A Zelda lite

 I downloaded the Dolphin emulator in the hopes that The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker would work. It didn't. It kinda did, but it gave me a headache. So a thirty hour epic of it is out of the question. But I'm still in the mood for a good action adventure game! Luckily, seven years ago, I bought a little game to scratch an itch!

'Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas' is one of the three (two officially) games I've 100 percented on Steam. I even wrote a review about it in an attempt to make my portfolio look slightly better for my final semester's capstone class in college. I might do this again in a few weeks, but I need to see if this game holds up. There's a sequel that I've been wanting to play, so let's see if I want to care about it? And because I'm playing a Zelda ripoff, let's write a diary!

"Hey, dad

I had that dream again. Ya know, the one where you walked out on me? I know, I know, you told me it's to protect me and the world, but you should have let me know face to face. You could have at least told me more about Oceanhorn. What's its connection to mom? Thanks for her necklace, by the way. And your notebook. It's about to come in handy.

I left our house and found your friend like you wanted. I've been here for a while, but I haven't learned anything important. That was until mom's necklace came to life. I woke up and saw it floating away. I chased it to a cave, past your hermit friend, and into a mob filled dungeon. Even my little knife worked fine here. I gotta wonder why this grand thing is here. There are locked doors, heavy duty floor switches, and a surprise at the bottom. Why was your old sword and shield here? How'd it get here!? But at least your friend opened up.

He told me about Arcadia, the ancient kingdom that ruled these archipelagos 1000 years ago. I learned about the three primordial beings that conquered the area after that archmage failed to become one. Mezmeroth, right? It started getting dark, so we went to go to bed.

Why did we get attacked? Was it your awful sword? It's pretty bad, honestly. But I shut down the spiders with it anyway. The Hermit suggested now's the time to begin my journey. I now have to find three symbols of the fallen kingdoms in the area, representing the three races. Hermit told me about two of them, but he skipped their locations. Instead, he wanted me to go to Tikarel.

Tikarel is the biggest town I've seen. I guess that's not saying much. They're preparing for the sun festival, and I met a girl named Neeti there, which is about all that's here. I guess I got some clues about where to go. Someone gave me the location of one of the emblem islands, but I also got the location of Bomb Island. I figured bombs would be important on this journey, so I headed there.

This used to be a mining island, but something bad happened. A notebook said all the miners fell into a hole. Opening locks and switches brought me to that hole. They tried to lock it up with a strange fire pedestal puzzle, but I quickly figured it out. Like father like son?

Down the hole were two giant centipedes. The bomb maker called them a cepede. I threw rocks and skulls at one, which did a good job. The miners got some vengeance, I hope. Your sword managed to take out the remaining one in no time. The bomb maker decided to retire, but I found a few in the dungeon anyway. I also round a boot with one coin in it...

By now, the Adventure's Guild said I was pretty good, so they gave me a gun to use while sailing between islands. But it's been a long day, so I'm going to bed before exploring this desert.

- Kid"

I thought of playing this because you spend a lot of time on the open seas. The game automatically takes you between islands, so the exploring side is a bit disappointing. But the islands themselves are massive and have plenty of secrets. I've only found 43% of them on the first island! But you get a gun to shoot things en route. As an American, that's always fun. I don't remember much about this game, so it's pretty close to a new experience. I remember enjoying it, though, so let's hope it holds up!