Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas

Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is an action RPG that was inspired and borrows elements from Nintendo's Zelda games, in particularly, Wind Waker. It's a fun game with great graphics, OK music and OK story. The graphics has its own charming style and the best part of the game. The characters remind me of the Rankin and Bass stop-motion animation characters. The world is colorful and uses a 3D cubic design which helps make platforming easy. The overall design blends well together. The music is good, but not memorable. It is not very epic sounding and you probably won't be humming it after you finish the game. The story was interesting at the beginning and really made me excited to play. After a while the story never really reaches a climax or any excitement and I was less interested in it after 25% of the game, but it ended up being just OK. The gameplay mechanics are great, but not deep. The controls are a little stiff at first, but you get use to it. Because of the cubic design it felt like a 2D game in 3D. It plays very similar to Zelda with the weapons, items and heart containers. I felt it was a Zelda-lite game which borrows from Zelda which never really reaches the same gameplay. I wish there was more to do with the weapons and items like finding secrets or finding new areas and get that "wow" moment. Most of the puzzles are easy, but there are a few which are challenging. The game is easy enough for everyone to play and advance gamers may enjoy it only for its charm. Overall it's a good game which is an improved IOS port which everyone should try. This is a first attempt by the developer with this type of game, so I'm giving it some credit for what it is. But, if there is a sequel I expect deeper gameplay, better music and story.

EN: I do not want to comment on this game, for all people who love Zelda this game is a must-buy. If you have massive problems starting the game (just like i did), I found a fix to avoid the game crashing after the loading screen. Right click on the desktop shortcut of the game, go to "settings" and open "compatibility" and activate the option "deactivate full screen optimizations" (something like that, I only have the German wording for this). You will see the game doesn't crash anymore after the loading screen. Well, actually I thing the developers are responsible for fixing this, but I guess it is much easier this way: user just are supposed to manage for themselves. Thats not nice! DE: Zu dem Spiel möchte ich gar nichts sagen, alle Zelda-Fans sollten sich dieses Spiel unbedingt kaufen. Wenn Du (wie ich) massive Probleme hattest, das Spiel zu starten, dann habe ich eine Lösung gefunden, damit das SPiel nach dem Ladebildschirm zu Beginn nicht abstürzt. Auf das Desktop-Symbol des Spiels klicken, dann unten "Eigenschaften" auswählen, zum Reiter "Kompatibilität" gehen und die Option "Vollbildoptimierungen deaktivieren". Das Spiel startet jetzt problemlos nach dem anfänglichen Laden. Nun, ich denke, die Entwickler sollten sowas "reparieren", aber auf diese Weise ist es natürlich viel einfacher: sollen die Nutzer doch sehen, wie sie klarkommen. Schade!

I wanted to like this game, but I can't bring myself to go any further. The story is basic and unassuming. Monsters, magical MacGuffins, hero saves the world. You go to different islands, explore dungeons and collect abilities. The game is obviously inspired by the Legend of Zelda series. For what it's trying to be, the idea of the game is great. The problem is that the main character is SLOW. He doesn't walk or run. He trudges. This leads to two big, persistent problems: 1. It takes forever to get anywhere. Because it takes so long, it becomes boring and frustrating. 2. It shatters my immersion. I look at the main character, and I don't feel like I'm him. I feel like I'm dragging him. That's frustrating in its own way. More importantly, since I don't identify with him in-game, that leaves me with no sympathy for him. You have a dash ability, but you have to use it by pressing a button. On top of that, you have a stamina bar that quickly empties, then you have to wait for it to fill back up. Also, you can't control yourself as well while dashing. You move faster, but only when you remember to press the button, only sometimes, and the controls are even worse! It just makes moving in this game even more frustrating. It could've been a fun, simple experience, but the boredom and tedium of literally just walking in this game got to be too much to handle.

-Interesting story -Fun gameplay -Very nice graphics

I really like this game. It's a fantastic job by an indie studio and so far I've had a blast playing it. It's a more colorful version of Zelda, mixed with a faint touch of Chrono Trigger perhaps, although the story is simpler and isn't anywhere near as long, but suits the game quite well. Game mechanics are good. They seemed clunky to me at first, as it's been a while since I've played a Zelda-type game, but I adjusted quickly. One thing to note is that the game doesn't handle max settings well, and does not scale them down on the fly to maintain framerate. The result is that if you set them too high, you'll find extreme lag trying to move your character or do much of anything. Not that big an issue as long as you're aware and dial the settings up gradually, rather than trying to dial them down. I was able to run it smoothly near max by locking the framerate to 30fps instead of 60 (I decided to opt for graphics over a framerate). I loved the soundtrack - it's really very nice and sounds amazing, has some good variety, but does get repetitive if you don't keep moving (i.e. staying too long in one place). Neither of these are major issues, but thought I would mention them to avoid others rage-quiting in frustration without giving the game a fair chance. It's not a particularly hard game, but it's some good casual Zelda-esque fun. Great way to relax. I look forward to the sequel. Best played with a xbox 360 controller.