Of the many new features introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the ability to cook meals was one that stood out among fans. Hunting and foraging for new and rare ingredients throughout beautiful Hyrule was one of the things that made BOTW feel so lively. Then, being able to combine those rare ingredients and create new dishes and stat buffs made the exploration feel all the more worthwhile. Cooking meals also featured great music and some adorable Link animations that deserve highlighting. The upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will serve as a prequel to BOTW, but appears to be a vastly different game. One of the major differences between these two games is the cooking mechanics.
In terms of gameplay, Age of Calamity is less of a Breath of the Wild sequel and more of a Hyrule Warriors follow-up based on the events that set up BOTW. These two games will share some similarities, but, overall, will play completely different. The overwhelming amount of Age of Calamity’s gameplay is dedicated to combat. The main premise of the game is to have players have and slash their way through waves of hundreds upon hundreds of enemies. Players won’t be able to explore areas like in Breath of the Wild, and as a result, hunting and foraging for food will not be a prominent feature. The map in Age of Calamity will cover all of the Hyrule introduced in BOTW, but broken up into smaller segments. This also takes away some of the game’s exploration.
Cooking is still a feature in Age of Calamity, it’s just entirely different from Breath of the Wild. Players will be able to find ingredients as they complete missions, but only as a reward or a drop from an enemy. Almost all of the different ingredients from BOTW make a return in Age of Calamity, like Chill Fin Trout and Endura Shrooms. Unfortunately, players will not be able to prepare these ingredients in the same way as in Breath of the Wild.
Cooking in Age of Calamity is Nothing Like Breath of the Wild
Before every mission, players have the option to cook some food in preparation for battle. In order to cook meals in this Legend of Zelda title, however, players will need a recipe beforehand. Players can no longer combine random ingredients they found to see what they might be able to create. This takes away a lot of the creativity that cooking had in BOTW and ties the players hands together a bit. Recipes don’t seem like they’ll be all that hard to find, though. Players can unlock new recipes through side quests and other missions.
The meals themselves will also behave differently from Breath of the Wild. Although players will be making almost all of the same meals from the previous game, they provide different kinds of stat buffs. In Breath of the Wild, different meals could provide extra hearts, stamina, or a weather resistances. Meals in Age of Calamity, on the other hand, provide things like buffs against certain types of enemy attacks, like fire attacks or ice attacks, or enhanced movement speed. Meals can also heal characters, obviously, but all of their advantages in Age of Calamity seem to be focused mainly on combat. Each playable character will also feature their own favorite food that gives them a specific stat boost. And while the delightful cooking animations won’t be making a return, there are new animations for Link eating on the battlefield that might be even better.
While Age of Calamity and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are two fairly similar games, their differences run much deeper than just cooking mechanics. Players interested in experiencing these differences first hand should download the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity demo that is currently available in the Nintendo eShop.
