Thursday, June 13, 2019

Cadence of Hyrule Released

The new indie rhythm game based on the Zelda universe, Cadence of Hyrule, releases today and Nintendo just showcased the game on their Treehouse Live stream, where you can watch the entire segment here.

screenshot of Cadence of Hyrule in the desert area

Since I don't have a Nintendo Switch yet, I have no plans on playing this any time soon. It looks alright, but I guess you have to really "feel" the game to get it, because simply watching the gameplay didn't do it for me. But I can imagine that doing everything in the rhythm can be a lot of fun.

I'm also not a fan of the rather ugly 2D sprite graphics. Don't get me wrong, I love the 2D visuals of The Minish Cap and similar games, but this looks not as lovely. Well, it's made by a small studio, so I don't want criticize it too much, but the visual quality reminds me more of Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. It looks okay, but it's no match to The Minish Cap or Four Swords Adventures.

But that's not deal-breaker and I will probably get it together with Crypt of the Necrodancer, once I have a Nintendo Switch, out of curiosity alone and because I want to own all the Zelda spin-offs, which weren't released on the Philips CDi.

PS: The game has also a guest appearance of Dampé. As I told you, a rising star!

4 comments:

Lankelink said...

I have to say, that the game feels more Zelda-ish than I expected. At least the overworld, since I have yet to go into a dungeon/crypt. It feels similar to the first Zelda, where you can find a staircase behind any bush. Although it is true that the overworld is randomized in each playthrough, it remains the same even if you die. It's like you play the first Zelda but the map is reorganized each time.

And of course, the music is great.

PS: It's true that Dampe makes an appearance in the game, but also Tingle ;)

TourianTourist said...

I suppose there will be many of the typical recurring characters: the carpenters, Malon, Talon, Beedle and so on. And please don't take the whole Dampé thing seriously, I'm just having some fun here, because I really like the new Chamber Dungeons feature in Link's Awakening and Dampé became its host. :D

Anyway, enjoy the game! You can leave some more impressions here later on, if you want.

Lankelink said...

After beating the game, these are my impressions:

- The game is short. I think the idea is to replay it (using different characters or with more difficult settings), and each time the game will feel different, so that's a good thing. Still, the dungeons should have been longer.

- The best part for me was the overworld. Once you beat all enemies in one screen, you can move freely (with no beat restriction) and solve any puzzles. The enemies will respawn if you die or when you beat a dungeon. Also, when you beat any dungeon, higher tiers of enemies will start appearing in the overworld.

- I chose to clear all the overworld first, getting all the items and pieces of heart. Then, I went to the dungeons, which felt a bit disappointing. Not only they were short, but also I was so overpowered that the bosses were not challenging at all. In my next playthrough, I will try to do the dungeons first. This way, the enemies in the overworld will be upgraded and the difficult will be higher.

- There was a difficult spike in the last dungeon, though. I enjoyed a lot the last segment.

- One negative aspect of the random nature of the game is that the last items I got felt nearly useless, I never had the chance to use them. Since most items are completely optional, I will try to use them more often for combat in my next playthrough.

- There were lots of references of the Zelda games. If you, somehow, manage to get out of the map boundaries, you will find a very nice easter egg.

- Overall, I enjoyed a lot the game. Music was superb :)

TourianTourist said...

Hey, thanks for the impressions! One more game to look forward to, once I have a Switch. :D