by There’s a strong sense of déjà vu that comes from playing Oceanhorn. This mobile adventure stars a brave boy that sails to different islands, overcomes puzzling dungeons, and gains the tools necessary to combat evil and essentially save his kingdom. Despite not featuring princesses or golden triangles, there’s no denying that the game draws heavily from Nintendo’s iconic The Legend of Zelda series, particularly Wind Waker. However, instead of merely giving us a facsimile and porting it to iOS, Oceanhorn handpicks what it borrows and creates an experience well worth playing.
As you’d expect, much of the 10-hour journey is spent exploring dungeons and retrieving their treasures. Oceanhorn manages to create a sense of wonder with each new environment it introduces, and its dungeons hold several puzzles for you to solve. They may not be the most difficult challenges you’re faced with in the game, but they do require some thought and provide a nice break from slashing enemies with your sword. Boss battles, on the other hand, are quite impressive and feel like puzzles in themselves, putting your new weapons and skills to the test.
Despite being similar to the Zelda games, Oceanhorn also introduces a welcome and effective leveling-up system that rewards you for the enemies you defeat. Spending some time doing side-quests, completing challenges, or fighting extra baddies helps raise your Adventurer rank, netting you bonuses and useful items. What does hurt the experience, however, is being given too much freedom and not knowing what to do next. Its multi-tiered level design gives the game a nice illusion of depth, but it also makes it easy to get lost. This problem is exacerbated by clunky touch controls that don’t often respond to your swipes, leading to some frustrating moments when trying to move and attack.
It’s Oceanhorn’s polished presentation that ultimately makes it shine. Spanning several islands, the game’s lush locations are not only colorful and brimming with detail, but also accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack headlined by acclaimed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. Endearing cut-scenes and strong voice acting add the finishing touches to a game that sounds as amazing as it looks.
The bottom line. Though not perfect, Oceanhorn delivers an impressive Zelda-like adventure that anyone can enjoy.
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