I spend a lot of time talking about video games don’t I? I talk about video games to my dearest friends, family members, people I rarely know or probably aren’t interested in video games, and my older sister who is the most bothered out of all these groups of people. I spend a lot of time talking about games and I spend a lot of time writing reviews for them. Currently the website you are reading this review on has about one hundred articles. That’s almost one hundred games reviewed. Trust me, I’ve played more than one hundred games. The point being is that all I seem to talk about on this site are video games. I could try reviewing shows or films one day, but I find those pretty hard to criticize. What is something I love as much as video games? Music.
Music is something that I adore most of all and I’m pretty sure everyone can agree with me on this statement. In the past I’ve stated that when I was a little boy I always wanted to be an animator. After that phase I had the dream of being a musician. I wanted to learn how to maneuver my fingers around majestically and create songs for other people to enjoy. In middle school we had band class and I was a percussionist. I often played the bells in the back of the room and sometimes I would play the drums to help keep the other instrument players on beat. I thought being a musician was fun, no one else was having fun but I still had my hopes high. The problem with this dream is that I was thinking unrealistically. Learning how to play a single instrument is very hard and takes a lot of time to master. You need a full working band if you want to create a functioning song. I still think learning how to play an instrument would be cool and that maybe one day I’ll do it. You don’t want to know how much time I spend listening to music. Usually I’d turn on my wireless headphones, crank the volume to 75%, tune out the world around me, and listen to some good tunes. Some of my favorite artists include classics like Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, a few others, but the one artist I’ve listened to the most is a huge video game nerd just like me. Gavin Dunne, otherwise Miracle of Sound. Besides them I do listen to a lot of game soundtracks.
I think video game soundtracks are underrated. Not in a sense that they aren’t popular, but some musicians don’t understand the amount of heart put into them. Sure some soundtracks are obnoxious or don’t aim to do much at all, but every so often you find one that stands out. Hollow Knight has one symphony of a soundtrack that keeps you on your toes during battles and reminds you how desolate the world is. Nier: Automata’s soundtrack can feel sad at times and reminds you of playing as a bunch of androids learning how to develop emotions. Outer Wilds expresses this feeling of wonder and thirst for the cosmos. Hades ranges from full on head bangers to peaceful tracks that remind you that there are still good souls even when trapped in the underworld. I would mention a few more soundtracks, but I don’t want this intro lagging on too long. In the end video game soundtracks are really good once you find the right one, but what if we could combine the music with the actual gameplay? What if we made a game where the player’s actions are timed to the music and they get to create their own custom song? That is how you get Crypt of The NecroDancer.
Released back in 2015, Crypt of The NecroDancer was developed by a small indie studio named Brace Yourself Games with it’s main designer being Ryan Clark. Clark took inspiration from roguelikes that were out at the time and wanted to make a game that wasn’t just about dying and getting kicked back to the start to relive similar fights again. He decided to make a game where the player’s actions had to be timed to the beat and they would have to fight through floor after floor of enemies. This idea is what led to NecroDancer. When the game came out it was highly praised by many. It was addicting, had some catchy tunes composed by Daran Baronowsky who also composed songs for another roguelike named The Binding of Isaac, and stood out from other roguelikes by having a unique gameplay loop. The game wasn’t nominated for that many awards, but it was one of the best received independent games of 2015 alongside Undertale.
A few years after the critical success of NecroDancer, Clark was approached by Nintendo. Like actual Nintendo. The guys behind Mario and Zelda. Nintendo asked Clark to make another rhythm based adventure, but set in the Legend of Zelda universe. Clark agreed to the offer and began working on what was somewhat of a sequel to NecroDancer and a spinoff for Zelda. He wanted to maintain what made NecroDancer so addicting while understanding the core elements of what made a Zelda game. This is what led to Cadence of Hyrule, one of the most streamlined games he made. The game came out in 2019 and it was pretty well received. It wasn’t a smashing hit like NecroDancer, but it was a tremendous follow up. I bought the game a while back and haven’t sat down to play it until recently. I can now safely confirm that Cadence of Hyrule is an amazing game and you should play it. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved Cadence of Hyrule and why it deserves your attention. So string your lute, strum your lute, and prepare to lute-I mean loot your way through Hyrule.
Story
I assume that the game takes place several months, maybe even a few years after the events of Crypt of The NecroDancer. A young woman named Cadence journeyed deep into an abandoned cavern filled with traps and monsters to fight an evil necromancer funnily named the NecroDancer to bring her mother back from the dead. However, this resurrection isn’t temporary and her mother then journeys deeper into the cavern herself to keep her humanity. This then leads to Cadence’s grandmother sacrificing her life in a ritual to preserve what is left of the family. What was once a simple family is now a brave group of heroes who accomplished a deed no one would achieve.
One day Cadence is minding her business until suddenly a portal opens and sucks her through it. She falls into an unknown field with no clue of where she is and eventually finds out that she awakened in another fantasy world far different from hers. The Kingdom of Hyrule, a vast place containing numerous regions and peculiar races ruled by the wise Princess Zelda and protected by one of her trusty friends, Link.
Long ago the three goddesses of the land bestowed a magical relic known as the Triforce which contained three pieces. If the three pieces were gathered together they could be used to make a wish, but the three pieces are owned by three individuals. Link bears the Triforce of Courage for how time and time again he goes out of his way to save Zelda from the clutches of evil. Zelda bears the Triforce of Wisdom for how she uses her knowledge to protect the people. Finally there is the Triforce of Power which is held by Ganon, an evil tyrant who has been stopped by Link and Zelda several times for trying to bring an age of darkness to Hyrule. There are many iterations of these three characters as a curse has been placed several years ago for these three to be reincarnated whenever a new age appeared, but remember this game is a spinoff so it doesn’t really matter where this game fits on the timeline.
The kingdom has been taken over by a mysterious musician named Octavio who possesses a golden lute that allows him to control an army of monsters. Octavio uses the lute to create four musical champions who occupy different regions of Hyrule and help rule his army. Link and Zelda are cursed by Octavio and put into a deep slumber, so that his plans can be carried out thoroughly. Luckily the Triforce decided to look for other heroes who could help with the music themed situation. It found Cadence’s universe and teleported her to Hyrule to awaken one of the two iconic heroes. Cadence does so and the adventurers track down where Octavio is. Octavio has locked himself up within Hyrule Castle and our heroes can’t reach him unless they collect the four magical instruments his champions protect. Together the heroes must journey around Hyrule, fight against waves of baddies, defeat Octavio’s champions, and reclaim Hyrule for their own. There must be a reason why Octavio wants to conquer Hyrule, but you can probably guess by now. I want to avoid spoilers, but if you’re a longtime Legend of Zelda fan you know what it is. The key word rhymes with “canon”, and it’s canon by now that this game confidently knows how ridiculous it is.
Gameplay
Cadence of Hyrule follows the same formula that its predecessor NecroDacner did. You navigate around huge areas, fight enemies, pick up loot that will help you stand up against them, and time every action to the beat. When I say you have to time every action to the beat I mean if you don’t time your button presses to the beat of the song they won’t register. The game has this grid-like structure where you move across one tile to another with each beat. You don't press any buttons to attack, so you just have to make sure the enemy is in front and flick towards their directions. The buttons that would usually be the attack buttons are instead used for items or equipment. You can open up a menu showing all the items you have and you can map what items you want to each button. New items can be found by exploring the world and some of these items are required to navigate to hard to reach areas.
The world map is also laid out in a grid-like structure with each square block being a chunk of the map. When you enter a new section with enemies a song will start playing, enemies will home in on you when you get close, and the song won’t stop until you clear the room of enemies. Certain enemies' movements or attacks are timed to certained beats of the song so pay attention. Whenever you kill enemies they will either drop rupees which can be used to buy items, ammunition for certain weapons, or diamonds. When you die you lose all your rupees and a small handful of power ups. You are then transported to a paranormal plane where a kind woman is selling items. You can use the diamonds to stock up or get rare gear before heading back.
Scattered throughout the world are Sheikah Stones and when you activate them you unlock new warp points. Unlike Necrodancer, Clark wanted to preserve the Zelda styled progression and exploration the series is renowned for. He didn't want to punish the player too much with the roguelike design of NecroDancer where dying kicks you back all the way to the start. So he added in warp points so the player wouldn’t have to backtrack so much throughout the world. The player can also acquire charms that reveal treasure chests, mini-bosses, temple locations, and heart containers throughout the map. Purple chest will contain new items for the player to use and heart containers upgrade the player’s maximum health. By collecting four you obtain one extra hit point.
There are a total of four dungeons in the game, well there’s more later on but at the beginning there are four. You can approach all four in any order so there is some player freedom. You navigate through each one until you obtain the boss key allowing you to approach one of Octavio’s champions at the end. Once you defeat the champion you obtain a full heart container boosting your max health and one of four magical instruments. The more dungeons you complete the harder the game gets as stronger enemies will begin to pop up . Not only that, but later bosses will become stronger too.
I finally should also mention how you can play as either Link, Zelda, or Cadence and they all have different abilities and can use specific types of weapons. However they all play the same so there really isn’t much else to talk about. Through death comes the chance to learn, and through your mistakes you can face Octavio and his musical army.
Thoughts
One thing I should have mentioned at the beginning of this review is that I have not played Crypt of The NecroDancer. It seems like a very interesting game that I would have poured several hours into, but I just haven’t tried it out yet. I have no experience with rhythm based games, but Cadence of Hyrule gave me hope for the genre. It had an addicting core gameplay focus that kept me hopping throughout Hyrule.
The game does take a bit to get going, because at first you start off very weak and don’t have much to defend yourself. However by exploring the map, picking up new equipment, and looking for a good amount of heart containers scattered throughout the world you should have an easier time with the rest of the game. You’ll eventually stand a chance against each wave of baddies and jamming to the tune that you help create. There are the main songs of course, but sometimes the player actions help add to that tune to make their own custom beats or song in my mind. The soundtrack to this game is actually really good. It’s a nice mixture of funky catchy tracks to help keep you on beat to the game. The art style actually looks quite nice. I like the cartoonish look and how Clark knew it’s a rhythm based game so he made it as silly as possible.
Unlike NecroDancer, which had linear progression due to how it was a roguelike, Cadence of Hyrule feels a little more open ended due to how it tries to stick to the original The Legend of Zelda’s roots. Specifically the roots of A Link To The Past and recently Breath of The Wild, where unlike the other Zelda games they allow the player to do whatever they want no matter how weak they are. The controls were responsive and if actions weren’t performed as I wanted it may be because I didn’t time my button presses to the beat of the song. Cadence of Hyrule is a really good game, but I wouldn’t go far to say it’s perfect or that it's for everyone. The game is actually really challenging and takes a bit to understand. Depending on where you go first you may get obliterated by a tough miniboss or overwhelmed by let's say six enemies at once who are coming in huge hoards. Some dungeon bosses can spike in difficulty depending on when you show up to them or how well prepared you are. I feel for anyone who bought this game because they were a Zelda fan, but can’t understand or master the rhythm based action. Luckily the developers did put in an option that atomically times the player’s button presses to the beat just in case they had bad rhythm or timing. It helps make the game more accessible, but it is still challenging to some capacity.
My final complaint is how short the game is. For me it took about eight and a half hours to beat, meaning it should take an average gamer with no rhythm experience close to around ten hours to beat. But for most people who are a fan of this genre they can complete this game in five and a half hours. The run time of Cadence of Hyrule is understandable especially since this is from an indie developer, but it’s just the price tag of the game that doesn't make the runtime worth it. The game costs about 25 dollars or 40 dollars if you bought the physical version like me. That’s a little bit too much for a five hour game. After the game was released it received a good amount of added content, but most of it still has to be paid for. I can also imagine the people who were fans of the original game and were pissed when they found out the sequel was a Switch exclusive due to it being put under The Legend of Zelda’s name.
At the end of the day I do recommend Cadence of Hyrule. It's a fun game with an infinite amount of replay value and while it may be short it doesn't overstay its welcome. It may even be convinced to try out Crypt of The NecroDancer and other rhythm based games. There’s this one roguelike that came out last year called BPM which is what happens when NecroDancer meets Doom and Quake, so expect me to review it one day. Overall I’m giving Cadence of Hyrule an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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