The original Oceanhorn was one of those games for me I went in not really expecting much from when it released way back in 2016. Looking back on my review for it all that time ago and remembering little things about it, I mostly remember it being a fun little game to load up when the kids went to bed and get myself lost doing a bit of adventuring.
Oceanhorn 2 is set a thousand years before the events of first game, so you don't really have to have played the first game at all to dive into this one. A lot has changed though. The game itself has lost the cute look of the original, with OH2 definitely taking a boost when it comes to looks. But a nice shine isn't everything. A few elements need to come together to make a game want you to load it up or give it that "just five more minutes" factor. Sadly, Oceanhorn 2 loses some of the shine when it comes to those.
The key one for me being the in-game map and waypoints seemingly not working that well together. You can go following what appears to be a waypoint on where you kind of need to go, only to get there and nothing is there. Throw in mission objectives not thar clear and you can find yourself utterly bewildered into what the hell you have to do next to progress things along .
Combat is another, with no lock-on feature for anything you are left aimlessly swinging around a sword or hope that the AI stands still while you try to aim a spell or bullet at them. The movement of your character can be a bit weird too. His ability to jump 10 foot in the air when you just want him to take a tiny leap of a ledge is utterly uncalled for, with the amount of times this happening the seconds wasted soon add up. You also get a couple of companions along the way, all be it dumb ones at that. Using the d-pad you can direct them to stand on things or shoot their weapon, but for me they didn't really add much to my time witt the game at all.
On top of experiencing the story the game tells, you also go through the game unlocking new items and upgrades to use along the way. You're soon unlocking grapple hooks and ice guns, with shards you find letting you upgrade this in someway. I'll be honest, I never really felt much difference afterwards, but then it was mostly just how quickly the item charged on most.
Overall: I wouldn't say Oceanhorn 2 was a terrible game at all. I would say that there are many things the game could have done a lot better though. The worlds you explore aren't really that diverse, with them all just looking very busy but when looking closer not much to them. The game never really had that feel of me wanting to get back to it when i had any free minutes spare, but if it drops in a sale and you have a weekend to kill and fancy buying a Zelda wannabe, then go for it.