Hyrule Warriors Legends: What’s New on 3DS vs Wii U

My Fairy

At a glance Hyrule Warriors Legends might look like a simple, graphically downgraded port of 2014’s Hyrule Warriors for the Wii U. While the gameplay is the same, and many aspects have indeed been directly copied from one game to the other, there are plenty of differences that set the two apart and make them their own games worthy of playing.

Hyrule Warriors Legends features a brand new mode from the Wii U original called My Fairy. Throughout Adventure Mode you might find fairies in bottles when you break open item jars. After the battle, you can view all captured fairies in My Fairy mode, and outfit them with different clothes and abilities. Much like new playable characters and alternate costumes, fairy clothing can also be found in certain Adventure Mode stages as rewards. You’ll also need to feed your fairies to help them grow, and you can also find food in random jars just like the fairies themselves.

Fairies all have differing abilities and specialties which will level up with more food. Once you’ve maxed out a fairy’s level, you can revert them back to level 1. They’ll retain 10% of their stats, thus allowing you to grow them even stronger than before.

This all becomes useful because you can take a fairy into battle as a companion of sorts to assist you on your journey. Their wide range of abilities could lower enemy speed or defense, raise ally attack power, replenish lost hearts, or even increase your rupee gain in that level.

New My Fairy outfits are planned to be released with most of the upcoming DLC packs for Hyrule Warriors Legends.

New and Additional Characters

There have been six new characters added to the roster in Hyrule Warriors Legends, five of which are exclusive to the 3DS title unless you purchase the appropriate add-on in the Wii U counterpart: Toon Link, Tetra, King Daphnes, and Medli from The Wind Waker are all featured in Legends, though Medli won’t be available until the first DLC pack drops in May. From Majora’s Mask, the often requested Skull Kid joins the fight as well. Finally there is Linkle. Linkle is a brand new character to the Legend of Zelda universe, and believes herself to be the legendary hero reborn.

In addition to the new characters, Wii U DLC characters are included as well. Cia, Volga, and Wizzro, which came with the Master Quest Pack, Twili Midna from the Twilight Princess Pack, and Young Link and Tingle from the Majora’s Mask Pack.

All six of these characters are included in the base package of Hyrule Warriors Legends. They must be unlocked by playing the game, of course, but they’re there all the same.

New Legend Mode Scenarios

Hyrule Warriors had a fairly expansive story mode, spanning 18 scenarios. With the Master Quest pack DLC, five new scenarios were added in to tell the bad guys’ side of the story.

Hyrule Warriors Legends features all 23 scenarios from the original game as well as nine more new ones. A few of these new scenarios cover Linkle and Skull Kid’s stories, while the majority are focused on how the Wind Waker crew’s stories all tie in.

While the new playable characters can all be transferred to the Wii U version with a code or separate purchase, these nine new scenarios are completely exclusive to Legends.

Brand New DLC from the Handheld Games

The downloadable content from Hyrule Warriors focused more on home console games, such as Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess; offering new Adventure Mode maps and playable characters inspired by, and pulled from those titles.

Meanwhile the upcoming DLC in Hyrule Warriors Legends will feature fresh content from handheld classics such as Link’s Awakening, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and A Link Between Worlds. The four new characters releasing among those packs will likely be available for the Wii U as well, but the remaining content – new My Fairy costume pieces and Adventure Mode maps – will likely be exclusive to Legends.

Updated Gameplay Mechanics

Hyrule Warriors Legends has some updated gameplay mechanics that greatly improve the flow of battle. Using the bottom screen of the 3DS you can tap other playable characters in a stage with you to immediately take control of them, and play from their position. Additionally, you can tell your playable allies where to go and what to focus on, instead of standing guard in an occupied keep doing nothing.

There are also Owl Statues that can be activated on large maps, and a new Ocarina item alongside the bombs, arrows, and boomerang from before. Using the Ocarina allows you to instantly teleport to any active Owl Statue. These mechanics are currently exclusive to the 3DS version.