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You know. It’s not often that you get a decent platform/adventure game these days. As most releases consist of FPS games, and the like. However, “Oceanhorn” breathes some much-needed fresh air into my games library. “Oceanhorn” harkens to a time where many games were like this, it carries a heavy weight of nostalgia and is certainly a refreshing title to play, but wait, didn’t this release on IOS three years ago?!

First, I have to address the Elephant in the room. So if Ocenahorn’s protagonist wore a green tunic, then it would be a Legend of “Zelda” game with no doubt. Because “Ocenahorn” almost feels like a Zelda clone, but this is not a bad thing by far. As “Ocenahorn” pays homage to a great franchise (the game feels like a love letter to the “Zelda” series really), right down to the sailing and the spinning attack with your sword. Furthermore, some of the worlds that you visit also resemble some places from “Zelda: Ocarina of time“, heck you can even go fishing! It’s a loving tribute, and I enjoyed nearly every minute I played. It’s a Nintendo like game on everything but Nintendo, which is a little weird.

Mobile games usually don’t hit my radar at all. So I was quite shocked to find such a game like this existed for three years without me knowing about it. After playing, I’m really glad I had the opportunity to do so because it might have just slipped by unnoticed. “Ocenhorn” is a lovely game. The visuals, soundtrack, story and gameplay are all polished to a great level. Sure, the game borrows a few ideas from “Zelda”, but there’s absolutely no shame in that because it makes for a brilliant game. There’s also some great voice talent at work too featuring Ray Chase, Fryda Wolf and Kevan Brighting, so the game´s not without vocal talent!

Furthermore, I must admit after playing “Oceanhorn” on the PS4 and then finding out that it was originally a mobile game. I was pretty shocked (in a positive kind of way), as I could never have guessed that “Oceanhorn” started off as a mobile game. Sure, since its release, there have been updates and tinkering. Nevertheless, “Oceanhorn” is genuinely a great game, and it’s without a doubt one of the best games of its kind on the PSN store.

Oceanhorn´s Gameplay is simple and basic, there’s no platforming as such as you play the game from an isometric point of view. However, there’re plenty of puzzles and places to explore. Even so, it doesn’t over complicate things, and it doesn’t need to. So I found “Oceanhorn” to be quite relaxing to play; as each area was fun to explore while you try to figure out how to get to certain chests, accomplishing quests and then sailing off to discover new islands. The game will take you a good 15 to 20 hours to get through everything. There’re dozens of areas to explore all presenting their own unique challenges and secrets, most are discovered by speaking to villagers or finding bottles washed ashore. There are also boss fights, which of course need a good-ol-fashioned boss key to enter!

That´s really awesome of course. However, there were times where I didn´t have a clue what to do in “Oceanhorn”…As there’ is no hand holding be found in this game at all to (normally, that´s a good thing, but some help would have been nice), and it all comes down to exploration, talking to villagers and using your brain. I like that kind of thing, but it can be a little confusing and time-consuming when trying to figure out where you need to be or whether you simply can’t access an area until you find an item later in the game. Aside from that though, there are very few negatives that I can point out.

Sure, I can imagine that some players my find “Oceanhorn” to be too simple or basic, but it’s not something I’d fault the game for. As I found “Oceanhorn” to be a very enjoyable experience. In the matter of fact, thanks to “Oceanhorn” I will keep a close eye on the mobile market from now on, so that I won´t risk missing out on any awesome mobile games in the future.

Simply put, “Oceanhorn” is a lovely game, and there are very few Xbox One and PS4 action/adventure games that are as polished as “Oceanhorn” is (with three years behind it, I’d expect that). I mean, “Oceanhorn” carries great visuals, sound and gameplay, all while it’s simple and extremely fun to play. So if you like games such as “The Legend of Zelda”, then you probably don´t want to miss out on “Oceanhorn”!

Pros:

+ Great Soundtrack

+ Nostalgic Gameplay

+ Huge world to explore

Cons:

– Difficulty ramps up later on

– Easy to get lost

– To simple for some

Gameplay: 5/5

Graphics: 4/5

Sound/music: 4/5

Controls: 4/5

Replay value: 4/5

Verdict: 4.5/5

If you like Legend of Zelda? You’ll love Oceanhorn.

Title: Oceanhorn

Developer: Cornfox & Bros

Format: PS4

Genre: Adventure

Resolution: 1080p

Release date: 2016-7-09

Difficulty: Medium

Spent time: 6 Hours

Average grade internationally: 61.86% Gamerankings.com

PEGI age rating: 7

Price: £11.99

Install Size: 466MB



Sharn Daniels

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @SharnOfTheDEAD

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Tags: Cornfox & Bros, Indie games, Monster of Uncharted Seas, Oceanhorn, PS4, PS4 review