[Review] Ocean's Heart - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Max Mraz
Published By: Nordcurrent Labs
Categories: Adventure
Release Date: 02.10.22

The Switch has a lot of Zelda clones, something I haven’t minded in the least. Ocean’s Heart is another in the…Sea of them. But does it sink…or does it float?

Good sprites, good music. Mixing this with it being a, lets be frank blatantly Zelda influenced game is already a good start for me. The Zelda game this one seems to take inspiration from the most is Wind Waker. The name should almost make it obvious. There’s going to be lots of water, lots of islands, lots of treasure. And Pirates! Infact, the story of the game all starts because of a group of pirates invading your home town, though you don’t join them. Your quest is to take revenge!

Lets get stuff I don’t like out of the way. First up, this game, despite having pages for quests and sidequests, it a smidge vague. This comes down a bit to not having proper maps. You have a general map for the whole world, but cities, dungeons, the outdoors, good look. Go by signs and good luck. The vagueness also lead to me not having a bow for longer than I care to admit. I just did not know where to get one. Another issue is that parts can come off as maybe a bit too hard. I mean this as in an enemy touching you can take out majority of your health, or even one hit kill you. Just them touching you, and a lot of enemies pull the GOTCHA as shrubs. This would be incredibly frustrating if the game wasn’t also incredibly forgiving. You die, you can continue from the start of the same room with a mostly refilled life.

Switching over, I just absolutely love how big the game feels. There’s lots of places to go, lots of little caves and islands to find upgrades and money, and materials. Lots of sidequests and characters. It almost feels alive. There might be a bit of disappointment to finding some nice hidden area and only getting a health upgrade, but you’re definitely going to want these upgrades. With the money you find, I’d recommend you use it for a few select things and a few select things only. Upgrades, upgrades, and upgrades. Don’t use it at an inn to recover, don’t use it on items. Just use it on buying new armor, new tools, or upgrading your sword or bow. Healing items can both be found and made, as well as there being a large supply of trees for apples to heal and bushes for berries to heal. You’ll want higher offense and defense and money isn’t exactly easy to come by.

The more you explore, the smoother things get, but it can come off as a bit overwhelming. I’m glad this is a 2D game at the very least because of this. But again, please please please add better maps. This is something that the biggest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild did perfectly fine. It didn’t just give you a featureless map saying which port is which.

Perhaps I’m missing point, maybe I should be drawing my own map. I imagine the experience will be much smoother with that. In a way, it makes this game feel a bit more grand.