I finished the demo but it was more than enough to have a judgement for a game that I'll probably still play all the way because I hate the idea of leaving any Zelda unfinished (yes, probably also the CD-I as well. Maybe. Perhaps).

Let's be immediately direct: don't play this game without headphones. Forget about it considering you have to be precise on the rhythm to play it properly (even if synced).
It's a really interesting fusion of that 2015 indie game and ofc Zelda with so much fanservice and love poured on it. Just for that and the pixel art alone I wanted to keep at it (and I'll probably will for a cheap sold copy, be sure of it).
But man, it's one of those rhythm games I can't get into it (I'm more into the more classics or casuals ones like DDR, Theatrhythm FF etc.. Ok, just not THAT casual as pick Just Dance, don't worry).

What a fun game. I like to write long texts about the videogames I play, mainly as a journal for myelf. But in this case, I don’t think there is a lot to say about it. I liked it. I spend a nice ten hours playing in.
I haven’t played any “NecroDancer” game. I don’t know, maybe I would have played this one if it wasn’t set on the Zelda franchise. But it was a good excuse as any to give it a try. I take any excuse to listen to classic Zelda music and play with Link -or Zelda in this case.
The artwork and pixel art style is beatiful. It feels like a retro Zelda games, but modern at the same time.
The music, of course, is one of the “main characters” of the game. I liked the arrangements of the classic songs of the franchise.
The story is jsut an excuse to play, but it still is a “The Legend of Zelda” story, which is nice.
I like that the game gives you the option to play it literally at your own rhythm, just by turning on and off an option on the menu. I played it mostly in the classic mode, following the beat. But I turned it off in some parts, and it was still fun to play.
So, that’s it. A good, solid game.

As stated in my Necrodancer review, I have always found rhythm games fall short of their diegetic potential for lovers of both arts as a combined gesture. Not this one. While Necrodancer is a barebones roguelike with an incredible concept, CoD is an full game with that same idea at its core. It is as challenging as it is satisfying to learn and master. The music is of course splendid, justifiably so, and randomised world layouts as well as multiple fun characters provide immense replay potential.

I only wish it was not a zelda spin off game, as cool as that is. I believe if it had the confidence to stand on its own and have even more original ideas, the scope for what it could achieve would be far wider and I would love it a great deal more. It does not do much to particularly subvert the expectations of this series or challenge it by adding much of anything new, other than placing Necrodancers core gameplay at its heart and adding one mildly interesting anti-hero character.

As it stands, the quality of this is on par with the majority of mainline Zelda titles, even surpassing many 2D and 3D entries. Its just unfortunate I have to compare it to them at all, it could've been something truly awe inspiring.

I had a great time with this incredibly unique game. This game takes the classic Legend of Zelda soundtrack and remixes it in a modern way that stays faithful and makes it work with the combat of the game. The combat was extremely satisfying as well. The weapon variety provides a lot of replayability and changes the way you approach situations in a very significant way. The story was pretty basic, but it didn't really need a super in-depth story, since the game is pretty short. The first DLC is fine and is pretty much the base game again with a new weapon and a new boss, which are both good. The real star is the skull kid DLC which is a bit smaller than the original game but increases the difficulty, adds new basic enemies, and 3 incredibly unique bosses. The skull kid DLC felt like a fitting climax for this game, and rounded out this whole game to be pretty great.

I am a HUGE fan of Crypt of the Necrodancer. While I'm still working on beating the game with all the characters, I've come to appreciate the clever enemy design, the really thoughtful inventory management, and the challenging difficulty level.

NONE OF THAT is present in this game. Using a menu screen just doesn't work, it's why Necrodancer didn't have one. This kind of gameplay absolutely sucks for open world traversal! Every time you hit an enemy they are knocked back, so you can't hit them multiple times to the beat, and the game is only hard until you get an augmented weapon like a spear, at which point it becomes absolutely trivial. I was SO EXCITED to see one of my favorite indie games was getting a crossover with THE LEGEND OF FUCKING ZELDA. But everything the original did well is gone.