Cadence of Hyrule: First Impressions

Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the Necrodancer featuring The Legend of Zelda isn't exactly new, but I've avoided the game until now, where the physical version of the game came out. The timing was quite perfect, however, because I was in need of another good couch coop game, after we had fully completed Overcooked! 2 the other day with all its DLCs and updates and absolutely all stars, also on Nintendo Switch.

Actually, I've already played the game briefly last year with a friend, but it was late on the clock and we were a little drunk, so it didn't go too well. I remember us missing the beat and dying... a lot. And while it did go a lot better this time, there were still these evil difficulty spikes all over the place. We died early on because I accidentally went into the Lost Woods and we got stuck there. And we also died early on just because we went into a cave, where the game thought it was a good idea to fill it with Lynels, Hinox and other tough monsters...

And this is where the rogue-like elements of this game hit you. The first time where we lost all of our stuff felt really bad. You'll lose all consumable items, like Rupees, Bombs or any tools that break. And all enemies that you've defeated will return as well, where the first death felt like starting from scratch. 

At that point my reaction to the game was basically, "this is garbage". I'm not a fan of Rougelikes. I'm also not a big fan of making modern games in discount retro pixel looks and if it weren't for the Zelda skin, I would not be interested in something like Crypt of the Necrodancer at all. I suppose this is how many Zelda fans must have felt about Hyrule Warriors, but Hyrule Warriors in the least has a certain amount of production value...

But we kept going for a bit and you quickly start to realize that it's not all rouge-like. The overworld stays the same and you get to keep your Heart Containers, main weapons and items, like the Boomerang, the Hookshot and so on. So, it's kind of like going back in time in Majora's Mask, just without the consent. But there was some progress to be made, like in any traditional Zelda game, and that's where the motivation and fun kicked in. Playing in rhythm with the beat of the game also went surprisingly well for me, where the music is really great.

I also enjoy how the overworld plays a lot like classic NES The Legend of Zelda. The map is divided into "screens", though some of them can be connected to form larger scrolling areas, usually around dungeons or for villages. And most screens have a secret in form of a cave or an item to find, where the map keeps track of all the things that you haven't cleared yet, like bosses or chests. And you can access all of the overworld before going into any of the dungeons.

Apropos, we then went into our first dungeon, which was the "Kakariko Crypt" mini-dungeon, which you need to complete if you want to play as Link and Zelda at the same time. And this suddenly was just pure rogue-like again. We died at the boss multiple times and each time you had to do the whole dungeon over again, which got randomly generated from scratch to make things even worse (or maybe a little better). Well, that's not fun. And we're talking about a very small dungeon here, where I'm not too hot about trying the major dungeons of this game yet. Hopefully they all will be equally small...

But exploring the overworld and finding items that you get to keep was fun enough that we will probably keep going, maybe even complete the game at least once. It doesn't seem like you can play any of the DLC offerings in coop, though, but I could be wrong. The only thing I found so far are the Season Pass bonus costumes for Link and Zelda, so at least that's in the cartridge version of the game.

Overall I like the idea of having a Zelda game that's procedurally generated, because it adds a lot of replay value. I also like having another topdown coop Zelda experience, especially one where you can play as Link and Zelda. That's some really good stuff in combination, but with its execution Cadence of Hyrule doesn't really seem like the game that I would love to play, where I still hope that Nintendo might try something of their own in these departments...