Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas

It may borrow a lot of its aesthetic and mechanics from a certain pointy-eared hero, but it has a charm all its own. I can’t recommend it enough to fans of the adventure genre. The small price is more than worth the hefty adventure that lies ahead.

It is so blatantly similar to Nintendo’s Zelda series in every possible way, I’m surprised the game didn’t catch much flak. Those without any personal connection to Zelda adventures will enjoy a solidly built adventure that just so happens to have an amazing soundtrack from maestros of the industry. This is the sort of game that’s perfect for people who, for one reason or another, completely missed the Zelda train and are looking for a chance to see what the fuss is about.

Other than focus on improving the story delivery and increasing the amount of activity you can do in the world, I would love to do a review of the soundtrack should one exist. Honestly readers, the soundtrack is a masterpiece.

I am highly impressed with Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas, it is a very enjoyable game built in the spirit of one of the greatest puzzle adventure franchises ever built. An added bonus here is the musical styling. From start to finish, the music stands out and sets itself above other games in this genre.

A nice Zelda-like game, with an enjoyable art stile and brilliant music, but lacking in variety and depth.

It's obvious from the get go that Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas feels no shame about borrowing heavily from classics like The Wind Waker and A Link to the Past. However, despite being very clone-like in nature and lacking in originality, this game still manages to be quite good. Sure, it doesn't live up to Link's name, but it's polished, interesting and enjoyable enough to be worth a gander.

As it is such a blatant Zelda clone, Oceanhorn will certainly appeal to those people who wish to relive the classic 16-bit era of simpler, cuter action adventure games. For modern gamers, there is still a lot of content here and a ton of serviceable action, but the structure and repetition that creeps in later may begin to grate on some.

It’s not like anything in the game is inheritently broken or not functioning as intended, Oceanhorn simply wasn’t fun to me. Plainly put, Oceanhorn is Wind Waker without any of the things that made Wind Waker a great game. Oceanhorn is an average adventure game without much going for it to create its own identity.

Gamers who absolutely need a quick, harmless Zelda fix can safely download it, but anyone else should probably take a pass on Oceanhorn.