Demo Time: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda

I knew practically nothing before I started the demo for Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda, although I knew about Crypt of the NecroDancer, but only by name.  Before seeing the trailer during E3 2019, I could not have even told you that CotND was a rhythm game.  What I did like was that Nintendo was okay handing off one of their most popular and profitable franchises to indie developer Brace Yourself Games who at the time had only one game under their belt.  And because I was not at all familiar with CotND, I thought that pulling the demo for CoHCotNDFTLOZ (going to just call the game Cadence from here on out because that abbreviation is just ridiculous) would be a perfect way of finding out if future me would have fun showing support in the form of a $24.99 payment.

Unfortunately, this is also the downside of demos.

Slashy slash to the beat. Or not, it still hits.

When you watch the trailer, it is easy to get caught up in the flawless execution of the player(s) moving around in an area inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.  It is almost like when you watch Olympic athletes perform their sports and think to yourself, "Hells yeah I can do that!!"  And that is when you end up with shattered ankles from thinking that you can indeed ski jump better than the person who spent the last three years launching themselves off a mountain nearly 3,000 times.  Thankfully my ankles have never been shattered, but my desire to play more of the demo and the full game were dashed.  What it boils down to is timing.  And my timing apparently sucks.  I recognize that there is a bit of a learning curve and I would be a bit surprised if this game took that approach that it expected players to have already played CotND, even though there is a bit of a tutorial in the beginning to get the player used to moving to the beat of the song.

And not only is the player expected to move to the beat of the music, but the enemies also move in a similar manner.  One beat might be a move, followed by another move and turn, followed by an attack.  Maybe it is my brain that finds it hard to track multiple enemies on the same screen all advancing towards my position awaiting to attack, all the while paying attention to the music and the beat tracker in order to make the most powerful attack on one enemy while avoiding all of the others on the screen.

Yes, yes, I know.  Play. Practice.  Repeat.  Git gud. 

I have been playing video games for nigh on 30 years so I feel like I know what is expected of me to be better at a particular video game.  What I got after playing CoH:CotNDFTLoZ was that I was not having fun and I felt that I was not any good.  There are games that I have had fun at while still not starting out as being a good player (Dark Souls, Fortnite), but I still play them because I have fun.  I got significantly better at Dark Souls to the point where I bought the game again when it was released on the Switch. 

I honestly didn't notice any difference in defense w/ the shield.

Now, before I offend someone out there and get doxed, I am not saying that this is a bad game, a bad mechanic, or just bad game development in general.  I have not even played the game, only the demo.  What I am saying, is that based on what I played of the demo, I did not like what I played and will not be purchasing Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda.  I know there are plenty of people and critics who loved Crypt of the NecroDancer on their preferred platform, which is why Nintendo allowed Brace Yourself Games to create a new game using the Legend of Zelda IP.  I just happened to not enjoy the demonstration presented to me.



So there.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
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