Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
Developer: Cornfox & Bros.
Publisher: FDG Entertainment
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed)
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $29.99 USD – Available here
Overview
Years ago a number of solid titles arrived on the Apple Arcade only to find themselves permanently stuck on the mobile platform with potential players having few options to play them and recently a handful of these previous Apple Arcade exclusives have made their way to more readily available platforms and Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm has perhaps one of the more unique journeys as this isn’t the first time the prequel has landed on a console. First ported to the Switch, Cornfox & Bros. have enhanced various elements of the title through the years and are now bringing it to all other platforms. So now that Oceanhorn 2 has arrived on the Xbox Series X, is it worth checking out?
Story
Despite the title of the game being Oceanhorn 2, the game is actually a prequel set a thousand years prior to the events of the first game. This works fairly well as newcomers can jump in without worrying about many missing plot elements, though there are some important references that newcomers may miss out on. That being said, players take on the role of a hero that has been assigned to retrieve a lockbox to prove that he is ready to become a knight. After completing the task, the hero is given a powerful artifact called a Caster Gun but quickly finds his celebration put to a halt as a plane crashes near the city with a powerful force led by the evil warlock Mesmeroth searching for the sole occupant. With the hero promising to protect the pilot Trin, the group manages to escape to a safer haven only to find out that a far greater danger is on the horizon and the only way to put a stop to it is by gathering three special relics.
The storyline for Oceanhorn 2 isn’t the most original as it mostly serves as window dressing to keep players moving through new areas, interacting with different races of characters and encountering fresh challenges along the way without really developing the world too much. The characters are a bit on the more interesting side, especially since Oceanhorn 2 allows players to fight alongside a couple of allies from time to time, making dungeon exploration and other elements more interesting as they often speak up about what is happening around them. It is worth noting that, since the game is a prequel, players shouldn’t expect the most satisfying conclusion to the game, even with the enhanced version that has seen some minor modifications.
Gameplay
In many ways Oceanhorn 2 feels like a natural evolution from the original, moving from the isometric view to a standard third person action camera with players doing battle in real time against enemies as they explore the world. The exploration is quite enjoyable with a number of different collectables, treasures, and upgrades to obtain for completing optional puzzles and tracking down various hidden items. Plus, as players advance through the game, they will eventually obtain faster means of transportation making finding previously missed items far simpler.
Progressing from area to area is easy enough to understand, though a few side-quests do require players to pay attention to their surroundings rather than simply following quest markers. It is also nice to note that the puzzles in Oceanhorn 2 range from simple button pushing ones and basic logic to some more complicated puzzles that take advantage of everything that players have unlocked and obtained until then. This helps ensure that players not only make use of everything they have available, including the wide-range of elemental spells they eventually can fire out of their Caster Gun, but adds some variety to keep players guessing rather than simply steam through every puzzle.
Combat in Oceanhorn 2 starts fairly simple as players only have access to their sword and a standard gun but quickly players find themselves unlocking a wealth of options to take down foes. It is worth noting that one of the biggest quality of life improvements made to this release of the game is a proper lock-on system, making combat far more enjoyable and easy to manage, especially once players have access to additional elemental magic to fire out of their Caster gun, a hookshot, bombs, and more. This wide range of options is quite nice, especially since the standard melee strings are a bit on the lacking side as far as variety goes and the enemy variety is similarly lacking.
On the other hand, the various boss battles that players take part in through the game are quite enjoyable and like to mix things up a bit. There is almost always a weak point to target on a boss but the challenge is uncovering this weak point as nearly every fight will involve some sort of puzzle element that will end up uncovering a foe’s weak point and then unleashing everything they have on it. One of the more notable elements of Oceanhorn 2 is the fact that players often won’t be fighting alone. Instead they will often find themselves traveling with one or even two companions that will enter battle alongside the player and take part in solving puzzles. Players can direct their companions to stand or activate certain aspects of a puzzle and can even direct them to target specific enemies in a fight. The ally AI is fairly well done as it appears to have also been improved as they will pull their weight in standard battles and even point out certain elements during boss fights.
When players aren’t exploring or fighting monsters, they can also take part in a fun, albeit a bit annoying to learn, card game called Arcadian Tarock. As players complete side-quests or defeat enemies they will occasionally obtain that monster’s card, and these cards can be used to play against nearly any other friendly NPC in the game. The card game is simple as it relies on the winner having the most cards on the board at the end of the game and cards having different attack and defense values but can be rather hard to master, though there doesn’t appear to be any punishment for losing.
Visuals & Audio
Playing through Oceanhorn 2 is an incredibly smooth experience. Perhaps due to its origins as a phone game or even as a Switch port the title runs flawlessly and beautifully on the Xbox Series X as the vibrant colors of the world really shine as players travel through it. The character designs are fairly simplistic, with even the other races that players come across being a bit too on the nose to the game’s “inspiration” but these non-human races at least help spice things up a bit from the norm. As mentioned before, enemy design is fairly well handled, with most bosses being real standouts but a lack of variety does appear fairly early in the game.
With companions that travel with the player it is great to note that the voice work in Oceanhorn 2 is quite excellent as nearly every character sounds impressive be it speaking to the player through a cutscene or simply while exploring the latest dungeon. The soundtrack features a nice collection of background music ranging from simpler exploration to impressive sounding boss battle tracks that offer plenty of variety.
Overall
With Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm finally arriving on other platforms it is clear that the developers wanted to make sure that this was the best possible way to experience the game and they have pulled it off here. Though some larger issues with storyline and lack of enemy and melee variety persist, the numerous quality of life improvements combined with a great stylized presentation and mostly satisfying exploration and combat make this an incredibly solid adventure game that harkens back to some classics of the genre.
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