Cadence of Hyrule has a lot to love. The gameplay is unique, the art direction is gorgeous, the remixed music is excellent, and this is one of the few games where you can play as Zelda. Not to mention this is an extraordianry case of Nintendo entrusting one of their flagship IPs to an indie developer. It’s a miracle this game even exists! But before I gush further, I must address its prominent flaw: difficulty balancing.
If you’re like me and never played Crypt of the NecroDancer before, the combat will feel alien and you’ll probably die several times before getting into the groove. I got used to it after about half an hour, but I also got a broadsword that could simultaneously attack all enemies in the horizontal row in front of me. The broadsword is perhaps too useful, as I ended up using it for almost the entirety of my playthrough. I still died here and there, but halfway through I became so powerful I didn’t have to think much to defeat groups of enemies. That really sucks since the enemy variety is actually quite decent. The bosses, however, desperately needed a health buff. Apart from the last two fights, they all died in less than a minute. Not every game should be crushingly difficult, but it’s unfortunate enemies don’t scale with you. I’ll explain why later.
Being a Zelda crossover, it would be natural to expect some puzzle-solving and exploration. Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is block pushing puzzles are the order of the day. You’ll use them to reach high ledges and that’s it. This is extremely standard for Zelda and it doesn’t get more complex than that. I have a sneaking suspicion why that is and it’s actually tied to the good news.
Cadence of Hyrule has very engaging exploration. In a surprise strength over most Zelda games, you have a TON of freedom in tackling dungeons and acquiring items. There’s very little gatekeeping and many items are completely optional. Furthermore, the dungeons are focused around combat instead of puzzles, which actually solves an issue A Link Between Worlds had. In that game, almost every dungeon required a specific item to enter and since you could tackle dungeons out of order, every dungeon could only be built with that one item in mind, limiting the puzzle complexity. It was a necessary sacrifice for the freedom of exploration, but Cadence of Hyrule offers a better idea. Rather than a necessary key to open an elaborate lock, items mainly exist to help you out in combat. As a result, they became geunine rewards for exploring.
That is why I think enemy scaling would work very well. If stronger enemies appeared over time, item usage would be heavily encouraged. They wouldn’t be required to kill enemies, but they could help during battle and be used to uncover optional secrets. This would avoid ALBW’s pitfall while still preserving the freedom to explore. It also avoids Breath of the Wild’s method of giving you all your abilities at the start, which removed that feeling of finding cool new items throughout the game. The only downside to all of this is that puzzles would have to be very simple or confined to optional areas. Cadence of Hyrule knows this, as there are a lot of bombable walls and hookshot targets for optional goodies. The block puzzles can also be solved faster if you have items like the Power Glove and Rito’s Feather.
It certainly isn’t perfect, but Cadence of Hyrule is intriguing. It has all the ingredients for making an open-world Zelda while preserving the fun of acquiring items in the older games. I will always have a soft spot for the puzzles in past Zelda dungeons, but it’s clear that some kind of sacrifice has to be made if they are to play a prominent role. How much that affects you will depend on your preferences, so if you haven’t already, I recommend checking out Cadence of Hyrule to see for yourself. Don’t worry about the combat being gimmicky. It’s really fun and there’s even an option to make enemies move only when you do, which is perfect for those who struggle with musical rhythm.
If you’re like me and never played Crypt of the NecroDancer before, the combat will feel alien and you’ll probably die several times before getting into the groove. I got used to it after about half an hour, but I also got a broadsword that could simultaneously attack all enemies in the horizontal row in front of me. The broadsword is perhaps too useful, as I ended up using it for almost the entirety of my playthrough. I still died here and there, but halfway through I became so powerful I didn’t have to think much to defeat groups of enemies. That really sucks since the enemy variety is actually quite decent. The bosses, however, desperately needed a health buff. Apart from the last two fights, they all died in less than a minute. Not every game should be crushingly difficult, but it’s unfortunate enemies don’t scale with you. I’ll explain why later.
Being a Zelda crossover, it would be natural to expect some puzzle-solving and exploration. Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is block pushing puzzles are the order of the day. You’ll use them to reach high ledges and that’s it. This is extremely standard for Zelda and it doesn’t get more complex than that. I have a sneaking suspicion why that is and it’s actually tied to the good news.
Cadence of Hyrule has very engaging exploration. In a surprise strength over most Zelda games, you have a TON of freedom in tackling dungeons and acquiring items. There’s very little gatekeeping and many items are completely optional. Furthermore, the dungeons are focused around combat instead of puzzles, which actually solves an issue A Link Between Worlds had. In that game, almost every dungeon required a specific item to enter and since you could tackle dungeons out of order, every dungeon could only be built with that one item in mind, limiting the puzzle complexity. It was a necessary sacrifice for the freedom of exploration, but Cadence of Hyrule offers a better idea. Rather than a necessary key to open an elaborate lock, items mainly exist to help you out in combat. As a result, they became geunine rewards for exploring.
That is why I think enemy scaling would work very well. If stronger enemies appeared over time, item usage would be heavily encouraged. They wouldn’t be required to kill enemies, but they could help during battle and be used to uncover optional secrets. This would avoid ALBW’s pitfall while still preserving the freedom to explore. It also avoids Breath of the Wild’s method of giving you all your abilities at the start, which removed that feeling of finding cool new items throughout the game. The only downside to all of this is that puzzles would have to be very simple or confined to optional areas. Cadence of Hyrule knows this, as there are a lot of bombable walls and hookshot targets for optional goodies. The block puzzles can also be solved faster if you have items like the Power Glove and Rito’s Feather.
It certainly isn’t perfect, but Cadence of Hyrule is intriguing. It has all the ingredients for making an open-world Zelda while preserving the fun of acquiring items in the older games. I will always have a soft spot for the puzzles in past Zelda dungeons, but it’s clear that some kind of sacrifice has to be made if they are to play a prominent role. How much that affects you will depend on your preferences, so if you haven’t already, I recommend checking out Cadence of Hyrule to see for yourself. Don’t worry about the combat being gimmicky. It’s really fun and there’s even an option to make enemies move only when you do, which is perfect for those who struggle with musical rhythm.