Hyrule Total War

Cover of Hyrule: Total War

We'll not be remembered as just fairy tales anymore... we'll be remembered as a Legend that will echo through all time.

—Princess Midna

A completely fan made game of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, Hyrule: Total War seemingly came out of nowhere and in a short span of time exploded everywhere on the internet. The game allows players to take command of many iconic characters and races from the series and assemble them into massive armies. As such players will use those armies to wage wars across the face of Hyrule.

Though technically a mod for Medieval II: Total War, the quality of Hyrule: Total War often caused it to be mistaken for an official game upon first sight. IGN even presented it alongside Skyward Sword on October 21, 2011. Hyrule: Total War is also still considered in progress, with regular updates adding in more characters and playable factions.

The official thread for the mod can be found here.

---

Tropes used in Hyrule Total War include:

• Action Girl: Princess Zelda, Saria, Midna, and pretty much every female character that's ever appeared in Zelda series suddenly kicks ass.
• Adorkable: Look at Ralph's little goggles. Awww.
• Also Sprach Zarathustra: Epic buildup of choir and pipe organ anyone?
• Alternate Timeline: Word of God says that this game has no ties to the official games in the series, on account of the official timeline being completely messed up.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Zora Dominion. Apparently they think anyone who does not abide by their anorexic metallic corset wearing doctrine is a lesser species and must be purified, including the Lanayru Zoras.
• And Man Grew Proud: The reason many of the races seem to dislike or hate the Hylians.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Any battle against the Fairies of Tarm.
• And I Must Scream: Dezaia. Trapped in enchanted armour by her successor, and made into an Attack Animal.
• Anti-Cavalry: The Labrynna Regime seems devoted to this school of thought.
• Army of the Dead: Both the Stalfos and Ikana.
• Artificial Stupidity Boss units, Onox in particular, like to run off and plow into giant masses of enemy troops. Despite their power this often gets them killed really fast.
• Back Stab: The Sheikah often do this if you manage to sneak them up behind enemy troops.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Every character becomes blood soaked after fighting in combat for several moments.
• BFG: The Essence of Tarm's main form of attack. The giant creature literally unleashes a pink laser of doom from its torso that torches entire columns of soldiers with a One-Hit Kill.
• BFS: Virtually every unit available to the Darknut Legion.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Almost every Fairy that shows up in the game.
• Bring It: Most hero and villain characters do this at the start of a battle.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: All the Deku Scrubs.
  • Princess Ruto.
• Chainmail Bikini: Shockingly and largely Averted. Virtually every female character, even the usually naked Princess Ruto, is well clothed or well armored.
  • The exception being the Great Fairies who seem to wear nothing but frilly thongs and bras into battle.
• Child Soldiers: The Kokiri
• City Guards: Contrary to their complete and utter ineffectiveness in canon Zelda games, Hylian Town Guards are now very effective military units.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Word of God implies the inclusion of Midna is an attempt to fulfill this trope, which started when Midna was needlessly tossed out of Zelda canon to never show up in an official game again.
• Collared by Fashion: Many of the female characters.
• Cool Horse: Mounted Fire Warriors. Seriously, there's not much that can top the pure epicness of fully armored Gorons riding Dodongos.
• Costume Porn: Despite the fact that female characters tend to wear decent amounts of clothing, a vast majority of them wear corsets over their outfits. Good luck fighting a war with your lungs being crushed Princess Zelda...
  • It could be said Princess Zelda Took a Level In Badass for being able to effectively battle hundreds of soldiers while donning a corset.
• Cowardly Boss: Veran, who despite being considered a boss unit occasionally runs away from a fight like a coward if she's outnumbered.
• Crapsack World: Considering virtually every race in Hyrule is going to war...
• Creepy Child: The Queen of Fairies. Arguably Saria.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Any fight with General Onox, unless you have masses of archers to deal with him.
• Cyborg: Arguably the statue bodies that the Oocca wear to manipulate objects.
• Darker and Edgier: Mass warfare, actual blood, and the potential slaughter of iconic characters from the official games.
  • Word of God says a darker Zelda game that he could actually take seriously again was one of his motivations for making the mod.
• Darkest Hour: The entire freaking point of this game.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Many races normally considered evil in the official Zelda games generally have more noble motives for their actions. It's actually implied that the Hylians are Magnificent Bastards enforcing their will on everyone else.
  • In fact, the only traditional evil faction with no other motive than slaughter is the Stalfos horde. Even the would-be tyrant manipulator Veran just wants Onox back, alongside the domination thing.
• Dark Mistress: Veran, who apparently had a relationship with Onox before his untimely death and resurrection as a skeletal dragon.
• Death From Above: The Great Fairies' main method of attack, as well as most archer based units in the game. Occasionally Sheikah Assassins will also dive bomb unto enemies.
• Death Mountain: Oddly it seems to be inactive during the events of this game.
• Dem Bones: Stalfos and Ikana, but the former is more literal, the latter is a cursed kingdom.
• Demonic Possession: Queen Ambi. Poor, poor Queen Ambi.
• Diabolus Ex Machina: The storyline seems to just be screaming that it will lead up to this...
• Dual-Wielding: Princess Zelda, to great effect, duel wields swords.
• Eldritch Abomination: Bongo-Bongo, Majora, and the Essence of Tarm.
• Elves Versus Dwarves: The Zora (Elves) and Gorons (Dwarves) are rival factions here.
• Epic Flail: General Onox tossing aside dozens of soldiers in his path... with his bare hands.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Zelda, Princess Ruto, Princess Midna, the Deku Princess, and arguably Nardu the White.
• Everything Fades: Averted. Corpses from killed soldiers permanently stay where they fall, eventually leading to giant masses of bodies piling up by the end of battles.
• Evil Empire: Averted. Every organized military in the game seems to be jerks with noble intentions.
• Evil Matriarch: Nardu the White, Sulkaris, Matriarch, and virtually every Gohma leader figure.
• Expy: Majora is now rather similar to Gollum. He even uses voice clips of Andy Serkis for him.
• The Fair Folk: The once-harmless Fairies have been re-interpreted as this.
• Fairy Battle: Averted. Fairies in this game can ignite entire legions of soldiers on fire.
• Fantastic Racism: The Hylians and Gerudo seem to despise each other openly. The Gorons and Zora seem to hate each other though not openly.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Fairy Golems.
• Finishing Move: Occasionally performed by many units in the game if they manage to stagger their targets. Notable mentions go to Goron Fire Warriors, who smash the heads of their victims with a giant hammer.
• Foreshadowing: "And we will not be remembered as just fairy tales anymore..."
• Game Breaking Bug: Being a mod, it's expected that there are some bugs of this nature. Notable mentions include selecting the unfinished Campaign option and then trying to switch to a Custom Battle.
• Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: The Essence of Tarm
• Glass Cannon: Almost every Fairy unit.
• God Is Evil: The Goddesses. They created the world, abandoned it, and flooded it with water when they finally returned and did not like what they saw.
• God of Evil: Majora, who actually actively claims to be the lesser of two evils compared to the Goddesses.
• Gonk: Virtually every Moblin unit.
• Gray and Grey Morality: Every faction in the game seems to be capable of being assholes, contrary to their portrayals in the official Zelda games.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: The Zoras
• Half-Human Hybrid: Lanayru Zoras
• Happily Married: It's implied that each incarnation of Princess Zelda has a fair relationship in order to give birth to the next Princess Zelda.
• Heroic BSOD: Virtually every heroic character in the game the first time they see a massive wall of Gohma charging at them from across the screen.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Every humanoid race in the game, with the possible exception of the Kokiri.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Potentially averted. It's actually possible to kill Ganon before he even has any significance on the plot.
• Hive Mind: The Gohma swarm.
• Hive Queen: Sulkaris
• Horseback Heroism: Helmasaur Riders. They can barely keep themselves from falling off for crying out loud.
• Hot Amazon: The entirety of the Gerudo race.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side: Link
• Implacable Man: General Onox. Nothing short of a massive volley of arrows seems to be able to stop him from plowing through fields of enemy soldiers.
• Interspecies Romance: Both Saria and Midna, who are fundamentally different in their biology, apparently want Link to take them.
  • Lanayru Zoras are the offspring of Hylian/Zora romances, hence why they look so different from Domain Zoras.
• I Will Wait for You: Averted. Midna does not seem to like the ending that was given to her in Twilight Princess. And by the look of things in the trailer, she's going to do something about it.
• Jerkass: Zaleen.
• Kid Hero: All the Kokiri.
• Lady of War: Every female character that shows up in the game.
• Laughing Mad: Majora, whose laugh was supposedly provided by Andy Serkis.
• Leitmotif: Each playable faction in the game plays their theme when you start a custom battle.
• Little Miss Badass: Saria.
• Limited Wardrobe: Each race tends to have very similar outfits amongst themselves with minor variations.
  • It could be argued that this is because most of them are military uniforms.
  • Every woman wearing corsets also seems to be a very common trend in this version of Hyrule...
• Loads and Loads of Loading: Every time you start a custom battle...
• Losing the Team Spirit: Almost any unit in the game if they become surrounded or outnumbered will promptly pull a 180 and make a run for it.
  • The exception are the Stalfos, who are immune to fear.
• Leeroy Jenkins: General Onox, who tends to mindlessly charge into massive hordes of enemies regardless of being ordered to or not.
• Made of Iron: Iron Knuckles.
• Mad God: Who else but Majora?
• Mama Bear: Gohma Queens and the Matriarch
• Mind Control Device: Sulkaris' willpower alone can directly control the movement of thousands of Gohma.
• Mono-Gender Monsters: Averted. Almost every creature in the game is actually given a gender, even the Moblins.
  • The only exception is Majora, who even though is commonly accepted as male in canon, is often portrayed as genderless in Hyrule: Total War.
• The Musketeer: Labrynna Gunners.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Virtually every Hylian character in the game.
• Necromantic: Veran, who wants to resurrect Onox from the dead. Incidentally he apparently was resurrected without her knowing during the game's events. It is likely that this will not deter her efforts.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: All of the horrible events that take place in the game are attributed to Link going back in time to stay a little kid forever and thus messing up history. Nice one Link.
• Noble Demon: Ganon, who seems to want justice brought upon the Hylians for pillaging his race and murdering his parents when he was a kid.
• No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: Magic is surprisingly rare in the game, and in most cases is explained as biological functions or technology.
  • Zora Mages' electric jolts are naturally produced in their bodies like electric eels.
  • It's implied Fairy magic is misunderstood alien technology provided to them by a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere
  • Labrynna's guns and hydraulic technology is mistaken for magic by the medieval races of Hyrule.
  • The divine Oocca, considered supernatural beings by many in Hyrule, are little more then high tech chickens Touched By a Vorlon.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Since Link left this timeline, things started spiraling out of control...
• Ominous Latin Chanting: More then half the music in the game. Two of the three Main Menu themes take the cake.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: More then half the music in the game. Notable mention goes to the track called The Goddess Mocker, which is the Song of Time and Majora's Theme performed in nothing but pipe organ.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Majora
• One-Hit Kill: Labrynna Gunners can one shot most enemies from a distance. The Essence of Tarm also has no problem instantly frying entire legions of soldiers with a Pink laser beam.
• One-Man Army: General Onox. The Stallord and Ganon to a lesser extent.
• One-Winged Angel: Ganon, Midna, and even Saria.
• Onrushing Army: Ordona Province's tactics are largely based on this.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Ralph looks neat in his cap, cape, sword and shield. Take a moment to work out who he resembles (just in blue) though, and suddenly his eccentricities and social anxiety become evidence of someone who's spent his entire life in another man's shadow.
• Pants-Free: Great Fairies, who glide into battle wearing nothing nothing but underwear.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Any of Princess Zelda's outfits. Long dresses, ornamental armor, and detailed waist crushing corsets are totally helpful in a pitched war zone.
• Praetorian Guard: Princess Zelda's Iron-clad Elites and Ganondorf's Vagrudanon.
• Precocious Crush: Both Saria and Midna seem to have the hots for Link. Though in the case of the latter, it's a full-grown woman who wants him.
• Prequel: The game follows the conflicts that took place before the Great Flood wiped out Hyrule.
• Princesses Rule: Princess Zelda, Princess Ruto, Princess Midna, the Deku Princess, and arguably Nardu the White.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Every single Darknut except Onan, who wants to reform the Darknut race.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Lord Akazoo Vapith, who has become a psychopathic-undead-skeletal-magician-Magnificent Bastard that paints his own flesh ridden skull with clown makeup. Yikes.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Apparently frilly pink panties help Great Fairies unleash long ranged flamethrowers.
• Raised by Dudes: The Gorons.
• Real Is Brown: Compared to official Zelda games, Hyrule Total War has a very desaturated color palette.
  • Almost averted by the bright colors of all the Fairies.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Surprisingly, Ganondorf, who's simply trying to assure his people survival in the face of oppression of the Hylians.
• Religion of Evil: The Church of Majora.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted. Both the Lizalfos and Tokay are portrayed as just culturally misunderstood rather then outright evil.
• Right Under Their Noses: Sheikah battle tactics revolve entirely around this.
• Schizo-Tech: The Labrynna Regime. They have mechs for cripes sake.
• Shirtless Scene: Any time you play as the Fairies of Tarm.
• Shock and Awe: Zora Mages
• Shut UP, Hannibal: Half the characters in the game that are in positions of power. Possibly even Princess Zelda.
• Small Annoying Creature: The Deku Scrubs.
• Sociopathic Hero: Zaleen
• Speaking Simlish: Midna, who narrates the game.
• Spider Tank: Or more rather, Tank Spiders known as Armogohmas.
• Spoiler Opening: The intro cinematic of the game reveals Midna long before she physically appears in the storyline.
• Starfish Aliens / Starfish Language: The Oocca, the Goddesses of Hyrule, and Majora.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Pretty much any match involving the Gorons.
• Suspiciously Small Army: The Sheikah
• Stealth Insult: It could be argued the entire game is this in regards to the Toon Zelda games.
• Technicolor Death: Any poor soldier hit by the Essence of Tarm's pink laser beam of doom.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The first The Legend of Zelda game where Princess Zelda herself can be brutally assaulted and killed by Ganon.
• The High Queen: The Queen of Fairies, Nardu the White.
• The Order: The Order of the Wizzrobe.
• The Power of Love: Both Saria and Midna seem to use this as a driving force for their sudden ability to kick the ass of every enemy soldier they encounter.
  • Also the motivating factor of Hylian and Zora couples in Lanayru Province.
  • Veran's determined efforts to bring back Onox.
• Took a Level In Badass: Without Link around, the usually conquered peoples have not only become less pleasant, but also far more capable of defending themselves against the likes of the Moblin and Gerudo. Particularly Princess Zelda, who finally dons armor, dual wields swords, and actually engages in battle after years of being kidnapped, firing arrows sporadically from a distance, or surrendering to Zant before lifting her sword in Twilight Princess.
• Tron Lines: The Twili, the Fairies of Tarm, and the Kingdom of Ikana.
• Vain Sorceress: Veran, who undergoes extraordinary pain to keep her body from collapsing into a pile of purple jello.
• Victory Pose: Most units in the game do this after they slaughter a particularly large batch of enemy soldiers.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The first Zelda game that lets the player commit mass genocide.
• Wall Crawl: The Gohma.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Essence of Tarm.
  • General Onox, if you can keep him away from archers.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: One of the most heart pumping main menu screens ever.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ganon. Arguably Princess Zelda.
• World of Badass: No matter who you are: Kokiri, Hylian, Goron, Zora, Twili, doesn't matter. If you wanna survive in this world, then you need to be a badass.
• World Tree: The Great Deku Tree, which can now apparently move around and gobble up enemy soldiers.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: You can, if Ganon/Ganondorf dies an ignominious death in battle against what used to be a Redshirt Army.
• Zerg Rush: The Gohma.