14 DAY TRIAL // Koei Tecmo's Hyrule Warriors, the crossover title that features popular characters from The Legend of Zelda franchise and the gameplay from its Dynasty Warriors series, has been a real boon for the publisher.
Hyrule Warriors was one of the big hits of the Nintendo Wii U home console last year, contributing to the surge in popularity that the device registered, and driving the Big N's sales to a profitable year, alongside Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8.
Although it initially seemed like a lazy knock-off of Zelda, Hyrule Warriors garnered genuine interest from Nintendo's fans and was highly praised, ending up selling over a million copies worldwide.
Koei Tecmo, the makers of the popular Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors franchises, reported that the success of the Zelda-themed Hyrule Warriors reflected quite positively on their other brands, revitalizing them.
In a recent interview with MCV, Producer Akihiro Suzuki mentions that the series has been in a steady decline for years, as it is a pretty repetitive affair, aimed at core fans. Their recent collaboration, however, gave the franchise a second wind, bringing in new fans to its base games.
He also mentions that it will be the company's task to keep the new players happy, after they had a chance to try out the core games, and that Koei Tecmo will have to find ways to make them feel fresh moving forward.
Hyrule Warriors' success paves the way for more crossovers
The developer of the Warriors games, Omega Force, just released Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 home consoles from Sony at the end of February.
The game is the result of a collaboration with Square Enix, using characters and monsters from the Dragon Quest series, and letting players enjoy Warriors-style gameplay.
The spin-off will surely prove beneficial to Koei Tecmo, perhaps even as beneficial as Hyrule Heroes. In any case, it's likely that we'll get to see more similar crossover titles pop up in the future.
Dragon Quest Heroes is also headed to western markets sometime later this year, with a yet unannounced release date.
