I liked the Hyrule warriors because everybody knows that just a game of the franchise.
The AoC - you buy the game thinking that it will be telling us the history of 100 years ago but is not true :(

Just finished the story today. Still a bunch of missions to go, but story wise I loved it. I read spoilers before playing and I wasn't sure I was going to like certain things but I'm really happy with how it turned out. One thing I wish though, that they made Link's face more expressive.... That is my only gripe with the game. Honestly my game of the year. Story, gameplay, soundtrack, all awesome! It ran just fine for me, only noticing the occasional dips in framerate. I think I still have to give the 1st Hyrule Warriors a slight edge right now, still in terms of content... I'm pretty sure I'm almost done all quests, will have my characters maxed out in no time, and will soon be left wanting more.

On a random note, I agree with Game Theory that Nintendo should just make Hyrule Warriors canon, which would explain the convergence. Kinda like how DC is using Flash to connect like every DC movie (but still separate at the same time)...

I feel like I'm repeating myself... Man I love both of these games so much. But after the credits rolled for Age of Calamity, I still think the first is slightly better. But again, that could change in the future, so I will definitely revisit this thread again at some point in the future.

I always tough we would have a hyrule warriors 2, but would be after botw2, and based on content of two games. I though it would be a celebration of the game like the HW1 was to the franchise.
And the way it happened surpased my expectations.
Creating a new timeline for it and linking so well with the original game story was way better than the generic way they connect the games in the first HW.
The gameplay is more diverse with the flying attacks and sheikah stone runes, and each character has different ways to use and interact with the runes. The environment desing is better, with more elevation and more organic. HW1 the outposts were only squares easily determined, predictable. Now they are anything.
They ditched the constant element for each character and implement a element system based on the rods you get from the elemental monsters, so every character has access to any element. Special attacks with A also do not break the shields anymore, but seems that there are more opportunities to let the enemies vulnerable to break their shields. Many touches that make feel like a very different game.
And drinking on the botw aestesyc there is no error, the visual art and music is stunning. Even the HUD.

In my idealization, I thought we would play as the vilains as well. So I imagined playing as Hinox, some variation of a guardian, Lynel, or even the blight ganon bosses, killing thousands of hyrule soldiers,ritos, zoras, gerudos, sheikahs, and revenge from champions.
Well, and knowing that they went in the botw backstory, I expected that the story would show more of the relationship of the champions. I felt they spend little time on this.