Ocean's Heart is a game released by developers, Nordcurrent and Max Mraz, which is an adventure RPG inspired by the old game, Zelda. It was already released for PC back in January 2021 on the gaming platform, Steam. It had multiple positive reviews from avid rogue adventure RPG fans since it reminds them of the mid 2000s Nintendo game. The game now was released on Switch last February 10, 2022 for gamers to enjoy Ocean's Heart on a handheld console. If you want Ocean’s Heart is priced at $14.99 in the Nintendo eShop.
Ocean's Heart is a top down adventure game that centers on exploration and secret discovery due to the vast world it has. With its inspiration from Zelda, fans would pick up the game while waiting for the new release of the franchise on 2022. Ocean's Heart takes players back to Zelda's original form. Most of the game has familiar features so you can really tell that it was derived from the mid 2000s Nintendo game. A lot of sequences as well as controls and weapons are similar to the mentioned franchise.
The game starts with Tilia waking up, very much like how Link does too at the start. The weapons that you will encounter are mostly similar too so you already know how to use them while exploring dangerous dungeons. The developers are proud to say that they created the game in line with how Zelda's mechanics would work as well as how it would look like. Although some of the contents are very similar, Ocean's Heart of course has its own story, as well as quirks that one would be excited to play.
Ocean's Heart's story centers on pirates taking over a small island, where our main heroine resides. The pirates, lead by Blackbeard, took Tilia's best friend Hazel as hostage. Her father, a former volunteer navy man, now goes on a quest to find Hazel and bring her back to the village. After 6 months have passed, Tilia now wants to go on a journey to find her family and search clues for Blackbeard's whereabouts.
Gameplay
Ocean's Heart's gameplay was very similar to how Gameboy age Zelda works so everything was very clear from the start about the mechanics of movement and combat. The interaction of certain objects as well as navigation on exploring the map was also similar to the franchise game. The map however was very difficult to navigate, and to top it off, the fields and areas were humungous to say the least. You have to really explore and hopefully remember each way as it would take long again to navigate your way through the game.
Another adjustment that would be recommended is the movement speed of the character. It is hard enough to find your way on a large area, but the dodge roll action speed is way faster than the movement speed of the character. It would be faster to dodge roll all the way to wherever you want to go quickly. The combat system was very straight forward however you can live by not actually using most of the weapons as you can clear the game with just your sword and barrier, including using the utilities, such as bombs, to further progress to the story. You can defeat any enemy, even bosses, by just spamming your sword continuously, unless some of them have win conditions.
The game urges you to explore more wildly and try to act with every single terrain it could offer to unlock secrets. After completing the story of the game, there is not much post game content it has to offer so the playability afterwards is not highly recommended unless you want to unlock achievements or try for a world record speed run.
Graphics and Sounds
Ocean's Heart has a similar way of designing each area from its inspiration. The towns are very detailed in terms of items or structures found there. The dungeons are also thought out as puzzles to progress to other areas. The boss rooms, however, had mostly similar settings, like an arena type of area, so there weren't any special interactions that would be done within the battle. The game's music and sound effects were on point with the setting of the story as well as each use of your weapons. The game's background music agrees with the mood and setting of the area you are in or based on your progression in the story already. Most of the monsters had no sound effects so that could be one thing to look at as well.
Ocean's Heart on Switch
The main difference of having to play Ocean's Heart on Switch instead of a PC is having it played as a handheld game, where the game really originated. The key bindings on the game's PC version were not as user friendly as how a handheld console can be. All in all, fans would appreciate the game on Switch as it was really intended for the game to be handheld. The game is already released for gamers to try out a nostalgic version of a franchise game they love to play. Ocean's Heart was released on Switch last February 10, 2022 and priced at $14.99 in the Nintendo eShop.
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