
Game Details
- Publisher: FDG Entertainment
- Developer: Cornfox & Bros
- ESRB Rating: “E10” for Everyone 10+
- Genre: Action
- Pros: Great music; looks good; definitely has that Zelda gameplay rhythm
- Cons: No charm; a bit simple and repetitive; doesn’t do anything new
- MSRP: $15
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is the tale of a world
where mankind’s thirst for a precious resource accidentally unleashed ancient
monsters into the world. Most of those
monsters are gone now, but the biggest and baddest of them, Oceanhorn, still
roams the seas. After his father
disappears while tracking down Oceanhorn, the game’s hero picks up his father’s
sword and shield and sets out to find him.
Along the way you’ll sail around a large open ocean hopping
from one specifically themed island to another, find powerful and mysterious
items scattered around the world required to defeat evil, explore dungeons,
discover new weapons, and break a lot of clay pots. If all of that sounds familiar, that’s because it is! The story setup is obviously a little
different, but pretty much everything else is borrowed from Wind Waker.
The gameplay is exactly what you’d expect. You have a sword and shield as well as items
like bombs, a bow and arrow, and other genre tropes. There isn’t any sort of lock-on “Z-targeting” mechanic here, but
the levels aren’t really true 3D anyway – you see things more from a fixed
isometric camera angle – so you don’t really need to lock on. Instead you just mash the attack button and
wail away with your sword, occasionally blocking when you need to. The game is dead simple to play and fairly
easy, honestly, which likely is due to the game’s origins on mobile devices
where you can’t have too complicated of controls or too taxing of action. There are boss fights too, of course, which
do require a little more strategy and thought than fighting the normal enemies,
but even they are generally easier than most Zelda bosses.
The other main aspect of the gameplay is sailing from island
to island, but it is surprisingly disappointing because you don’t actually have
control in these sections. You just
select whatever island you want to travel to on the map and then the game automatically
sails you there while you watch. You do
get the ability to shoot while sailing fairly early on, which lets you attack
enemies or destroy floating crates to find treasure, but it is pretty darn
boring in practice. There is no sense
of exploration or discovery while sailing in Oceanhorn. You’re just along for the ride, which isn’t
satisfying at all.
Don’t get me wrong, despite my negative tone Oceanhorn:
Monster of Uncharted Seas actually plays just fine. It is just that if you’re blatantly cribbing from some of the
most beloved games of all time, you should probably aim higher than “just
fine”. It needs to do things better
than Wind Waker and other 3D adventure games, not simply be the same or
worse. Even the things the game does
try to do differently, like having a fishing minigame (whose controls barely
make sense) or using a level-up XP system (that seems arbitrary since you can’t
choose how to upgrade) simply don’t add much to the experience.
They also forgot one important aspect of not just Wind
Waker, but Nintendo titles in general, and that is charm and likeability. The cast in Oceanhorn is bland and
forgettable and the overall world is just sort of by the numbers and
boring. There is none of that magical
special something Nintendo always manages to add to draw you in and instead
Ocearnhorn often times just feels like its just ticking items off a checklist
of “stuff it should have”. It isn’t
especially fun. It doesn’t do anything
special. It is just a copy without the
charm.
I do have to give Oceanhorn credit for one thing, though,
and that is the presentation is actually pretty awesome. The graphics are quite good looking overall
and are very bright and colorful and pleasant to look at. The water also looks great. The sound is a little more hit and miss –
the voice acting is a definite miss – but the soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu and
Kenji Ito (they basically made all the good music for Square back in the
day) is very, very good and easily the most memorable aspect of the whole
experience.
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is a totally competent
3D adventure game, but it is also totally unspectacular. It doesn’t do anything truly special or new
or unique and it seriously lacks the charm and soul that so effectively draws
you in to other games in the genre. It
is particularly disappointing when other recent Xbox One indie releases like
Hyper Light Drifter and Stories of Bethem: Full Moon have done a great job
delivering a 2D Zelda-like experience on the system, so it is a shame Oceanhorn
couldn’t do the same for 3D Zelda. One
thing working in Oceanhorn’s favor is that it is only $15, so it isn’t a huge
investment if you’re curious and want to check it out, just don’t expect the
same magic you feel from the games it’s inspired by.