A Zelda game where you play as Zelda? Yes please!
Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda, despite having the worst and most clunky game title since My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, joins Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS and Hyrule Warriors in having the Zelda world and characters integrated into another game’s mechanics. And like those, it’s a great success!
Crypt of the Necrodancer is a Canadian-made indie game that blends a dungeon-crawling Rogue/Nethack type of game with rhythmic inputs, an ingenious and fitting combination. When Zelda is added to the mix, it becomes an official version of the popular “randomiser” trend among romhackers and speedrunners, with gameplay tied to the beat of remixes of classic Zelda tunes. The world map is randomly/procedurally generated when you start a file, and dungeon floors whenever you visit them.
Having not played CotND, there was a bit of a learning curve with the combat, looting, the economies, and especially keeping the beat. Each enemy and item has distinct behaviours that relate to the ever-present tempo, which you will learn if you want to succeed. The rumble feature is instrumental (ha) in getting into the groove, to make sure you’re not missing actions. Getting into that sweet flow state is very satisfying, and left me bopping in steps even after putting the game down.
It’s very easy to make mistakes though, and especially at first death is inevitable. The game uses a “rogue-lite” system where you lose certain stuff on death, such as rupees and your equipment (these also have durability, so don’t get too attached). Other things like your usable items and weapons stick around though. These add a lot of variety to how you approach the constant combat situations (and the occasional puzzle): I especially liked weapons with longer or broader reach, and they can have extra modifiers like life drain or poison.
A playthrough can be relatively short, taking anywhere from 2-10 hours depending on your proficiency. With the randomised generation and mutliple playable characters and modes, it’s made for repeat runs, which makes it incredibly grating that there are only three save slots available! I did a Zelda story run, a Link story run, and a Cadence (a guest from the original CotND) “solo character” run, as well as a bit of the excellent local co-op with my bro. Then, unexpectedly, the game was updated with added content, quality of life improvements, and a new story mode playing as the game’s antagonist Octavo, with which I challenged myself by playing on the double-speed setting! The bonus Deku Scrub character Yves is a hard mode that was too hard for me, so I didn’t touch him. Apart from him, every character plays similarly but with a few different special moves and weapon options.
CoH is an addictive experience, and also serves as a satisfying Zelda instalment. I’m not sure yet where it fits in the timeline but its art style makes for some very cute and appealing interpretations of characters and enemies from across the series, including bosses with music-themed redesigns. It also plays with some of the common themes of the series in a cool way that I won’t spoil. And again, having Zelda herself as a playable hero on equal footing with Link makes me very happy!
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