Posted on: November 17, 2021

fade0ff

Games: 1218 Reviews: 83

As close as it gets to SNES Zelda

This was quite exactly what I was hoped for: an action adventure inspired by Zelda on the SNES. I liked it a lot but some quirks and the lack of some final polishing result in 4 stars. I needed ~20h where a lot of that was running around searching for locations I visited before but couldn't find again easily. The good: The graphics are quite beautiful and you get all the bush whacking, pot smashing and dungeon exploring that you would hope for. The world is quite large and open, i.e. the world maps consists of separate scrolling areas some screens wide, but there's a transition between the areas. The controls work like a charm. There's a somewhat interesting (but not totally gripping) story and quite pleasant music. There are quite a few side quests and some secrets to discover. You can upgrade your weapons and armor, find spells and new weapons needed to access certain areas. The game's not really hard as you can earn money by selling items you get by killing monsters or cutting flowers to buy healing potions etc. The not so good: Dungeons are small. There's a coarse world map which _sometimes_ tells you where you are but typically doesn't. I'm unsure if this is a bug or a feature. You can only fast travel with a ship and not even to all major locations. Which means running around a lot and there are regions where it's hard to not get hit by rocks etc. especially when in a hurry. All of this adds up to a bit of a nuisance. A better automap and easier fast travel would've saved me a few hours I guess. The bad: There is no savegame handling whatsoever. You can backup the save file manually in your AppData\Roaming\OceansHeart folder and you should do that before entering the final battle. The game messed up my last save game after I won the final fight and I couldn't continue to finish a side quest since loading that last save resulted in ending the game when trying to leave the island. Meh. Btw. the savegame is a plain text file, so you could edit your way out.

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Posted on: June 21, 2021

Pointy_Things

Verified owner

Games: 16 Reviews: 3

Scratch the 2D Zelda Itch

I totally recommend Ocean's Heart. Story was simple and engaging. Gameplay was what you may expect from a 2d Zelda title, but with some more depth in terms of RPG mechanics. There are cool items and abilities that actually feel useful in combat. Not all of these items are equal, some of them particularly stand out. Powerful optional items are a thing that sometimes feel lacking in Zelda-likes, so having some really strong optional items made exploration feel very rewarding. There's an in-game way to make enemies more damaging- which I did because I am a glutton for punishment. Though I did not find it too punishing. If you think you would enjoy a greater challenge, it was right on the money for me. I liked that you did not get waypoints and instead had to pay attention to NPCs describing where things are in the world. It might be worth it to keep some notes on where things are if you are playing this in shorter sessions over a longer period of time. Definitely made to be played on a controller. The screen shake is real excessive so I turned that off. Keys are rebindable. Though in doing so I briefly caused a glitch where the game would crash, I had accidentally bound two things to left on the joystick and the game did not like that. That was the only major glitch I encountered. Though there were minor glitches about the game queuing up either the wrong animation or the wrong attack when you spam buttons quickly. I can't tell if it was an advantage but it certainly wasn't a hindrance. Art was good if a bit plain sometimes. Music was good but not the kinda bops you get out of Zelda, which I know is unfair. That's a major strength of Zelda. Writing was good, I played in English. It ran well for me, I had no issues. If you are looking at Ocean's Heart and think you will enjoy it, I am inclined to say that you are right. I would even say that this could be a good game for a more patient child.

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Posted on: March 21, 2021

Prisae

Verified owner

Games: 118 Reviews: 1

Nice start, Dissapointment later on

I really love those Zelda-like games and of course this game is comparable to A Link to the past. This game starts out really nice, good looking graphics, challenging battles and lots of sidequests. You get the feeling that it's worth exploring the world and so you do. But as quickly as this game catches your interest it gets lost in a pretty straight forward gameplay. As soon as you realice that you can collect healing stuff to heal several hundreds(!) of hearts, you also realice that it's pretty pointless to search the world for heart containers or other stuff. Healing stuff is pretty easy and cheap to get too. Because of that unlimited healing all the battles are pointless. The final bosses have a huge arsenal of skills, but what's the point. You just stand there and mash the attack button (and heal when necessary) until the bosses finally collaps. Same that goes for fighting also goes for the dungeon design. It's not too bad, but there is also no point in trying to avoid any traps and so you just rush through every dungeon. While there are some puzzles, they are not the big challenge. All in all i expected much more...

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Posted on: December 26, 2022

MotherKojiro

Verified owner

Games: 481 Reviews: 195

A Lovely Adventure

I know what you're thinking just looking at this, and yes, it is reminiscent of Zelda, but it goes in directions that Nintendo should've figured out ages ago, so it is no cheap imitation. The combat is solid, and while I don't want to spoil anything, the inventory contains at least one item you've wanted in a 2D Zelda since the early '90s. There aren't a ton of items that you need to solve puzzles, but the game is much more focused on exploration. In fact, for most of the game, there are several different places you can explore, which may or may not relate to the main quest. The structure isn't so rigid, either; you don't have big, important dungeons that exist just to keep you from the next plot point, and the bosses aren't such a big deal, either, so it all feels very natural. That does put this a bit on the easier side, but if that really bothers you, there are several NPCs that give you hints as to where you can find Hard Mode. The bells and whistles are pretty good, too, starting with the writing. Tilia is a fun protagonist that's always willing to help, whether or not that means cracking a few skulls. She's no frail mage, but she also isn't one of those female protagonists that's CONSTANTLY reminding you how tough she is; she strikes a very good balance. Pretty decent humor is sprinkled throughout the adventure, too, and there are some great characters to meet along the way. Visually, you can see from the screenshots that the world is very pretty, and you'll wind up in some intriguing places. The music does a great job of fitting the areas where it plays, even if it isn't something I'd listen to out of context. If you like what Zelda has to offer, or even if you want to, but you've found it lacking, this comes highly recommended.

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Posted on: April 1, 2021

GoGPasci

Verified owner

Games: 982 Reviews: 20

I Love Zelda style games

Finally another Zelda clone. Im only few hours into the game. I will update my review after i finished the game. I finished all Zelda games to date. obviously i love this franchise. my favourites are the top down games. So far im very happy with this game. I whish they would make more like these.

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