When I first saw OceanHorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas, I was very hyped. Definitely my type of game but then the thought hit me: I have played this game before, ok not Oceanhorn but I played all Zelda games and this is definitely a Zelda clone.
Growing up with Nintendo games, the Legend of Zelda became and remains one of my favorite franchises of all time and I am definitely not the only one who has this opinion because it appears that Zelda has a special place in every gamer’s heart. And what happens with a very successful franchise? CLONES? Is Oceanhorn a bad money grabbing clone or is it the perfect rehab for people who finished Breath of the Wild and want some more Zelda like games on their switch?
In the beginning of the game, I was convinced that this was the perfect Zelda clone: It starts mostly the same as every game where you learn the reason for your quest and obtain your first tool to defeat enemies. Oceanhorn takes place on islands so one of the first missions is to get the key to your boat. Well this definitely happened before… aaa right, It’s just almost the same beginning from Wind Waker (Legend of Zelda) and once I came to that conclusion, this is a clone and not a very good one.
The style of graphics, like the Zelda games, in bird perspective, your main weapons are a sword, shield, bow and bombs. The gameplay is slightly different because they try to add new features like the use of challenges and a level up system. Killing monsters or completing challenges that either are automatically done just by playing the game or just doing things repetitive that makes them so stupid y you probably won’t do them. The biggest problem with the level up mechanic is that it has almost no impact on the game and more just feels like a desperate effort to shake things up to hide the Zelda similarities.
The dungeons in this game are pretty cool, but they all look the same and are pretty easy to finish. After you complete a dungeon you have to fight a boss. Most of them look very cool but once you fight them it feels almost like you are fighting a giant baby because it’s just that easy to fight. Besides being very easy the gameplay is kind of fun, but the biggest problem I had was the sometimes weird-looking platforms in the levels which keeps the player guessing if you are able to go on it or not.
Verdict:
To be honest, this is not a very bad game, it has some very good elements in it and It looks kinda cool and I would be lying if I told you I did not enjoy playing this game.But it’s just a lazy clone of the Zelda franchise. Being a clone can be ok but if it has no personality of its own, it’s a shame that a decent game like Oceanhorn is overshadowed by its own lag of creativity. To end positively, it’s very cheap so if you like Zelda gameplay I would still recommend this game.
