a 10 saying quote stunning missou i don't know i said that worthy of zelda canon game spot gave it a 7 out of 10

saying high point for spinoffs but the story is weaker so it's safe to say a lot of people enjoy different aspects of the zelda universe and and even though this is not blowing people's expectations out of the water even though RPG and nintendo gave it like a nine at well nintendo life gave it a 9 out of 10 RPG site gave it a 10 out of 10 so that's interesting but it seems like it's not bad by any stretch of them imagination. It's just not one of the greatest Zelda stories that you're going to run into. So going to it with that mindset or not if you're a huge Zelda fan. You know, maybe you'd be like any Zelda story is enough for me, which is how I feel with Spider-Man. So I'm still mad about

insomnia. Not giving me any DOC for a Spider-Man too, but it's okay though. When it comes to the perception from the masses, the canon debate is a real one, even though I've already said that it's fully canon so you know as far as conspiracy theories out there that saying oh it may not be canon because you never know they can always reccon it or whatever this is technically canon came from the developers mouths themselves and basically when it comes to Zelda and link pun intended they're trying to link the two together they're trying to ship the two together and they've always been like close friends that's what they've said it when it comes to

family oriented games. I will say, I'm not going to say it's weird to ship people because, you know, that's a normal thing. But to ship people to the extent that Nintendo players do Link and Zelda and Mario and Peach, I mean, they are just forever in the friend zone. Somebody got to let the Nintendo fan, boys, fan girls know that Mario and Link is forever in the fan zone. You guys. Like, so with that being said, a lot of people just aren't going to be. about the whole, oh, they're ambiguous or whatever, just working together.

So, you know, a lot of people want them to be romantically involved in a kids game. Which, you know, it's nothing wrong with. Romantically involved if they keep it PG, but as far as a kids game, they probably don't even want to hint towards a lot of the gooner bait that that ease is just full on displaying, right? So that been said. As far as free updates and post-launch support,

they did confirm that two future-free updates is planned, and the first patch added bug-fixion. and new shortcut feature free bonuses with uh ta-k-k or calamity save data which is the high guards sword and high guards claymore so if you play the game you probably know what that is i have no idea what that is but i was just letting you know the upcoming data you know the upcoming launch support for people who are already playing the game so simply put this is the first ever fully canon zelda game no link in sight Zelda is the sole main protagonist now when it comes to post credit scenes I'm not gonna spoil it but there

are post credit scenes so you already know but the Canon implements the post credit scene should also tell you what the future of the franchise is going to go and then when you come to the overall sales week one after this game came out it's so 73,000 and as I just talked about it's currently the sixth most play game on Nintendo Switch 2 it's total is 90,000 but right now it kind of slowed down as far as out the gate it has 70,000 one a week one now week after week is doing around 17,000 so and it's dropping tremendously so we don't know how long of a lifespan this particular game has but we do know right now it is technically in the top six of nintendo and as far as nintendo gamers out there

i try to cover at least one specific nintendo game for the fan base and let's just say it was either this or covering Momotoro Motoro Electric Railway 2 which is technically the first most played game on Switch but it just came out so that's kind of cheating so I didn't want to cover that so here we are with High Rule Warriors Age of Imprisonment

So with that being said click my link to you my bio let me know one of my social media is What is your favorite Zelda game of all time And do you believe Zelda franchise Is one of the greatest IPs in Nintendo history and if not what who is your favorite and you can't say Mario come on now what and you can't say Pokemon what is your favorite Nintendo IP of all time