Platform: PC
Publisher: FDG Entertainment
Developer: Cornfox & Brothers Ltd.
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-4
Online: No
ESRB: Not Rated
Over the years, Oceanhorn has done a pretty good job of finding new ways to imitate different stages of the Zelda lifecycle. The first Oceanhorn was definitely indebted to A Link Between Worlds, while the second one updated its references to include more modern Zelda games like Breath of the Wild. While neither felt all that original, I loved both games, and I was interested in seeing where the third game in the series, Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon, would take things.
You might look at Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon and see the top-down view and pixel graphics and think that the franchise has taken a turn for the very retro, looking to the very earliest Zelda games for inspiration. And while that’s sort of correct – it’s definitely got more of a retro flavour than either of the previous Oceanhorn games – at the same time, it’s also totally wrong. Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon looks like any number of dungeon crawlers from decades ago – and that’s its biggest problem.
Weirdly, by not copying Zelda more directly, Oceanhorn has lost its sense of identity. Where before Oceanhorn games carved out a niche as being “Zelda, but not quite”, Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon feels pretty generic – notwithstanding the fact that the goal here is to find the Paradigm Hourglass, the name of which has a more-than-passing resemblance to a Zelda plot device. You and your party race through a series of dungeons, hacking and slashing through everything in your way until you get to the boss; multiply that times four worlds (each with a varying number of floors), and you have the whole game. While the bosses can pose a bit of a challenge, getting to them is where things start feeling same-y awfully quickly.
To be fair, I should note two things. First, the dungeons are procedurally generated, so even if the actions don’t vary all that much between the levels, you occasionally get the odd new environmental puzzle to keep things fresh.
Secondly – and probably more importantly – I played Chronos Dungeon solo, even though it proudly states that it allows for couch co-op with up to four players. I could imagine the hacking & slashing being a little more fun if you were doing it with friends; it might not make it any less repetitive, but at the same time, playing games with friends almost always makes them better. (I’ll note as well that there’s no online co-op here either, so it’s either play locally with friends or play solo.)
But even accounting for both of those factors, it’s not enough to make me think that Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon comes anywhere close to the highs of the previous two entries in the series. Even if those first two Oceanhorn games ripped off Zelda, they did it with a sense of style; without that thievery, all we’re left with here is a game that feels a little too generic for its own good.
FDG Entertainment provided us with an Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon PC code for review purposes.
Score: 7
