Ocean’s Heart is a clear homage to The Legend of Zelda series. It’s one of many indie games like this. However, it does look to be one of the good ones. The reviews have been fairly positive for the PC version of the game. The same is true for the Switch version although there aren’t as many reviews pulled from the aggregate sites.
Ocean’s Heart was developed by Max Mraz, who made a small name for himself in 2020 when he released Yarntown for free. Yarntown was a demake of Bloodborne. Ocean’s Heart then is his first big game. Are the aggregates right, or are there more areas of the game that need work?
8 Best: Opens Up Quickly
Ocean’s Heart is an homage to classic top-down versions of The Legend of Zelda series in terms of gameplay. Those games are open, to an extent, but not as much as Ocean’s Heart. The sheer amount of activities players can do from the start is astonishing. There is a brief tutorial but after players make it to Goatshead Harbor, there will be tons of quests and exploring opportunities. It might be a little daunting but that feeling can also be good.
7 Worst: Item Drops
Instead of finding money hiding in bushes, players must sell loot gained from monster drops and harvest points. There is money hidden in chests and it can also be obtained through quests, but selling materials is the best way to earn a living. The problem is that monster drops can be too sporadic. Some monsters drop all the time while a majority have very low drop rates. The placement of potion crafting materials is also a bit confusing at first.
6 Best: The Game Boy Advance Art Style
It is already known that Ocean’s Heart looks a lot like the old school games in The Legend of Zelda series. Specifically, this feels like The Wind Waker combined with The Minish Cap in terms of world-building and graphics.
That makes two recent Switch games that fall back on graphics similar to the GBA era. The other is Grapple Dog which is a collect-a-thon style platformer. Hopefully, this trend continues for indie games because Ocean’s Heart looks great.
5 Worst: Dynamic Characters
The one thing that is sorely missing from The Legend of Zelda is charismatic characters. The main character, Tilia, does speak which is a huge change-up from Link. She has some charm to her but unfortunately, the rest of the cast can feel a bit hollow.
The main villain is named Blackbeard and he’s a pirate. That doesn’t scream originality and he probably won’t strike fear into the hearts of players, unlike the evil that is Ganon. There isn’t even a zany cast of side characters, from vendors to quest givers, to fall in love with which is a must for games like this.
4 Best: Saving And Checkpointing
Ocean’s Heart is a fairly easy game. That’s not to say players won’t die. The game has an odd habit of placing monsters in the starting areas that can kill players in one or two hits. Fortunately, nothing is lost in death.
Also, in most instances, players will revive in the room or on the screen they entered from. The only exception is the major dungeons. This means that traversal progress also isn’t lost. For those looking for an extra challenge, there is a shrine to boost difficulty as well which is like a reverse assist option.
3 Worst: Equipping Items
The equipment menu lacks a few details that may bother players. For starters, players do not have to make potions to heal. They can munch on ingredients for low recovery power. They cannot equip these items, like berries, into either of the sub-item slots though.
Those are reserved for tools and sub-weapons. It is also odd though that these sub-weapons cannot be taken out. They can only be replaced with other items. From the monster drops to the equipment menu, Ocean’s Heart could use some tweaking in the item department.
2 Best: Fast Travel
The fast travel system can be unlocked fairly quickly in the game. After players get to Goatshead Harbor, they just need to take a left out of town. On this screen, players will meet Lily who is being attacked by monsters. Rescuing her will open up her ship to sail players to any harbor in the world as long as they have charts. It may not be as readily available as other open-world fast travel systems, but for a throwback game like this, it is appreciated all the same.
1 Worst: The Map
The map is unfortunately not that great. This is a huge downfall for a mini open-world game like this. The fast travel map is the same as the world map. This giant map shows region names and towns, but they aren’t detailed. Players cannot zoom in to look at a town, for example. Dungeons do not have mini-maps so it can become easy to get lost. What is an explorer to do without a proper map?
Ocean’s Heartwas released on February 10, 2022, for the Switch. It is also available on PC.
