Product Info

Platform

Switch, PC

Publisher

Nordcurrent

Developer

Max Mraz

Genre

Action, Adventure, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

310 MB

Release Date (NA)

Feb 10, 2022

Release Date (JP)

Feb 10, 2022

Purchase From

eShop

Steam

Ocean’s Heart is an action/adventure RPG made by Max Mraz and published by Nordcurrent. It was originally released on Steam in January 2021 and then re-released on the Nintendo Switch in February 2022. An independently developed game, it bears a strong resemblance to 16-bit Zelda games like A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap except with a pirate style twist. In it, players will explore vast dungeons and diverse ecosystems to unravel clues to help a young woman find her missing father in a mostly satisfying adventure.

Pillaged Woes

The story follows a heroine named Tilia whose father, a scruffy bartender named Mallow, tasks her with a simple quest to obtain a bottle of whiskey from a secret cove. While Tilia is away, her hometown is pillaged by pirates called the White Hourglass. They also kidnap Hazel, a resident in the town. In an attempt to chase down and defeat the pirates, Mallow goes missing, but he leaves little clues for Tilia to find him. Tilia is faced with a difficult challenge of following a breadcrumb of clues to find her father and the White Hourglass. It’s an enjoyable journey, and with the Nintendo Switch, it’s the perfect game to play anywhere.

Following the Trail

The game is easy to pick up for folks familiar with the Zelda franchise. In addition to having an overhead view of the action and a similar 16-bit pixel art style, Tilia starts the game with a sword for hacking and slashing. She also quickly acquires an arsenal of both familiar and unique weapons. For example, the boomerang and bomb are old friends, but some of the interesting ones include a spear and a lightning spell that targets nearby enemies. Spells like lightning consume mana, which naturally regenerate. Weapons can be upgraded using currency (obtained by selling items and through quests) along with a unique, limited resource. Upon upgrading, the weapon is capable of inflicting higher damage to help progress through the game.

Health points start out limited to the familiar 3 hearts, but this can be expanded rather quickly through side quests and secret chests. Some of these can be easily missed, which can make the game more challenging due to certain monsters who have relatively stronger attacks (e.g., able to inflict >2 hearts of damage at once). Nonetheless, Tilia is able to dodge. This defensive rolling maneuver is a core component of this game, allowing players to minimize damage. However, it takes some time getting comfortable with, since making a mistake can lead to taking heavy damage or death. One downside to the dodge maneuver is that it shares the same button with the talk action, which leads to the common scenario of rolling into water while trying to talk to an NPC. It’s annoying. Anyway, hearts and mana can be restored through potions and berries found throughout the world. In addition, resources can be combined and crafted into potions to help in battle, such as auto-reviving upon losing all hearts or improving defense for a short time.  

Monstrous Crew

You’ll need it because the game does not waste much time introducing a wide array of monsters, from flower roots shooting projects to bats, electric shrooms, and pirates (arr…). There are even upgraded versions of these monsters which are about 2-3 times the size of others and can deal more damage in a larger AOE. Between the sheer density and diversity, the monsters are not to be ignored as a few mishaps can lead to the character’s demise. Fortunately, the increase of hearts and the number of tools at Tilia’s disposal leads to more diverse strategies for taking on monsters, such as using a boomerang to stun foes long enough to safely get close and attack with a sword. While fairly balanced, there are few monsters early on (e.g., white flower roots) that are quite dangerous, having a damage capacity of 3-5 times nearby monsters (i.e., one-hit kills). While these are uncommon, they still are surprising early on. However, later in the game, it seems more balanced.

Littered throughout the world are countless required and optional boss monsters to take on. Some of them are more like mini-bosses like the log man who throws exploding vials but can be easily dealt with by dodging and a swing of the sword. Other bosses can be more complicated, such as a deer-antlered forest creature that summons vines from below, sends a murder of crows to charge in various formations, and physically charges for close range. These boss battles are difficult to the point of requiring the use of a strategy (e.g., most generally require multiple ones) along with potions and elixirs. Defeating these bosses is quite a satisfying experience since each one is unique. In general, there tends to be a useful reward at the end of a boss battle, such as increased heart capacity, a new tool or weapon, or an armor boost.

Rolling through Dungeons

A large portion of the game is spent exploring for small caves (e.g., using a bomb on a crack in the wall or one hidden behind trees) for some cash/reward or taking on the countless big dungeons. The larger dungeons require the use of all tools at Talia’s disposal to slowly unlock various doors, defeat monsters, and eventually get to the end to face the final boss of the area for the big prize. While some are optional, certain dungeons are required in order to progress through the game, such as the pirate’s dungeon to get the ability to lift heavy objects.

Puzzles pose a reasonable level of challenge for an appropriate amount of problem-solving or effort involved to complete.  For example, a challenge may require the character to cross a narrow path in time before the platforms disappear or to hit a particular pattern of levers/switches to allow access to certain areas or a chest. At least the dungeon décor is quite unique with rooms well decorated to avoid any monotony while exploring. Gold boxes and barrels are strewn about the stony pirate’s dungeon, and dark stony skulls/skeletons and flickering torches give atmosphere to the Bear Warrior’s Catacomb.  

Each dungeon carries its own instrumental music track fitting for a pixelated adventure. Some of the music can be a soothing and slightly mysterious synthesizer like the first cavern, whereas the pirate dungeon uses more upbeat music with a soft instrumental xylophone tune. Boss areas tend to have more intensive and faster tempo music to heighten that aspect. Even sound effects match the action, be it a click for opening a chest, falling rocks, or sound of the sword cutting through the air.

Navigating the Isles

While simple in the beginning, the game world slowly opens up to a rather large size that is not well connected when traveling solely on foot. Fortunately, the ability to fast travel between major ports through a friend is granted. There is also a minimap to help with general direction, but it can be quite tricky to see precisely where to go. For example, there is a path to the Ballast Harbor area early in the game that is not clear to see and can be easily missed due to the plethora of exit points in a particular zone. The minimap does offer some clues, such as a dotted line leading in a direction to signify an exit, but it’s quite limited and still takes some searching to find said exit. The overall map view tends to be very high level and does not show a close-up of the zone location, which makes navigating tough. 

Compounded with the limited minimap, there is a main quest and side quest prompt under the menu log which has suggestions of what to do and where to go. However, these prompts tend to be quite vague and can be difficult to follow at times (i.e., requiring trial and error to figure out what needs to be done next). For example, a quest may inform you to go to a location, but it neglects to mention that, first, a dungeon on the other side of the map needs to be completed to get an important item to unlock that area. Of course, some players may relish the journey of figuring out how to get from place to place. As such, navigation may tend to be an issue for more casual gamers who may not want to spend effort figuring out what to do next and how to get there.

While the game’s difficulty is fairly balanced overall, there is way to make it even harder for hardcore gamers via the cursed bell area. After unlocking this feature, it is possible to modify certain components in the game by extinguishing or lighting the corresponding flames, such as the Flame of the Ceaseless Tide to make cursed healing items less effective, or ringing the cursed bell to make enemies stronger. As stated, these are optional. The game poses plenty of challenges for the majority of gamers without modifying its components further. 

Hearty Experience

Overall, Ocean’s Heart is a pleasant RPG adventure that will tickle the fancy of any Zelda fan. While there are minor navigation issues, these do not detract from the experience. The game is stuffed full of content, puzzles, dungeons, and quests, making for an expansive, well-balanced, and well-crafted experience that belies the fact that it’s from a small development crew. Through and through, this pixelated pirate adventure has found its true home on the Nintendo Switch console. So set sail: the heart awaits!

A Nintendo Switch code was provided for this review.