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Ocean's Heart
Mar. 12th, 2023 08:43 am"But Kathryn," you might be asking. "How long are you going to keep playing clones of A Link to the Past?"
"For as long as it takes," I answer while grinning between the black stubs of what used to be my teeth.
Seriously though, Ocean's Heart is a lovely little game. It reminds me more of The Minish Cap than A Link to the Past in that the world is densely populated while the tone is bright and cheerful. Despite the game being set on an archipelago, you don't actually do any sailing. Instead, you get to enjoy nice sea views while navigating across a set of interconnected islands. The gameplay is solid, the writing is fun, and the beautiful pixel art is everything I ever wanted.
Like, I remember being really disappointed by the 3D graphics of the N64 and the PlayStation. Now I find the visual style of games like Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII to be charming, but for a long time (until there were better alternatives) I thought the blocky polygons and difficult-to-read environments looked like garbage. I kept thinking that it would be nice if people continued to make pixel-art games while using the next-gen technology to help the graphics look super polished and intricate. Ocean's Heart is exactly the type of game I wanted.
I'll write more about Ocean's Heart later, but for now I just wanted to say that it's currently on sale on the Nintendo Switch store. This is the first I'd heard of it, and I was surprised to learn that this game came out in January 2021. I hadn't previously read anything about Ocean's Heart, which is a shame. It's really good.
"For as long as it takes," I answer while grinning between the black stubs of what used to be my teeth.
Seriously though, Ocean's Heart is a lovely little game. It reminds me more of The Minish Cap than A Link to the Past in that the world is densely populated while the tone is bright and cheerful. Despite the game being set on an archipelago, you don't actually do any sailing. Instead, you get to enjoy nice sea views while navigating across a set of interconnected islands. The gameplay is solid, the writing is fun, and the beautiful pixel art is everything I ever wanted.
Like, I remember being really disappointed by the 3D graphics of the N64 and the PlayStation. Now I find the visual style of games like Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII to be charming, but for a long time (until there were better alternatives) I thought the blocky polygons and difficult-to-read environments looked like garbage. I kept thinking that it would be nice if people continued to make pixel-art games while using the next-gen technology to help the graphics look super polished and intricate. Ocean's Heart is exactly the type of game I wanted.
I'll write more about Ocean's Heart later, but for now I just wanted to say that it's currently on sale on the Nintendo Switch store. This is the first I'd heard of it, and I was surprised to learn that this game came out in January 2021. I hadn't previously read anything about Ocean's Heart, which is a shame. It's really good.
