Should You Buy? Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas [Nintendo Switch]

I have never thought through buying a game so hard in my life.  Oceanhorn isn't a full $60 title, but sometimes indie games are a gamble.  You have to just throw your money into the wind and hope that whatever comes back is worth the while.

The game shows its roots very quickly and without shame.  This is a Legend of Zelda "clone", make no mistake about it.  While we are on the subject of cloning, let's talk about the objections to such a practice.  Some people think that it isn't moral.  That we shouldn't be playing god and creating life.  The main argument against cloning that I want to focus in on is the idea that whatever comes out of the clone won't be exactly the same.  That argument is very relevant in this review.

Let's talk about controls! Left stick to move, A B X Y for actions/attacks, ZR for shielding and that is about it.  It is simple, which is not inherently a bad thing!  This game is really easy to pick up and play without having to jump to the menu to refresh yourself on the controls.  And there is always a nice little guide on the top right of the screen to remind you what each of the button mapping's are.  

The gameplay loop is fairly standard for this type of game.  You find yourself traveling from island to island to advance the story. What is interesting about this game is that it does not hold your hand and tell you where next to go.  Little hints in the world and personal choice advance you to the next area naturally.

You will do plenty of traveling on the open seas here and the developers have found a nice way to make the world feel very cohesive.  When traveling from island to island, you don't have control of the boat fully, but rather, you select what island you want to go to and the boat takes you there.  This would normally make me pretty upset.  I have to sit and wait while the game plays itself during the boat trip.  This is where the game pleasantly surprised me.  Early on, you get a gun that shoots pumpkin seeds.  This gun is only available on the boat, but as soon as you unlock it, there are barrels and enemies that spawn on the open sea during travel turning these segments into shooter galleries while you wait.  It is a nice little touch that makes traveling from one area to another feel like actual travel while also giving you something to do.  

Each island is like a puzzle box.  There are interwoven puzzles that must be completed before progressing further into the center of the island to reveal more of the story and boss battles.  This is where my first problems really started hitting me.  The game requires that you explore the islands fully before unlocking all the things that you need.  The only problem with this is that the islands themselves don't have much in the way of landmarks.  It is really easy to catch yourself running in circles trying to find the next part of the game when you actually passed the thing you do over and over.  Everything starts to blend together, as all the texture work for each island seems to be recycled more times than needed.  This makes the islands sometimes feel like a time-sink that I can never seem to fully tackle. 

This one issue bleeds into the rest of the game in a big way.  Because it is very easy to miss things that you need to complete on an island, sometimes you think that you are done when you really aren't.  Example: I was on an island where I could not seem to progress further.  I had tried everything.  The game was not doing a very good job of telegraphing where I needed to look next.  There was a wall in my way that completely stopped me from progressing.  I found out by accident later that I needed to blow that wall up.  Because the game was recycling a texture for the wall, I had no idea that this was a destructive part of the environment.  If I wouldn't have been throwing bombs around in frustration, I could have never guessed that this would have been the solution.  

So, this is where I answer the initial question asked in the title.  Should you buy Oceanhorn?  My personal opinion is no.  I have a couple of points to follow this up with so hear me out.  Why should you not buy it? 

Firstly, the game is cheaper on mobile than it is on consoles or PC.  If you have an iOS device and want to check the game out, I recommend getting it there.  The controls are simple enough that you should have no problem picking this up with touch controls.  Are the physical control options worth doubling the price? Absolutely not.  If you are going to charge 7.99 for an app on the App Store, that price should be good across the board.  If this game were the same price as it was on mobile, I would be recommending this game.  I would be singing from the rooftops about it like I did with Kamiko.  

Second off, the game has its flaws.  The cloning of Zelda to make this game was not perfect.  I could tell what the game wanted to be.  I could tell what story they wanted to tell with the mechanics and narrative.  It just missed the mark.  

The fact that the game isn't a Zelda game is not a reason to skip out on the game.  My main reason to skip this game is, in the end, it just wasn't fun enough to justify the price.  The good moments were almost immediately ruined by a bad moment of frustration.  If the developers wanted to make a game with similar characters but a 1st or 3rd person (over the shoulder) perspective, I would be totally in for it.  I can tell that they put a lot of time into this game and I would argue that it is probably one of the most in-depth games on the mobile platform,  but that is a slightly back-handed compliment. 

(The soundtrack was great and the visuals were ok, but in the context of this article, I did not think that was relevant.  If you think heavily about those elements when considering a purchase, there ya go.)