Review: The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes 20314r

Your adventure takes place in the land of Hytopia. A small kingdom that is utterly obsessed with fashion and at the very pinnacle of the fashion mountain is the princess, Princess Styla. One day the princess receives a mysterious parcel from an unknown sender, unwittingly she opened the parcel to reveal the most unstylish of curses. Princess Styla is now cursed to wear a horrible black jumpsuit until the curse is lifted. The kingdom is in disarray, the townsfolk are too afraid to leave the house in anything too stylish in fear for their safety. Their only hope is to pray for the hero’s with pointed ears, sideburns and a part down the side of their hair appear to save them all from this unfashionable disaster.  Triforce Heroes takes a play from both the Wind Waker’s and A Link Between World’s graphical prowess. A mixture of fun cell shaded graphics with the vivid detail in the landscape from their respective inspirations. The best thing about it is that it gels together remarkably well. Zelda games have always incorporated a unique visual presence throughout the series and Triforce Heroes is no different. Exceeding the high bar of the visuals is the soundtrack that can be found within the game. The main theme is one driven by excitement and fun whilst the various stages themes are an equally impressive encapsulation their respective areas whilst still maintaining a high level of energy to generate that feeling of frantic puzzle solving, action adventuring mayhem. There is also a musical easter egg to be found in the game that will make any veteran of the series grin from ear to ear upon discovery. This game takes a few pages from otherZelda games but quickly ends up on a stage all of its own. Essentially there will be a team of three Links’ that venture out into the Drablands to complete the temples/stages of their respective areas. Forrest, fire and water all the standard Zelda elements we have come to love plus more (Just because I used the term standard don’t be confused, these areas are anything but). These three Links are blue, green and red to identify yourself throughout your experience. The Links solve puzzles, battle enemies and engage in some epic boss battles in traditional Zelda fashion through the use of items such as the bow and sword but there are a few nifty perks thrown into this experience. Between all three Links you share a total of 9 hearts that serve as your life, if a team mate is getting hurt, you are getting hurt. That’s the spirit of a team after all and teams work together especially with the new “Totem” technique where Link’s stack on top of each other to gain height to activate switches, use items or even access new areas. 5t6628

In keeping with the theme of fashion in Hytopia, your outfit will play a huge role to your adventure. As you overcome puzzles and battles you are rewarded with various upgrade materials that can be crafted into different fashionable outfits to aid your cause. One outfit will grant you the ability to shoot more arrows, another to shoot sword beams, one to increase speed and there are even more in-between (Rhymes!). As I mentioned before, there are three Links taking part of this adventure. You can find your missing Links (team mates) through a variety of methods such as random online match making, play or just normal friend list match making. There is no in game voice communication however and this is brilliant! Replacing the voice communication is a series of Link themed emoticons on your lower screen of the 3DS console to communicate with your newly found heroes. A few examples of these Link-emotes are a simple thumbs up, a “Nooooo”, Item hint, Totem time and the all time favorite of mine the Throw emote. Why is it my favorite? Because every time I see it I endeavor to throw who ever used it out of the world’s bounds. Sure we lose a heart but that’s what they asked for. These emotes are a breath of fresh air and I had a great deal of fun using these prompts to solve puzzles and communicate with my teams this way. I found that using these emotes as opposed to voice communication it could create a lot of those “Ah-Hah!” moments in the game. That feeling of sheer joy when you solve a puzzle and generally makes you feel good about your self and your experience with the game. If you are unfortunate enough however to have no Internet connection and no friends near by to play local multiplayer with you can always opt for the single player experience. Beginning single player is the exact same levels and challenges you find in the recommended multiplayer but this time you can control all three Links, switching possession of your soul between the three. One active Link can move and do puzzles but the other two remain stationary waiting for your input. It sounds kind of ok, maybe even do-able in theory but really the game was created for multiplayer and I found the single player option to be nothing short of painful swapping back and forth between Links and even being slow to complete timed switches because of the swapping transitions. I advise you to avoid the single player path at all costs.

For those of you who like multiplayer but have had enough of team work there is always the Coliseum. An arena in where again three Links are pitted in the same room, the only difference is that it is a free for all death match. The one who deals the most damage and receives the least wins. This mode was great for a little break but not something that I could see myself spending a lot of time on because it really didn’t feel like Zelda to me. Online vs. mode but maybe that’s just me. Let’s face it Triforce Heroes is not the Zelda game we are waiting for. We all want Zelda Wii U but for now this game will absolutely and most certainly fill that Zelda void in our hearts that we all crave so much. Whilst the story is a particularly odd one for the series, it can be forgiven in understanding that it is laying a foundation for introducing the trio teamwork mechanic for this adventure. The stages/temples are exhilarating, the graphics are fun and the music is enchanting as always. The communication emotes are a breath of fresh air and are a pleasure to spam when required. The puzzles are at the right level for a random team of three strangers and the combat action is genuine fun. I only have two parting words of insight for this game. One, if you are a Zelda fan you need this game, two steer well clear of the single player mode.