Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity works as a prequel to Breath of the Wild, chronicling the events that happened 100 years prior to Link Waking up. It's an interesting game as it's a prequel to Breath of the Wild, but also technically a spiritual sequel to the first Hyrule Warriors, which is totally unconnected to Breath of the Wild.
Hyrule Warriors was a Dynasty Warriors spinoff that combined the two series, using the core gameplay of Warriors and layering in elements of Zelda on top of that. The first game featured character from across the Zelda franchise, but Age of Calamity focuses exclusively on Breath of the Wild.
Age of Calamity is separate from Breath of the Wild 2, which is still in development at Nintendo. It may not be immediately clear to fans how Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild are different, but in terms of gameplay, they're quite different experiences.
Age of Calamity Is Likely More Dynasty Warriors Than Zelda
The first Hyrule Warriors used elements from the Legend of Zelda but it was far more of a Dynasty Warriors experience, and Age of Calamity is likely going to be the same. Instead of exploring an open world, players go through a series of stages that are themed as massive battles. Players can take control of a multitude of different characters, and it's confirmed that Age of Calamity will let players control Link, Zelda, and the Four Champions. The combat in Warriors games is entirely combo-based, with players able to link light and heavy attacks for different combos.
The official site for Age of Calamity lists dozens of cutscenes as one of the main features, which means that the core gameplay likey doesn't deviate too far from Dynasty Warriors. At the same time, however, in the announcement video Yosuke Hayashi, producer at Koei Tecmo, says Age of Calamity was developed alongside Nintendo at every step of the process. While Nintendo did license the previous Hyrule Warriors, it wasn't directly involved in development. This means there could be some massive gameplay changes in Age of Calamity, and screenshots already show characters using Rune abilities like Magnesis.
The first game had multiple weapons for characters and a wealth of abilities that players could purchase. While those elements haven't been shown off it'd be surprising to not see some kind of weapon and ability system, as nearly every Warriors game has one. It'll be interesting to see how a serious canonical story plays out in Hyrule Warriors, considering the game was mostly freeform levels. Still, fans shouldn't expect a similar experience to Breath of the Wild, considering the project started from Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma thinking Warriors gameplay would fit the experience.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity launches on November 20 for Nintendo Switch.