I really wanted to like this game more than I did. A large amount of it was right - movement feels really clean and most of the encounters (especially bosses) were entertaining, but I don't think those things were really enough for me.
I'm going to try to keep from bashing the game outright, but the game's visual and audio style were pretty grating on me, and didn't save me from the constant backtracking I was forced to do.
Any complaints I had about Circle of the Moon's map design seem like they were reversed to the opposite extreme in HoD; it seems like every relic I gained opened up 3 or 4 paths and only 1 was progress toward another boss or required item, turning a massive chunk of the mid-game into a blindfolded scavenger hunt. Add to that a limited number of accessible warp points (a LARGE amount of them weren't reasonably accessed until most of the castle is uncovered) and I had a solid recipe for frustration.
Despite all of the aspects of COTM I considered flaws, I still think I liked it more than this one. It took me playing them both back to back to really get a feel for why, though.
I'm going to try to keep from bashing the game outright, but the game's visual and audio style were pretty grating on me, and didn't save me from the constant backtracking I was forced to do.
Any complaints I had about Circle of the Moon's map design seem like they were reversed to the opposite extreme in HoD; it seems like every relic I gained opened up 3 or 4 paths and only 1 was progress toward another boss or required item, turning a massive chunk of the mid-game into a blindfolded scavenger hunt. Add to that a limited number of accessible warp points (a LARGE amount of them weren't reasonably accessed until most of the castle is uncovered) and I had a solid recipe for frustration.
Despite all of the aspects of COTM I considered flaws, I still think I liked it more than this one. It took me playing them both back to back to really get a feel for why, though.