Let’s get this right out of the way, first thing. I hate roguelike games. I just do. I absolutely despise everything about them. From the incredibly lazy level design of using procedurally and randomly generated levels, to the insta/perma-death conditions set in so many games of this genre. I absolutely and unequivocally hate roguelikes.
I am also no fan of rhythm games. I do not hate them with an unfettered passion like I do roguelikes, but I am still no great lover of this genre either.
So, obviously, you must be asking by now, why on this good green earth would I ever play Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda (CoHCotNFtLoZ… CoH)?
In a word: Nintendo.
When I’d first heard of this crossover of the Crypt of the Necrodancer and Legend of Zelda games, I dismissed it out of hand immediately. I was fully aware of what Crypt of the Necrodancer’s first game was all about: indie, roguelike, permadeath, punishingly difficult, et cetera. In other words, not for me.
But then I started hearing more about it. I watched the videos from E3 and Nintendo’s very useful Nintendo Treehouse: Live segments. I got to see what the game was all about.
And I still wasn’t convinced… After all, it still looked like an uncomfortable indie developed rhythm/roguelike game. But despite all of my cynicism, there was an annoying part of me that kept nagging me, in the back of my mind. Yes, it looks like all of those things, but unlike so many others, Nintendo had personal stock in this game. And they would never have allowed it to be made unless it met with their high standards. So, I thought to myself, maybe, just maybe, this one will be worth playing. Maybe this one will be different from the dozens hundreds of indie roguelikes out there.
Well, I’m happy to say that that was mostly the case. So, let’s get to the dang analysis already and find out what did and did not work for me.
CoH starts out featuring Cadence ( the protagonist from the regular Crypt of the Necrodancer games) being thrust into Hyrule, where an evil wizard(?) named Octavo (not to be confused with another music themed Nintendo villain, DJ Octavio from Splatoon) has cast a spell over Hyrule causing many key characters to fall into a deep slumber. Why he does this is never really clear (something about needing to defeat Ganon, but why putting the good guys to sleep would help in that doesn’t make any sense…), but that’s not really all that important. No Zelda game (CoH included) should be focused too much on story, what’s important here is the gameplay.
So, as Cadence, you’re introduced to yet another annoying fairy that’s there to teach you how to play the game. When I first saw this I groaned, thinking I was in store for another Navi. A pesky annoying bug that would constantly annoy me with pointless chatter. At first, that is certainly the case, as the fairy gives information overload on how to play the game (all within probably the first five minutes of playing), but after that, the thing is practically non-existent to the point that I forgot it was even a part of the game.
So, how do you play the game? Well, in my case, with great difficulty… at first. The whole gimmick of Crypt of the Necrodancer is that you can only move/attack with the rhythm of the beat. Listening to the game’s music (which I will just say now, is absolutely fantastic), will tell you when you can move, or do anything at all, really. If you miss a beat, or if you press a button out of tempo with the music, your button input will be null and void. To help you in this, the game also offers a metronome of sorts at the bottom of the screen, showing you when a beat is about to happen, by way of two moving bars, meeting up in the middle.
The better you were at keeping the beat, the bigger a “multiplier” you would get, which apparently would provide combat bonuses.
My fairy friend assured me that I would get the hang of it. The fairy was wrong… At first, I did indeed get the hang of it, and found that I could handle playing a game this way. But as the game progressed (note, you don’t play as Cadence for long, as you’re soon able to wake up either Link or Zelda, and play as them for most of the game), I found it more and more difficult to handle all of the enemies on screen, while trying to keep with the tempo of the music (note, again, that when there are no enemies on screen, this limitation is removed, and movement is freed up). It was far too much multitasking for my tastes. What’s more, it simply wasn’t fun. It felt like I was being punished simply because I wanted to control my character how I wanted to control him.
Luckily, CoH had put in an option for players like me: fixed beat mode. In fixed beat mode, you can move however you want, whenever you want. You have complete freedom. However, there is a catch. Firstly, you don’t get any multiplier bonuses, because you aren’t keeping any sort of rhythm. Secondly, enemies (and projectiles) only move when you move, in fixed beat mode. This changes the gameplay drastically. Instead of a rhythm game, it becomes a sort of pseudo-tactical game. When you move a square, you’re enemies can move a square as well. When you stand still, the enemy stands still too.
In a strange way, this reminded me of Punch-Out!!. Unlike a traditional Zelda game, enemy movements and patterns are much more crucial to learn. Knowing when and how an enemy moves is the difference between you mastering the game, or dying constantly. Making good use of the shield is also crucial, as countering an enemy’s attack can often be the best (or only) way to defeat some enemies.
Note too, that I mentioned you move in “squares.” In CoH, even in fixed beat mode, all movement is done one square at a time. In fact, you don’t even really “walk,” but hop, from one square to the next. I’ll admit, it is a but jarring at first, but I got used to it. In fact, in another strange way, it reminded me of that underrated classic, Startropics. However, what I called an archaic design flaw caused by hardware limitations in that game, is ironically, a very conscious design choice in this game. It’s all almost like a game of chess set to a catchy tune.
I will say, once I switched to fixed beat mode, I started having a much better time.
All that said, this game had a very steep learning curve for my experience, even with fixed beat mode turned on. I was taught almost everything I needed to know, all at once, which is a lot to digest, and this is a style of gameplay that I was very unfamiliar with, so I died, a lot, early on. However, once I finally started getting better weapons, learning how to play, and learning how different enemies maneuvered, I finally started to find my groove (pun intended).
Speaking of dying, let’s address that elephant in the room right now. This game is classified as a Roguelike. And In most games of that awful genre, that would mean that on death, you’d lose everything. You’d lose your items, you’d lose your map, everything would be reset and you’d be left with nothing. That is not really the case with CoH, for which I am very grateful.
When you die, you do lose some things, but not as much as you’d think. Any main weapons you have (swords, and classic Zelda items such as bows, boomerangs, et cetera), you keep. You do lose any expendable items such as rupees, keys, bombs, arrows, and what have you. There is one currency that you do keep, though, and those are diamonds.
Diamonds work differently from rupees as they are only used in a few select areas. One being a shop that you are transported to on death, where you can buy items to help you in your next run through the game. I found this extremely helpful early on, as it provided me with a much better weapon, allowing me to learn the game at an easier pace.
You also don’t lose the map that you’ve been given. At the start of a new game, you are provided with a completely random, procedurally generated overworld. I am no fan of procedural generation, and this is no exception. But at the very least, on death, it isn’t regenerated like it would be in other roguelikes. It remains constant throughout. I have heard that the dungeons and caves layouts do change on death, but in my playthroughs, I did not notice this to be the case. It’s possible I’m just not very observant, or it may be because I never died after getting over that initial learning curve, so I never saw much of the game while dying. I’m simply not sure. But the fact that it mostly stays the same is a blessing. Even if the initial generation can cause for some weird, uncomfortably laid out maps…
I will note, that due to the complete randomness of the overworld layout, I spent a lot of time in my first playthrough wandering aimlessly, not sure just what the heck I was supposed to do. This game has more freedom of exploration than the original Legend of Zelda. And that ain’t exactly a good thing in my mind. However, I will say, that due to this aimless wandering, it did give me a chance to really learn how to play the game, and get a feel for this unique experience, so I guess I can’t complain too much.
Another group of things that are lost on death are items of lesser importance. On your journey, you’ll find plenty of the following: torches, shovels, rings, and boots. All of these items perform certain functions, torches provide more light in caves, and allow you to burn tree stumps; shovels allow you to dig walls made of dirt; rings provide certain stat buffs, and boots allow different terrain based abilities. Most of these items also come with stat boosting or ability giving bonuses as well.
However, they are all temporary, in more way than one. If you die, they’re gone. But they also have durability ( à la Breath of the Wild), this durability is reduced by either using the items or by getting hit by enemies.
And of course, there are glass items, that have no durability, and can be used an infinite number of times, but get hit once, and they’ll break instantly.
Speaking of items, I’d like to go back and talk about the main weapons and items for a bit, since they play differently than what I first expected.
Let’s start with the main weapons. As Link, you’ll start of with a short sword (dagger for Zelda and Cadence). This weapon can attack one square directly ahead of you. Now, when I say attack, it’s important to realize that the main weapon is not assigned to any button press. Link et al. will attack automatically when you move them into a square with an enemy in it. This took a lot of getting used to (like most of the game), because it’s so different from how any other Zelda game would be played.
However, the short sword is only the first of many. You can also unlock a broadsword. This weapon will attack the square directly in front of you, along with the squares to each side. Essentially, you could attack three enemies at once, or attack around corners. I personally found this weapon to be the most useful.
There is also a spear. The spear attacks two squares ahead, perfect for players who like to have some distance between themselves and their opponents.
Then there’s the flail. This was probably the most confusing weapon, and one I never really got the hang of (which is sad, because ever since fighting the ball and chain knight in ALttP, I’ve always wanted a flail weapon in a Zelda game). The flail is described as a weapon that attacks in an L-shaped pattern. So, like a knight in chess, I suppose. But ultimately, I just found it confusing, so I never really bothered much with it.
And finally, there was the great sword. Like the spear, this weapon also attacks two spaces ahead of you. Similar to OoT, though, the great sword requires both hands to use, which means no shield. Instead, you can hold the sword out in front of you, attacking anything that it comes into contact with, using the shield button (R).
It’s worth mentioning that you’ll most likely find many copies of these weapons on your adventure. While you never lose them, you can upgrade them via great fairies through spending diamonds. These upgrades come in a variety of boosts, such as more damage, poison, health drain, and so on. But only one upgrade is allowed per weapon, so it’s nice to have multiple versions of a single weapon, so you can swap out which upgrade you might want at any given time.
Moving on to the other Zelda staple, let’s talk about the main items. CoH is full of bows, boomerangs, magic rods, and all that good stuff. However, there is a bit of a detriment to their use in the game.
For one, almost all of these weapons use up “stamina.” Similar to A Link Between Worlds. However, unlike ALBW, the stamina meter does not refill automatically. It only refills by fighting enemies, or collecting/drinking stamina potions. This was particularly frustrating when I was attempting to solve a puzzle in a room devoid of enemies. I’d run out of stamina, and I was just plain out of luck. Couldn’t continue trying to solve the puzzle. Had to go out and find more enemies to fight to refill the dang meter.
Which brings me to the next problem: puzzle solving in general. As the world is completely random in its generation, so too are all of the items (even in the dungeons, there is no set item). Some puzzles in the game cannot be solved unless you have the right item. And you could be spending the majority of the game trying to find that one specific item. It got a little frustrating at times, for me.
Speaking of dungeons, though, I felt this is where the game shined best. The dungeons are not like your typical Zelda fare. These dungeons are much more combat oriented, with minimal puzzle solving required. In fact, if you’ve got the right items, some dungeon puzzles can be bypassed immediately, allowing for a quick trip to the final boss (but where’s the fun in that?).
The boss fights are particularly good. I imagine that they could prove to be quite frustrating in the normal keep the beat mode (I never tested that theory). Plus, there’s the added bonus of each boss having a pun-tacular musical instrument based name. One in particular I won’t spoil, but I had to admit I was impressed they pulled it off.
It’s this attention to detail that really added a lot of juice and just plain love to the game. It’s painfully obvious that the folks at Brace Yourself Games have a deep love for the Legend of Zelda series, and they treat it with reverence and whimsy. It was awesome to see all the little details they put into each character and enemy. To see their versions of characters that span the entire franchise was awesome. I particularly loved that their Zora prince was a laid back surfer dude, complete with surfboard.
And, let’s not forget to mention the music, which as I said before, is amazing. Even when not focusing on the rhythm crap in the normal mode of the game, I was still able to appreciate just how great the music was, although, sometimes it did get a little repetitive. There’s only so many areas in the game, after all.
Which brings me to another complaint. The game is altogether too short. Which should be taken as a compliment. I went into the game skeptical, sure that I would hate my time playing it. And by the time I finished (between 6-7 hours), I was disappointed that my time in this randomly thrown together Hyrule was coming to an end. Ultimately, I’m most disappointed simply because for a $25 price tag, I would have expected a longer experience.
I suppose, though, with the procedural generation of each new game, and the fact that you can play as three different characters (each with their own unique, albeit minor, abilities) adds some replayability. I will note that you can choose to swap out characters, once you’ve unlocked them at designated sheikah slates (which are numerous) during play. Alternatively, when selecting a new game, you can choose the option to start as one of the three characters, and never change.
In fact, you can customize the game however you want. I spoke much about fixed beat mode, but there’s more than that. If you’re the kind of sick, demented player that enjoys true roguelikes, you can turn on permadeath, and all that terrible crap.
This is a game that embraces the mentality of the Switch: play how you want. And for that, it should be lauded. After all, this is the first roguelike/roguelite I’ve ever enjoyed. And that is quite an accomplishment.
