Virtual 100 – Game 12
Whoah, two Side Quests in a row! I’m on a roll. This time around, it’s not so much an RPG as it is an Adventure game, but I consider it as such. It comes in the form of an homage of sorts to the older style of Legend of Zelda games that we enjoyed way back in the days of the N64.
In the Side Quest tradition, let’s take a look at the setup for this one, for the record.
Classes: As this is an Adventure game, the class is set for you. The character is a Knight, and a knight is what he is.
Companions/Party/Solo: Aside from the introductory quests, your character will be accompanied by A.I. companions, who can be directed to perform a few actions such as attacking a specific enemy or standing on platforms. No management of them is necessary.
Customizeable Appearance: No customizable options. Character will wield a different sword or shield if equipped.
Adjustable Camera Angle: Camera is locked to the back of the character but can be rotated freely.
Map Type: Map is open world, with some areas only being accessible once the character has reached a certain point in the story.
Player Progression: Player earns XP by defeating enemies and gathering the experience “diamonds” that drop. Different upgrades are applied automatically upon ranking up.
Inventory: There is no inventory management. Each special item has its own special slot to be filled. Items like ammunition and healing spells are limited at first and increase as the player ranks up.
Endgame: There is no endgame. After the story ends, it ends.
If any of this sounds familiar, or if you’re just having a hard time picturing what I’m describing, just think of a game like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and you’ll have a pretty good idea. In fact, you’ll hear me making quite a bit of comparisons to this. You’ve been warned.
The thing about Oceanhorn 2 is that at its core, it’s a Zelda clone. And if you’re going to be a Zelda clone, you better be a damn good one. I played the original Oceanhorn a while back, and that particular game was kind of a mix between Wind Waker aesthetics and A Link to the Past gameplay. It was just similar enough to evoke those nostalgic vibes but just different enough to not feel like a wannabe. It wasn’t an amazing game, but it was a fun little summer diversion at a time when I didn’t have a whole lot going on.
Oceanhorn 2 goes all-in on Zelda feels, and the similarities to Ocarina of Time are difficult to ignore.
You see, Oceanhorn 2, like its predecessor, isn’t a bad game. But this time around, the game it’s mimicking is a nostalgic juggernaut. It’s not just a Zelda game. To many older dudes like me, it’s THE Zelda game. I’m a Zelda fan that goes way back, but Ocarina of Time hit at a time in my life when shit was changing fast. I graduated from high school and had just moved to a new city to start college when Ocarina of Time released. I had no friends and no family anywhere near me, and my games were my sanity.
OoT was the first new game I got my hands on once I got settled in. Not only was it the game of a generation, at that time it was regularly accepted as the best game ever made. It sparked conversations with other guys at school and thus, I started to make a few friends and transition into that new chapter in my life. A game like that, at such a formative time in my life, doesn’t happen often. I doubt it will ever happen again. So to say it left an impression is an understatement.
And this is the game that Oceanhorn 2 is trying to tap into. And it doesn’t quite get there.
To be fair, it didn’t have a chance. Not many games do. And many tried, especially after Ocarina released to such critical success. There were a lot of fun games that came out of those efforts, but most of them came and went without making much more than a ripple.
This isn’t supposed to be a Zelda retrospective, even though it’s kinda starting out that way. I’m just trying to lay the groundwork for why I wanted to like Oceanhorn 2, and why I ultimately didn’t enjoy as much as I had hoped.
I’m not going to touch on the story for Oceanhorn 2, because honestly it doesn’t matter. I know that sounds cynical, but after trying to follow it for half the game, I realized I just didn’t care. And to be fair, Zelda’s stories were never really the most interesting, either. I don’t think anyone would ever state that Ocarina’s story was the best. For a long time, Zelda’s main plot device was “get the six things from the six dungeons” or something to that effect.
The thing is, Zelda’s strength was never in its overall story, it was in the smaller experiences contained within that story. Quirky characters, fun mini-games, mysterious locations, and a slew of optional experiences were what made the games memorable. Nintendo is a master of its craft, of course, and we knew when we booted up a new Legend of Zelda that half the fun would be exploring a new version of Hyrule and seeing what we would find and who we would meet.
This is the thing that Oceanhorn 2 is lacking, and it took me a while to put my finger on it. Everything in the game “works.” It’s mechanically pretty solid. The combat, while not great, is fine. It has some basic block and parry mechanics and it does what it needs to do. And the game looks great. I was actually pretty impressed with the graphics. It’s a damn good looking game, especially at 4k/60 on Xbox Series X and presumably PC and PS5.
But the characters and the world are just… flat. They have no personality. The world is filled with walking mannequins, devoid of emotion. Wandering into a new area, especially in a game like this, should fill me with wonder. But instead, a forest is a forest. The desert is a desert. Nothing makes me look at it and go “ooh, there’s gotta be something over there.” Because 90% of the time, there isn’t. Villages are filled with buildings, and to be fair, most of them can be entered. But you likely won’t find anything in them.
Speaking of finding things, there are several boxes to check in the game. There are red Bloodstones to shatter and collect, as well as mysterious daggers scattered throughout the realm. On top of those are of course, treasure chests. Treasure chests will contain one of three things: a heart container, a crystal shard that can be socketed into an item, or a treasure that will reward the player with gold. Coins are also scattered throughout the land, popping out whenever you break barrels or chop bushes. Think Zelda and rupees and you got the idea.
The weird thing is, with all this money that is literally popping out everywhere, there is literally nothing to buy. Vendors sell bullets and magic ammo, but wherever this ammo is needed, there will be items that drop it. If there’s a platform that requires the ice magic ammo to reach it, there will be a bush or barrel that will plop some out for you. There is virtually no reason to buy it. And bombs recharge automatically, so there was no need to buy those either. Therefore, I went the entire game without spending a dime. It was a bizarre decision that so many rewards would revolve around money, when there was literally no need for money. It kinda cheapened the desire to find all the chests (the only real reason being so that you can 100% an area and unlock an achievement.)
Perhaps my biggest gripe, and an Adventure RPG faux-pas of epic proportions, are the two Collect-a-thon side activities consisting of the Mysterious Daggers and the Bloodstones. There are 19 daggers to find, scattered throughout the world, marked by X’s on the map (but only when you’re in the area). There are about 52 Bloodstones, and these are much more difficult to find, as there are multiples in each area and some of them can be pretty well hidden. Both of these activities, due to the areas you’ll need to access in order to find them, will span pretty much the entirety of the game.
We’ve all experienced these types of side activities in games before. Usually, the legwork is paid off in the form of a secret weapon, or a set of armor with special stats or abilites, or maybe even a tool that breaks the game. In Oceanhorn 2, your globe-trotting efforts are rewarded with coins and a shard. That’s right, after I found all 19 Mysterious Daggers, I got 150 coins and a socketable shard that didn’t offer anything better than what I already had.
Would you say that I was frustrated? Yes. Maybe even pissed off? Absolutely. You could even say that it was enough to make me want to rage quit.
I literally high-tailed it at the first opportunity I had, all the way to the city, like Charlie with his golden fuckin ticket, only to be rewarded with coins and a shard.
I went from childish excitement to “fuck this game” almost instantly.
And it highlighted an underlying niggle that had been building up under the surface for most of my time in Oceanhorn 2. I kept waiting to be rewarded in this game. I kept waiting for that moment when I opened a chest and it was something great. But it never was. And the Mysterious Daggers side quest just emphasized the fact that the game was never going to reward me with anything significant.
Almost nothing can be upgraded in the game, except for two items. One is a sword that you can get after a relatively easy set of “trials” late in the game. The other is a shield that can be acquired by completing an optional dungeon in the Grand Core. Everything else is static. Your Caster Gun, which is used to perform a large portion of your problem solving, is relegated to those shard slots which, other than a small meter to let you know that your “Might” is now three stars instead of two, don’t really offer any information or feedback on what they do. I maxed out the Damage on my sword using two shards and I was hard-pressed to tell the difference.
Nothing in the game really feels rewarding, and that trend carries through to the end. And that’s a shame. After a pretty under-whelming boss battle, and the cop-out of an ending, I sat there for a moment and wondered why I bothered with any of it. The only explanation I could come up with was “well I bought it. I should play it.”
Oceanhorn 2 was largely a disappointment, full of unrealized potential and mcguffins, with nary a payoff in sight. As someone who enjoyed the original, I came in pretty optimistic, despite average reviews. But it fails to lend any intriguing explanations to the mystery that the original’s lore alluded to. Oceanhorn, for an ancient mechanical beast important enough for two whole games to be named after it, is pretty lame. And to be fair, I thought it was pretty lame back in the first game too. You spend the entire game hearing about this monster of the sea, Oceanhorn. Oceanhorn this and Oceanhorn that, and when you finally fight it, it’s a pushover. I remember thinking “this is what everyone was so afraid of?”
Actually I looked up my write-up on the original Oceanhorn, and my complaints read largely the same. Why do I keep playing these damn things?
Because I have a sickness, that’s why.
I feel like I’ve spent enough time on this. The good thing is, that’s game number twelve on the Virtual 100 grid, and the backlog list shrinks by one.
