SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Blending Crypt of the Necrodancer’s addicting rhythm gameplay with retro Legend of Zelda charm, Cadence of Hyrule is a relentlessly fun roguelike held back only by its difficulty curve.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that makes me want to pick up my Game Boy again. I’m grateful that with Cadence of Hyrule, I got the chance to recapture the joy of all those hours I spent playing Pokémon and Mario, at least for a little while. It’s pleasingly retro and feels like a Nintendo classic, even though it isn’t. It's built around simple ideas, endlessly replayable and unrelentingly fun. While Nintendo usually keeps Legend of Zelda under lock and key with its own developers, Cadence of Hyrule proves that sometimes a dare can pay off. It’s a promise fulfilled, and an opportunity seized.
After the villainous musician Octavo hypnotises the King of Hyrule with a magical lute and seizes control of Hyrule Castle, Cadence, hero of Crypt of the Necrodancer, finds herself transported to Hyrule by the Triforce. In order to save Hyrule from Octavo and return home, she must team up with Link and Princess Zelda to defeat his four champions and retrieve magical instruments that will let them enter the castle to confront him.
Crypt of the Necrodancer’s rhythm-based gameplay requires the player and enemies to move in time with the beat of the accompanying soundtrack. The key to survival is timing; everything from movement to combat is tied to the beat. In order to successfully defeat the game’s wide variety of enemies, the player has to study each creature’s movement patterns, and use that knowledge to outsmart and outmanoeuvre them. It’s an engaging tactical experience that blends strategy with quick thinking: the perfect match. Cadence takes that gameplay and paints a retro pixel art Zelda over it. After a short tutorial, the player is let loose in a randomly generated overworld with various different areas from previous games to explore. Dungeons, a staple of Legend of Zelda, return in procedurally generated form, with complex puzzles, monsters and loot for adventurers.
But this is where Cadence stumbles. The game’s tutorial doesn’t really prepare you for the rest of the game and the only thing that ultimately saves the player in combat is practice. Early on, I found myself dying over and over, missing beats and getting stuck in combat situations where I was in way over my head. The game also uses Crypt of the Necrodancer’s roguelike mechanics. On death, the player loses all the rupees they’ve collected, starting over with weapons and key items. That can be rough until you’ve gotten used to following the beat, and up until that point, it’s all about gradually crawling through stages until you unlock better equipment. Cadence counts on the player getting over those initial obstacles but doesn’t seem too keen on actually helping them along.
It gets much better once you get to grips with it. Exploring the overworld, defeating monsters, clearing out dungeons, and smashing pots was incredibly fun. Throughout the game, you can unlock Zelda, Link and Cadence and swap between them. The change isn’t merely cosmetic; Zelda can’t pick up a shield like Link or Cadence for example, but in exchange she can cast fireballs and protect herself using a magic shield. Link can unleash a spinning attack while Cadence can drive her trusty shovel deep into the ground to deal area-of-effect damage. Each has weapons or armour only they can wield. The differences between these characters adds plenty of variety to the gameplay experience; I could experiment to see what suited me best since I wasn’t stuck with the same character throughout.
Some stages are practically jam-packed with enemies. Combat becomes an intense tactical experience as the soundtrack reaches fever pitch and the player has to make split-second decisions to avoid taking damage. Couple that with equipment that lets you traverse different terrain or apply effects to your weapons, and you have a combat experience that’s far deeper than it initially appears. The experience of exploration is similar. You can find gear including bombs and a grappling hook that let you solve the game’s many environmental puzzles to obtain Heart Pieces and open treasure chests.
In both combat and exploration, Cadence’s distinct flair becomes obvious. It’s full of verve, with the look of an old-school Game Boy game remastered for HD, popping off the screen with a splash of retro colour and cutesy animations. It looks fantastic, whether it’s on a handheld screen or on TV. I also can’t praise the game’s soundtrack enough. Music has always been a core element of Zelda, and Cadence’s excellent soundtrack honours that legacy. It’s made up of expert remixes of classic Zelda tunes, adding an infectious beat and the longer you play, the more they worm their way into your head. It’s easy to get into a kind of zen listening to them.
Once you get past the first few hours, Cadence delivers a wonderfully retro package of great music and gameplay. Combining that traditional Legend of Zelda charm with the addicting gameplay of Crypt of the Necrodancer produces an eclectic and fun roguelike that’s exactly the kind of hit game that Nintendo is known for, and one that’s well worth the time for any roguelike fan looking to get their fix.
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