We’ve been not-so-patiently following the development of Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm since its announcement last August. The original Oceanhorn was a breathtaking action adventure inspired by classic series including The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Mana/Seiken …
We’ve been not-so-patiently following the development of Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm since its announcement last August. The original Oceanhorn was a breathtaking action adventure inspired by classic series including The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Mana/Seiken Densetsu that successfully embodied those experiences while putting its own spin on the puzzle-RPG format. This first glimpse of gameplay footage from the sequel gives us a taste of how Oceanhorn 2 will continue in its big brother’s footsteps while changing up the formula even further.
The trailer follows our recently knighted Hero—a similar, but different protagonist than the original—as he explores the surface of Outcast Island and dives into an underground, abandoned pirate hideout that contains a stolen lockbox his master wants retrieved, as well as the monstrous boss Galactoss waiting in its lowest levels. The block-based environment of the original has been done away with, replaced by a fluid 3D world with gentle slopes and hills that our Hero can run, roll, and jump across with ease. Vines provide access to higher ground or across chasms, and without the geometric restrictions of single cube-dropping, our hero can drop off even moderately tall cliffs for quick transport down. Despite the new perspective, the world still feels like its belongs to the Oceanhorn universe, with familiar barrels and bridges dotting the lush island landscape and the red sand crabs (Scarabaras) giving chase on their little sausage legs.
The trailer shows off a variety of ways players will be able to dispatch those crabs and other enemies, from direct sword-fighting to tossing breakable items their way to rolling a boulder down upon them. Around the 4:25-mark, we see the Hero pull up his item wheel—there are 13 slots total, many of which are yet undiscovered—and select an ice magic for his new projectile weapon, the Caster. He also has a fire spell available for the gun and health potions, in addition to the standalone bombs Oceanhorn and Zelda fans know well. Unlike in the first Oceanhorn, this gameplay trailer shows us that our Hero will have an infinite number of bombs at his disposal, but that they must “recharge” after use before he can throw out another one—similar to bombs in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The treasure-hunting and puzzle-solving of the original returns, with levers needing to be hit to lower bridges, buttons pressed down to open gates, and keys uncovered to unlock doors. Wooden blockades can be burned away and nearly everything can be picked up or slashed with your sword. While we don’t see any evidence that the EXP system will return, our Hero does stop to pick up glowing items like herbs and metal hidden throughout the world, which seem to add to his spell quantities and possibly complete larger challenges not shown in this reveal.
The demo that was used to capture this footage will be available to play at the Nordic Game conference in Malmö, Sweden May 17th-19th. Fans at home at least have those 14 minutes of footage to pore over, as well as some additional screenshots shared on Cornfox & Bros.’ official Oceanhorn blog.
