Regardless, Oceanhorn sent my realm of thought there… Admittedly, I was thinking about how great it would be to be playing it on my Nintendo Switch, with traditional controls. The very nature of Oceanhorn’s outdoor adventuring vibe got me thinking about Skyward Sword a lot too.
Be it the medallions plucked straight from the pages of Ocarina of Time, the boating sections that borrow so much from Wind Waker or the over-reliance on orb based puzzles later in the game, ala Twilight Princess.
I fully intended to judge Oceanhorn 2 based off of its own merits and not continuously compare it to The Adventures of Link, however as the game progressed, I felt the influences more and more.
For the most part, they’re all quite straightforward to work out but the occasional overly obtuse offering had me scratching my head for some time before trial and error or sheer luck prevailed. The enemy variations may be lacking, but overall a bright and vibrant set of environments has been crafted that keeps the game fresh and interesting as you move through this 12-hour adventure.īreath of the Wild aside, 3D Zelda titles (and 2D ones for that matter) always strongly utilised a plethora of puzzles to keep your wits about you and The Legend of Zelda: Oceanhorn 2 is no different, with plenty of torches, levers and targets present in both the overworld and the game’s dungeons. There’s a good deal of variety in the locales and the developers should be commended for creating a compelling game world.
While the initial entry into the Oceanhorn series was an almost top-down, isometric 2.5D experience, Oceanhorn 2 is a full-blown 3D adventure that sees out raggedy gang traverse the land, sea, and sky, as well as repairing and subsequently riding a train to boot. The overall sense of a Zelda-like experience is strong and resonates deeply. Oceanhorn 2 does a lot of things, some well, some less so.